COS Conference

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Sorry no pictures this time - this is a long blog, I warn you, but definitely worth the read.

Our Close of Service Conference (COS) came and went in Quito this week. Each Omnibus has a COS conference to talk about the paperwork that needs to be filled out, how to prepare resumes and describe your service, and to provide feedback to Peace Corps. Normally, the standard for this conference is 3 days. However, since our group is the most beloved we got 1 day.

I have done a lot of complaining during the last year about PC Administration, so in this blog I think I will try to provide some positive insights into my experiences, because really, it has been positive. To start off, last Thursday Nelson Oleas, the Agriculture Program Director was at CODEAMA doing site development. Peace Corps is probably going to put two Volunteers at CODEAMA with this next group. When Nelson met with Bolívar, I just marveled at how professional and how personable he was. The two of them chatted for about an hour and a half as though they were old friends catching up. Finally, he got to the paperwork part of the site development process.

Usually, after doing the paperwork, PC staff move on to the next site (their time is limited). Nelson wanted to see what CODEAMA was really up to so he had us take him to three sites where we have projects and he constantly was asking questions. After that, he took us all out to lunch. I was so impressed by him that I told his superiors at PC how incredible he was. He is what every PC employee should be like.

The next day, he gave Susan and I a lift to Quito. We were headed up early to the COS Conference so that we could meet Casey´s dad who had just arrived in country and so that we could visit our host family in La Esperanza. We discovered that while Nelson is a people person and brilliant at what he does; his driving leaves something to be desired. Normally a ride in a new Toyota 4Runner vs. an old Bus would be a plus, however, in this case, it was not. Susan and I both fought car-sickness as Nelson took speed-bumps as though they didn´t exist. Several times my head hit the ceiling, Nelson just keep going like it was nothing; no oops, no I didn´t see that, no I´m sorry.

We did have a great conversation with him about Ecuador, its president, and its laws. It seems that while Correa is popular here, he does seem to be moving more to the populist left and aligning himself with Chavez and Morales. He recently declared that Ecuador would not pay its foreign debt and would not be importing foreign vehicles and luxury items. Hmmm….this guy got a PhD at Illinois in Economics, the only other Economics PhD I know from Illinois is my father and he seems to be remotely intelligent. So what happened to Correa? While I agree that Ecuador needs to step up and not be taken advantage of, it is silly to shun the global community when most countries want to provide resources to Ecuador. For his sake and for Ecuador´s sake I hope Correa knows what the #*!” he is doing.

We got to Quito and eventually made our way to a hostel near downtown where a few other Volunteers were staying. The plan was to meet up with Casey and her father at the wine and tapas bar in the Mariscal section of Quito. Jay, John, Sam, Susan and I made our way to the Mariscal and met Casey and her dad there.

This was my first time at the wine and tapas bar and I have to say I was impressed and glad that Casey´s dad was buying. For $23 a person we had unlimited wine (with a selection of about 10 types if we wanted) and unlimited food (fish, beef, calamari, cheese, bread, mushrooms, sausages, etc. etc.). We drank and had a wonderful time hanging out. After a couple of hours, Casey and her dad left, they had to fly to the Galapagos in the morning. Susan and I left shortly thereafter, because we were tired and not wanting to drink any more (we went through at least 10 bottles as a group).

We discovered that our hostel room was right by the front door of the hostel so we naturally got very little sleep that night. I woke up, if you can call it that, in a haze around 7:00am and texted my friend Jay to tell him that I probably was not going to run with him. He texted back and said he was on his way to the hostal anyhow so….I gathered myself together, drank some water and then rain for 50 minutes with Jay around downtown Quito. It was a great morning and the run seemed to do me, and him, some good.

After the run, I got cleaned up, as did Susan, and then we met Jay up on the rooftop restaurant of the hostal. They had free coffee so we drank our fill and relaxed a bit before leaving. Jay was headed to his sight to get his things and say goodbye to his community. He is going to be co-trainer for the next group. Sam didn´t join us on the roof, she had a bad go of it the night before. John had left early in the morning to do some work at his sight.

