New Faces, Jungle Walks and Business Plans

   What has turned into nearly three weeks since my last post was intended to be 1 or 2 at the most. So I find myself once again scanning through memories of the last few weeks to start at the beginning.

   Last I wrote I was preparing for another business presentation; following up our first talk of missions and visions, with proper goal setting. By the time we had gotten underway with that Friday's "workshop" the only people to show up for my presentation were the three that hadn't made it to the first talk. Taking it all in stride as a Peace Corps Volunteer must, I switched back to my first workshop and spent the day catching them up to speed. Having not accomplished anything new, I never-the-less went into the weekend happy that we were all on the same page. The reason for the absence of the other communities was soon explained to me as we arrived at the annual Cacao Festival down town. Apparently I had scheduled our meeting at the same time as the parade, and these people love parades. So the fault lies with me, and I will be sure to check the festival schedules in the future. That night we went to the Miss Cacao competition which included your standard beauty pageant events (formal dress, swim suit walk, answer a question about cacao...) as well as various performing artists and a hot air balloon!

   The following we was spent working in the office and making the rounds to our communities. We drove down river to Ponce Loma one day to help in the community minga to continue construction of the green houses. Upon arrival we saw that more than our standard 8-10 people had come to the minga; we had around 30, leaving very little for us to do so we dropped off the supplies we had brought and returned to the office (the plants are growing quickly in greenhouse 1). That week we also made a trip down to Campo Cocha, an hour down river, to talk to a group of American University students that were volunteering there for about 2 weeks. They seemed to be loving the experience of working with the community and taking part in the day to day life, definitely makes me appreciate where I'm at a bit more.

  The following day (Friday the 10th) we loaded up the truck with about 2,000 lbs of chicken food and headed downriver to our last community, Wachi Yacu. In order to get to Wachi Yacu we have to go on a dry day in order to drive through the river when it is very low. The past two times we attempted to get to Wachi Yacu it had rained that morning and we instead left all of the chicken supplies at the river for the community to carry back on foot (about an hour and a half walk). This week however, we were able to drive over the river and down to the community of Wachi Yacu (literally at the end of the road). We helped to carry our 2,000 lbs of chicken feed into the community center and then set out to check up on the various groups of chickens. We have delivered 100 chickens to 9 different families, as part of an income generation project, in 3 groups. As we are planning on selling the first round of chickens in mid July, we set off to visit the houses that were raising the first group. Our hike took us about 2 km out into primary jungle, passed cow pastures, over 3 different rivers, 3 different houses (each offering us a snack and some chicha to drink) and a dried up river bed where we saw an 8-9 foot black and yellow snake (the Kichwa name translates to Bird Hunter). Once we reached the last house we returned back to the community center for a chicha break, a quick meeting, lunch and, of course, another chicha break before leaving.

   That weekend I met up with some of the volunteers here in Tena for a quick beer at our local bar. It was nice to see friends and speak English for a bit. Also, we have added one more volunteer here in Tena who had her site switched from the coast, and will be working in Guayusa production just outside of town. We will also be adding one more to our ranks later this week with another volunteer coming from the coast and working here in rain-catch systems and composting toilets.

   The majority of last week was spent hanging out in the office and filling time since we didn't have much to work on. Wednesday I attended a workshop at the Provincial Government building, helping to build an agenda for environmental initiatives. The Friday I held another workshop on business planning. This time we had a pretty solid attendance and discussed goal setting, the importance of planning and establishing target markets (we even identified some of our markets and set a few goals). We also reviewed the mission and vision statements I had built following our previous workshops and everyone seemed to be quite happy with them.

  This last weekend we had a Father's Day party on Saturday down in the community house. The party was for my host family, starting with my host parents at 76 and 75 years old and complete with 8 of 10 kids (with spouses), grandchildren and even some great-grandchildren. The party was complete with some song and dance performances for the dads, an eating contest, a blow up a balloon till it pops contest, karaoke and dancing. And yesterday I made a giant pot of spaghetti and watched movies in between bowls of pasta.

  This week we are working around the office and Friday morning my friend Colin Scott is flying in to visit for 2 weeks. My host brother, under protest from myself, insists on cleaning out his room for Colin and move downstairs so that we can have to the top floor.

