Camps and Extranjeros

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Holy cow, I have been crazy busy, but it has been a very good busy - if such a thing exists. Three volunteers, two from Spain and one from Bulgaria came to FRATES a couple of weeks ago to volunteer there and help out with the summer camps I am doing with the kids in the communities. Umberto is here as well.

Ah yes, the summer camp. The idea for the camp came to me as I was planning out the environmental education part of a project CODEAMA has with the three FRATES communities. My original plan was for a short 2-3 day camp in each community. When I got word that two students from Spain (Marc and Minerva) were coming and wanted to help out with the camp, I decided that one week (4 days of camp) in each community would be doable. Then I got word that this student of Umberto’s, Antonia from Bulgaria would be coming as well. Antonia actually arrived first so I shared my camp ideas with her and we both agreed to wait until Marc and Minerva showed up before we set anything in stone.

Mind you, that previously, I had already planned the dates for the camps with the communities and given them a general theme for the camp. When Marc and Minerva came, they turned my camp idea on its head. They wanted to do camp 6 days a week, alternating between communities. To do this, we would have to combine the kids from Libertad (colonos) with those from San Pedro (Indigenous). I told them that I admired their enthusiasm and was open to their suggestions. I also quickly told them that they could plan whatever they wanted as long as they understood that I could only give them 3-4 days a week and that I wanted to do my environmental ed. stuff. I also warned against combining the communities and gave them a run-down of what to expect - low turnout, things starting late, getting kids from ages 1 to 15 instead of our planned 6-12. They looked at me as though I was crazy, but I was confident, my Peace Corps experience has taught me as much.

So with the new plan in place, we only had to sell it to the communities. As expected, they were skeptical of having camp for three weeks and in combining the kids. They were coming up with all sorts of excuses for why their kids shouldn’t participate. Ultimately, I told them that we would be responsible for their children and that it would be a detriment to their kids to keep them from having this experience. They bought it, for the most part. Camp was to begin the following Monday (July 28th).

At this same meeting, Umberto had his much anticipated meeting/showdown with the communities. They have been waiting to talk to him for nearly a year. Sadly, only about 3 people from each community came to the meeting - fairly typical. All of the CODEAMA was there as well. Our plan was to define who is FRATES, who is CODEAMA, what projects we have going on, and what the rules are for participating in the projects. As far as CODEAMA is concerned, the people have little complaints. Their big beef is with Umberto. Somehow, they think that his property, the Center, is theirs and that he is cheating them. It is sad and disappointing that it has come to this. Umberto and his friends have spent a lot of money building the center and providing services to the communities. The problem is that in these parts the line that defines “this facility is for you” and “this facility is yours” can easily be misunderstood. The people here honestly believe that the Center is theirs to do with as they want. It also doesn’t help that Antonio (the guy who runs the facility) is neither trusted nor well-liked by the indigenous people. Pretty much what we are dealing with is a year’s worth of chisme (gossip). It has become a game of he said she said with the truth being nowhere in sight.

CODEAMA has tried its best to stay out of the middle of all this - though we are not without blame. Bolivar tends to take a hands-off approach when he alone could have done a lot to alleviate most of the half-truths. He is a leader in Puyo and people trust him and respect him. To make a long story a little shorter, Umberto had it out with one of the more vocal community members, Carlota, who tends to be an instigator. Most people in the communities will admit, not in the presence of Carlota, that she is the biggest problem. They told Umberto this and he in turn kicked her out of FRATES, based on their comments. The problem is that he did this in the meeting and the few community members that were there did not back him up. Basically he had to eat crow and let Carlota back in since he based his whole argument on what others said. Carlota was hurt and pissed off. She vowed not to participate in any FRATES projects and said that he community wouldn’t participate either. What a great way to start our camp - in her community we were scheduled to start in 3 days and we had no idea what to expect. More about the camp later.