Late that morning, Sue and I headed to La Esperanza, our training community to visit with our host family. We got there around 2:00am and stayed for 2-3 hours. It was nice to catch up with them. Everyone seems to be doing really well. Santiago is growing up quickly and has a cell phone that is as much a toy as anything else for him. Andres moved out and is living with his girlfriend in the neighboring town. Fabiola seemed to be ok with that, though it was hard to judge. Carolina was super tall and unusually quiet. Fabiola was kind and talkative as usual. It was a great visit and awesome to see the town again. There is now a high speed internet café right next to the house where we lived. Would have been nice to have that handy when we were there, though we would have spent far too much time there.

We said our goodbyes and then headed back to Quito to meet up with our friend Jeanette. That night we got dinner at a burger joint, purchased some DVDs, had some coffee and dessert and then went to our hostal to watch the movies on Jeanette´s computer. It was a relaxing evening and just what Sue and I needed. I think Jeanette wanted to go out dancing, but I knew that was not in our cards for that night.

The next morning we checked into the hostal that PC had reserved for the COS conference. Many of fellow PCVs had already arrived and were seeking out breakfast. Sue, Jeanette, and I chose to go to the metropark in town to talk a walk/run. The metropark was awesome and we had no idea it even existed until a few weeks ago. We walked for a couple of hours and then went and had a wonderful breakfast.

That afternoon, Jeanette and Susan decided to do a beauty project together. Jeanette colored Susan´s hair and Susan help Jeanette wax her legs…odd…glad I wasn´t there as it might have been a bit on the awkward side - though in Peace Corps, very little surprises us these days.

I went to the Mariscal with some PCV friends to catch some pro-football. By the end of the afternoon, nearly everyone from my Omnibus was there and we had the bar to ourselves watching the Steelers game. That night we returned to the hostal for dinner and then decided to stay at the hostal and hang out rather than hit the town. This proved to be a good idea as it gave us all an opportunity to hang out without the interference of loud music and expensive drinks.

The next morning started our COS conference. Roger and I had promised ourselves to be on our best behavior and not to say anything antagonistic - we did well. Peace Corps poured through the myriad of paperwork we had to fill out, did a session on resumes and describing our service, and that was about it. They crammed a normally three day workshop into one day, which disappointed many of us, but whatever.

That night, PC took us out to dinner at a nice restaurant and the new director came as well. She gave a nice speech to us, as did Nelson (the Ag boss) and Pablo (my boss). They were genuinely thankful for our service. The new director is fantastic and I think that she will restore the confidence in the administration that was lacking with the previous director.

That night we hung out at the hostal again, played cards, played a game of ecua-trivia (my team: Sue, Roger, Kris and I won) and sat around chatting with each other.

The following morning was an optional morning at the PC office where we could meet with our bosses and ask individual questions. I chose to meet with Dana the Asst. Director. We mended fences over the Peer Support issue and the Co-Training issue. I was glad to air it out and she was glad that I came to her to discuss it. While I still feel slighted a bit by PC, I am content that my side was heard and that it was understood.

That afternoon, Sue and I caught one more lunch in Quito with friends at my favorite Mexican place in town (favorite because they have sour cream). We then headed back to Puyo. It was great to see everyone, but at the same time it felt too rushed. While many of us are pretty much the same, others have changed and it has been interesting to see the change. People that I thought didn´t stand a chance of making it two years have done so with flying colors. I am proud of my omnibus and proud of the service we have given to Peace Corps and to Ecuador.

A couple of days later, Pablo came down to meet with our counterparts one last time. It was a good meeting with Bolivar and it is nearly assured that CODEAMA will receive two new volunteers - I think that is a good thing, but it also feels like too many Volunteers in Puyo. Anyhow, that night, Sue, Pablo, Matt and I went out to dinner at El Jardin. I paid for Pablo´s dinner. I owed him for all he has done for me over the past year. He is a great guy and a great boss. He is leaving PC in February to go to grad school at Harvard.

