Jungle Times

“A wise man desires nothing; he does not judge, he makes no plans, he keeps his mind open and his heart at peace.” –Isabel Allende

Misi, my cat, is gone. My host nephew told me he last saw him going over to Granpa’s house and quote ‘He eats everything that goes to his house.’ I can’t say if he was killed, kidnapped or eaten but what I do know is that he is gone.

Sometimes the things that happen around me are surreal. Especially, for a city girl from southern California.

The other day Frijol and I headed to the river to indulge ourselves in the game that has become the quite phenomenon for Frijol and the rest of the community; throwing rocks in the river, and Frijol trying to fetch them. Don’t worry I’m slowly replacing the rocks with sticks so that the swim is more rewarding. This time Alvaro, a fourteen-year-old boy from my community, was trying to tame a pony and decided to follow me to the river. He proceeded to ride the reluctant pony into the river, battle with him for 20 minutes, meanwhile the kids cant believe that a dog will retrieve anything and want a dog just like mine, then I see Alvaro on a rock with the pony next to the rock resting. One, I can’t believe that a boy would be so fearless to get in the water and do that with a pony. Two, I know this boy and he is scared of the dark. It was such a rewarding 30 minutes.

In my journal, I’m beginning to write one line sentences to help me remember certain events, so I thought I would share:

Collecting clay from the cliffs…
Hugging Jacob and Valeria…
Looking for chonta curo…
Falling in the mud…
Playing with puppies…
Holding a sick puppy…
Playing with Rumi…
Tickling Ruth…
Being watched…
Listening to Rumi ramble and not understanding…
Working and listening to music…
Eating cacao with Dona Wilda…
Watching Dona Wilda climb a cacao tree…
Rainy days…
Playing cards with Marlon…
Walks with Frijol…
Frijol biting me as I play soccer…
Slipping in the mud while playing soccer…
Walking back from Chincha Yaku…
Showering outside at night with five other people…
Hearing horses’ fight at night…
Listening to the “night bird”…
Warming up by the fire…
Hungry faces…
Curious faces…
Smiling faces…
Singing a song…
Walking 4 hours and fifteen minutes from 11 pm to almost 4am trying to get home…
Fishing for carachama…
Feeling cold after the rain…
Smelling the rain before it gets there…
Ridding in a canoe…
Tipping over in a canoe…
Frijol swimming next to the canoe…
Becoming a godmother, again…
Wanting to hug Adrianna…
Missing home….

Pets

“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.” – Maria Edgeworth

I think that moments are very important and some of the individuals that take care of those moments in my life right now are my pets. Even if its to make me angry, they leave no room for a boring moment.
I will start with Misi. Misi is a grown cat, a grown MALE cat. He is 13 months old and unfortunately likes to spray and fight at this very critical point in his life. My host family and I are abruptly awaken, more often than not, at 2am, to the high screeching meows of Misi and another “wild” cat going at it. One particular weekend I was away and so was the host family, Misi being the jungle cat that he is, is fine with not having people around and stays close to the house. There is a “gang” of cats (two) that come and fight with Misi (the stories as to why these cats come have changed from time to time and become more elaborate as time goes by. At first, we thought that the cat that came to fight was a female cat that would come and beat Misi for maybe getting her impregnated without her consensus. Then when it was two and only one would fight with Misi we figured it was the male trying to get vengeance from some wrong doing on Misi’s behalf and now we are not sure what the deal is). Any who, I got side tract. So, this gang, apparently showed up when we where all not home, when I return Misi’s face is completely scratched, to the point where he kept winking at me. His body was scratched everywhere, including inside his ears, he had patches of hair missing, it was worse than any other time. I couldn’t help and laugh (he kept winking at me) then when the blood dried his face looks even more funny. My host mom thought I had drawn black circles all over his face. Oh and the spraying! He sprayed my hammock! Misi has gone from being an outside cat 50% of the time to 90% of the time.
Frijol is a completely different story. She is seven months old and soon to hit puberty. Which I’m constantly on the watch for so I can go get her operated. Apparently, here in Ecuador you have to wait until they go into heat and wait until it passes and then you can go get her operated. She is HUGE, or so everyone tells me. However, she is definitely a bigger dog and looks like a German shepherd even though she is far from that. She loves to play, she literally spend all day playing. She even plays with dogs that don’t usually play, like with, Flecha, the old female dog that seems to be the most serious dog in all of Puyo Pungo. Of course, it’s only for a couple of minutes and then she is sent off with a whimper. Frijol follows me everywhere! Even to the bathroom. That right, she will wait outside until I come out. We have found a good way of entertaining her. I go down to the river and I throw a rock in the river and Frijol will bark and jump in the river after it. She obviously never gets it but its great exercise cause the current takes her down river and she swims back up river and onto the bank. She goes with me on most of my jobs hiking into the jungle to people’s farms and she chases everything! She chases chickens (not to worry she does not kill them) and the ducks, she hates the ducks and chases them off from anywhere she sees them, at the school, and the neighbors, and the not so close neighbor (you get the point). I think this hate was evoked because of the hatred my host mom has for them. They eat her plants. She does not like them, what can I say, Frijol was caught in the middle. A couple of Frijol’s bad habits include, barking, growling and chasing people as they walk by (she has never bitten anyone, thank god), jumping on me as I’m leaving for town and getting me muddy, since its always raining. Biting on wood, she bites on the wayusa stake, which is not good. Trying to eat Pelusa’s food (my host family’s dog, she doesn’t like that), jumping on Rumi (my host brother) and making him fall, jumping on other small children (she just wants to play) and eating Misi’s food (he doesn’t like that), Frijol has gotten a couple of swats on the nose because of that.
So, the moments are being taken care of, and more than a year has gone by.