The weekend of the 26th-27th was a nice weekend for Susan and I. We did a little work, but for the most part, just spent some time together. That Sunday we were going to host a new Peace Corps trainee in the Rural Health program. Her site will be Puyo as well. Susan and I are protective of our Puyo and having 3 volunteers here seems to be enough, so we were a little apprehensive upon hearing the news of a 4th volunteer. When Casey came to the apartment, I quickly realized that our worries were without merit. Casey is awesome. She ended up staying the whole week with us since her host family was not yet prepared to host her. We had a blast with her. She has a wonderful personality and she loves to do crafts so she and Susan had a craft night together on Tuesday. Susan really needed a pick-me-up, she has been depressed about her work and about our service (this is all normal in the life of a volunteer) so Casey, with her lively personality came at the same time. Besides the fact that Casey is a great person, she can also quote from all of my favorite movies - a huge plus in my book. Anyhow, she comes to Puyo at the end of August. She will be a welcome addition to PC Puyo.

Back to camp. Day one was the 28th. I took the early bus to FRATES and spent the morning planning with the volunteers. Really, it was their day to plan, my Env. Ed. days are going to be the last two days of camp. At about 10:30am we walked to Libertad to pick up the kids there and take them to San Pedro. We got to San Pedro and it was deserted. This is the biggest community with about 50 kids. After searching house by house we were able to scrounge up about 10 kids from San Pedro. So, Day 1 began with 18 kids (we wanted about 40). Personally, I thought 18 was a good number. All things considered, camp went well, until about 3:00pm when the kids from San Pedro disappeared. We found out later that they left because they were hungry and wanted to each lunch. Hmmmmm minor oversight on our part.

My original plan was to have camp start at 8:00am and go to 12:00pm. Marc, Minerva, and Antonia nixed that and opted for a 12:00pm - 4:00pm schedule. Oh, I had lots of issues with this change, but they were now planning the camp so I went with the flow. Among my issues, the afternoon bus leaves Puyo at 1:00pm and gets to the communities at 2:00pm. This means that for me to do camp I have to take the 6:15am bus and sit around for 5 hours each day before camp. It also means that when camp is done at 4:00pm I have to either walk back to the highway (7 miles up hill) or wait until the bus headed for Puyo comes by at 6:15pm. Had camp been at 8:00am I could take the early bus and get there at 7:15am each day, eliminating a 5 hour wait. But, this camp isn’t about me, it is about the kids and after all, I was getting free help from the FRATES volunteers. The trade-off was worth it, or at least it has been thus far.

Marc and Minerva work with youth camps back in Spain so they have tons of experience to draw on. They have been a godsend in relation to this camp. Antonia has a lot of energy and brought a duffle bag full of crayons, paper, paints, markers, glue, etc. Between the four of us, we had all the makings of a great camp.

Day 2 of camp was in Vencedores. Of the 24 kids we had 16 show up. We were very happy with this. The problem, however, was that the majority of the kids were in the 2-4 year-old range. This age group is very hard to deal with. Between kids dropping their drawers and crapping in the middle of camp and kids with a 20 second attention span we had our work cut out for us. Inexplicably, the kids in Vencedores seem to enjoy hitting each other for no apparent reason. I was somewhat stunned at how violent they were with each other. Every “fun” game we played involved multiple kids more intent on tripping or punching other kids. It very much reminded me of the days I used to spend playing with my neighbors. Whenever I wanted to change the game I usually had to withstand a barrage of bites and punches. Thankfully, these kids were all tough as nails. One was running full speed in a game and was clotheslined - he did a flip and landed on his back. Instead of crying or looking for attention, he got up did a quick check to see that he was intact and then proceeded to hunt down his assailant and pile drive him into a puddle. The second kid just laughed as he spat mud out of his mouth.