The Napo River Festival took place on the weekend of the 17th. The plan was for Susan and I to head up to Tena on Friday the 16th, however, a trip Susan had planned to Tepapare for the following week was moved to this weekend, so she headed out with the Waorani on Friday morning. I made the trip to Tena anyhow and was glad that I did so.

I chose to go up on Saturday morning with Matt and his friend Pete. It was a dreary Puyo morning, the rain had started around 2:00am and continued all morning. We dragged ourselves out of the apartment and caught a 9:00am bus to Tena.

Knowing that it was raining hard, I was thinking that this River Fest was going to be a bust. The river would be too high to do anything and if it was in fact raining, who would really want to be outside in a downpour?

When I got to Tena, Pete and I headed to my friend Mary’s house so that I could drop off my stuff there. Matt had ditched his friend to go to the River Fest early since he was going to be doing some guiding for the raft competition. Once at Mary’s the weather started to clear up a bit. Yvonne and AJ (two other PCVs) met up with us there and then we all (minus Mary - she had some work to do) went to Misahualli to take in the Festival.

It was actually enjoyable sitting on the bank of the river, drinking some beers and watching the activities. Andrew, another PCV who lives in the area, joined us there. We spent most of the afternoon hanging out. Even my old counterpart Andrea was there with friends. So, I got to spend time with her and her son. She seems to be doing really well and that makes me happy. The last time I saw her, she was depressed about her job.

At one point, a TV crew came up to us gringos and asked to record us. We obliged and then responded to some questions they had about the festival and whether or not the Ecuadorian Amazon should be designated as one of the new SEVEN NATURAL WONDERS of the WORLD. It was interesting to say the least. I was singled out to respond to the natural wonders question because I knew the camera guy. I gave a generic answer about biodiversity and that the forest is the lungs of the world then I said and I quote, “yeah so I think it should be a natural uh….what was that word you used…? Right, marvel, it should be one of those.” Of course it was in Spanish and because I blew the whole wonder part, I was sure that we would not be put on TV. Alas, it was broadcast a week later - without my interview.

That night, we met back up with Mary and headed to a pizza place in Tena for dinner. The pizza was ok, nothing compared to Sole Mio in Puyo and of course, nothing compared to even your average pizza place in the States. Uncle Al’s pizza in Gomer, Ohio (one of my least favorites) would blow every pizza in Ecuador away in a taste test. However, your taste buds become accustomed to average when it comes to non-traditional foods in Ecuador (i.e. anything not Ecuadorian like Italian, Indian, Mexican etc.) so that is why I continue to eat pizza and often find myself saying, “not too bad.” The same, of course, can be said of the beer here.

After a restless night of sleep at Mary’s due to the rooster outside my window that started crowing at about the time I went to sleep - 2:00am and the chorus of barking dogs, I got up, had some coffee and then went to the bus station with Mary and some of her Ecuadorian friends. We met up there with Yvonne, AJ, and Andrew. The plan was to head back to Misahualli to watch the start of the real competition - the regatta with homemade balsa wood rafts.

We got there and most everyone had already left in motorized canoes to go downriver to the starting point. Mary hopped in a canoe with her friends, however, us PCVs, including Sadie who met up with us there, had a different mode of transport. We rented inner-tubes and were going to float downriver to the town where the finish-line and party were. The projected time of travel was 3 hours. Yeah, 3 hours, I was thinking to myself, that is a long time to be sitting on top of a tube, floating down a rather large river (over 100 meters wide in places) on a crystal-clear sunny day. But….why not?!?

We tied our tubes together and then tied the tube of a random Ecuadorian teenager who wanted to be part of our group. I was glad to have him since he had done this before. The floating turned out to be a lot of fun. The river was flowing somewhat quickly and we really didn’t have to do much work. There were even a few waves and rapids that made it exciting at times. One of those rapids was actually fairly dangerous. We hit it road the swells until we hit a big swell when Andrew flipped on top of Sadie and Yvonne fell out. It was scary and we didn’t have life preservers - you don’t think of that when you are tubing on a river that is generally only 2-5 feet deep and doesn’t have more than Class I rapids - though this rapid was probably a Class III. Anyhow, we got back together on the tubes and realized that we were caught in an eddy and it was bringing us back to the start of the rapid - we had to do it all over again. There was a safety kayaker there and he told us that we needed a plan to get out of the rapid, well…no shit…we told him we would talk about it next time around since we were heading back in for the third time in a row. This time, we managed enough momentum to carry us past the eddy and back into the calm flow of the river. We were safe and sound.

