From the Campo to Quito

Picture of the Mountains surrounding Quito, when the sun out it is absolutely georgeous. The Si in white to the left is the sign of Yes, vote for the constitution.

I almost met the president of Ecuador. I know almost doesn’t count but he was suppose to be there, unfortunately, something kind of big came up involving all of the presidents of South America meeting in Chile. It has something to do with Bolivia, America, Bolivian politics, Chavez and probably is some how the fault of G.W. Bush Jr. Either way, instead of the president I had to settle with the Head of the Ministry of Environment. Currently the Ceiba Foundation is working with local land owners in Jama to create a biological corridor of privately own protected forests. It just so happens, that Conservation International (one of the largest conservation NGOs in the world) is currently working with the Ministry of Environment to organize projects just like ours. So, my week in Quito started with an overnight bus with some locals to the presentation of a new government program, Sociobosque. The program aims to motivate land owners to conserve by giving them a biannual minimal stipend and exempt them from paying new taxes that are about to be in place. These new taxes target ´lazy land´ which according to the recently accepted brand spanking new constitution (voted 70 to 30 in favor 28/09/08) is land that isn’t agriculturally productive. It was really an awesome experience and I must say I felt a huge lump of mother-like pride as I watched the President of my community sitting attentively and comfortably with the head of the Indigenous Nation Shuar, the head of the Ministry of the Environment and other important environmental/conservation figures. Plus, to give some Tabuga peeps the opportunity to go to their capital, participate in an important event and give them time to hop around Quito was just awesome. Gotta say thanks to Ceiba for this one. The Ceiba Foundation, the municipal government and land owners are now starting an association so that when the time to join Sociobosque comes we are ready. This is really a huge step to conservation in the area I live and has been a big goal of my counterpart. Very very niiiiiiiiiice.

From here, it was all work and I must admit as always lots of play. My really good friend Jeremy took on a project of writing an environmental education manual geared towards giving teachers information and activities to teach solid environmental education classes. In an effort to make this project spectacular, fellow PCV Whitney and I joined in on Jer´s cause. I am happy to say that after hours at the computer (95% done by Jeremy who is super devoted, hard working and just awesome) the manual is close to ready to publish. Once published it is our goal to get the Ministry of Education and of the Environment together to use the manual as a guide for their national program for environmental education that they claim they are going to start. Jer has really busted butt on this project and it’s been cool working with him. He was a high school science teacher before the Peace Corps and you can really see how much he loves and believes in education. Alex Crosby got to hang out with Jer a lot and I think he really made an impact on my little bro. Not to mention Jer and his wife Susan are the coolest married couple ever and what I classify as life-time friends. They are the kind of people that make you believe in things like marriage and doing good things. I am kind of obsessed, it’s a little embarrassing.

I found it really hard to work at a computer. About every 6-10 minutes I was out of my seat running around, doing cartwheels and/or anything to get my energy out. It is amazing how the computer is really something that you have to get used to. Either way, I really tried my best and Jer didn’t seem to mine my outbursts of energy expressed by belting out country music or push-ups. By the end of the end my brain was fried, my fingers and eyes were tired but I still had energy. The only way to release such energy was going on dates with a fun British kid, dancing all night long and yes, what I miss most from the US of A… live music. QuitoFest just happened to coincide with my week in Quito tour so I got to see free live music. Quito is surprisingly hip and modern and it was fun to be surrounded by young independent people. One of my biggest challenges in Tabuga is the lack of friends my age without 2 or 5 kids. QuitoFest was just what I needed before heading back to Tabuga on the night bus. Highlights included meeting some fun Ecuadorians, remembering my hippy music festival dance style and freestyle-battling with a random Ecuadorian who spoke English and claimed to be a red neck - I totally won and Alex Crosby would have been proud! In the end we were shown that even in Quito, Ecuadorians love to protest. When the last band headed off stage, after a long day of about 7 bands and great times, the crowd was still pissed that one really popular band didn’t show up and started to throw empty plastic bottles at the stage.

Good times with cool Ecuadorians, loving the live music!

Ecuadorians at QuitoFest threw bottles in protest of the end of the concert. The concert should have been over, it was scheduled to be over but Ecaudorians really like to protest. Plastic bottles in your face!

All in all, Quito was fun. It was nice to buckle down and do work that has a clear end result and it was great to go to a concert, drink wine and play with my friends. I wouldn’t trade Quito for Tabuga ever but, Quito is like America, with KFC, Dominos, cars, internet and people who speak English (which one should be careful for when teaching Ecuadorian friends horrid inappropriate English phrases), it was nice to be reminded of America and after a year and a half of service I think I can say that I will make it back there, some day.

KFC late night... delicious... Fried Chicken!

Ryan is always so deep in thought, it's actually a novel, I was being artistic.

Why are these cables so low? Oh Ecuador!!!