Wonder and Awe

“The richest gifts we can bestow are the least marketable.”-Henry David Thoreau

I can now add wanta to my list of things I have eaten while in the Amazon. Wanta is a small nocturnal mammal that lives in the jungle. It has a golden brown fur with white dots and it looks a bit like a giant rat. My host family actually caught it during the late evening. They surrounded it at the river and finally caught it. They way that it was prepared was in shredded Plantain soup that turned thick when cooked and it was good. The meat tasted a bit like pork and it was nice and juicy.
The other night Marlon was heading out at night to go check on his armadillo trap he has out in the jungle somewhere and when he got back he said, ‘Lydia you want to see a glowing bug?’ I was like ‘Sure.’ I thought to myself it is not as if I haven’t seen lightning bugs before but I’ll humor him. He comes over to my room and he said, ‘Turn off your light.’ I did and he open his hand and in it was this glowing fluorescent green blob. He was said, ‘Touch it’, I did and it was mushy. I turned the light on and it was actually a brown mushroom! He told me that where the mushrooms grow it looks like it is the night sky on the ground. He promised to take me one of these days so I can see it. I hope it will be soon. I’m sure it will make a great story.
I am always taken aback by people’s generosity out in the jungle. They will always give you something even when they have nothing they always find something to give you. The other day for example I was out trying to go look to see if a community had cleared the land to make a nursery. I arrived and the parents weren’t home. The kids offer to take me and see the land. We went and on our way back, they start whispering amongst themselves. Finally they look at me and ask me if I wanted some chonta (chonta is a jungle fruit that grows really high up on a palm tree). I said sure. We arrive at the chonta palm and its really high up. I ask the kids how they would get the chonta. They where like we are going to climb the tree next to it (since the chonta palm is wrapped with thorns). The tree next to it is about 8 inches in diameter and they start climbing. About half way thru he starts slapping his arms and legs and he said there fire ant on it. He got down and I told them that it was ok we could go. Robinson was like no, I’m going up. I said you’ll be bitten. He didn’t answer just started to climb. The other kids assure me that he can handle it he’s tough. He goes up grabs the longest stick ever and starts climbing further up. He lasts longer than the other little boy (about 3 x more) does but eventually the ants are all over him. He climbs down and we help take the ants off. He later tells me one bit him right by his eye, the poor little guy, those hurt so bad! Eventually we gave up there but they where not going to let me go without giving me chonta. They said they knew of another palm tree and we go their and success. The boys are 10 years old.
Even though it has been 15 months of being in Ecuador, I can’t help but still have moments that give me awe and amaze me.