At one point, we floated by everyone that had stopped on an island (the starting point for the race) and when the race finally started, they all caught back up to us and passed us. It was fun to watch the homemade rafts manned by four-man teams of Kichwa.

We made it to the finish area, but realized that we were on the wrong side of the river. We all got off the tubes and started to swim towards shore pulling the tubes with us. It took all of our efforts to cross the river and we just barely made it. Had we missed the beach we would have ended up a few hundred yards further down shore.

We hung out in the town, had a celebratory beer and some lunch. Soon after, I parted ways and caught a ride with Andrea and her friends back to the main highway. From there, I caught a bus back to Puyo and was home on Sunday by 7:30pm. It was an enjoyable trip and I was happy to spend time with the PC Tena Volunteers - they are a good group and Oriente Volunteers like Susan and I. We are a special breed that seems to have become accustomed to having giardia, amoebas, drinking chicha, and experiencing random odd things.

The following week, I spent my time finishing up the Env. Ed Guide and then took it to Quito to the printers. It was such a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. I did have one hitch and that was trying to get PC to approve the use of its logo. I should have known better than to even ask. As a teacher, we always used to say that it was easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. PC went back and forth with me three times. You would think that someone in the office would actually know what the policy is, but nobody did. Technically, one is supposed to get approval to use the logo for anything, however, volunteers use it liberally when they make t-shirts, pamphlets, reports, or documents relating to their work. I found out that all the t-shirts I have with the PC logo are in effect “illegal.” Interesting since even the staff has some of these t-shirts.

Anyhow, I got finally approval from the new Director and took my materials to the printers. Thanks to the generous donations from most of you I can print 175 manuals instead of 150. I will also be using some of those extra funds to do a training for the staff at the ministerio de educacion in Puyo and will be printing up some all color copies ($54 each) for some of the important people and organizations that helped along the way. This project is happening thanks to you and it will be my last official PC project. So…a huge THANK YOU!!!

While in Quito, I met up with Jay, another PCV in my group who just started dating Casey (Volunteer in Puyo and our new best friend). Jay is one of the co-trainers for the new group coming in February. He and I traveled back to Puyo together Friday evening. Casey and Sue were hanging out at our apartment when we got there at 10:45pm. They were watching a movie together, how cute.

The next morning, Sue and I ran over to Casey’s and then I went running with Jay. All told, I ran an hour and twenty minutes - the longest I have run in probably 4+ years since I did some long runs with my friend Ben who was training for a marathon. Anyhow, it felt good, except that I forgot that I was wearing a thin mesh shirt and it was a sunny day. I got a bit of a sun burn, but nothing too bad. While we were running, the ladies made us a fantastic breakfast complete with sausage.

That afternoon, the four of us hiked to our favorite swimming spot near Mera. The river was high, but we enjoyed the swim anyhow. We then continued on to the dike in Mera and hung out there for a little while. We headed back to Puyo and ate dinner at Nelson Burger next to my office. After dinner, the gals headed to the basketball court - Casey’s team was playing in the championship game for her league and she recruited Susan to come play for the team as well. Matt met up with Jay and I and the three of us went to get a jaba of beer because we knew that we were going to need something to get us through this game.

As it turns out, the level of play for the two teams was impressive. The other team was really good and except for some questionable score-keeping, they would have won the game. Instead, Casey’s team won in overtime. The questionable part was that Jay and I had the other team ahead by 5 after the third quarter and that team scored more than Casey’s team in the 4th quarter. Oh well….we won. The great irony of it all was that Susan played and Casey did not. Though Casey is not much of a basketball player. I think her ploy all along was to have Susan come to play for her.

