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!!!

Welcome to my office

I know it probably seems like all I do is have fun crazy adventures but, that´s because I tend to only blog about the out of the ordinary things in my life. Then, the other day while I watched a neighbor climbing around barefoot on bamboo while building an open air meeting place at my reserve I thought, hell, my ordinary day things aren´t so ordinary for my friends and family in the states, especially those that sit in offices all day, work on this thing called a computer (that I am currently trying to make do what I want it to do) and crave the outdoors. So, this blog is about my office.

The majority of my projects during my service have been with the Lalo Loor Dry Tropical forest reserve. My counterpart, The Ceiba Foundation for Tropical Conservation, has put me in charge of the Environmental and Tourist Center for the reserve. This includes a beautiful round yellow building that I have filled with tourist information, flora and fauna facts and pictures, conservation tidbits and some interesting stuff about tropical marine life. Basically, I take the foundation’s ideas and try my best to put them into reality. So far, so good. All of my work really has paid off and on September, 11th we officially opened the center and hirer a local employee. Maria is from Tabuga, is super willing to learn and is right now training under me. It all seems silly sometimes that I have arrived at this point where I am training someone to do a job that I just started doing one day. I had some background training with the Peace Corps but mostly, it was all about personality, adapting, being creative and desire. Now, what I was doing for the reserve created a job here and I am happily helping Maria learn everything I have learned and try to be as chipper, creative and friendly as possible. Basically, she gets to learn to be me, but cuter, with better Spanish and she gets paid.

Now that I am slowly handing over my responsibilities to Maria I can really get to the juicy stuff, which in my office means design an environmental education plan for the county, train Maria to do the environmental education activities, work with my buddy Máximo to be a informational and dynamic trail guide and hopefully get hundreds of kids frolicking through the forest throughout the next year. A lot of it is fun and games but atleast I am getting stuff done. And, I don´t want to rub it in, but I love my office.

In addition, I do a lot of stuff within the community. I teach English and sex education in the high school. I helped start a community bank, we recently passed $1,200 in the box (literally, a box) and have held bingos and raffles to make more money. My other projects include an association that is working in leadership and social action in the region as well as helping on a biological corridor project with Ceiba, the Ministry of Environment, the local government and local land owners. Not to mention, I am writing an environmental education manual with two other PCVs and continue my overly-rewarding work with teenage girl’s leadership camps. The next one takes place in the entrance to the Amazon outside of Tena in November.

Sometimes I imagine myself in another kind of office and maybe I´ll be there some day. For now, I love my office and I love my work. As much fun as all my adventures have been, what makes me happiest is being in Tabuga, living my work and doing the best I can with my best friends, see below, Maximo, Bigote (means mustache in spanish) and I are our lunch break.

Roommates United in Ecuador Part II.... Tabuga

For those who have had the incredible opportunity of visiting Tabuga, I am sorry to say that Carmen's week in Tabuga tops all. In March when Carmen was attentively watching ticket prices I had mentioned to Carmen that sometime in the month of September fall the fiestas of Tabuga. Apparently Carmen has good Karma because her trip dates were perfect allowing us to spend a week in Tabuga, working, playing soccer, dancing and just living the life. Entertaining, captivating details follow:

The fiestas of Tabuga this year were planned by a Tabugan who recently returned from Spain with big hopes of putting Tabuga on the map. His new 'modern' ideas learned from Spain led to a 6 day full schedule of local traditions, futbol, gambling and a huge dance. Carmen and I missed day one in order to white water raft which was definitely a good choice. Day two we arrived after an overnight bus and I went to work on my environmental center well Carm got her beauty sleep.

The center is doing incredibly well. After it's inaguration in June I have been working to get it ready to be full functional to open it and put a local employee as the receptionist/welcome person etc. This all gotten taken care of just fine and Carm and I really got the last minute details in place for the big opening Thursday, Day 4 of the fiestas. The girl who is working in the center is 23 and studying at night in the University in Jama. She has a 'husband' and a kid and is super PILAS and awesome. I plan on writing a blog about my work so that you all know how much I do work and that it isn't a party all the time but in short, this Environmental Center has sucked out all of my energy and creativity and to have it now open is a huge success in my Peace Corps service, plus, it was cool for Carmen to help out.

