“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.

October 16,2009

“Ignorance is bliss.”
I was eating a nectarine the other day, looked at the sticker, and saw that it was imported from California. There are only a couple of things that bring me into the reality that I’m living in the jungle, the nectarine being one of them. Being able to hear the wind coming up the river shaking the tin roofs, shaking everything insight including my door and anything that is not tied down, as well as bringing torrential rain. The bat that now has made my attic its permanent home. My cat waking me up at 1am because its fighting with the black “wild” cat that has decided to roam around my house. The leave cutter ants that have their endless trail going right thru the path to the outside bathroom, then under my house and on to I don’t know where (my curiosity only goes so far). Waking up to what sounds like a small airplane, but really is only a bumblebee that is building a nest in the eave of my house. Sitting in my room and having a humming bird come right into the room and then zoom right out. Taking a cold shower, outdoors, in the hot humid day. Feeling the rumbling of thunder and wondering if the storm will hit. When the storm does hit and your outside working, running under a banana leave (that you will share with at least two people) to avoid getting soaked (because you will get wet). Lying down at night and hearing the deafening sound of the cicadas and crickets as I try to sleep. Waking up at 5am to be able to be ready to get on the 6am truck that will take me into town to get the bus into the city to do groceries, check e-mail and post my blog :).
Changing pace, the big news out in Ecuador right now is the protests that are in progress. One of the indigenous groups out here called the Shuar is doing the major protesting. I do not know details, but know that they are protesting the recent changes in environmental issues made by President Correa, especially concerning oil companies, mining companies, as well as water issues. Things have not turned out well. So far, a Shuar was killed during the protest. It has been unclear as to who killed him and both sides are blaming each other so I don’t think that will be solved anytime soon. Protests, of course, include closing of roads by putting rocks, tree trunks and burning tires. As well as throwing rocks. The President has ordered for more reinforcement in all the areas of the country where there has been major protests, not sure if that will help. Because of this, we have been restricted on traveling, for our own safety. In addition, teachers are on strike, they are protesting for better pay, benefits, etc. The kids in my community have already been out of school for almost three weeks because of this! I don’t think they mind but they are definitely not getting the education that they desperately need.
On a lighter note, I recently discovered that Misi (my cat) is not a female, but a male. How, you might ask, do you not know? Good question, I have never had a cat before and when I got him, someone told me it was boy and then someone else said, it’s a girl. We where like how do you know? They where like cause that’s where the boy part goes. Fair enough, I believed that. For those of you that never had a cat (like me), its not like a dog where its completely obvious. With a cat, you have to make an “effort” to find out. I did not make that effort. We will fast forward to 5 months later where I find out Misi is a he not a she. I was sitting in my room reading and Misi was sleeping next to me. He was sleeping belly up and I was pestering him (since the night before he had made such a fuss that I couldn’t sleep) and then his legs fall wide open and I was like that is most definitely not a girl part. Eureka! I’ve been living with a male and didn’t even know it.

August 7th, 2009

My House


View From My Front Porch


The School Across from my house


The Backside of my House

“We either find a way, or make one.”

So the very important news first, I am an aunt! Adrianna was born August 4th! I am a bit sad that I wasn’t there for the birth or that I have not seen her, but thanks to Skype, I will be able to see her soon.
The next bit of important news, I have moved! I know live by myself in my own little house near the school. I have also passed a huge milestone, I finished my “probation” period of three months and I can now officially take vacation and take in guests (I have been in Ecuador 5 months now, 21 more months to go!). If you would like to come out and visit now you can. Living on my own has its perks, I have been able to cook my own food, to take in visitors, to go and play with the kids as soon as I hear them, we play jump rope, Frisbee, indoor soccer and anything else they want to teach me. I am starting to fix my garden up. So far, I have tomatoes planted. They where growing under my house so I re-planted them, with the help of Galo. He is a 14 old boy/teenager who came by to visit. He has to be one of the sweetest boys I have met. After re-planting we played cards, I showed him how to play speed (a.k.a. velocidad), he is getting better and I’m sure he will soon be beating me like crazy. Well, the next day he visited again and this time he brought some friends, I made some popcorn and then they wanted to play cards. We played slap and they really enjoyed it. Then Galo and I showed them how to play speed and that went well. It is very interesting to hang out with the teenage boys, because they are still teenage boys and their sense of humor is, well like a teenage boy. Galo is just not like that at all, he blushes when the other boys make jokes. They were also trying to teach me Kichwa, which is just hard, but I’m trying and hopefully soon I will be able to make complete sentences.
We had the second town meeting (since I’ve been here) about two weeks ago and it was mostly to discuss the preparations for the community anniversary, which will be anniversary number one. It will be a total of three day; there will be the crowning of a queen, sport tournaments, chicha drinking contests and lots of Kichwa dancing. I was asked to be on the party committee and I said yes, of course. I will be in charge of overseeing the food preparation and making sure everyone brings what he or she are supposed to bring. I don’t know if I have talked about the town meetings, but they last all day. This particular one started at 7am and ended at 6pm. It is so long to sit thru and it’s all in Kichwa, some Spanish. The funny thing is that they have two people that are supposed to keep the “peace”, they call peoples attention if they are talking or joking during the meeting (which happens a lot). These keepers of the peace, if you may, go outside, get a stick with thorns on it and poke the disturbers of the peace with it. I think that is more distracting to watch the keepers of the peace trying to keep the peace than the actual disturbers.
Let me share and anecdoct, on the first morning at my house, I walked out to the porch, saw, and heard a man walking in the middle of the soccer field with his hands out stretched and moaning. I tried not to pay too much attention, so I went back inside my house. Then five minutes later Misi runs in, so I go out to see what spooked her and found the man hanging from the porch railing about to jump onto the porch. I say good morning in Kichwa and he is non-responsive, I say good morning again and he then moans and leaves. Well, I later found out he recently moved to Puca Chicta with his brother and that he is a mute and not all there. Which is somewhat a relieved because it was either he was a drunk or a zombie.
I have had my share of scary stories out here. I believe I mentioned that there was a grandma that passed away awhile ago, well according to Nelsi (she is my 10yr old neighbor), she (the grandma) has been seen on a path that goes out to the house she lived in which is further in the jungle, in a white dress. I unfortunately been caught going by that path at night; I just can’t help myself; I end up power walking by (although I really want to run).
Projects are starting to pick up. I will be working on four projects; raising chickens, raising guinea pigs, following up with the Tilapia ponds and making a community and house vegetable gardens. I’m very excited to get started on all these, although on most of them I am not an expert, but thanks to the internet and Peace Corps, I will be pretty close to being one.
I also wanted to thank all of you guys who have been sending me care packages, it has been so great to get little things that remind me of home or make my stay that much more comfortable, thanks!!

