Update from the Office of Liz

Well, since we´ve arrived in Portoviejo, they´ve put us to work! It´s been wierd going from being bums to having 9-5 M-F jobs again. In the past week and a half, we´ve been pretty much fully trained to be loan officers as well over different office jobs. We´ve gone to group meetings all over the province of Manabí. This week, I´ve started to help with the paperwork and leading the meetings a bit. It´s also pretty amazing how fast our Spanish is improving with this hardcore emersion!

Outside of work, it´s been a crazy week. The presidential election is this Sunday and everyone´s going crazy over it. Even though Ecuador only has a population of 13 million people, they have over 30 parties, 15 or so of which are putting up presidential candidates. For those who don´t know Spanish, the word for advertising is propaganda....which just cracks me up while watching all the ads. There´s one candidate promising to build 300,000 new houses and to sell them for $10/month with no down payment! One of the forerunners, Rafael Correa, flew into Portoviejo in a helicopter yesterday for a rally. Of course, in reality only a few of them have any chance of winning. If someone takes a majority this weekend, it´s over. If not...well then we have to wait a month and a half for the run-off between the top two. Por favor, as Correa´s propaganda says...

una sola vuelta Ecuador...please...for my sanity´s sake!

(´only one round´...put to the tune of ¨We´re not gonna take it by Twisted Sister...and this is what´s stuck in my head 24/7)