Find Joy In Work

“I love Nature because she is not man, but a retreat from him. In her midst, I can be glad with and entire gladness. If this world were all man, I could not stretch myself, I should lose all hope. He is constraint, she is freedom to me. He makes me wish for another world. She makes me content with this.” –Henry David Thoreau

Somewhat of a normal workday…

6am – Wake up

6:15am – Making breakfast

6:45am or 7:30am – head out to the community I’m going to visit. Traveling either by foot or on the Ranchera (it’s this big bus like thing, like a universal studios tram). If traveling by foot I have my trusted companion with me, Frijol. She loves going on these adventures. One of the communities I visit, named Bella Vista, is about a 20-minute walk from the main road and like 10 minutes on a muddy, muddy, muddy trail. Did I mention it was muddy? I take ten minutes because I have to decided where I’m going to step and hope it’s stable enough to support me without having my foot go knee deep in mud. About 60% of the time, I guess right. I’m getting better. Thank god for rubber boots! After the muddy trail I have to cross a river. Sometimes I just don’t because it’s rained to much the day before and the current is too strong (aka I’m scared, since the locals cross it no matter what). When its not, I just walk across it, the water reaching my knees at the deepest, and this is because I don’t know the river that well yet, to remember all the shallow spots. Again, I’m getting better. Frijol, meanwhile swims across diagonally as the current carries her slowly down river and then returns to me and jumps around getting me wet and crosses yet again.

7:30am or 8:00am-I arrive at the community and I stop at the person’s home I’m working with or the school I’m working with. Then I usually wait around for like 30 minutes because no one, NO ONE, is on time. Of course, I can’t complain because I am always fed.

8:00am or 9:00am- I head out to the chacra aka the farm. This usually involves muddy hikes thru the jungle, sometimes on paths with logs over streams that are very unstable. Once at the chacra I do a couple of different things depending on the stage, we are in with the farmer. First stage is check out the soil. If the soil is good, we will do direct planting, so the next step would be to have the farmer clear the hectare. Once that is done I return to see if the land is cleared, once its cleared I come back and stake out the land for the direct planting of the guayusa. Lets say the soil is not good for direct planting then I have to tell the farmer that we have to make a nursery. So the farmer has to clear out and area to make a nursery. The next time I return I bring the guayusa and then we plant the guayusa in the nursery. After all this is done, my job becomes a follow up with the farmers to see how the guayusa is growing. As with the farmers that have nurseries in about 3-4 months we can transplant the guayusa in to the hectare of land so I have to have them clear the land and then come back to stake out the land.

4pm or 5pm- I head home to make dinner and spend the afternoon with my host family and Marlon. Sometimes watch the kids play soccer or volley.

9pm or 10pm – bed time.

So this is mas o menos (give or take) a normal work day for me.

“The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not Friendship divine in this?” –Henry David Thoreau









Friendship has been hard to come upon. I would sometimes find myself laughing by myself at my own jokes or being the last to laugh. Don’t get me wrong I’ve met a lot of people and got along well with most but true friendship the kind that fills you with joy and the need to spend more time with said person had not come my way, until recently. Rony Marlon Andy Vargas is 18 years old and is the 6th child of the 10 children that my host family has. Our friendship didn’t take long to blossom although it wasn’t instant. According to Marlon he did not like me when he saw me moving in with all my stuff. He soon told me he thought I was fat. I believe it was right after that that our relationship took a quick turn to friendship. We both caught on to each others jokes and sarcasm instantly, his constant tickle wars have me on edge not knowing when he will strike. The findings of cacao, uvillas and guavas outside my door make up for all the “wars”. Our late night speed matches and girl troubles take up the evening. Marlon is a fisherman. He loves to fish and does so at night with his canoe. The canoe on which we take rides in up the river, with Frijol, to find a good flat rock to wash laundry. Or to go swimming and then finding a good sunny rock to layout on. What I like most about Marlon is that I know he is my friend because he likes me, not because he thinks I will help him with money or a project. Marlon reminds me a lot of with my brothers and sister back home and that is why I think that he will be what I miss most from Ecuador when I leave.

New Begining

“Beginings are scary. Endings are sad. But it’s the middle that counts.”

The one year mark is approaching and it has definitely flown by. Life in the Peace Corps has had its ups and downs, and its been really hard. But over all its been the best experience of my life.
As some of you know I started the new year at a new site. This is not typical of Peace Corps. You should spend the two years of your service in one place but unfortunately things happen and I as given a new site.
Leaving Puca Chicta was very sad. I miss my youth which I had no idea I was so attached. Leaving behind what was already familiar is always hard. But the transition has seem seamless.
I’m still in the Amazon, but living in a different province. The province of Pastaza. Life in Puyo Pungo (kichwa meaning door to the clouds) has been real good. I am actually working for an organization called Fundacion Runa. This organization is a great organization that promotes the planting and harvest of wayusa. Wayusa is a native plant used by the Kichwas. It is said to give strength, cleanse the body and ward off snakes. The elderly are accustomed to wake up at 4am to cook the wayusa and drink it. Puyo Pungo has really been the door to the clouds as is its name in kichwa. Its beautiful and the people are great. So far there has been lots of work and life is good. I will update more later, not much time today.