Enough about work, the fiestas are all about playing and you should see Carmen dominate indoor. Indoor is played outdoors on a concrete slab and it´s huge here in Manabí. Everyone in Tabuga is still talking about Carmen and her sweet indoor skills. Highlights from the soccer match include a Tabugan shooting off a gun, 4 times, in celebration of one of Carmen´s goals. Luckily I had warned Carmen about this and she didn´t dive to the ground in fear like I did the first time it happened with me...where do the bullets land? Also, my favorite, was when Carmen schooled a girl, breaking her ankles (figurtively), scored a goal and upon celebrating running towards mid-court a teethless neighbor of mine, in a intense burst of enthusiasm grabbed Carmen´s arm and ran with her in celebration. The ultimate weird indoor experience was definitely the disputable red card. After the ref made the call that the girl from the other team grabbed the ball with her hand while on the ground in the box (not disputable, always a red card), the men in town stormed the court. The men from the neighboring town weird so mad, everyone was yelling. All the girls,those of us playing, moved to the side. Poor Carmen just stood confused wanting to finish the game while I took the opportunity to talk about feminist stuff. For example, why were there a bunch of men yelling when all of us just wanted to play. Then, we realized why, they all had bet mad cash on the outcome of the game.

THe overall indoor highlight was the championship game where Carmen dominated scoring 4 goals and then I chipped in with one perfectly arched left footer to win the game. Gringa RUE domination... very nice.

Besides fútbol Carmen and I enjoyed watching card tournaments, getting drunk with the old men, teaching some locals college drinking games, getting dressed up and dancing the last night and of course the inhumane treatment to a chicken. The Tabugans burried a chicken in the ground up to it´s neck, blind-folded teenage girls, spun them around, handed them a machete and gave them three tries to behead the chicken. It was ludicrous. The best part being when the 4th girl succeeded I took off running and screaming in fear. With embarassment I crouched down to the ground only to see Carmen out of the corner of my eye doing exactly the same thing. All the people who had been eagerly watching the horrific murder of an innocent chicken were turned, watching the gringas run in honest fear and discust. Just mark that up on the list as a HUGE cultural difference.





















In order for Carmen to get a full Andrea lives in Ecuador experience, Carmen and I took Friday night off to party in Canoa. It was a blast and included good fresh sea food, happy hour specials, reminising about Alex Crosby and la uña de la gran bestia, a shot of strong caña alcohol that is left to ferment for 3 months with a scorpion, centipede and maryjuana. I think Carmen liked it.



















After the dance that had people in Tabuga dancing until 7am, literally, Carm and I took a bus to Quito, spent our last R.U.E moments together and departed at the airport. I then headed back to Tabuga on a nightbus.

Where in the World is Carmen?

SHE IS WITH ME!!!!!!!

After 1.5 years of not seeing Carmen, I was worried... is she blonde? Does she wear 3 inch heals and suits? Does she talk like an adult? Is she tall?

No, no, no etc. Carmen is the same, entertaining, enjoying life and my buddy. Imagine, 4 years together in college and reunited in Ecuador.... amazing.

Currently Carmen and I are in Quito after having some great adventures in Quito, El Chaco and Tena. Tonight we are heading to the T to the Buga!

Real quick shout out for TRINITY.... my good friend from NH, met here in Ecuador and my life friend... drink some good beer, eat mexican food and cheese and say hello to NH for me! You will be missed and wrapped around in all of my one upping stories. Especially those that involve going to Columbia, coming back over the border and ending up at Pablos' grandmother's house.

Besides just getting to spend time together and laugh a lot here are the highlights of the last few days.

1) Mitad del Mundo - Middle of the world - Yes, Carmen and I traveled to the middle of the world and there lies a line, painted on the ground about 100m off from the equator. And on this line lies a monument and around this line a bunch of stores and resturants with eager employees waiting for the tourists to come. "If you build it they will come" was the strategy Carmen imagined they used for the planning of this place but really, no one is coming. So, the middle of the world feels like a deserted DisneyLand, without the cool rides.

