Alli Alli con la Runa- And Back to Tena, Napo

   So last I left off I had yet to meet the US ambassador. Well last Tuesday we danced an Ecuadorian dance for her which went well and was rather comical to say the least. Wednesday was site placement day and needless to say there was much excitement in the air. The PC staff arrived early in the morning and drew a map of Ecuador covering the futbol field entirely made out of rose pedals. I was placed in Tena which is the same city I had visited on my tech. trip 2 weeks before hand. After a few hours of class we were sent home to pack and head out the next day for a site visit of one week. I left for Tena around 9:30 in the morning on Thursday and got to town around 1 o' clock to meet up with my new counter-part named Lenin Grefa and get some lunch in town. Lenin is a native Kichwa and is the head of the eco-tourism project I will be helping out with in Tena. The organization I will be in is called FENAKIN and is an organization of 7 indigenous Kichwa communities all working in eco-tourism and community based tourism. My primary projects for the next two years are establishing a business plan for this one year old organization and helping to develop a $2 million dollar eco-tourism project in the Amazon. I will also be helping to establish a liquid-organic fertilizer operation to increase cacao production in the area (chocolate) and devise a method of working around the intermediaries in the area. I will be helping to design and construct large greenhouses of native edible plant species as well as native medicinal plant species. We will be designing irrigation systems with automatic rainwater catch systems and start a few community banks.

   Later on Thursday after arriving in Tena and meeting Lenin he took me back to where I will be living for at least the first 3 months of my service in a community just outside of Tena named Awapungo. Awapungo is an indigenous community of about 30 families that live on a single road following the river. I will be living in a two-story concrete house with a man named Franklin Calapucha, who is about 35, and his two parents who are in their 70s. My room is on the second story and has a balcony. Also, the second story is only about 1/3 built so apart from two rooms and a bathroom along one wall the rest of the story is completely open bare concrete with a concrete ceiling. So naturally we have a coffee table with matching chairs and a couch next to our bamboo railing for drinking coffee in the morning and getting out of the sun during the afternoon. Franklin and his parents have a couple hectares of property in which they produce cacao, to sell to the intermediaries, as well as yuca, plantains, and many randomly dispersed native edible plants all for personal consumption in the house. We also have 3 tilapia ponds which they use to sell to neighbors but largely for personal consumption. Therefore we spent the first three days of my trip eating a typical dish called Mitos which is tilapia wrapped in what looks like a banana leaf with a pinch of salt and cooked over an open fire in the communal outdoor kitchen.  The men typically go out before lunch, the biggest meal of the day, to gather food from around the property and catch fish to eat with a net.  The women then prepare lunch and the whole family uses this time to share stories and interact with one another. I also went to a community meeting Thursday night and had a chance to meet the majority of the families in my community and introduce myself formally to the group.

Harvesting Yutsu

   On Friday we went to the office for a bit in the morning then picked up a truckload of supplies for building greenhouses and delivered them to one of our communities within the organization which is going to grow native edible plants for the consumption of the tourists that visit the community. 

   Saturday morning I got up early and went for a hike up the road with my host brother Franklin. It was a good chance to get to know the area and also great to see more of the jungle. After the hike we stopped off at Lenin's house which is just down from my house on the same property since Lenin is married to one of Franklin's sisters.  They took me on a tour of their house and then out into the cacao fields and into the forest. We gathered some cacao pods, walked through the yuca and plantain fields and picked a bunch of plantains for lunch. After the yuca field we went down a pathway through the jungle and picked a local fern called Yutsu in Kichwa which tastes a lot like asparagus and moved deeper into the forest. At some point Lenin grabbed a vine hanging from a tree which had a strong citrus flavor and is supposedly good for combating cancer. Some time later on our hunt (vegetarian style) we stopped off at some small chicken coops that they had built in the forest and got caught by the rain so we waited it out under the roofs eating oranges off the tree nearby. Once the rain died down we walked back to the communal kitchen down next to the tilapia ponds to find a neon green, hairy caterpillar which is supposed to have a strong neurotoxin.... so we used it for fish bait. After some unsuccessful fishing I tried my luck with the trowing net and actually caught one! - Needless to say, lunch was amazing that day. 

   Sunday was a pretty straightforward day. Being evangelical, basically the entire community goes to church on Sunday. We were in church about 2 hours until Lenin leaned over and told me soccer was about to start and we had to sneak out. The rest of the day was spent watching various local teams play against each other and trying the infamous Chicha (a slightly alcoholic drink made of fermented yuca). 