Day 3 of camp was in Libertad. I went with Antonia in the morning to meet with the parents in San Pedro to convince them that it was ok for their kids to attend camp in Libertad. This was the plan, one day in San Pedro the next in Libertad. The problem again is that we were combining colonos with indigenous. The mothers said it was fine and that they were excited for their kids to attend a free camp. So Antonia and I attempted to get the kids to camp, but we couldn’t find any. This is the problem in general with San Pedro. They really have no motivation to participate in any projects. They will tell you how excited they are, but as soon as you try to do something, they don’t come or don’t participate. Like parents like kids. The few kids we did find said that they didn’t want to go. We talked with the moms again and they said they would send their kids.

As you can probably guess we had zero kids from San Pedro show up for camp - shocking. Camp in Libertad went well though. The kids from Libertad are enthusiastic about camp. Every time I see them they shout my name and come running to greet me. It is really an awesome feeling.

All this work in the communities has me doing a lot of walking. I figure that I am probably walking 50-60 miles a week. Sadly, my two dog friends have not accompanied me on my walk. Instead I have to battle with the same 5 dogs everyday that seem to hate me. You would think that after passing by some 20 odd times, I would become a regular and that they would sense that I pose no threat. This past week I did something that I am neither proud nor ashamed of. I was walking by this group of houses that has 3 particularly annoying dogs when one of them decided I might taste good. I fended him and his pals off with a barrage of rocks and a stick. After a couple of minutes we called it a draw. Their owner came out and they seemed to be content with “driving” me off - little did they know that I had no intention of staying there. About 5 minutes later I heard the distinct sound of an animal/dog running on gravel. The sound was growing louder and I knew that it was fido, coming to have the last word or bite. Without really looking, in one motion I scooped up a rock, spun around, and threw it. I hit the dog right on the head - he yelped and then fell to the ground motionless. I turned back around and continued my walk to the highway. For you dog lovers out there (I am one as well), when I returned the next day I saw the dog. So I didn’t kill him, I just knocked him out. The dumb dog didn’t learn his lesson he came at me again - just when I thought I was becoming the dog whisperer or silencer depending on how you look at it.

Last weekend, Susan and I headed to visit Susan BC (our PC friend) in her site in Guaranda. Guaranda is about 4-5 hours from Puyo and very close to Chimborazo (the highest mountain in Ecuador). The trip was not all that enjoyable since I had to stand on the bus for most of the ride on a bus that was designed for people with a maximum height of 5 foot 2.

Guaranda was a nice town of 20,000 people. It was exceptionally clean as compared to Puyo and it had a really nice coffee shop. Susan, Susan and I enjoyed a fine coffee and snack on Saturday afternoon as we waited for another Volunteer, Mo, to show up. When Mo came, we decided to go to the store to get some stuff to make dinner and to get some spirits.

I volunteered myself to make dinner. Basically, I cooked up any and all veggies that were in Susan’s apartment, mixed it with rice and a soup mix and made some type of nameless casserole. As I was cooking the girls were playing speed scrabble and drinking a peach, strawberry, rum concoction. After dinner we played some more scrabble and then decided that we needed to get some ice cream. We stood outside of the corner market looking at the Pinguino Ice Cream sign for a good 10 minutes debating which ice cream cake would be best. We settled on one and took it back to the house. How lovely, I miss eating ice cream. I can get it in Puyo, but rarely do. A good cone runs you $1 - which in Peace Corps $ is expensive. $1 here is 10 tomatoes; 2 lbs of flour; 20 bananas; 5 avocados; 4 bottles of water; or 1 gallon of diesel gas. Anyhow, after dessert, the girls put in the movie Juno and watched it on Susan BC’s 7inch portable DVD player. The four of us were having a slumber party. Susan and Susan shared the bed, while Mo and I slept on the floor. It was not the most comfortable night, but you can’t complain when you are with friends and it is free.