2) Playing tourists in Quito... stops included...The virgin angel, with strength enough to tame a dragon. She is a statue overlooking old town Quito. We also did some arts and crafts market shopping and churches.

3) Duke v UNC... okay, not really, Ecuador v Bolivia... but we got equally into team spirit and Carmen almost cried with genuine excitement. For those of you who don't know Carmen she is a kick butt soccer player and soccer aka fútbol remains a big part of her life. SO, when we realized the Ecuador v Bolivia game was happening in Quito saturday, we scratched ziplining off our schedule and put in Fútbol. It was a blast and Ecuador won 3-1. Unfortunately, Carmen and I were in the bathroom during two of the 3 goals and the attendent suggested we stay in the bathroom so that Ecuador could win by a bigger margin, Carmen and I opted to watch the game and had a blast.





4) From this spectacular event Elliot, Trinity, Ryan, Carmen and I dragged Carmen to the bus terminal, she was tired from Jet Lag (read between the lines, 2 hour time difference?), and headed to El Chaco, East of Quito towards the Amazon. The bus ride alone was a highlight with some classic lines from Carmen. For example: FRIED CHICKEN ON MY FACE (refering to the KFC we saved her) and GOD IS ABOUT TO THROW A CURVE BALL AT US IN 15 Seconds (not sure what she was refering to) when I did not agree, Carmen revised GOD IS ABOUT TO THROW A CURVE BALL AT YOU (finger point at me) IN 10 SECONDS, later she claimed that FRIED CHICKEN IS GOD's CURVE BALL and therefore she had INCREDIBLE FORESIGHT, I JUST DON'T KNOW WHY, IT'S INCREDIBLE. Her foresight was in hindsight of my foresight of knowing she would want fried chicken on her face.





5) Can we say second wind? After a trip to the middle of the world, a world cup qualifying fútbol game and God's curve ball we landed in El Chaco. At first we weren't sure if we could rally, but, oh we rallied. Until 4 am. The night involved a lot of Carmen speaking English to this cute Ecuadorian and him responding romantically in Spanish. After 2 hours of hanging out with him Carmen told me she thought he wanted to come rafting with us, which is funny, since he was our rafting guide and had been trying to tell her since introductions were given. When he invited her to go home with him her response, in her own language was: Yeah, I am really excited for rafting tomorrow too! The poor Ecuadorian remained confused as Carmen walked away after clearly accepting the invitation. They were the most romantic couple I have ever seen that couldn't understand a word they were saying to eachother. Dancing, latenight food and randomness landed us at 4 am, bed time 5:30am, wake up time 7:45am... efe.





6) Rafting. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. Amazing. Elliot and Jeff who raft often even said this was one of their best runs. We opted for the longer course and really dominated it. Not to mention jumping off rocks 50 feet up and making sugar cane juice along the way. Amazing.

Yes we are somewhere in that big splash of water, aka rapid... can you spy a helmet or paddle?

7) Monkeys, Monkeys, Monkeys. Last night we booked it to Tena only to get a yummy pizza dinner and a good nights sleep. Our plan was to go tubing (tubbing according to local guides in English). Tubbing got cancelled because of dangerous river conditions but even monkeys don't leave the rain forrest when it rains.





And here we are again, halfway through the trip. So much goodness has passed and only more awaits. Let's see what curveballs God throws at us for part II.... maybe the old wrap around.





over and out

R.U.E.

Roommates United in Ecuador

Returning to Reality

I have chills writing this email. Partly due to the air conditioning in the internet place. I swear I leave here with a cold everytime, I am so used to living in tropical heat. But, mostly, my chills come from the feeling I get talking about Tabuga. Tabuga is my home now and it is my reality. After vacation in the Galapagos, party time in Canoa and relaxation in the PentHouse I returned to Tabuga weary of the reality I live in. As always, Tabuga suprised me and today I love Tabuga more than ever, I love that it is my home and my current reality. I respect that it isn´t always going to be my reality but I have embraced it with all my heart, and in return Tabuga has embraced me. The chills continue...