June 26,2009 - Privacy or Lack there of

“He who handles poverty badly will handle riches equally badly.” –John Steinbeck

These past weeks I have helped plant rice, which was a first. They make a hole with a stick and then you drop a couple of seeds in the hole and you don’t cover the hole. It was easy, but it took longer to clear some of the plants that had re-grown in the lot than it did to make the hole and drop the seeds in.
I’m getting ready to make the move over to my own house, at the end of July. My community held a minga to fix a couple of things at my future home. Like the roof that has a couple of holes, the termites that had made a home on the roof (they need to move out before I move in) and a “shower” was put in. I say shower but its just four sticks with black plastic surrounding and stones on the ground (so the floor doesn’t get muddy). Oh and the plastic only cover three of the four sides (privacy is not an issue here, for the community). I am working on getting the other side covered. In the future, I hope to have a minga of my own to build a dry compost toilet for myself, since as of now I have to share the bathroom with the boys from the school, not an ideal situation. I can’t wait to move in to my own place. It will be nice to make food for myself and not be surprised with different type of jungle meat or having soup fish for breakfast.
On the note of privacy, its been quite the experience. The indigenous do not have issues with privacy. They take showers in the middle of the day and not in an enclosed place. I have seen most of my community naked at some point. Women breastfeed their babies and just whip them out without second thoughts. I do love my privacy so I will need the fourth side of the shower. Just my American upbringing I guess :)
I’m hoping to get a community bank started soon, so that maybe the handouts won’t be necessary. It will be a great way to teach money management and get the community to save and buy things for the community from their own pocket.

June 12, 2009 Rooster Myth

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Cool Worm/caterpillar Seen on my hike

The stream we walk up to the waterfall

Meet Misi (my kitten)

At the stream making chicha

Brown butterfly, the inside of the wings are blue

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise.” – Henry David Thoreau

Ok, so first off I just wanted to vent on something. Who decided to spread the rumor that a rooster crows at the break of dawn? People, it is just that, a rumor! As it turns out the rooster crows at whatever time it feels like crowing; one in the morning, one in the afternoon…it doesn’t matter the time.
I now have a cat. In the words of Sonya, ‘It will one day be a cat’. A kitten named Misi (which is Kichwa for cat). She happened to appear at the door of another Peace Corps volunteer’s house and since I had been saying that the only way to get rid of my rats was to get a cat…I now own a kitten! She has been quite the experience. I have never had a cat and do not even consider myself a cat person, so it has been interesting. Misi sleeps probably every two hours and when she wakes up, she is so hyper! Everything and anything becomes a toy for her and that includes me, which can be very annoying. Shoes, backpack, luggage, mosquito net, my hair, earring, power cord, headphones and anything that she finds entertaining (which I haven’t figured out what doesn’t entertain her) she will play with. The first week it was a ten-minute battle before going to sleep because she wanted to sleep in the bed with me. I of course wasn’t going to have that, no matter how cute she is. She finally gave in and the battle has decreased to about two minutes. The important thing is that I have not heard or seen a rat since Misi moved in :)
These past two weeks we have had two mingas (it’s the community getting together to do community projects). Both have been to put in PVC pipes to direct water from the top of the waterfall down to our community. The first minga we drove about 10 minutes in a camioneta (truck) to the trailhead. There we hiked for about 40 minutes to the bottom of a creek. Then we hiked in the creek for 20 minutes to the waterfall and then climbed up the hillside to the top of the waterfall (waterfall is not that big). By the time, we reached the top I was so tired I could barely move! I was actually quite proud of myself I kept up quite well with everyone. I wasn’t in the front (man do they move fast), but I wasn’t last either. The path is like most paths out here super muddy and unpredictable. I did not fall until I was in the creek (those rocks are slippery). I was not much help to them; I did not have tools or strength to help. Therefore, I help the woman that make the chicha server it and to make lunch. Which was not hard and I don’t think I was much help. So we obviously didn’t get to our community with the tube but we got quite far with it. This past week we put in more tube and got quite far and the community president believes that in two more mingas the tube should reach our community.
Overall things are going well. I have days where I find it difficult to see how I will be able to help the people out here, but I figure that if I’m able to help one person maybe one family that will be enough. There is a big issue that just keeps coming up and its one of the things that makes it hard to help the community become sustainable. It is the handouts that they get. I will leave it at that and will talk about more on the subject on a later blog.