Advertisement
Published: March 24th 2007
Well, I survived my experience with the dentist, however, it was not without great pain and suffering. I am not sure if the memo was sent down here that using anesthesia (novicane) is ADA approved. Seriously, I am fine, but I have never experienced pain quite like that before. Yes, I had novicane, but not nearly enough. I had to keep asking for more. The periodontist did ask if I was ok, but only after she noticed the steady flow of tears from my eyes. It sucks being reclined in a chair with your mouth spread open by a medieval device in a room full of people who speak a different language. I replied to her question by saying -do I look ok- though it came out something like this - foo I muk obay- which she interpreted as -wow, he is doing great, I think I can jam this probe further into his gum-. It all is somehow good now though. My tooth is saved for now and I am somewhat happy, albeit, mainly because I am heavily medicated.
So, on Wednesday, the morning after my surgery I was determined to head to Puyo for the site visit. My mouth was swollen, but the pain meds made me feel up to the task. Chela, the PC language coordinator, drove Susan and I to Puyo. Chela is a wonderful woman, but her driving leaves a little to be desired. As she was telling Susan how PC told her to drive slower, I noticed that she was doing 120km/h, a mere 40km/h over the speed limit. No problem right. She got us to our destination though, so I am thankful for that. About an hour from Puyo we stopped in Baños for lunch. Baños is a small touristy town southeast of Quito. It sits at the base of Ecuador´s most active volcano. The town is supposedly off-limits to PCV´s, but we were fortunate enough to be able to stop there for lunch. It is a cute town with plenty of interesting restaurants. The town is the hub for mountain-biking and rafting in the region.
We left Baños and headed on down to Puyo. The road to Puyo is incredible. We passed through 5-6 tunnels that looked as though they were carved by hand. None of which had any lighting to speak of. They were incredible. On our right, was a huge gorge with a river and about 40 waterfalls. I am telling you, it was impressive. This happens to be the 62km bike route I mentioned in a previous blog. The flora changes from high mountain to rainforest in the span of about 10 km.
Puyo is a wonderful town. Everyone here will tell you that they like Puyo because it is a calm and relaxed town. In our two days here, I´d have to agree. Puyo is the second most rainy city in the world. 4,400mm per year of rain. Somehow, the rain is relaxing though and it keeps the temperature manageable. The rain is mixed with bouts of sunshine and it makes for a wonderful oasis.
I got my hair cut on Thursday afternoon. I stopped at a little Peluqueria (barbershop) near the town center. I got a fantastic haricut for a $1. The woman who cut my hair was incredibly nice and will now have my business for the next two years. People who know me, know how much I appreciate a good haircut. Finding a good barber is tough and I have found one that would rival any in the states. She even lathered up my neck and shaved me with a straight razor. I tipped her $0.50, which is not customary, and she nearly flipped.
Sue and I have been staying in a hostel called the El Jardin. It runs $15/person and is amazing. I can´t believe how cheap it is. The price includes a wicked breakfast of yogurt, fresh fruit, fresh juice, coffee, bread, and eggs. Seriously, the place is great and anyone who comes to visit us must stay here. I am sitting right now in a little cabaña surrounded by rainforest typing an e-mail. We had dinner here a few minutes ago and it was fantastic. Pasta with pesto (a mere $4). A thunderstorm is rolling in, so I better start typing a little faster.
My fears about my counterpart have been relieved. The people at CODEAMA are fantastic and easy to work with. The office is great and located in the center of town. Granted it will be a switch for me to work in an office, but I can manage. The secretary, Karina, is an amazing woman and was very patient helping me with my Spanish. Bolivar, the president of CODEAMA is nice and has a unique sense of humor. In my first hour at CODEAMA we struggled to understand each other. Bolivar finally asked me - quieres una cerveza - this was my kind of communication. We went next door to a bar and drank a beer. Somehow, after that, we were able to communicate just fine. I always knew that beer was the universal language. Andrea is the other employee at CODEAMA. She studied in Germany and the States and has a masters degree in Natural Resources. She speaks enough English to help out poor old me. I am really excited about the programs that they are working on at CODEAMA. My primary responsibilities will be working in Environmental Education with schools and indigenous communities. CODEAMA has three projects right now. One of which deals with water-shed protection. Most of the cities and towns in the Oriente draw their drinking water from the rivers - the problem is that cattle ranchers and farmers are polluting those water sources and are cutting down the rainforest. CODEAMA is trying to get the land-owners to reforest areas within 200m of the rivers. So far, out of 12 land-owners, none have agreed to do it.
