The Feria

So, I survived a weekend of the Feria in Puyo. This is the equivalent of a country fair/state fair in the U.S. without the games and rides. Yes, I know you are all thinking to yourselves, what is the point of having a fair without rides or games? To be fair to Ecuador and Puyo the fair didn´t need games or rides. There were dancing exhibitions, bull fights, naked women walking around with painted bodies - this was most interesting. It reminded me a little of Comfest (Community Festival) back in Columbus, Ohio where woman often walk around topless with painted breast. Here in Ecuador though, the women are more like murals of artwork. The artist paints them in front of a crowd of people and they walk around for all to see. I would have taken photos, but something seemed odd about a gringo taking pictures - nobody else was doing it, so I followed proper form.

The weather this past weekend was scorching hot. Saturday and Sunday were the two hottest days since we´ve been in Puyo - blue skies and no rain until the evenings. Saturday we woke up and I noticed the mountains off to the west. It was the first time the clouds gave way and we were able to see snow covered mountains from the heart of the jungle. Sue had to work in the morning so she headed there and I did some grocery shopping and then returned to wash a few clothes - I was bound and determined to take advantage of the sun. I put the sheets on the clothesline and then went for a run of 20 minutes, when I returned, the sheets were dry. That should give you some idea of how intense the sun is here. I had my shirt off for the last 10 minutes of my run and had a nice burn on my shoulders. Someone with fair skin like mine could get a bad burn in 15-20 minutes tops. Yes, I wear sunscreen whenever possible, but luckily, it is usually more cloudy than sunny here so no problem.

In the afternoon, on Saturday, I had to work at the fair for my counterpart organization. We had a booth there and a display about watersheds and protecting the water of Puyo. I felt more like a cog in the gears - I scared away a few kids when I spoke to them, because I am the big white giant here to them. Sunday, I worked as well, and I think I was much more approachable.

Speaking of Sunday, I had my first experience at being robbed on Sunday. Sue and I went to the open air market in the morning to grab our fresh veggies and fruits for the week. As we approached the market, I felt for my phone in my pocket, it was there, no problem. I crossed the street and then the person in front of me (it was REALLY crowded in there) stopped and I ran into him, naturally or unnaturally, the person behind me ran into me. My mind immediately warned me that something was amiss. I reached down and my phone was gone. I spun around but the only person right there was Sue. I told her that my phone was gone and then walked back to the street to look for suspicious people. Susan kept looking forward and spotted the guy that she thought was behind me. She pointed him out and I weaved my way through the aisles after him. The chase was on!!! He kept acting like someone who was trying to pretend that nothing was wrong. He would look over his shoulder at me and then stop as though he was looking at vegetables. I caught up with him and quite directly said ¨you have my phone!¨ He held up a black plastic bag and said that he had just bought this phone. Now how would I have known that he had a phone in that black plastic bag? I couldn´t have have known that - so I immediately knew he was guilty. I asked again for my phone, he said he didn´t have it. I asked to see the bag, he said no. Then a woman came up to us and drew my attention. As I turned he must have put the phone down on a pile of vegetables. I turned back and told him that my phone was in my pocket, he ran into me, and then it was gone. He looked at me with a blank look, so now I debated whether I should grab ahold of him and take him to the police. This I feared was a bad option. As I was pondering my next move, the woman pointed to the phone on the fruit - and there it was, my phone.

Let´s just say that I am VERY lucky to get it back and very glad for Susan´s keen 6th sense. She knew it was him. It was surely brazen of me to storm after someone who quite possibly had nothing to do with the disappearance of my phone, but alas one must trust instinct when all else fails. Jeremy 1 : Ladrón (thief) 0. I am sure this will not be last run-in with thieves here. Already a few people in my group have been robbed. Once you let your guard down - which is easy to do - especially in Puyo - they are after you.

Sunday night Sue and I hung up some more shelves and rearranged the kitchen a little to make some more space. I´ll need to buy a few more boards for shelves, and once that is done we will finish the project.

Today we woke up to a pretty good rain. I wanted to run, but not in the downpour. We took the bus to work - I got to work a little early and had to wait for Karina to open up the office.

We had a staff meeting today in the office and it wasn´t as smooth as it could have been, I certainly learned a lot in 1 hour about office dynamics and how quickly feelings can get hurt and ideas misconstrued. Granted half the conversation/discussion I was in the dark because of the language barrier, but one this is for sure - facial expressions and tone of voice cross cultures and languages quite well. I was finally asked what I thought about the situation and I quickly expressed to the group that I thought we needed a break because tensions were rising and we were not accomplishing anything meaningful. Bolivar agreed and we took a break. It sucks being in a situation where everyone is upset at one another and everyone is right in their own way.

I skipped lunch today and worked on a project for my counterpart. They wanted me to write down my thoughts, ideas, and goals for a 5 minute video they plan to make about the watersheds of Puyo. They wanted it ready to go by Thursday - I got it done today and I think I stunned them a little. I just wanted to get it done and to impress them a little. I typed it all in Spanish and was told by both Andrea and Bolivar that my grammar was excellent. Never mind the fact that 2 pages took me 2 hours.

I just met one of our neighbors. He lives beside us and his name is Patrick. He and his wife are from Ireland (ah a home away from home) and they are in Ecuador working with a Kichwa indigenous group. He invited us over for beers tonight - what are the chances that he has a store of Guiness in his fridge - I´m not waging any bets. Anyhow, I´ve written more than enough for now - adios amigos!!!

Jeremy

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