Saturday evening I returned to Tabuga sleepy or should I say passed out on the bus. A neighbor had to wake me up. I could hear the music blaring from the farside of town, an awful techno-cumbia echoing through the hills surrounding Tabuga. I knew I had to find the energy to go, all of Tabuga attends the fiestas and this was for the school. Each grade has a little king and queen dolled up to represent their classmates. I couldn´t miss the photo opportunity and honestly, I missed the people of Tabuga. So, I Ecua-showered (threw water in my hair and on my face) and headed with my Conmadre (mother of my godson) to the fiesta. To be honest, this fiesta was a little dull and I wasn´t the only one without energy. The presentation of the queens was adorable and after one extra-long Ecuad-dance with my godson I returned home. That night I went to sleep with a big smile. I had just spent time with so many good friends and then, back in my home I was happy, people were happy to see me and I felt fully content.

In the middle of the night I woke up in the darkness unsure about where I was, I had recently been sleeping around (haha) Ecuador and I muttered to myself... I am home... and with a childlike contentment feel asleep in my arms.

Sunday I woke up and did some work on my dying laptop. Just like heat and humidity get to old people, my computer wavers in the Ecuadorian coast. Then, I had one of the most tranquilo days of my life. With my Ecuadorian Mom, Dad and brother Angel, I walked the 3 km to visit my god-daughter. The mother (my conmadre) is 19, pregnant again, for the third time, with a third man, with whom she is not with, again. She lives with her Aunt who has the biggest heart in the world and cares for everyone. My pregnant conmadre, Maria, has had an awful pregnancy. She was just bleeding for a full month. The doctors in the area couldn´t tell her what was wrong and told her the baby was dead. As soon as the news reached me I sent $20 and told her Aunt to take her to Bahia (where the PentHouse is) because there is a good hospital there. Turns out the baby is fine and the visit to the hospital saved her and the baby. I don´t really know what was wrong because the Aunt didn´t understand. What they understand is that Maria and the baby are fine. Being a woman of science, I wonder how fine the baby is and wonder if bringing the baby into the world is actually a cruel joke from god rather than a blessing. They don´t want the baby and are trying to give it to someone, not sell it, gift it. The situation is depressing and heart wrenching and with this in mind I went to visit my god-family.

I got there and my little 18month old god daughter ran to me with open arms. Her cousins and older brother all followed. Soon I was surrounded by dirty little kids and I was in heaven. All of the negative feelings I felt during the walk melted away. The most amazing thing to me in the world right now are children. Children who have holes in their clothes, destented bellies, no decent bathing and often no parental love, these children amaze me because they seem to have the biggest hearts and give the best hugs. Attention, hugs, playing and care can transform a sad little girl into a princess and I get to give this to so many kids. People here always remark ¨Look, Andrea doesn´t have any kids but knows how to care for them better than most mothers¨. Children for me are the little energy that keep me going. Children whose mothers are irresponsible, father´s are non-existent and opportunities seem limited. Making a child like this giggle is an incomparable feeling.

And so, I spent my Sunday. With my Ecuadorian family, my god-daughter and kids everywhere. The aunt killed a chicken for us for lunch. This is a tradition here in honor of important guests. My Ecuadorian Mom and brother are the god parents to the little boy, my father and I god parents to the little girl so this was important. A chicken must be sacrificed. Right in front of my face. She twisted the neck about 5 times and just snapped it with an artistic experienced hand. No blood was shed and later, this chicken made a delicous soup. While the adults ate at the table the kids all huddled around on the floor eating. I drank juice that I knew would kill my stomach later, made with water out of the river, not boiled, not treated. After I relaxed in a hammock with the kids pushing me side to side, climbing, giggling kids. The airness of the bamboo house kept the temperature perfect, the lighting just right and so, I dozed off a little bit until the walk home. I couldn´t believe the photo opportunities that I missed this happy Sunday, I hope my words do it justice.