  Lastly I would like to say Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there reading my blog and I hope you all had a great weekend! Cheers!   

120 Days in Ecuador

    Well, now that I finally have forced myself to sit down and get back to writing I have realized that nearly a month has gone by since my last post. While I do apologize for the delay I must say it's been a busy last few weeks.

    Over the last few weeks I have spent most of my time with my counterpart Lenín Grefa. He is the vice-president of the organization with which I work as well as the director of the new eco-tourism project we are working on. The last few weeks have been pretty pack with trips down the Napo River, delivering 300 baby chickens to a community at the end of the road (almost a 4 hour drive out), building green houses for the production of local edible foods, and preparing presentations on the development of a business plan.

    A few weeks back we spent the day driving down the Napo River to a small crossing on the river in which you have to take a 3 car barge to get across. The barge has 2 outboard motors on the back and for 2 dollars will take you and your car across the river. We followed the road out the other side of the river which winds along through the amazon to a small community called Campana Cocha. Campana Cocha is a community within the organization I work and is one of the six communities within the new tourism-network. Our task for the day was helping to clear an old botanical garden which had been planted years ago and had long since been over grown by 8 foot high undergrowth in the jungle. So for the better part of the morning we spent our time trying to clear space under the tree with machetes and watch out for snakes. It was good work and we of coarse had time to spot for some tradition chicha (a native drink made from fermented yucca). After a few hours of hacking away in the jungle we took a trip down to the river to wait for the president of the community, Ernesto, to get back from the other side of the river where some of the community members had been clearing away weeds in the cacao fields. They arrived by canoe some 10-15 minutes after we had gotten to the river and we were asked to lunch at his home there on the hillside. Ernesto's house is a very comfortable home, built of native hardwoods and has plenty of open space to sit and drive chicha whilst we talked about future plans for the community. After a lunch of beef and plantain stew we headed back across the river and returned to Tena. It was a great experience to get out and see more of the Napo River, as well as make new contacts with some of our community members.

   Two days after this trip I found myself sitting in the office at FENAKIN, waiting out the rain and working on a few last minute projects before the weekend (it was a Friday). We returned home for a late lunch and decided that since the rain had stopped we might as well take advantage and not return to work in the afternoon given that it was in fact a Friday. It is important to know that in the jungle, when it rains the rivers swell and turn a deep coffee brown, full of silt and earth from upriver. This is known by the men and women who live here, as the perfect time to go fishing. Here in the Amazon people use a net to fish with and in the particular stretch of river I live near, the only fish are small bottom dwellers known as Carachama (about 4 inches long with a scaly shell across their backs). Unbeknown to me, and I assume the majority of the world, the best way to catch the carachama is with a net traveling down river as fast as the current will take you. So, knowing that this is definitely one of those "you had to have been there" moments, I can at least tell you that the next 2 hours were full of laughing and me asking Lenín if this was some kind of a joke they play on the Gringos, as we ran downstream, up to our chests in the river and holding the net between the two of us. Much to my surprise, this looney method of fishing did in fact yield its results and week took home a bag of around 40 of the little guys.

    To add to our bounty, Lenín´s wife Mari, who had accompanied us down to the river, had spotted a downed Chonta, a kind of spiky palm tree, which is known to the natives here as the favorite home of the grub worm. They say that once a Chonta falls over, you are to leave it for 40 days at which point you can hack your way into the trunk and look for the happy little grubs, ready for harvest. And that...is what we did. We only found 5 grubs in this trunk and moved on to forage down the jungle path. The river near our house runs around the property of the family with whom I live and includes cacao, yucca, and plantain fields as well as a pathway that follows the river. So it was on this path that we returned back to the house. We stopped in a more forested area to pick the soft tops of the ferns that grow there and cook up similar to asparagus. We stopped in the cacao field to grab a few few cacao pods, full of their seeds covered in an amazing white, sweet pulp, and we also grabbed some fresh yucca on the way up to the house. That night was a feast, complete with all of our bounty and space for 10 people at the table! (We also watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs that night.)

