The Festival

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The trip to Pelileo to buy pants was not fruitful. Sue and I headed out of Puyo a little before 8:00 and got to Pelileo at 10:00. We walked over to the stretch of town that has all the jean/pant shops and I tried on about 8 different pairs of pants - none of which I bought. It was disappointing....they had the exact style that I like however, nothing fit quite right. I discovered that Latino pants are extremely tight in the crotch. There is something bad about a pair of pants that forces your family jewels to pick a side each time you sit down - in the off chance that the seam of the pants actually goes straight down the middle as you sit.....well you get the picture - some things just are meant to be split down the middle.

Oh well, I´ll just go to a tailor around here and have him or her make a pair of pants that will be guaranteed to provide the kind of freedom I enjoy.

Anyhow, after Pelileo, we took a short bus ride to Ambato and then a cab to the mall. The mall in Ambato has about 20 stores in it - so it pales in comparison to the malls in Quito and the malls in the States. However, it does have a supermaxi grocery store. This allowed us to purchase a few things like a good spatula and some spices that have eluded us in Puyo. I didn´t buy nearly as many things as I thought I would. I guess once I got there, I realized that there was a bunch of stuff that I really didn´t need.

After our short shopping trip, we headed into downtown Ambato to have lunch with our friends and have a few beers. We had a great time catching up on Peace Corps gossip. We tried to figure out who the next person to ET (early termination) would be - none of us could agree on any one person, though the statistics say that we are bound to lose 4-5 more in the next year.

We bar hopped a bit until we settled down at a wine bar of sorts where we opted for the beer instead of the wine. For some reason, this bar serves warm, sweet wines and not standard white and red varieties. We also ordered some french fries and as I was chowing down on these soggy, but tasty papas fritas, my crown on my molar fell off again. How do you lose a crown chewing french fries? At least I didn´t swallow it and it probably freaked out the Ecuadorian couple sitting beside us when I pulled it out of my mouth. I didn´t let it ruin my day - I shrugged it off, chuckled, and raised my glass. Anyhow, we drank until 6:30 and then Sue and I caught a cab back to the bus station in order to catch the last bus to Puyo.

The next day (Sunday) we got up and headed to the market to buy our veggies and fruit. We went to the same old woman as last week and she was pleasant as ever. We bought another 25 pounds of produce and she gave us some yapa (it is the cultural equivalent of a freebie that you often get when you are a frequent customer or if you buy a lot of stuff at once). Our yapa was two large fresh tomatoes and a couple oranges - last week it was some type of fruit and an avocado.

After the market, we went to the store where we bought our mattress and we bought another one. We are planning on having overnight guests soon (hint to all of you) and felt that it was time for a second bed. We bought a couple of pillows as well. Then we headed to the Tia to get some groceries and some new sheets for the bed.

We finally made it home and then made some lunch and walked back into town to look for some new non-stick pans (which we didn´t find any good ones) and we looked at some shirts and some pants. We went back to the market to see if we could find a guy we saw 4 weeks ago that was selling a coffee filter, the type that you put the coffee in and then pour hot water over it as it drains into your mug. We didn´t find him, but we made a discovery of monumental proportions. We found a vendor that was selling fresh basil - there is a GOD in Ecuador, I am sure of it. We bought a huge bundle of it for $1 and we probably paid too much for it, but the smell alone was worth it. Tonight would be a Pesto night - I couldn´t have been happier. We returned home in excellent spirits and I went for a run.

Susan started on dinner while I was running. When I got home, the water was out and Sue needed something better than a knife to cut up the basil leaves. I told her that I would walk back into town to buy a blender and to get some parmesan cheese. We didn´t spend nearly as much as I thought we would in Ambato, so I had no problem splurging for a blender.

I returned home triumphant with my $19 blender - we plugged it in and realized that somehow this Ecuadorian (chinese made) blender did not function like our blender back home, after a trying a few different speeds and a few different attachments, we finally got it to blend up our basil and we had a bowl of pesto sitting in front of us. We tasted it....and it was GROSS - so bitter. We were dumbfounded, the basil was fresh and smelled great, the olive oil and garlic were fine, the parmesan was fine, the nuts were ok - what was the problem? We discovered that the bottle of vitalin (a soap like substance used to disinfect veggies) was the culprit. We apparently used to much of it, or didn´t was it all away - it ruined our pesto. Luckily, we had a little basil left over and were able to salvage it to make a sufficient amount of pesto - tragedy avoided.

