Vacation

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Since my last entry, both the Republican and Democratic Conventions have occurred and the NCAA college football season has started - how exciting!?! Life here hasn’t been quite as interesting, however, it has been filled with activity. I do apologize for taking so much time between blog entries these days - it is just that the blog has moved down on the priority list for a number of reasons.

1st - Thanks to all of your support, my Peace Corps Partnership grant was fully funded and my Env. Education guide is on its way to becoming reality. This occupies the majority of my “free time” these days. Instead of writing riveting accounts of my Ecuadorian experience, I pass my time writing activities and lessons to put into the guide.

2nd - When I do actually think of writing the blog, I usually get side-tracked by some meeting or request from Bolivar in the office. I just finished helping him write a rather futile grant proposal for a project to protect primary forests in the area as carbon reservoirs in the hopes that in the future other governments and organizations will pay the land owners not to cut their forests. Great idea, however, we lack the institutional capacity to quantify the amount of carbon stored in the forest and to track all of the deforestion that is occurring. It would be sort of like putting the Granville Police Department in charge of New York City. They know how to do the job (maybe), but 15 policemen just won’t cut it. Anyhow, the 6 week process of writing and revising this grant, echanging emails and ideas with the granter in Holland, all while fighting philosophical difference between me and my counterpart has left me exhausted and annoyed. I have come to realize that a lot of small NGOs write grants simply for the potential funds even when those grants fall outside the realm of their mission or area of expertise. It the idea of get the money first and then try to figure out what to do with it.

Make no mistakes, Bolivar, is a talented grant-writer and Fundacion CODEAMA is a great organization - I just feel that the recent round of proposals is out of our area of expertise and we lack the staff to implement them. I don’t want another Peace Corps Volunteer to fall into my trap of being an “employee” of CODEAMA instead of just a volunteer with that offers technical support and assistance.

3rd - I have had to deal head on with a Peace Corps married couple that has decided to end their marriage (no not Susan and I). A few months ago, I wrote about a trip to Catacocha to visit Whitney and Akul and to work with Whitney and another friend Andrea on our Environmental Education guide. Whitney and Akul are, well were, another star couple. They have both had a tremendous amount of success in with their work. However, through their experience in Ecuador, they came to realize that they should never have been married to each other.

Because I am a good friend of theirs and a member of the Peer Support team, they both felt comfortable calling me when things got “bad.” This really put me in an awkward spot - talking to them both independently without the other one knowing. I did my best not to compromise either of them, nor to try to choose sides. Because of the nature of what “went down” I really cannot comment on the details of the unraveling of their marriage - but I can say that it wasn’t pretty.

Akul first called me on a Thursday to ask if he could talk to me about a Peer Support issue. We chatted and he told me that he and Whitney were not doing well and that they were more like roommates than spouses. They were just going to try to gut it out until their service was over because neither of them wanted to leave country. I gave him words of encouragement and told him to do what was best for him. By Sunday it was over. I returned from a bike ride with Susan to 4 missed phone calls - all from Whitney. I immediately called her back and she said that it was over between her and Akul and that they were headed to Quito to meet with Peace Corps to discuss their options. About 30 minutes later, Akul called to tell me the same thing.

The next two days were spent fielding calls from both of them. It was pretty clear to me and to them, that the marriage had come to a crashing end. I tip my hat to Peace Corps for allowing them both to stay in country and for working out a situation where they don’t have to live and work in the same community. Whitney will now be in Quito working with FONAG which is a huge NGO that works on water and environmental education - Akul will stay in Catacocha.

Peace Corps gave Whitney a week to return to Catacocha to get her things. In the meantime, they told Akul to come down to Puyo to spend the week with Susan and I. It saddens me to see friends end up hurt like this, however, in the long run, I think it is the best option for them.

So Akul came to Puyo on a Tuesday afternoon. Susan was adentro in Menepare doing some work - so we had a little guy time. I was still in the middle of doing my summer camp in the communities and Akul wanted to come and help out.

On Wednesday, Jason Kamisky also came into town to do some fish pond work in the communities. Before we headed out to the communities and to camp, we went with Bolivar and Juan Carlos to see guys farm/property that he wants to put into conservation. We took an hour hike that ended at an awesome secluded waterfall that you had to swim to get to. So, we all stripped down to our skivvies and went for a swim. The waterfall was stunning.

After the hike, we went to Libertad to have camp. Hanging out with fun kids and playing games was exactly what Akul needed to be doing - it helped him forget the mess in his life. Meanwhile, Jason played some games with the kids and then went with the adults to mark out sites for fish ponds. When he was done and camp was over, we started the walk back towards the main highway. Karina from my office was also in Libertad that day giving a workshop on microcredits and community banks. She walked with us. We had a nice chat along the way and at about the halfway point, we were picked up by a passing pick-up truck/taxi.

