Paper Airplanes are taking over Tabuga

SORRY THERE AREn´T ANY PICTURES, WE´LL PUT THEM UP SOON BUT THIS INTERNET CONNECTION IS SOOOOOO SLOW....




I know it has been awhile since I have updated this blog but life has been busy. So, while my brother is asleep on my floor after a night of playing pool to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of our favorite people in the world, I am ready to try to update all of you on my life.

Sometime in April Alex decided he was done with Tabuga and ready to challenge his newly found maturity and independence. To do this, he moved out of my one room heaven and headed south to Canoa to be a chef at a pizza and burger place. Canoa is a beautiful beach surf town. It’s pretty quiet and calm but is full of foreigners. Foreigners who own restaurants, hostals and those who are just passing through. In Canoa Alex rightfully saw a life in paradise, no shoes, no shirt, a party all the time and hopefully some cash too. .. I will get to that part.

Two and a half weeks after his big move Mom came down to visit. She was smitten over the Ecuadorian coast after her first visit and really just wanted to spend some quality time with her lovely children in a tropical paradise. Because Alex was living and working in said tropical paradise I went to Quito to pick up mom, a rental car, my friend Trinity and a recently sworn in as an official volunteer, Paul. Paul now lives about 6 kilometers from me, in a small community called Camarones. We never see eachother though because as it turns out, 6 kilometers takes about an hour due to lack of transportation. I developed Camarones as a Peace Corps site because in my mind it is the perfect Peace Corps site. It is isolated, a 3 km walk off the main highway where buses pass every hour, it’s very poor, the people are incredibly kind, open and ready to better their community, the women wash their clothes in the river, the little kids always want to hold your hand or play soccer and surrounding the community are hills covered with tropical trees. One of these hills is the other boarder of the reserve where I work. www.ceiba.org/loor.html

Anyway, Mom and I busted ass from Quito to make it to the coast. We picked up my friend Ryan, dropped off Paul with his luggage ready to start his new life and headed to Canoa. Alex was stoked to see us all. Trinity and Ryan are two of my best friends here in Ecuador and since Alex had become my side kick, they were two of his best friends as well. Ryan is from VT and Trinity from NH, so we got a lot of New England love here in EcuaLand. Mom was happy to see that Alex had a sweet little room with a porch with two hammocks looking out over palm trees on the Pacific Ocean. But, mom was not so psyched to see Alex getting exploited by his bosses, working a lot but making no money and losing weight from not eating enough due to lack of cash money flow. To put it simply, Mom, being a mom, couldn’t sleep she was so worried about her baby. To make a long story short, by the time Mom, Alex and I were heading to Quito to send Mom on her flight back to the states Alex had all of his stuff with him to return to the simple life of Alex and Andrea, minus the cameras, little dressed up chawawa, the $500 hand bags and the drama. (slipping in an American cultural reference to show that I am still in touch with where I come from, even if it’s an outdated reference). When Alex threw his bag into my room he released a sigh has he said ‘man, it feels good to be home’.

Mom and I really had a great time together. She even dared the cockroaches, rats, bats and scariest of all, out door bathroom. I had asked Mom to stay with me in Tabuga for two nights to get a little taste of my life. I wanted her to visit the reserve, hang out with the people and just live my life for two days. It was awesome. We celebrated Earth Day with little kids in Tabuga where mom wasted paper and showed kids how littering can be fun if first you fold the paper into an airplane. We visited the reserve, went to a dinner with the founders of the Ceiba Foundation and the mayor of my county, had some quality time with my Ecuadorian family and had some good laughs. The best was Mom’s fear of going to the bathroom at night.
‘Andrea honey, will you come with me to the bathroom. Here take this cute little red flashlight’.
‘Okay mom’ is how I responded but I was thinking crazy lady in my head.

So there is a light in the bathroom out back, granted it isn’t very bright because it’s in the shower on the other side of the brick wall but, it gives off enough light to see. But, for Mom, this just wasn’t enough and she made me stand there flashing the light on her with the bathroom door open. When it was my turn to go I handed mom the cute little red flashlight and told her to head back to the room, I could go to the bathroom like a normal person. But, no, Mom insisted on putting me in the spot light on the toilet because Mom was too afraid of walking back to the room (about 10 paces) by herself. I told her it was fine, no big deal, you’re okay, don’t be embarrassed. Now that it’s passed. HAHAHAAHAA mom, you’re hilarious and I love you.

After a few days in Tabuga Mom and I headed back to Canoa for two days to relax on the beach and watch the sunset with cocktails at happy hour. Mom got us all Canoa t-shirts so we could feel like real tourists and then we headed to Quito to say bubye to the beloved mommy. I left Alex and Mom in the care of Trinity in Quito and took an overnight bus back to the coast to participate in a workshop with Ceiba and to party on the beach to celebrate my Ceiba counterpart, Catherine’s birthday. Catherine and Joe are the president and vicepresident of Ceiba, they are professors at the Univeristy of Wisconsin, Madison and are just awesome smart fun people. Every year they come to Ecuador with a study abroad program. The semester includes classes in Quito, 3 weeks in the Amazon jungle, 3 weeks on the coast, 3 weeks in the Galapagos and then a 4 week personal internship project. This year I helped out as a quasi mentor to four of the students who lived in the reserve and one student who lived in Camarones . Each had their own project and I did what I could to help develop their ideas, get them contacts and make it happen. They were quite a spectacular group of people and brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the reserve. It was sad to see them go but we got a lot of stuff done and they seemed to have a good time and for the reserve it was a nice little boost to have some good volunteers helping out.

I recently had my Mid-service conference in Quito which means that one year as an official volunteers has flown by. I can only imagine this second year is going to fly by too which is scary because it’s hard to imagine leaving this place, my work and the people.
Last week Alex and I had the incredible opportunity to head into the Amazon jungle to work with the Waoroni in one of the communities that is at the end of an oil road. More about that awesome trip to come.

Now, we are back in Tabuga, living the life and getting back into our routine. Classes have started back up in the high school and this year I am teaching sex ed.

Yes or No... do women pee and have babies out of the same hole? A lot of people here believe yes, it’s all the same hole which is why women who are not virgins pee a lot louder than virgins do. I know, like I tell the kids, you can laugh, these things are weird to talk about but we can laugh with respect.

Alex only has 3 weeks until he heads back to the states. He’s going to be missed greatly. It’s not normal to have someone stay with you during your Peace Corps service but because Alex is such a great worker the reserve where I work signed a contract with him that he doesn’t make money but he does get meals when he works. Usually foreigners have to pay $400 a month to live and work at the reserve so it’s really a great deal. The contract says that he is my assistant. Imagine that life, the assistant to a volunteer, it sounds like a pretty poor existence but it works for us and life has been good to the Crosby kids here in Tabuga. Plus, Alex knows he’s made his mark, with the people here and with the work in the reserve, even in his stint as a chef in Canoa. It’s kind of like how Mom left her mark, paper airplanes are taking over Tabuga, at least now the littering can be fun.