Arriving in Tabuga, work called and on my little trip to the center of town I found everyone I needed to talk to. Everything was going so well, so happily and in this air of good energy I ran into a good friend of mine, I would say one of my few really good female Ecuadorian friends, Geomira. I was holding her beautiful baby, talking business with the cook from the reserve. When I went to drop the baby off in her house Geomira handed me a pretty blue devil blue ring. I was obviously confused until she showed me hers and explained, rings of friendship.

As I headed back to my house, my godson and brothers joined me and admired my ring. My Sunday was complete, full of family and friends. As I went to sleep I thought to myself, the only Sunday in the world better than this Sunday would be going to sleep in the arms of a true love. But, hey, life is about timing and a spinster´s life seems to be the best for me... for now...

Lots of love and contentness (a word I made up because I am not very good at English right now.. Commonly used is the word contentment)

HUGS
Andrea

Pent House in Bahia

I have just continued living the rough life since the Galapagos.

In celebration of my friend Akuls´ birthday, the presence of my super star friend Jason and in order to ´work´ on the environmental education manual Jeremy and I have been working on, i just spent the last week on the beach and in the pent house, yes PH, of a sick apartment building in Bahia. Bahia means bay and sits nicely on a pretty bay and is known for being a mini-miami and/or a Eco-city. I don´t really care what it is known for because now, it is known to all of us as the PH city.


Here are a few pictures just to show how hard life has been lately. Two weeks in the Galapagos (pics to come) and a nice vacation in Canoa and the PH. I continue to be amazed by the friends I have and the experiences I get to share with them. Lots of good peole, lots of good times. The word good can´t ever be over-used in my mind.





So many good people...

We are so tan and popular... on one of the 4 PH balconies

The rough life... ouch, it hurts, life is so hard...

I mean, he just looks so cool in that picture... Life on the beach, human pillow... nice

We are tan, we are popular and we drink beer...

UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...

Posing by the Washington monument....

Pent House Style

Now, I am back to Tabuga for a community party celebration for the school and a hard week of work and getting the Environmental Center up and ready!

Back to sweat, tears and blood. Goodbye PH.

Sick and still smiling

Wow!

Thank goodness for my male nurse. AJ saved me on our long journey leaving the Galapagos. Our last night after a day of seeing sharks, snorkeling with sea turtles, walking in a lava tunnel and much, much more I got really really sick. My fever passed a hundred as did the number of trips I took to the bathroom.

But! I smiled the whole time. After seeing everything I had seen and traveling around with a good friend life was just too good.... even with a bacterial food infection and amoebas. So as we went from boat to taxi to bus to ferry to plan to taxi to Quito to bus overnight to Tabuga. As we went I slept on benches, floors, AJ and any other surface available. I was so weak, I was the weak duck. The smiling weak Duck.

Luckily, I can be a tough cookie and took Tae Kwon Do when I was little so I used my mind over body skills and quickly was back to my spunky self.

AJ and I went to my reserve, attempted at teaching English in the highschool but the doors were locked and no one had a key. We hung out with my counterpart, Joe from the Ceiba Foundation and hung out with my Peace Corps friends in Canoa. Canoa is the surf town Alex (my brother) used to live in. Actually, Alex´s old apartment is now a sick bar and his old room a storage room and bathroom to the bar. It was crazy and Elliot, Trinity, Fitzy, AJ and I drank beers at Alex´s old room now bar in honor of my little brother.

From Canoa I had to send poor AJ with his loneself back to Quito because I had a big meeting. So with a single tear in my eye I waved goodbye to Primo AJ and there closed the adventures of A - squared. It was an incredible trip and words can´t express how beautiful it was. Pictures will help. AJ... get on that already... we want the pictures! I will post the link ASAP.

After my meetings I returned to Canoa where I dominated happy hour and beach life with my PC friends. Now I am working on an environmental education manual in Bahia. Bahia means bay and we happen to be staying at the Pent House apartment of this incredible apartment building in Bahia, overlooking the bay. And environmental education manual seems to mean rum and cokes and carrot cake.

Happy Birthday AKUL!

And so I leave you to go drink a cocktail on one of the four balconies of the Pent House time share apartment. And I leave you with these words:

Be good people, love good people and good will be.

Life is rough ey?
Peace, Love and Friends,

Andreita... (wants a margarita!)