Nuns 2 - Jeremy 1

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Last week saw the end of the Andrea era at CODEAMA. Her departure was somehow anticlimactic. We had a despedida (farewell party) for her at Colibri. Half the number of people who were supposed to show up did. Bolivar, to his credit, gave a toast that was kind and generous considering the fact that the two of them do not get along well at all.

On Wednesday, my last day with her at the office, she opted to work from home. So at lunch, she said goodbye and walked out. She would be working until Friday, however, I was headed to Quito for another workshop.

I like Andrea, I admire her, and I wish her the best of luck in her new job with a company called Eco Decision. Already I’ve been forced to pick up where she left off and this will be a daunting task - of which I will talk more of in this blog entry.

Last Tuesday I went to visit some of the schools to hand out materials related to our water campaign. I have stickers, posters, and videos that need to go to every school in the area. I am actually excited to do it, as it will give me time out of the office walking around town and more face time with the teachers and principals.

Unfortunately, I had to go back to see the Nun at Escuela Valladares. Lord knows the woman has no patience for me at all - seriously, it is borderline comedy every time I see her. So I went to her office in the morning. She was with someone else at the time, however, she glanced up and gave me that look that says - “great, you again - I don’t have time for you.” I just smiled and took a seat. This time, I wasn’t nervous, I was prepared - I came with a secret card up my sleeve that even the all-knowing Nun would never anticipate. Today, she would be blind-sided by my last ditch Hail Mary.

After waiting a good 10 minutes, she was finally ready to see me. I smiled and told her that I only needed a minute of her time - she forced a smile and began fidgeting with stuff on her desk. I handed her the materials and explained what they were for. Unbeknownst to me, Andrea put the wrong name on the letter to her (not Andrea’s fault - she was working off of a list from the Education Dept. in town). The Nun immediately sparked up and said “this is the wrong name - this woman was the old director.” I faltered, only momentarily though - she would not get the better of me this time. I quickly explained the mix-up and said that I would personally get it corrected. This seemed to work.

Next I handed her a document to sign saying that she received the materials. All was going well until I brought up the surveys that she was supposed to give her teachers a few weeks back. She never gave them and proceeded to give me some excuse that I really didn’t understand. I asked her if she could give them again and this is when she went in for the attack. She explained that the surveys and Env. Ed. materials were my project and not hers - that I should just go directly to the teachers instead of taking up her valuable time. I was backpedaling, this was her all out blitz with time ticking away. I scrambled and then pulled out my hidden card, my Hail Mary.

I stopped her mid-sentence and asked her if I had ever told her about my aunt that was a nun. She hesitated, not knowing where this was going and said something like, “no, what about her?” I preceeded to tell her that Sr. T, my beloved aunt, was going to be celebrating her 50th Jubilee. At this the Nun stopped dead in her tracks. The scowl turned to a bright smile - sort of like what happened to the Grinch when he learned the true meaning of Christmas. She immediately asked if I was going to the ceremony. I said that I was not going to be able to make it - damn her if she didn’t mount a counter attack. She told me how important the 50th was and that I must attend. She was giving me the nun guilt routine. This was an unanticipated move on her part - I countered as best I could, but she was adamant that I attend. I then saw my crease and went for it head first. I explained that I attended her 25th Jubilee and that it was a joint First Communion ceremony for me. Defeated at last, she showed me the most kind of looks, a genuine smile filled her face as she reached across the desk, laid a hand on my shoulder and told me what a special day that must have been. She conceded defeat further by acknowledging that watching a video of the 50th would suffice and that I would be there in spirit and as a nun, my aunt would understand.

So, she signed the papers and I got up to leave. We exchanged final pleasantries and I was on my way. I had that smug look of victory on my face as I walked out of the school, that is, until I realized that the Nun stole my pen. What is correct protocol for accusing a lady of the cloth of thievery? Eventually, I concluded that the $0.30 pen was the price one must pay for victory.

I then proceeded across the street to Colegio Pompeya - a local high school, also run by a nun. This was my first meeting with the Pompeya nun. The school was in the midst of a presentation/dance recital. I followed a teacher to the All-purpose room to find the nun. What I saw when I got there, was a gymnasium filled with teenagers and a group of girls doing a dance routine on the floor. They were scantily clothed (at least for a catholic school) and had pom-poms. What I witnessed, before the nun came to greet me, was a group of teenage girls dancing provocatively in rhythm - it was mildly surreal. I was puzzled to say the least.

The nun came up to me with a huge smile and listened to what I had to say - the whole time, she was staring intently at my eyes. Finally, she blurted out, “you have the most beautiful green eyes. I like green eyes and blue eyes.” I was stunned, what technique was this. The other nun uses the hard face, strict routine; this one was using some form of shock and awe. I quickly said that it looked as though she was really busy and that I would leave my materials with her secretary. I high-tailed it out of there and then carried on a lively debate with myself about whether this nun was hitting on me. I have to go back in a couple weeks - I’ll let you know what I decide.

