Advertisement
Wow, I am ever so busy planning this ¨Festival of Water¨ here in Puyo. Every day this week I am going to different schools to meet with teachers. My job is to arm them with information about the topics of water, water conservation, water quality & quantity, and so forth so they in turn can help their students develop a project to present at the Festival.
The first school I visited is right by my apartment. It was pouring down rain and I walked there at 8:00. I met the principal in his office - he remembered me from last week - Thank God!!! and then asked me to wait. He then sent a student to get the teacher - she came in and he explained right then and there, for the first time, that she had to do this project - then he introduced me. My worst fears realized. I am the jerk who is making her do more work. She wasn´t really thrilled with me and didn´t like my Spanglish. I politely showed her my materials and she made about 20 copies of various things and then asked me to come back in a week. All told, I was there for 20 minutes.
My counterpart, Bolivar, was supposed to pick me up at 9:00 to take me to another school. I had some time to kill, so I walked back to the apartment and put Sue´s stinky jungle clothes into a bucket of soapy hot water to soak (of course I had to heat the water up first - we don´t have hot water from the tap). I knew that if her clothes went another day without being washed they would be mouldy and ruined. Anyhow, after that, I walked back to the school and waited for Bolivar. He showed up at 9:15 and we went to school #2. If the first school was any indication of how the rest of my day was going to go - It was not going to be fun - in fact the next two weeks would suck.
School #2 - Escuela Eduardo Vasconez was awesome!!! I met with three teachers and the principal. They ate up my ideas, they joked around with me and each other. Mario, the science teacher was hilarious. He kept introducing me to everyone and said that they were all single. Then he referred to his single colleague - Loila - a math teacher, as being the president of the school and he was the VP. They really seemed to enjoy their jobs and the people they worked with. After about a half hour, they stopped me and said we are going to go eat. I followed them to the school cafeteria and had lunch with all the teachers. Mario then introduced me to the rest of the staff saying that they were all single. I sadly informed him that I was not single - he was disappointed, but then I showed him that my ring can easily be slipped off my finger and that I could be single as well - he howled at that and then proceeded to tell everyone about it.
We returned to ¨work¨ and I got them fixed on an idea. Their school is going to make models of primary forest, a city, and a destroyed forest and then relate those to the effects they have on water quality. The principal came in and Mario told me that she was not single and then told her that I wasn´t either, but that my ring slips off - making me single. The principal smiled and said that she could do the same and asked if I wanted to change rings and spouses. I didn´t know what to say to that - so I smiled and said, nope, without Sue, I´d rather be single like the rest of the teachers here. Again, Mario howled.
This school brightened my spirits. It reminded me of how much I miss teaching and my fellow teachers back at CHS. We used to have so much fun goofing around. Needless-to-say, I was there for 2.5 hours and I have a feeling their project with be one of the better ones. Even better was the fact that they were so forgiving of my Spanish and for the most part we communicated without problems.
I walked home from the school - about a mile and then washed Sue´s clothes by hand. So far, no rain this afternoon - they just might be dry when I return - Yippee. Simple pleasures I tell you.
In the afternoon, I had a number of ¨walk-ins¨ to the office - Teachers wanting resources - I was running around trying to accommodate everyone - I think I did an ok job of that. Anyhow, tomorrow brings more schools and the U.S. Ambassador. Looks like tomorrow will be more exciting and busy than today was.
Well, I didn´t get much sleep last night - I am not really sure why, but I tossed and turned all night. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I read a week´s worth of editorials and letters to the editor from the Columbus Dispatch and those always fire me up. I honestly think that I could have taken a week´s worth of editorials from 5 years ago and read them and they would have been over the same topics as the one´s I read last night. Gun control, Abortion, Democrats say this.....Republicans say that...blah blah blah. Anyhow, I love reading them, but they always get my brain thinking - and that usually turns into how I would fix things - which turns into maybe I should run for public office - which turns into that would be a waste of my time - which turns into me just stewing over the countless numbers of idiots (both liberal and conservative) who fail, are unable, or are unwilling to see past the ends of their own noses. So....another restless night for Jeremy.
Sue and I got up and met with representatives from U.S. AID and the Embassy in the morning. We met them at the local military hospital where a group of U.S. doctors and nurses are spending a week giving free medical and dental care (which includes a whole bunch of plastic surgery). We then went to Shell to meet the Ambassador as she flew in. She came and we all got into those nice white government SUV´s (though ours was grey) and went back to the hospital where the ambassador gave a short speech and gave certificates to each doctor and nurse.
The Ambassador left the hospital to go to more formal meetings in Puyo - Sue went to the Waorani museum to prepare for the Ambassador´s visit later in the day and I went to visit a couple schools. I had about a two hour block before I had to get back for the meeting with the Ambassador. I called ahead to let the people at Colegio Veracruz know that I was coming. This school is 5 or 6 miles out of town. It started to rain and I caught a bus heading my way. I got off the bus at the school and went in to find the teacher I needed to meet with. Apparently, the office failed to relay my message and he had already left for the day. I looked at my watch and saw that I had an hour to get back and I was 5 miles out of town and no buses were due to come my way for a couple hours. So....I started to walk, hoping that a car or taxi might come and I would be able to hitch a ride. No such luck, I walked for 20 minutes and then debated whether I should jog back - I decided against that, because I was in a sport shirt, pants, and dress shoes and I´d hate to show up to the meeting sweaty and late. At about that time, lady luck came my way. A police car was coming down the road and the officers stopped and asked if I needed a ride. I said yes and they took be back into town.
I was very appreciative of their help and kept thinking whether officers in the States would reciprocate such a favor. I mean, if they saw, let´s say a Latino (well dressed) walking on a rural road - would they drive up and offer a lift? Something tells me no - but they might offer to check his credentials and inquire what he was doing walking down the road. The officers here - simply said that is was a long way back to Puyo and that they would love to give me a ride back. They didn´t ask me where I was from or what I was doing - though I offered that to them once in the car so as to stimulate a little conversation.
Needless-to-say, I made it back in time. I was at the Waorani office by 12:50 and we all proceeded to wait for the Ambassador who was running late and arrived at 2:00. The place was packed with reporters, tv, waorani, ecuadorians, embassy people, and Sue and I. Overall, I think things went well for the Waorani and they showered the Ambassador with gifts. One was a blow gun that the President of Nawe (Waorani Group) told the Ambassador she could use to shoot President Bush with if he came onto their land - everyone laughed at that comment - including the Ambassador. The Ambassador also introduced Susan and I to the entire group of dignitaries which was very nice - kind of makes you feel important. Then she said her goodbyes, did a little photo shoot and left.
Peace,
Jeremy
Advertisement
Tot: 0.216s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.177s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Allison
non-member comment
Sweet!
Wow! That's all I can say... ¡¡¡Disfrútate!!!