Monday brought my world of Peace Corps hell week back into focus. I spent most of the morning in the office finishing the forms for the judges and putting together a complete list of schools, students, and teachers. I left all of this on Bolivar´s desk with a note explaining that we needed copies. The other part of the morning I was with Bolivar and Pablo at the fairgrounds mapping out where we would put each school and each organization participating in the fair. I was glad to get this detail taken care of, since it had been bothering me since early last week. We also went to a radio station to advertise the festival. Little did I realize that this would turn into an interview of one Meester Jeremy Kings. Yes, I was interviewed about the Peace Corps - I did well in the interview until I was asked about the World Bank and my views on its problems. I honestly didn´t understand the radio hosts questions on this matter, so I effectively dodged the questions - which is good since it is not really proper for me to be on the air as a PC volunteer talking about political subjects. The whole experience was surreal - I guess I am 100% honest when I say that everyday in Ecuador is a whole new experience for me. In the afternoon, I headed out to the fair grounds to be around if and when schools showed up to set up their stands. I got there at 2:30 and one of the schools was already there.

I was the only ¨official¨ person out there for most of the day. This was a problem, because as more schools showed up, they started asking more questions - usually I did not have the answer to their questions and was forced to look like I was a dumbass for not knowing. It was frustrating to say the least. I was beginning to realize that although I took part in planning this festival of agua, I really knew very little about the logistics of it. I couldn´t answer questions like....will the gate be closed tonight, what time does it officially start, when will the gate be unlocked, why isn´t there electricity (I solved this one eventually, relying on my previous electrical experience - I found the breaker box and fixed the problem with it), can I have a bigger stand, what type of food will there be tomorrow, when will the food be served, will there be microphones for the skits, etc. etc. etc. In fact, I am not sure I sufficiently answered any of the 50 odd questions I was asked that afternoon. I kept trying to call my office, but was not getting any answer, I assumed this was due to the fact that everyone in the office was headed out to the fairgrounds to set up the CODEAMA stand or to be directing things, since we were in charge of this festival. It took me far to long to realize that the office was not 4 hours from the fairgrounds (its 5 minutes). But, I waited diligently none-the-less for people to show up. Andrea and Bolivar both did come out for a minute or two at some point during the afternoon, but disappeared just as quickly as they came.

I was on my own I concluded. I can only equate this experience to being similar to that of the passengers on the Titanic. I was the Titanic and the teachers were the passengers. I was sinking and nobody was around to help. Ironically, like the musicians who just started playing as the ship went down - realizing their helplessness - I too partook in a calming activity, I pulled out a book and read - if I was going to go down, it would be on my own terms.

At 7:00pm, still lacking communication with CODEAMA, I decided to let the ship go down. I left the two groups of teachers still there to their own devices, told them to close the gate when they left and that the security guard (which I made up) would be there to lock it and guard things. I went home, vented to Susan, I was pissed off!!! It was my face on this project - it is my ship that was going down. We ate dinner, I started to feel guilty, so I said I was going to go back after dinner to check on things. I returned only to find out that someone from CODEAMA had just been there and dropped off a few things at our stand and left. The last of the teacher groups was leaving at that point - so I turned off the electricity and lights and shut the gate - still hoping that the magical security guard would show up to protect everything that night

On my way back I ran into Andrea and Katherina. They had been to the fairgrounds to drop stuff off and then went to my apartment to find me. Susan told them I was at the fairgrounds and they returned to fetch me. I vented to them for a bit and then invited them back to the apartment. We talked about the fair and I voiced my concerns about things that were lacking, details that had not been finalized, and my frustrations that nobody was there to help me. Andrea was wonderfully kind and gave me a boost of confidence and made me feel like it was going to go well and that without me, it wouldn´t be happening at all. After she left, Katherina, Susan, and I brainstormed about ideas for games we could play with the kids if we had downtime or needed to fill a few minutes here or there. I thought of the games we played at our family day in April and we planned out a few for the fair. After Katherina left, I was feeling pretty good about things - I actually convinced myself that somehow we were going to pull this out. The history books would be re-written, the Titanic would not sink.

Susan and I had borrowed Katie´s (other PC volunteer in Puyo) DVD player earlier in the day and we decided to watch one of the movies we brought from home - The Quiet American. It was the first movie we have watched in a long time and somehow watching it on a 3 inch screen on our bed seemed perfect. I had seen the movie a few times before, so had Susan, though she didn´t remember seeing it before.
In the morning I arose early to get ready for the fair. I made my way down there a little before 7:00 and there were already a couple schools there. People seemed to be happy so I followed suit. Nothing had been disturbed overnight so one hurdle had been cleared. As schools started piling in, I wondered when my counterparts would arrive. Katie and Katherina showed up a little after 7:30 and it was at about that same time that I started to field the same questions as yesterday afternoon - to which I still had no answers. I was starting to get really upset and began to pace. Katie and Katherina assured me that things would be fine. A couple new schools showed up - ones that I had not visited and ones that I thought were not coming. Apparently, they spoke with Bolivar and Ana Merocho (the director of Env. Ed) - they failed to inform me and we failed to have booths for them to set up their stuff. I finally told them to take the stands of organizations that we not yet there - after all, the Festival was supposed to start in 15 minutes - if you are not there by now, you must not be coming. Unfortunately, no sooner than I told these schools to take unoccupied stands - their rightful owners showed up. Think Titanic - Think Helpless. I quickly solved that problem and ditched the booth for the ¨Office of the Festival Director¨ since we clearly did not have one and we modified another larger booth to accommodate two groups.