Wednesday morning I got up early and headed to FRATES. I needed to talk with Guillermo to make sure that he and another community member would be able to go to this workshop in Quito with Karina and I. The workshop is for a new grant we have through the U.N.

As usual, the level of planning leaves something to be desired. This is an important grant, $50,000 and it is the U.N. for godsakes - they wanted the project coordinator and president of CODEAMA to attend, as well as, 2 or 3 community members. Bolivar didn’t want to go, so I got to go in his place - yippee. Instead of inviting the community members personally, he gave Ari (the American volunteer at FRATES who speaks very little Spanish) two letters of invitation and told him to give them to Guillermo. Oh yeah, he did this on Monday - we would be leaving for Quito on Wednesday for two days. Needless-to-say, I felt the need to go out to FRATES on Wednesday to ensure that the invitations were received and to relay the details.

When I arrived at 7:00am, I found Guillermo. I asked him about the workshop - he had not received the invitations from Ari - he knew nothing about it. I explained how important the workshop was and that we needed him and someone else to go. He said that he would see what he could do - I told him to take the next bus and meet Karina and I at the office.

I was a bit pissed off that Ari and Antonio failed to give him the invitations. I ran into Ari on Wednesday afternoon and he said that he couldn’t find Guillermo. Instead of getting angry with him at that moment, I let it go. To me, common sense would dictate that you call and say you were unable to give the invitations out, or that you actually go to the communities to give the invitations. Instead, he and Antonio did nothing for two days. Ultimately though, Bolivar could have avoided this by making a personal visit when he first learned of the workshop two weeks ago.

Luckily, Guillermo could come and he got Don Segundo, from the community of La Libertad to come as well. They showed up at the office at 4:00pm. We then carried on a debate about when we should leave for Quito. The workshop would not pay for our rooms Wednesday night so we opted to leave at 1:30am on Thursday morning which would put us in Quito by 6:30 and at the workshop by 7:15ish - in time for breakfast.

We met at the bus station at 1:15pm. Guillermo and Segundo were sleeping on a bench. I felt sorry for them - they left their communities at 3:00pm (because that is the last bus) and came to Puyo at 4:00pm. They don’t live in Puyo, so they had to kill 9.5 hours - I am not sure what they did in town, but my guess is that they had a few drinks.

We got on the bus and headed on our adventure. I was bound and determined to get some sleep on this trip. Everyone fell asleep on the bus except for me. When we passed Banos, the bus stopped. Apparently, there was a huge landslide. All told, we were stopped for 4.5 hours. I did sleep a bit during this time, but by the time we pulled out of Banos, it was after 7:00. We finally arrived at the workshop - 3 hours late and hungry. Luckily, we got there during the first coffee break so we were at least able to put something in our bellies.

The workshop was a bust. It was a series of presentations by the various groups that were receiving grants. Each group presented what there project was and what activities they hoped to accomplish. After that, the foundation in charge of directing the U.N. grant, PPD talked about all the accounting and evaluation that goes along with the grant. I felt bad that Guillermo and Segundo had to come - they had nothing to do until the last hour or so of day two when we put together a preliminary plan of action. This was a classic example of top-down development work that is usually the type that has the least effectiveness. You see the U.N. grants the money, but hires PPD to oversee all grants. PPD enlists other NGO’s like CODEAMA to develop individual projects, and then these NGO’s find communities to be the recipients of the grants. Each groups skims off the top and the money that does reach the communities eventually gets there whether the communities initiated or wanted the project in the first place. Ultimately what ends up happening is that the communities embrace the idea of getting funds for projects, but then realize that they are doing things they don’t want to do and can’t use the money for projects that they want.

For me, the best part of the workshop was getting time to socialize with Guillermo and Segundo. We had fun joking around and I think that I built another level of friendship with Guillermo and that I earned the trust of Segundo, who I really didn’t know before this trip.

At one point during the workshop the LCD projector went blank and then the words ENTRAD A SIN ENTRADA popped up on the screen. The facilitators were feverishly trying to fix it. Guillermo and Segundo were trying to figure out what it meant because in Spanish it really makes no sense - it means entrance without entrance. They were so puzzled that they finally asked me. I casually turned to them and said, “yeah I know what it means, it means that the computer isn’t working right” I said it with a serious face and then they both smiled and burst out laughing. This caused me to laugh as well. The rest of the workshop, anytime something didn’t work, we would turn to each other and say ENTRADA SIN ENTRADA.