After the game we hung around and celebrated with her team and coach. We also got to take part in the pictures and awards ceremony. When we finally left, we decided to hit one of our favorite bars in town to continue the celebration. By the time it was all said and done, we realized that it was 2:00am and time to go home.

The next morning I made breakfast for the group. I made biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, and fruit salad (well the salad was really just some leftover pineapple). The gravy turned out well considering I had no recipe and just through something together using milk, beef bouillon cubes and a little bacon grease. The biscuits - no problem, I am a toaster-oven master these days.

The net week, I spent most of my time in the FRATES communities collecting GPS data points for the community mapping and zoning project that I have. It is going well enough, except that it is hard to get people from the community to accompany me. I have no idea where the limits of the communities are so I need someone to point out property lines for me. I did get them all done in Libertad and have plans to do them in San Pedro next Tuesday. I enjoy hiking around the communities, but when you are hiking off trail in the forest it can be an exhausting endeavor as you walk through knee deep mud, push your way through thick vines, and fight off the biting insects and ants. The other day when I was in San Pedro, the people didn’t want to accompany me to the top of a hill to get a data point for a proposed cabin. So they told me to climb it alone and look down at them and they would direct me left or right. Sure they would. It took me 30 minutes to climb the hill - at times I had to gingerly avoid mudslides - when I reached the top and looked down, nobody was there. I just chuckled and reminded myself that it was my fault for being so gullible. I took a data point at where I would put the cabin and called it a day.

Friday, I met with my eco-club at Eduardo Vasconez school. It is a group of about 30 4th graders that I meet with every other Friday. I do my little science tricks and we talk about environmental concepts affecting them in Puyo. When I showed up this time I was greeted with SUPER rock star status as they all rushed up to me and we had a huge group hug. I enjoy working with these kids and especially enjoy that I only do it for one hour at a time - just the right amount of time to walk away satisfied and not frustrated by their mischievous nature.

After the eco-club, I headed to the community of Tsuraku about an hour and a half south of Puyo. This was Volunteer Katie’s old site and it where Matt is doing some of his work. He has been working on a water project there with Engineers Without Borders. He needed some help getting some stream flow data. Specifically, we needed to know how much water was entering the dam, how much was leaving, and how much was flowing through the network of tubes providing drinking water. The community has a rather large water distribution network, however, they dammed up a stream that would make Buffalo Run at my family’s cabin in Maryland look like the Mississippi. This is supposed to provide water to 50 families. In my preliminary assessment I say “aint gonna happen.”

Admittedly, there is probably enough water to do it. We calculated about 150 liters/second flowing in the stream and the community has a large system of storage tanks. The problem is that they have only one tube, 900 meters long x 2 inches in diameter, that supplies the storage tank. The path they chose takes this tube up and over 6 large hills so that by the time it gets to the storage tank, the flow is about 0.75 liters per second when it needs to be at the very least 2 liters/second to supply the community. As it stands now, only half the houses are connected and the storage tank is always near empty. People only have water for part of the day and they want to connect the other half of the town. That’s why I give it the Jeremy Plumber two thumbs down. They need to redo the supply tubes which will cost them about $12,000 and take months to install. Good Luck Matt, send me pictures when you are done. Seriously though, it has potential, if and only if, the community is really serious about doing it.

When we finished with our work, I stood by the road waiting for a bus back to Puyo. One came at 6:30pm, however the driver thought it would be funny to ignore me so he passed me by and went up the road another 300 meters to pick up people there. I ran, but could not catch up, so I was left there waiting for the next bus - which came about an hour later.

Anyhow, I made it back to Puyo around 9:00pm ate something and went to bed. Susan was probably annoyed because I really didn’t say much to her when I got home, but hey, I really was tired.

It is now Saturday 12:30pm and I am in my apartment finishing this long overdue blog entry. I already ran this morning, cleaned the apartment, ate breakfast, and got our bikes fixed (flat tires). Sue and I are waiting for her counterpart, Manuela, to show up and then we are headed out for a bike ride. After the ride, I plan to take this blog into town and post it on the internet - vamos a ver (we will see).

Peace,
Jeremy

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