Eventually, around 8:20ish, my counterparts showed up. I deflected all the remaining questions to Bolivar. He seemed to solve them all - or at least everyone walked away from him moderately satisfied. At this point I began going around and taking pictures of the festival and all of the booths. The camera batteries died on me so I told Andrea I was going to run home to get new ones. In the 25 minutes that I was gone, the Festival had started and when I returned things were running smoothly. Katie and Katherina were right!!! Maybe I was the cog in the wheel...I quickly dismissed this though as minor problems started popping up.

About mid-morning, I was convinced that this day was going to be awesome. The kids were happy, the teachers were moderately happy, the projects were incredible, things seemed to be falling into place. As we approached the time for food - things started going amiss. Teachers were wondering how much food there was and when it would be served. I knew neither answer - of course - but baulked my way through those of course - I was in the right ball park - lunch would be close to 11:30 (and it was) and we were having sandwiches, fruit, and drinks (we didn´t have the fruit).

Things were lively, groups were being judged, food was being handed out. What could possibly go wrong? Well, we failed to think about the teachers - we passed out food to their students but told them that they didn´t get any (I didn´t do this - people from the municipio did this). If there is one group of people that you should never withhold food from, it is a group of teachers - they were pissed. We also failed to have enough food for all the students. Of course, the 36 indigenous kids did not get food - their teachers were furious and they gathered their things and immediately left. I apologized to them and took the teacher over to the municipio guy with the food - he had sandwiches left, but claimed he was instructed not to give out any more - this only infuriated the teacher more. He said that his boss gave him a list and that they were not on it. I know this list, because I typed it yesterday morning and I had seen the list this morning too. It had all 36 names on it and the names of the teachers. Now I was pissed and I vaguely remember the head honcho at the Municipio (Javier) asking me why this school has so many kids here - Ironic since another school had 84 students but he didn´t comment about them. I kept these thoughts to myself though, because bringing it up in this current conversation would only have made matters worse. So, Amauto Ñampi left and other schools were starting to follow suit. Bolivar was nowhere to be found, neither was Javier. Naturally, I was the focus of the teachers anger - though I surprised them by saying I was pissed too and that it wasn´t right. I apologized profusely and reminded them that the kids were still having fun - and they were.

The food fiasco was a sour finish to an otherwise splendid event. I think after the dust settles, the teachers, students, municipio, CODEAMA and everyone else will think that this Festival of Water was a success - the kids were awesome - their projects were awesome - people were impressed. I was still feeling rather low after the event - somehow, I felt and still do feel like my relationship with the teachers was strained over the past two days - this is disappointing since I want to work with them a lot in the next two years. Katie and I are going to go visit the schools next week to hand out certificates of participation to the students and teachers (we failed to even get those printed in time for the event), we´ll bring some snacks and treats to the kids at Amauto Ñampi, and we´ll do our best to mend fences. Katie said something that stuck with me yesterday. She said that even though the food and certificate issues were not of our doing, she wasn´t going to point fingers - I agree with her and I plan on shouldering some of the blame. It wasn´t my part to plan or oversee, however, I am part of CODEAMA and could have been more vigilant in ensuring that ALL of the details were addressed.

I returned to the office with Bolivar a little after 3:00. He said he was pleased with the day all things considered. I was mildly depressed though - I wanted to impress both him and the schools - perhaps this was a lofty goal - too much to expect for my first real PC project. When I got back to the office Bolivar was calling Umberto (the owner of the FRATES property), I talked to Umberto and he, unknowingly, cheered me up. Umberto has a passion for helping others and is really excited about the upcoming ¨revitalization¨ project we are planning for the FRATES facility. He is giving Susan and I a lot of power and trust to assist him and the communities involved. We are equally excited to help - this will certainly allow me to do some ¨yard work¨ and ¨house work¨ that I have missed since we sold our house in early February. I miss my tools, I miss building and fixing things, I miss the calming, stress-reducing, effect that a simple house project brings with it. Yes, for some of you house projects bring stress and frustration, to me they bring happiness.

After work, Susan, Katie, Katherina, and I made plans to go to a new pizza/italian restaurant in town. Sue and I were there a couple weekends ago and loved it. We had pizza, salad, and beer (Sue had wine - Katherina OJ). We chatted away the days events and had a great pizza. We walked home, I made some peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies for the office and for Katie. I also cooked up some beans and made refried beans for tomorrow nights dinner (veggie burritos). After that, Sue and I watched another DVD - Glory. We are returning the DVD player to Katie tomorrow so we wanted to get a little more use out of it today.

In all the events of the last 4-5 days, I am sure that I missed and or forgot things that I wanted to mention. But at this point, after 5 pages, I feel as though I can not type any more. Sorry for the long Blog entry!!! Tomorrow - June 7th is Sue´s B-Day. Send her an e-mail if you can - She is 33. [e-mail]

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