Last day in the USA

I'm all packed and ready to go. Our flight leaves for Guayaquil tomorrow morning at 11 am, with a stop in Miami first. I'll arrive in Ecuador around 10:30 at night. I will be one hour behind Eastern Time until daylights saving time in the Fall, then we will be in the same time zone. We will be spending our first week going around with last year's volunteers and getting to know the area, meeting the neighbors, and learning the ins and outs of life in Ecuador. I'm not sure when I'll get access to a computer again but when I do I will post again. Thanks again for all the support, I will miss you all and will certainly miss the USA.

Housing Assignment

Hey there. This may not mean much to you unless you are familiar to the Rostro program, but I've been assigned to live in the "Arbolito" neighborhood of Duran. I will be living in a house there with 5 other volunteers:

- Kipp Gallagher from Seattle University
-Caitlin Long from Boston College
- Tierney Monahan from McGill University (Montreal)
- Christina Mellace from Villanova
- Brendan Bradford from the University of Scranton

Arbolito is the neighborhood in which I stayed during my trip to Ecuador in January, so I am a little familiar with the area. Arbolito is in the middle of the other two neighborhoods in terms of development, less developed than "Antonio Jose de Sucre" but more developed than "Mt. Sinai," the other two neighborhoods where volunteers will be living. The main road is paved but the rest are dirt and rock. I will let you know more about my new neighborhood once I get there.

Orientation is going well so far, although it was weird at first to be back on BC's campus without all my friends being here.

Departure Imminent

As you may know, I am leaving NEPA Friday morning and heading to Boston, where I will have 2 weeks of orientation at Boston College. I leave for Ecuador on August 1st or 2nd (I forget which).

Ways to contact me for the next year:

- Skype: my Skype name is joncali.

- Email: jgcali55@gmail.com

- Facebook

- Mail: my address is    Jonathan Cali o Megan Radek (please include both names)
                                   Rostro de Cristo
                                   Casilla 09-01-1024
                                   Guayaquil, Ecuador 

*If you decide to send mail, Please use U.S. POSTAL SERVICE ONLY, DO NOT send BOXES, only regular or padded envelopes, and everything must be LESS THAN 4 POUNDS. Otherwise, I get screwed with customs duties. Thanks!*

-NOT MY PHONE
     I won't be able to read your text messages, I won't answer your calls, and I won't listen to your voicemails.

So come back to my blog for periodic updates on my life down in Duran, Ecuador. I've never written a blog before so I can't promise that this will be frequently updated, funny, or interesting in any way. You'll all be in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you for all the support you've given me so far.