October 2011
By October my workload here in Tena had really slowed down. Having finished the paperwork for our $4 million tourism project we found ourselves sitting around waiting for the Ministry department to approve us for our grant. In the meantime, my counterpart Lenin began spending long hours in the office working with the new Indigenous Territorial District. Under the new constitution in Ecuador, indigenous groups can now form autonomous governments within the country in order to play a more active roll in the nation's political system. Well here in Napo there are 6 Kichwa federations which are just now coming together for the first time in history as one single group to form this autonomous government, and who would be better to lead this group than my own counterpart Lenin! So by mid October, after many hours in meetings and even more hours traveling up and down river to organize even more meetings, we held the very first inauguration of a Kichwa District here in Napo and Lenin signed as their director. The inauguration, held at a community about 2 hours down river from Tena, started off with a dance preformed by the local high school dress in traditional clothing and then followed by one of the more well known singers from the area.
Largely due to my counterpart's dedication to this new venture I found myself with an abundance of down time... in other words, I spent a lot of time in my hammock and working on the family farm. By mid October my girlfriend Hillarie realized that there was a possible break in her busy schedule as a Doctorate student in Florida which was not full of exams and lab practicals. So, toying with the idea of making a last minute ticket purchase and spending a week on the beach I sent in a vacation request to my Program Manager exactly 8 days before I was hoping to leave, which also happens to be the absolute minimum. Within a few hours she had approved my vacation and I was the happy owner of a round trip ticket to Orlando, Florida, set to leave the 25th of the month.
The next week seemed to fly by. I set up a meeting with my community to make a few tanks of Biol (liquid organic fertilizer) and when we met the following weekend people actually showed up! We had quite a good turn out for party that consisted of mixing cow poo with leaves and ashes and we finished two 50 gallons tanks that are actually ready to be used this week! It was a really good experience to make the fertilizer with my community. I feel like I spend so much of my time here in the office rather than with my community that it was a good way to get out and get to know my community members a bit better. The women who hosted the work party at her house even invited me back to help work on an organic family garden (thanks mom and dad for forcing us to have our own garden years ago, it's actually paying off here in the Amazon!).
The next week I headed to Quito and was on a 3 pm flight into Panama City for a short layover and then on up to Orlando. Before I go any further I must say that being a Peace Corps Volunteer flying back to the U.S. with only a carry-on has to be one of the fastest ways of getting through immigration ever. After seeing the Peace Corps sticker on my passport the only questions I got from the immigration officer were about life in the Amazon before a warm welcoming back to the country. Once I got to the baggage carousel and kept walking the guys at the door didn't even make me scan my bag and I headed out. Having only been 2 months since I last saw Hillarie it still felt like much longer since she left Ecuador and I was very happy to see her again. Since I got into Orlando around 11 at night more than a little exhausted we headed straight for the hotel. On the drive there I was surprised by the things that now caught me as "abnormal". Things like the size of the 4 lane free ways, the huge box stores one after another after another, and fact that when I got off the airplane people were speaking English, all seemed slightly out of place.
After a good night's sleep and a real American breakfast we headed out to Universal Studios for the day. Once we got into the park we made a bee-line for the Harry Potter exhibit on the far end of the park. I must say for those of you who are Harry Potter fans, this park was insane. As you walk in they have full scale replicas of all the buildings; from the Castle perched atop a great hill, to the town of Hogsmead and Hagrid's Hut. Everything is very elaborately decorated and honestly looks like it is straight out of the movie. We toured the shops, ate at the Hog's Head, and rode the effects ride through the castle. It was every a HP nerd like myself could hope for on the first day back on US soil and by the end of the afternoon we were driving north to Saint Augustine.
We got into Hillarie's apartment late in the evening and I must say pictures did not prepare me to walk into this house. She and her room mate share a second story condo on a golf coarse in St. Augustine. Having only lived in an old crooked house in Bellingham where all the doors you want to stay closed always open and when the heater shuts off you could almost fly a kite with the draft it creates, this place was enormous! Compared to my life here in Ecuador everything is so spread out, they have cupboards, a dishwasher, a stove, a separate place to keep your food, another closet just for towels, all three rooms have full closets and they even have air conditioning! Looking back now, the two things that stand out the most for me from my whole trip to Florida are how clean and comfortable everything is (so long as you're not a pumpkin, one molded in like 2 days). I mean when I moved into my house here in Ecuador I bought the nice, fancy bed that costs 100 bux, but every bed I slept on in Florida was like a cloud. When I did laundry (or when Hillarie helped me do laundry) my clothes came out without stains and not covered in lint. And you can drink the tap water! 
Alas, I digress. So we spent the next few days wandering around the lovely town of St. Augustine. Touring the famous St. Augustine college, going to the beach (boy do I miss the smell of salt water in the air), and eating. I had a Reuben at the Irish pub in town with my pint of Guinness, fresh mahi, sushi, and I even got to cook one night (a chicken, gorgonzola pene alfredo with garlic bread and a chocolate lava cake with fresh strawberry sauce)! I even got to see Hillarie's school which sits right on water. By the weekend we were dashing around buying up costume supplies and headed to a party with some friends of Hillarie's as David and Victoria Beckham. Halloween was a lot of fun and I had a good time getting to meet her friends and might I and we make a pretty awesome foosball team. 
After a short trip to the local lighthouse and a windy ascent to the top, I was headed to the airport Sunday afternoon and flying back to Ecuador. Having had such a great time on vacation in Florida, it was hard to get back into the swing of things here in Ecuador however, it is always nice getting back home and laying down in your own bed (or hammock). Also, for those of you who are Island bound this holiday season, I had also bought a ticket to Seattle right before I flew out and will be arriving in Seattle on the 21st of December through the 4th of January. 
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