   Monday was back to work and we spent most of the morning in the office. After a nice lunch we headed out to one of our communities called Kamak Maki which I had visited earlier on my tech trip. Kamak Maki is an indigenous Kichwa community located on the bank of the river Napo. They are actively working in eco-toursim and have an animal rescue of native animals as well as a pathway lined with native medicinal plants. We talked with the president of the community and were shown around the property to look at improvements they had made and discuss future projects. After playing with some of the monkeys outside and having a coke we reluctantly headed back to Tena for the night.

   Tuesday was similar to the day before in which we visited the office, had a nice long lunch, and then headed out to another community. This one was further downriver from Kamak Maki and is called Campo Cocha. Campo Cocha is another indigenous community located on the river bank. They have no running water and use the river to bath and gather water. The community is working in eco-tourism and is currently renovating their 2 cabanas for the arrival of the summer tourists. Again we met with the community president and discussed future projects as well as the Peace Corps volunteer who will be living there for the next two years. On our way back my counter-part Lenin told me a Kichwa story of the boa. As the story goes there was a man who went to the river every day to fish. The river was full of fish and he always left with a full sack of fish.  Everyday he would come back to the same place in the river and every day, unbeknown  to him, the boa was always watching. Everyday the boa sat in the shallows and watched its prey hunt and eat and grow fatter, waiting until the opportune time. And one day the boa would strike, having hunted the man from the shallows. For this the Kichwa people have fear of still spots in the river and never visit the same fishing spot too frequently. He also told me that the boa, being as cunning as it is, wills people into the water. He said that the boa calls to you in your dreams in the shape of the "Yacu Warmi", or Lady of the Water. They say that the Yacu Warmi is always a beautiful American woman who comes to them in their dreams and beckons them into the water. 

Lenin and his wife

    Anyways, Wednesday was my final day in Tena and I headed back to Tumbaco at 1. However, before I departed we made a stop off at a local farm store to purchase 900 chickens which the organization will take to 9 different families in one community to grow and sell the chickens for profit. We also went to the office for a bit where I wrote my first grant to the ministry for a list of project we want to start working in when I come back in April. -All in all...a very productive week!

   Apart from the site visit, today I started learning Kichwa and am excited to get some phrases down to use in my site. Also, tomorrow my family here in Tumbaco and I are going to get Cuy for dinner (guinea pig) so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Hope this post finds you all well! Chao!

Week 6: The Magic School Bus

    Last weekend (the 5th-6th) was the Carnival holiday which luckily lasted through Tuesday. Carnival marks the beginning of Lent, meaning its an excuse to party for four days and through water balloons, eggs, chocolate syrup and whatever else you can think of at passersby. My Carnival experience was pretty low-key by local standards and I did my best to avoid the carnage.... other volunteers were not so lucky. Saturday I climbed up to the top of Ilalo, the 10,500 foot volcano out my back door, with a friend of mine and we ended on the other side of the volcano for a beer and some roasted pig. Later that day I found myself in an Empenada making contest with the women of my family including my host-mom, aunt and grandmother... needless to say....I lost. The following day I went with my aunt and uncle and the volunteer living with them out to a nearby city called Al Quinche. Al Quinche is known for its cathedral and the massive monument within that is completely covered in gold leaf. Sometime in late November there is a walk from the Cathedral in Al Quinche to Quito some 30 miles away carrying a statue of the Virgin de Al Quinche. Anyways, my host uncle drives a school bus during the week so for normal family activities including more than 4 people they end up driving the school bus. So here we are driving down the road with 6 people in the front of a school bus on a Sunday headed to church. For those of you who have not traveled leisurely by school bus I do recommend it for the space and ability to hold up traffic while you stop at roadside food stands.

