I know where I´ll be for the next two years

So today, they did the big site assignments. They had us sit in the front of the room, and, in the back of the room, there was a big map of Ecuador on the floor (made out of masking tape).

They pulled each trainee´s name out of an envelop and announced their site and province. Then the trainee would run through a tunnel of faciliators and PC staff (with roses on the floor) before finding their site on the map.

So my site is.......

in the province of El Oro in a town of 14,000 people.

The site description says that I will be working on reforestation of a dry, tropical rainforest reserve, aiding at a tree nursery, and assisting with waste management. This sounds pretty exciting, but I have no idea if this is what will really happen. One of our trainers said her work had nothing to do with what was on her site description, but this gives an idea of what my counterpart is looking for.

I go on a site visit next week, so I will definitely know more.

Now, here is what I know about the El Oro province.

- It is on the Pacific Coast.

- It borders Peru. So my site might be the furthest from Quito of anybody in my group.

- The world´s banana capital, Machala, is located in El Oro. The little bananas are known as oritos and are named after the province.

I hope to learn more.