Another project starts in June. It is a large project funded indirectly by WWF (world wildlife fund) and this project will be working with three local indigenous communities on ecotourism, conservation of natural resources, environmental education, and community development. This will be the focus of my work for the first few months. There is more to the organization, but I just don´t know enough yet to really get into the details.
One huge problem in this area is that no communities have waste-water treatment facilities, so all the shit just goes straight into the rivers. As you can guess, the rivers are biologically dead near large cities because of this. Added to this is the fact that few cities and towns have a means to dispose of trash - so the garbage trucks just dump trash straight into the rivers. Puyo (a town of 30,000 people) just started to put its trash in a land fill 3 years ago.
Back to CODEAMA. Last night the group took Susan, Chela, and I out to dinner. We had a grand time. We went to a local pizza place and demolished 5 pizzas and numerous beers. Somehow the conversation turned political. I was asked what I though of George Bush. I said my piece, but was told by Chela to change the subject, because it is not appropriate for PCV´s to discuss politics. Though, I made it clear that I love my country, I am serving my country, and that I just don´t like my president. That it is no different in any other country. So….the conversation turned to global politics and then to Ecuadorian politics. The Spanish was flying and I had a hard time understanding so I listened for an hour. Finally, after much thought and trying to prepare the words in my head, I said - no sistema es perfecta - which caused everyone to stop and agree with me. Chaulk one up for the gringo.
Chela was in Puyo to find Susan an Waorani language facilitator and to approve our housing. To find out about Susan´s experience you´ll have to read her blog. As for the housing, Chela found a place a little out of town. It is on the 3rd floor of a concrete apartment building and is in the process of being finished. It is really nice and has two bedrooms and 1,000 square feet. Hardly the jungle hut I was preparing for. There is nothing magical about the place and we are not sure whether PC will fork over the whopping $140/month for rent. We are budgeted about $50 in rent. However, this was the only place Chela found that met PC´s stringent safety guidelines. I will keep you updated on the housing situation.
So this site visit trip has been expensive for our PC budget. PC told us to bring $80-$90 each for our trip. We will end up spending around $360. Most of that is due to the fact that we had to stay in hostels the whole time and that while I was sick in Quito, we had to pay more for our food. However, there was a little bit of indulgence on our part. I figure that for the past six weeks we´ve spent a total of about $300 so it was time to have a little fun.
Yeah, Puyo, this is a must visit town. God, I love this place - the climate, the people, the scenery, the activities, it is awesome. I think Sue and I really lucked out with this assignment. Granted we are going to be working non-stop at our jobs, because our counterparts have big projects, but the trade-off is that we get to live in a paradise. If you were concerned, the bugs are not that bad. The more arm and leg hair you have the better you do - Sue has a few bites, but we haven´t used bug spray yet.
So, I am going to retire to my luxurious room for an evening of lying in bed listening to the rain and creatures of the night. Know that I am thinking of you all and that my mouth is on the mend.
A quick shout out to my parents who managed to get Reese Cups to us in Ecuador. We have polished off half of them already. Another shout out to the rest of you who have sent stuff - my brother Bryan (you and Kelly rock), Rick, and Chris and Sarah. It means a lot to receive stuff from home.
I hope this message has been received well - I have typed it twice now, the first time I was a paragraph from finishing when the power flicked off. Peace for now!!!
Jeremy
Advertisement
Tot: 0.042s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0241s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Chris
non-member comment
Un systemo perfecto!
Au Contraire bonjour! communisim is a perfect system, I have instilled it here at the casa de thomas, and all is working perfectly. Sarah and I each get a rice paddie the same size as the other, and we now share each others clothing too, I recommend trying to spread communism while you are down there, if nothing else it will make for very interesting blogs. just keep mentioning Che guevera down there and it should spread from that...good luck!