Apartment 1 Jeremy 0

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Alright, so I have a funny story for all of you, but sad for me. Last night, I returned to my apartment with a few groceries and a light bulb to replace the one that was most likely stolen by my upstairs neighbour. I put the groceries away, opened up a few windows because it was stuffy, and then went out the front door with a chair to put in the new light bulb. It was about the time that I put in the new lightbulb and labelled the bulb with my name, that I realized the door had accidentally shut behind me. No problem, I reached into my pocket for the keys and realized that I had left them on the counter. Well shit, I thought, Sue is in the jungle for 5 days, our landlord gave his only set of keys to us, the spare key is in the apartment and I am locked out at night. Luckily, I remembered that I had opened the front window. The problem is that I am on the second story and there are no places to climb.

As I was pondering my next move, a neighbour in the building next to mine came out with his son to see what was going on. I explained the situation and asked if he had a ladder - though in spanish I said something like, my door is closed and I don´t have keys - do you have a tool that is used to climb buildings. At that time I did not know the word for ladder (escalera). He amazingly understood and said that he didn´t have one. So, I improvised - I grabbed a 55 gallon barrel and jump on top of it. From there, I attemped to haul myself up onto the roof of the shed between our buildings. I got halfway when an unseen nail snagged my favorite pair of pants and ripped a huge hole on the upper thigh - to which I said dammit and another explicative. My neighbours stared in amazement - thinking I was crazy and was going to hurt myself. I then grabbed a 5 gallon bucket, put it on top of the barrel, stood on both and hauled myself up on the roof of the shed.

From the shed to the window there is about a 5 foot wide gap and another 4 feet up to my window. I leaned over and got my hands on the window sill. I knew at this point that I was screwed - I couldn´t get enough of a jump to haul myself up and I don´t have the strength (without footholds or the room to swing) to make it.

My neighbours son said that I needed a board and that he would get one. He handed it up to me and I made a ramp - ok, piece of cake now - nope, the wood was covered in some type of oil or fuel, my feet kept slipping and my torn pants were getting oil stains on them. Finally, I said screw it - I took a running start jumped on the board and then dove through the window and landed on the not so soft tile floor below.

I got up, went back to the window, handed the wood to my neighbour, thanked them, and then introduced myself as a volunteer with Cuerpo de Paz. I told them that our motto is adapt, improvise, and overcome. They agreed that I had done just that. I told them that I would be their neighbor for another two years and that I´d try not to lock myself out again.

Other than that, yesterday and today have been REALLY busy for me. My counterpart with CODEAMA, the Director of Env. Education in Puyo, and I went around to all the schools in the Cantón to invite them to participate in our Festival of Water on June 5th. I met the Directors of 25 different schools and next week have to return on my own to help out the student groups that will be putting together small presentations/projects. It is all very interesting - in the states, something like this wouldn´t fly with the teachers. We went into the schools, met only with the principals (directors) and gave a 3 minute presentation about the Festival of Water and what the expectations were. The directors then agreed to have a student group participate and that was that. Teachers in the states would complain that they didn´t have time (especially since the Festival takes place two weeks before the end of the school year) or that they don´t want to be forced to do it. Here, we had the signature of the Mayor which in Ecuador is like having the signature of the Governor. Think about it, if the Gov. of Ohio invited you to participate in an event that he or she was sponsoring - you´d be hard pressed to say no thanks. We will have to wait and see how I am received when I go back next week. I have a feeling that this will be something that the kids work on for a day and nothing more, but....something is better than nothing.

Also, mark my words, if I return to teaching after the Peace Corps and I ever complain about teaching conditions at my school remind me of this e-mail. Imagine the worst school in the states in terms of the actual building and resources - that building would be the best in Puyo. My visit to all the schools in this area certainly has put things into perspective for me.

Peace,
Jeremy

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Comments

[Greg]

Wrong title
I think that since you got back in, the title should be apartment 1 pants 0. I am impressed, as always, with your resourcefulness Jeremy.

[Quentin]

Spider Man
a tool to climb buildings. language is a great thing isnt it?