Guillermo and I also got a laugh at the number of people who had cell phones go off during the workshop. In Ecuador, there is no such thing as cell phone etiquette. It is perfectly ok to answer your phone in the middle of a presentation whether you are the presenter or an audience member. What made this particularly funny was that the facilitators had posted signs up everywhere to turn off your cell phones. All told, of the 45 attendees, about 40 of them received calls and all of the facilitators received calls. Oh well, what can you do.

The workshop ended Friday afternoon. The four of us headed back to Quito. Karina was going to stay the weekend in Quito visiting her family. Guillermo, Segundo and I were headed back to Puyo. I really wanted to get home, because Susan was going to be headed adentro again for 5 days and I wanted to spend at least a night with her before she left.

We ended up getting back at 11:30pm. Susan was still awake though, because our PC friend Yvonne and one of her friends (a former PCV from Paraguay) were spending the weekend at our place.

All three of them were preparing for bed when I got home - so I said hello and goodnight and followed Susan to bed.

The next morning, we gave Yvonne and her friend some ideas of what to do in Puyo and they decided to hit the Waorani store and then the Orchid Park in town. I was headed into the office to do some work and to copy some materials for Yvonne. She wanted some of the EE stuff that I have put together.

Susan’s plans changed and she had to leave at 2:00pm - 4 hours earlier than expected. She was frazzled and stressed, but eventually made it out of town with her sanity in tact.

Katie had called and wanted some help putting up gridlines for a world map project at one of the local schools. I agreed to help her and also invited her to have dinner at my place with Yvonne, her friend Kris (no idea how to spell her name), and I. I was going to make two kinds of lasagna.

Katie and I made quick work of the grids and then returned to my house and bought some beers. We started drinking at 5:00 and got dinner all ready to go. Eventually, Yvonne called and said that had just finished the tour at the Orchid Park (4 hours) and that it was awesome and that they would catch the next bus into town. Eventually they made it into town, but wanted to go to the medicinal plant store before they came back. She asked how to get there and I gave her instructions over the phone. She ended up walking the wrong way and we played a little game over the phone trying to get her headed in the right direction. Eventually, she realized that she had the map I had given her earlier in the day and she was able to right herself and get her bearings - amazing what a map will do when actually used. We got a laugh out of it though.

They got home and we had our splendid dinner, drank wine and beer (though more wine than anything else), played cards, had carrot cake, talked about Peace Corps, played more cards, and eventually realized that it was 1:30am and that we were all a little tipsy. Katie headed home, Yvonne and Kris headed to bed. I felt like reading a bit (I have no idea why) but quickly realized the error in my ways when I found myself reading the same page 8 times in a row and having no recollection of what it said. I put down my book and went to sleep.

The next morning, the plan was to do the bike ride in Banos. Those plans were eventually dashed when Yvonne failed to keep her breakfast down. She was a bit sick and opted to go back to bed. It was all good though because it wasn’t the nicest of days and I don’t think any of us were really dead set on doing the bike ride.

Kris and I watched The Last King of Scotland while Yvonne slept. By the time the movie was over, Yvonne was feeling better. Kris then introduced me to Terere which is a Paraguayan tea from the Herba Mate plant. The whole process of drinking this tea is a very social event and apparently it is very popular and part of the culture of Paraguay, Uraguay, and Argentina. You essentially have what looks like a hippee drug bong. The cup or guampa gets filled with plant leaves, and then you pour in cold water. Finally, you drink it through a metal straw-like filter called a bombilla. You keep refilling the guampa with water and pass it around the group. The tea is caffeinated and I am sure somewhat healthy. I liked the whole thing - it gives one the aura of appearing as though you are doing some crazy drug, when in reality you are sipping tea with your friends.

Kris said that she spent her two year Peace Corps stint drinking Herba Mate - not a bad two years. Back in the States, most people would wince at sharing a straw with a room full of people at a business meeting or a room full of family members for that matter - so this cultural experience will probably never really take-off back home we are a bit to anal I suppose. Too bad, it has potential in my book. We spent a good hour just passing around the tea bong and socializing.

By late afternoon we opted to head into town for lunch. We went to the vegetarian restaurant in town and then got choco bananas. By 4:30 Yvonne and Kris had boarded a bus and were headed bake to Yvonne’s sight just west of Tena in a town called Archidona. I headed back to the office to catch up on a little more work.

We had a nice weekend together. I only wish that Susan would have been able to spend it with us. Oh well, she is probably eating crazy food, drinking chichi, and fighting off bugs - I am sure she’s enjoying herself as well.

Monday brought a full day of work for me. I had a meeting with Bolivar and Karina and came to realize even more responsibilities that are being sent my way. I did make some headway at work though and that made me feel good. Though I came home and have now spent two more hours on the computer typing up this blog entry. All told - a good 11 hours of computer work today - that is about 11 too many. So, I am signing off for now.

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