The next morning we left the house at 7 and caught a bus to Salinas. The ride was a little over an hour. Salinas is famous in Ecuador for its Cheeses and Chocolate. Yeah, Susan was really excited, two of her favorite things. The only disappointment with Salinas was that on Sunday’s most everything is closed. However, we were able to buy some quality cheeses, like Gruyere (1 kg for $7.50) and an Oregano white cheese. Susan stocked up on some good chocolates and also purchased a hand-made alpaca wool sweater. Somehow, when we arrived back in Puyo we realized that in just over 24 hours we spent close to $120 - most on cheese and chocolate, but it was completely worth it.

Monday, I got up early to go to camp again. When I got to FRATES, nobody was there. Umberto took all the workers and the volunteers to Banos for the weekend. I was not too alarmed, so I sat outside on a bench, pulled out the laptop and typed up 3 Env. Ed. activities for my guidebook. I have been in the habit of taking the computer with me during camp, because I have 4 hours to kill each morning and I have about 40 activities to write for the guidebook. I have become quite adept at getting activities done. Because I received permission from various other groups that have already made EE guides, I can use their ideas, modify them for Ecuador, add my own twist, and at times translate into Spanish - this means I don’t have to start from scratch with every activity.

Monday, after camp, I did my normal walk back to the main road. I got there at 5:20 and just missed the bus that passes at 5:15. So, I had to wait around for another hour for the next bus, or hope that a passing car would pick me up. I didn’t mind the wait this day, because 5 guys working on paving the road to FRATES were waiting there too and they provided me with a lot of entertainment. First, the provincial government put up a huge sign by the road advertising the paving project - this billboard consisted of a real photo taken of the road to FRATES with houses and trees on either side of the road with the road paved - to show everyone what it will look like. Well, as you can guess, these construction workers were downright puzzled. They would look at the sign, then look at the unpaved road in front of them, then back at the sign again. One of them even said, what happened to the asphalt? They honestly could not grasp the fact that the photo was doctored to include asphalt. While waiting I also watched one of them spend 5 minutes trying to kill a tarantula that must have had more than 9 lives. Every time this guy hit the spider with the stick he had, the spider would lunge forward - the spider took a beating before it finally succumbed to death. The guy proved to his 4 buddies that he is neither a hunter nor brave.

That night Antonia, one of the volunteers from FRATES was staying with us. She had some things to do in Puyo. Last week the two Spanish volunteers stayed with us. Susan and I are starting to run a hostel here in Puyo. We also had three couch-surfers this week. If you are not familiar, couch-surfing is a new website where you can sign up and other space for free to travelers. A couch or a bed for them to crash on. So we had a guy from Poland for two nights and then two women from Switzerland two other nights. There is a whole system for rating people, both hosts and surfers so you can weed out the crazy ones - or at least you can in theory. The concept is great. We have now hosted 5 couch-surfers from 4 different countries. It is a great way to meet interesting people and Susan and I will probably be surfing when we travel after our Peace Corps service.
The next day, I was back out at camp. It rained hard all morning and we had fears that we would not be able to cross the river to Vencedores. Our fears were met - the river was running high and was probably chest high. I crossed it once this way, but had the assistance of community members to tell me where to go. Now, it was just us gringos. I recommended that we walk up to the next community and cross the river where there is a bridge. We did that and then enjoyed a 30 minute hike on the muddy trail on the other side.

Camp was fine, we played games and drew pictures with the kids. Time flew by because we had to start camp an hour later than normal. When we left, we decided to cross the river instead of walk on the trail. The river had gone down a bit and was now only waste deep. Normally, I wouldn’t have even worried about falling in, but I was carrying my laptop in my backpack. One wrong step and there goes our computer and our source of evening DVD entertainment. I am deft at river crossing now - I have done this about 15 times now, so I made it across without incidence. Mark however, took a spill, but came up laughing. Minerva was wearing big rubber boots - bad idea once those fill with water it is like trying to walk in wet cement.