Traveling in Ecuador

Buses: Even if you buy a ticket ahead of time, there is still the chance you wont get a seat, because there is likely to be a really old man or woman in your seat that if you made them move you would feel like a real jerk. You end up standing in the aisle with your backpack and your laundry, groceries and a very unhappy puppy who hates the heat. Turns out that it must be the hottest and most humid day in world history, and there is still ten minutes before the bus leaves. The thing about buses is that there is no such thing as a packed bus. People keep getting on and the assistant on the bus keeps yelling to please keep moving back, cause they know that there is still space “no sea mailto” (don’t be mean) keep moving back. Just when you think it might be packed you come up to the next stop (which can be anywhere), and there waiting are 13 middle school kids and surely enough the assistant insists that there is still room. Your puppy’s whimpering and yelping reminds you once more that this is just ridiculous. You would think that being this packed on a bus you would be unable to move anywhere. Well that is just silly cause when the driver breaks everyone leaps forward and you have people on you that you don’t really want on you. Or you struggle to get that small kid out of the crowd of people that just fell on him that will surely suffocate him.
You would think that getting a seat would make things better, WRONG. If you sit by the window your chances are a bit better although you might have someone that falls asleep and keeps nodding off towards you. On the other hand, you could sit next to the woman with three kids that only wants to pay her fare. Therefore, she is sitting in a seat with a baby in her arms, a kid right in front of her between the seat and her knees and the other kid in the aisle really close to her seat and usually during the trip, the kids end up trickling into your seat/space. Well if you do get an aisle seat and the aisle gets packed you have choice of these types of people that might be near you; 1) the kid with the school backpack that is in your face. 2) The kids who is eating crackers and is dropping crumbs on you. 3) the person who doesn’t want to hold on to the bars above so he/she holds on to the seat in front and behind you and decided to be looking out the window having their upper torso in your face. 4) The person who has half their butt on the side of your seat and the other half on in your face.
When you are lucky enough to travel in a decently packed bus you get the vendors on the bus. Selling anything from mandarins to the cure for cancer that will only cost you 50 cents, let me tell you that sometimes its really great to be able to buy ice cream or Bon Ice (like otter pops) while your getting ready to embark on a 2hr trip. Luckily, in the Amazon it’s always hot and humid so there is no issue about having enough windows opens to have the air circulate. In the sierra…that’s a different story. It’s always cold in the sierra and when you get on the bus and its one of those packed buses, the windows start sweating and its gets hot, but god forbid you open a window. Someone is sure to slam it shut.
Camionetas (Trucks): These will take you anywhere a bus can’t. This is completely new breed. People travel in the beds of the camionetas, some have benches and some don’t. Sometimes you can fit about 25 people (standing) in the back of those, along with bags of cacao, plantains, chickens, babies, shovels, corn, etc. Just like the buses, it’s hard to tell if a camioneta is packed, there always seems to be room for more people. Sometimes there is nothing to hold on to except someone else. You always have to be looking out to the front as well in case your coming up to a low branch, I can’t tell you how many times I have been talking to someone and have been swiped by some twig or leaves. Going up hills on these packed camionetas is also quite the adventure. The slow grunting of the truck as it’s trying to go up with 25 people and some women shrieking as it slides back slowly. On the way to my site, there is a suspended bridge (aka scary bridge) that the camioneta has to cross. It is old, it has already broken, and a man died as he was crossing packed with wood. Before if the camioneta were packed with 25 people some would have to get off and walk across. Well now the bridge is being really worn out and everyone (no matter how many people are in the back of the camioneta) have to get off and cross on foot. Which to tell you the truth I don’t mind at all. Cause I do not want to fall in the river from that height.
Things on the bus: There are no restrictions on what you can or can’t carry on the bus. Everything from chickens to guinea pigs can get on the bus and with as much cargo as you want. Once we came to a stop in front of a man that had a big dog on a rope. I thought to myself that is great that that man is able to bring his dog on the bus. The dog (poor dog) was actually placed under the bus in the trunk space. I was shocked, but what happened later is worth telling. Someone gets off the bus and has some thing in the trunk of the bus as well and they had the assistant open the trunk and the dog happened to be in this space as well. The dog escapes and his owner (asleep) is woken up and told his dog is running down the street. He runs off the bus and we all have to wait until he gets his dog back and it's put back in the trunk.