   On Tuesday my host family and I wound up once again the "Magic School Bus." We headed into Quito to get some more family members (this trip we had a total of about 14 people in the bus) and drove south to Maracas where they have a natural hot spring and a natural mineral water spring. Right before the entrance to the spring were about 10 locals lined up on the side of the road with buckets of water to throw at unsuspecting passersby. This is where the true advantage of the bus began to pay off when my uncle decided he should slow down and block off the whole road while we had a truck with about 8 people in the back behind us. The hot spring was on par with a normal Ecuadorian spring, i.e. too many people, lukewarm at best and random hairs floating around. The mineral water spring on the other hand was rather cold, completely empty due to Ecuadorians dislike for cold water, and by the way it was mineral water. There is a company here in Ecuador that bottles the same water from the source and sells it for a dollar a bottle.... I swam by myself in an entire pool of it. And by the way for those of you who have not swam in a pool of naturally carbonated water.....it's an experience. On the way home the School Bus was invaluable as we were able to make random coffee stops and ice cream breaks on the side of the road to converse and play cards for 10-15 minutes at a time. 

   The rest of the week was back to class in our normal fashion though we were able to catch up with the other 3 groups from the tech trip and exchange stories. Thursday after class we had a good game of Futbol and Friday I learned an Ecuadorian dance (more to come on that in a bit). Friday was also the bigging of the Tsunami watch which put all us Peace Corps Trainees on "Stand Fast" meaning I had an excuse not to leave Tumbaco for the weekend. Friday was also the start of the Birthday weekend in my host which was started off with a sleepover of about 10 9 year old girls for my host sister's 10th birthday.  On Saturday our normal four hour language class turned into a 2 hour trip to a local outdoor market to become familiar with local foods and products. Later that afternoon we commenced round two of the Birthday weekend with my host brother's 13th birthday and the arrival of some 25 family members for lasagna and cake. I learned a number of Ecuadorian party games and was able to teach a few from the states as well. During one game I had a chance to pull out some of the few Quechua words I had learned the previous week which put the entire room almost to tears laughing. Sunday we had a bbq at another volunteer's house where his host mom had made an amazing feast for about 20 of us! Later that night I made M&M cookies for my family which took about twice as long to bake up at 8,000 feet elevation as they were supposed to. My host mom was apparently quite impressed as she had a fresh bag of M&Ms for me when I walked in the door today, "So she could learn the recipe." Those cookies lasted about 20 minutes. 

   Back to school today, we had another dance practice which consists of 3 other guys, 4 girls and myself learning an Afro-Ecuatoriano dance which we are to perform tomorrow for the US Ambassador to Ecuador. Needless to say it should be a good time for all! Also, on Wednesday we get to learn our site assignments and then actually go visit our sites for a week beginning on Thursday. There has been a lot of excitement around the training center as to where people are going and we are all looking forward to getting out to our sites and start meeting our future families.

   

  

"To keep him from going for your jugular, you have to put your fingers in his mouth"

   Realizing that I have missed a week of blogging, I am now having a hard time trying to remember what we did two weeks ago. Following the trip to La Mitad del Mundo we had a pretty standard week of classes.  Thursday was a bit more intense than usual when my Spanish group and I had to give a 45 minute presentation on recycling to a bunch of 11 year old Ecuadorian  kids at a local school.  Later that day I also gave a 15 minute presentation on my own about a local holiday. Both presentations went well and I am happy with how quickly my Spanish is coming back. Fast forward to the weekend... we started Saturday off with 2 hours of language classes and being Flag Day here in Ecuador we took the next 2 hours to have a potluck with both plates from here and home as well as some guitar playing and learning some local songs. Finally to Sunday, I am proud to say I spent Sunday in Quito at the La Liga vs. Nacional futbol game. Both teams are from Quito so when they play its definitely a big deal here.

   Now onto this last week. The last 5 days have been spent in the Amazon rain forest in and around a city called Tena. A group of 10 volunteers including myself and 4 facilitators all went on a Tech Trip for the Amazonian region. The four and a half hour bus ride out was pretty awesome to start off. For about an hour we had a crystal clear view of the 19,346 foot Cotopaxi volcano covered in snow next to the 18,874 foot Antisana volcano. The next 3 hours were mostly downhill once we crossed over the Andes headed east into the jungle. Later that afternoon we met with a local organization in the area that works with community economic development through the production of cacao, or chocolate. They teach local farmers how to sustainable produce and harvest high quality cacao which is actually some of the best in the Amazon and is sold in Whole Foods in the US as Kallari chocolate. This organization has also helped to develop one of 4 biosphere national parks in Ecuador. A biosphere national park is one that includes an outer ring, a buffer zone and a central protected area unaccessible by the outside world ( the US has over 42). That day we also visited a local wildlife rehabilitation center and got to see many animals from the Amazon that were either kept as pets or found injured and brought in.