Wednesday and Thursday I passed time in the office working on the kids pages for the paper and on my EE guidebook. I like my time out in the campo in the communities far more than my time in the office. However, I do like the fact that on office days, I can drink coffee, I wake up an hour and a half later, I get to eat lunch, and I feel like I get a lot more accomplished. Lately the problem with the office has been Bolivar. He has been working on a bunch of grant proposals and he seems to think that I have nothing better to do than spend hours, or in some cases days, working on them with him. I despise this kind of work and have yet to understand why he reels me in to help. Even if I tell him that I don’t want to work on it, I don’t have time, etc. etc. he finds a way to get me involved. I am a sucker, I usually cave in and help. Let me draw you a picture of how this works. He and I sit next to each other, he has the laptop in front of him and uses the hunt and peck method of typing, he is reading what he has written in Spanish while I am trying to listen and read at the same time. By the time he gets done reading a page I have only managed one paragraph, he moves on and then asks me what I thought. I give him some basic answer like - wow Bolivar this part is great or sounds good to me - etc. He is pleased and we repeat on the next page. This goes on for hours. One time, I decided not to play. Instead of responding to his questions, I just remained silent intent on the screen. I completely zoned out. I think I might have been thinking about drinking a Guinness with my feet up on while on a reclining chair. After, I kid you not, 1.5 hours of this, he got the picture and said we could work on it later. I said sure and then bolted out of the office for the day. I am learning!!!

Friday, I was back out for camp. This time, I did not go to FRATES first, so that meant that I could sleep in. I worked a couple of hours in the office and then headed out on a Macas bound bus. I hopped off the bus at the road to FRATES and walked an hour and a half to Libertad for camp. I brought some rope with me today and I made jump ropes for all the kids. I taught them how to cross their hands to jump rope like Rocky Balboa - they got a kick out of that, but none of them could do it. We also did a three legged race, followed by a four, five, and six legged race where you tie the legs to people together and then try to run in unison. After that we had a good match of tug-o-war. Amazing what 20 meters of rope can do. After camp, I walked back to the main road and waited at the bus stop. This time another guy was waiting - he was fairly friendly - we talked about Puyo, the weather, etc. etc. then he asked me for $0.25 so he could buy some puro (moonshine). I said no. He asked why not. I said that I don’t give money out so people can buy alcohol with it. He then asked if he could have $0.25 to buy some crackers. I looked at him, smiled, and said no again. He then called me the equivalent of Asshole. As if calling me that would magically change my mind. Ah yes, I have reconsidered your request, now that I am an asshole I will give you that $0.25. I just told him that he wasn’t getting my money. He then ranted in Kichwa and Spanish about me - I laughed and asked him if that was the best he could do - that my former students called me much worse. He started in again, but a car came by and I hopped in. An interesting end to a busy week.
A quick thanks to all of you who donated to my EE guide project. I have met my original funding goals. However, if you still want to donate, you can do so. Each additional $20 I get will give another teacher the training and resource materials to implement EE into their classroom. You can also donate to Susan’s project that provides scholarships to Ecuadorian girls so that they can attend high school.

Another thanks to my former band - CHHF - who put on a fund-raising show at Dick’s Den last Wednesday. They raised over $800 for Susan and I.


Peace,
Jeremy

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Photos

Showdown with Umberto
The much anticipated meeting - that so few came to.

Salinas
Susan, Mo and I in Salinas

Salinas 2
The sun was shining in Salinas - though it was still a little cold.

A Tired Burro
The poor guy spent the morning hauling milk to the cheese factory.

Llamas Too
Even the llamas have to haul milk.

The Camp Team
This is Mark, Minerva, Andrea (antonio´s wife), me and Antonia.

Camp in Libertad
Beatriz, Ana, and Ines at camp.

Camp in Libertad
Alex is the youngest participant in Libertad. He also clings to me like saran-wrap.

Camp in Libertad
Ana and I having fun at camp.

Camp in Vencedores
Kids playing games in Vencedores.

Funny drawing
The kids drew this on the white board at camp. It depicts me coming into town telling them that we have camp.

Comments

[Mary]

tagged
Love the camp photos . . . and I just tagged you :) See the game rules on my blog.