    The following week was spent at the office and meeting with the Ministry directors for a grant that we had been working on for a few weeks. On Wednesday we got the chance to head down river again to deliver supplies and two truck loads of wood to another community which is also within the tourism-network. The supplies were for some repair work on the cabins they have there and replacing a few of the floorboards before a big group of students from the US came down that week.

   That Friday we had a meeting at FENAKIN with the members of our tourism-network,  known as WAYLLA (Kichwa for green horizon), in which I was given a proper introduction to our members as well as 5 hours to present to them, in Spanish! From the expected 16-20 people, we only had 7 show up, which was fine by me because it lessened my stress of presenting to the group as well as the fact that only the more motivated members came, making the meeting fairly productive. My main project with WAYLLA at the moment is putting together a business plan for the tourism-network. Therefore, I spent 5 hours first discussing what a business plan is and how it works, how to start any form of accounting (at least writing down expenses) and the beginnings of a marketing plan. Over the coarse of the day the group came up with new Mission and Vision statements as well as planned out our next meeting. I was very happy with the day, and quite happy to find out that my Spanish abilities weren´t as bad as I thought.

    Last week was a pretty big and exciting week for us at WAYLLA. Early on Monday we were asked by the provincial government to send them a summary of our proposed eco-tourism project including all of our costs. The project that we are planning consists of 6 communities along the Napo River. Of the six, only three communities are actually working in tourism at the moment, though we are planning to completely remodel all the communities. In each community we are going to be building a series of cabanas, one room with three beds, a private porch and bathroom. Each cabana is a stand alone structure and will be very nice when built (I've seen the blueprints). On top of that, each community will have a brand new restaurant, jungle pathways complete with observation decks, and various other tourist attractions that will bring our communities up to a fairly high standard. In all, the project will cost nearly $2 million in construction and another $1 million in start up costs like furnishings, training, and supplies. Once we had finished our lists of costs on Wednesday morning we sent it off to the provincial government who responded by 4 'o clock that afternoon granting us $1.2 million dollars for the full construction of 3 community projects! So all we have to do now is finish our impact studies, business plan and present to the government planning board in August to begin construction in 2012!

   At the end of last week we also took our 4 hour trip down the Napo River to deliver another 300 baby chickens to a community at the end of the road, brining the total number of chickens to 900. Once again the river we have to cross by driving through had risen due to the rain and we therefore unloaded all the chicken supplies, including 12, 90 pound sacks of feed, onto the shoulders of the men and women who came to meet us and joyfully turned back for their 1 hour hike home. This project is part of an income generation plan and we will start selling the first round of chickens, delivered at the beginning of April, in about a month.

    Other than that, I've been spending a fair amount of time laying in my new hammock, reading, and catching up on world news. Given the release of the FINAL HARRY POTTER MOVIE in July (very exciting), I have taken it upon myself to re-read all 7 of the Harry Potter series books and am currently on the 6th. This is following the completion of the 5 Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy books and Greg Mortenson's new "Stones into Schools". It has been a very nice transition to life here in the jungle after spending 3 months up in the mountains of Ecuador. I have taken to the warmer climate, slower pace of life, and lack of hot water quite well and have even started a jungle work out routine using random things in my room as weights (like a 25 pound carry-on suitcase). I continue to find new bugs in my room, including some very interesting beetles, moths, centipedes, grass hoppers, and our returned friend the big black tarantula (who took it upon himself to guard our bathroom last night from robbers, camped upon the wall above the door).This week I am preparing  for our second eco-tourism meeting in which I will be presenting over goal and objective building as well as defining target markets, very "edge of your seat, exciting" type stuff, I know. Though hopefully this will bring us one step closer to our final goal of building a business plan, in Spanish.

   Lastly I wanted to say that it has been quite interesting hearing of the various on-goings of my friends and family back home. From all the recent and soon-to-be college graduates, to my girlfriend who has started her Doctorate in Physical Therapy in Florida, to birthdays and parties and the welcoming of the new BBQ season and boating, it's good to know that life back home hasn't changed much. Also, I am looking forward to the visit of my friend Colin Scott at the end of this month who is taking some time after graduation from UW to travel south before starting up a PHD program in San Fransisco in the Fall.




-Cheers!