  The next day we met with another organization in Tena that works with small Quechua communities many in Eco-tourism. We discussed various aspects of their business and business strategy (or lack there of... its exceedingly common here to have communities decided to enter the Eco-tourism market with no business plan at all) and other business practices in the Amazon. Following the presentation we hopped into a truck taxi and drove down along the Rio Napo about an hour to a small Quechua community. The community we visited is called Kamak Maki and specializes in animal rehabilitation. The community consists of about 30 families that all live on the river bank. We helped to work on the construction of a new community center and got a tour of the animals and local plants. They have two resident monkeys that love to climb and play on people as you wander the community. They also have a young ocelot in a cage that was orphaned a few months ago. If you are wondering, yes... I did get to hold the ocelot and yes it was pretty awesome. The Quichua man showing us around the community told me that the ocelots instinctively attack the jugular vein in the neck and to suppress this instinct you have to put your fingers in his mouth like a babies bottle. For lunch the ladies of the community prepared a traditional feast using tilapia wrapped in big leaves and cooked over an open fire. That night we stayed at another local community up the river about an hour and a half. This community is also working in Eco-tourism and had received a grant to build a small cabana style hotel close to the river. This community specializes in hand crafts and cacao production as well.

   On Wednesday we started the day off learning about the community based hotel we had stayed at overnight which using a local grant was constructed by and is now run by the local community members. Then we helped to clean up and prune the gardens and walkways in preparation for Carnival this weekend. Later in the day we took a short canoe ride across the river back in Tena to an island wildlife preserve for a talk about forest conservation projects, rainwater collection and composting toilets. The organization giving the talk had created a documentary about local deforestation to be showed to communities here in the Amazon. It was really interesting for me because they had filmed the entire documentary in the local Quechua even though all Quechua here speak Spanish. They also used local community leaders and stories from village elders about the previous existence of the jungle as far as reduced water levels, higher temperatures year round and greater sensibility to the sun.

  Thursday we spent most of the day with a start up business here in Ecuador working with Guayusa. Guayusa is a native tree, used like tea, that by traditions the Quechua tribes  wake up around 3 30 or 4 and prepare Guayusa. They drink the Guayusa over an open fire and in the hours before sunrise tell ancient stories, discuss meaningful dreams or share songs. Guayusa is a typical drink found in many restaurants in Tena but otherwise does not leave the area. The business we spoke to was started by 3 US guys fresh out of college that have employed upwards of 30 local Ecuadorians and over 100 farmers to produce and sell Guayusa in the United States. After a brief discussion in the morning we headed up into the jungle by taxi to the end of the road where we got out and started hiking in our mud boots. Our hike took us out into the Amazonian jungle through the mud and over a river which we stripped to our underwear to cross. The river had no human contact between its source and this crossing point making it the cleanest and purest water I have seen so far. Our continued assent into the jungle took us to an area of jungle own by a local farmer who knew the location of several Guayusa trees that have been growing since his grandfather was a kid. The trees are dispersed throughout the jungle and we harvested leaves from 3 or 4 before filling up 3 bags weighing 30 pounds each. Our hike back was delayed by an extended crossing of the river (couldn't let it go to waste) and then we were  back on track to town after a quick stop to learn how to thatch a roof with palm fronds.  Thursday's lunch consisted of a large ice cold glass of Guayusa, an amazing traditionally cooked tilapia and some grub worms (they actually taste like bacon).

   Lastly today, we started the day off by giving a 45 minute presentation to 11 year olds at a school outside of Tena. This time we were in groups of two and my partner Sean and I discussed deforestation in the Amazon. We had a few games to play with the kids and they were all very interactive. We had a lot of fun and got to test out a game about deforestation for the organization we met with on Wednesday. Immediately after the presentation it began to rain...and proceeded to rain about 5 inches in the next hour. We were stuck at the school during the rain storm and ended up playing soccer and basketball under a covered area until our bus showed up to take us back to Tena and then to Quito. Once I got home and had some time to unwind I followed my host family next door to our grandmother's house for my uncle's birthday party. We had cow tongue (actually really good) and a great three layer strawberry cake.

   This weekend is Carnival which consists of lots of water fights and foam in a can. I am looking forward to spending some time here in Tumbaco as well as going down to Rio Bamba at the base of Volcan Chimborazo on Monday. I hope this post finds you all well!