On our ride back we were treated to clear skies and a view of all three volcanoes and a mysterious new 4th snow covered mountain in the distance - one that I had never seen before. After careful review of the map when we returned I deduced that it was quite possible that we saw Cotopaxi which is the 2nd highest peak in Ecuador and a good 3.5 hours from Puyo. There were no other mountains that are high enough to be snow-covered, at least none that are listed on the map.

I took Akul and Jason out to El Jardin that night for dinner. The two of them kept raving about the food. It actually got annoying that after nearly every bite, Akul would say “oh my god this is so good.” But I was happy to share Puyo’s finest restaurant with them.

Akul and I discovered that Jason had never seen the movie Blazing Saddles so of course we had to watch it and quote it all night long. I ended up letting Jason borrow the movie so that he could end his ignorance.

On Thursday, the three of us headed to Vencedores in the morning with Juan Carlos. The plan was going to be to help out on the construction of a cobertizo, which is a covered area much like a carport, only not for cars - for making organic fertilizers. Anyhow, we started work in the morning. The four of us dug 16 holes for posts, while the community members went out to cut the chonta palms for the posts. We dug the holes in no time at all and then went to help carry the posts.

Let me paint a picture for you. The palm trunks are about 12 feet long and 8 inches in diameter. They weigh about 150lbs. The small indigenous man can carry one all by himself, but it takes two gringos and all their strength to carry one. Holy crap, it was awkward and hard to hoist those above your shoulder and carry it 400 meters along a muddy and uneven trail. Akul and I hoisted one of them , and did really well until we had to cross a small stream. We both bit it and ended up getting muddy and wet. The experience left me in complete awe of these men.

I had seen this ability before. When we had our work trip in Tepapare with the Duke students, Roger, Kris, Jeff, and Mary we saw indigenous people carrying these palm trunks. Even Jeff and Kris who are muscle bound guys with no concept of pain had to carry one together.

My brain wanted to work out some physics law that explained how they could carry these by themselves. However, there are no explanations that hold validity except that these guys are badasses. I know that I have the strength to carry one by myself, but I also know that after about 10 steps my shoulder and neck would be in pain from where the trunk was resting and digging into me.

Anyhow, we got the posts to the site and could work no more, because we did not have the cement and sand we needed to set the posts. Akul, Jason, and I returned to the community center and started up the camp with the kids. We were dead tired and the kids ate us alive. Jason actually fell asleep during one of the activities - yeah, we are great camp counselors. No worries though.

We caught the bus back into town. Jason then went back to Tena and Akul and I went home to make some grilled cheese and drink some beers. Susan got home late that night - which was good, it would give her time to hang out with Akul and it meant that I could go to the office and work on Friday - which is exactly what I did.

Akul and Susan went to the water park on Friday and enjoyed catching up with each other. Akul filled Susan in on the drama of his life and Susan offered some much needed friend support.

We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. Saturday we went to the Dike in Mera to swim and then that evening I cut Akul’s hair - he said he wanted to fresh cut to start over - he was a new person. Sunday he and I went to the market and got some fresh veggies to make a curry dish that evening - Akul is a master at making Indian food - probably because his parents are Indian and he grew up watching his mother make awesome Indian food.

On Sunday we were also graced with the visit of Jason Hensch. He was a volunteer in our group that had to leave country a month into his service due to a medical issue and some poor Peace Corps policies. Anyhow, he was back visiting all of us and came through Puyo.

The next week, he and Akul left to go to Cuenca together. Jason was eventually headed to the coast and Akul was headed back to Catacocha. Susan and I spent the week gearing up for our vacation to the coast . We had a lot of work to get done before taking off for a week’s vacation.

The original plan for this trip was to go to Bahia on the coast and stay in the condo of my former counterpart, Andrea Garzon. It was to be Susan, Akul, Andrea (Peace Corps), Whitney and I. Andrea, Whitney and I were going to use some of the time to work on our EE guide. However, recent developments in the lives of Akul and Whitney turned that plan on its head. Whitney was starting with a new counterpart that week and PC would not let her travel. So we scrapped the EE guide theme and instead the remaining four of us went and invited a few more PC friends to come to Bahia and celebrate Akul’s 27th birthday.

Before going to the coast, Sue and I headed up to Quito to get the keys to the condo from Andrea and to spend a little time with her. We had dinner at her house with Carolina formerly of Fundacion Natura and Christina formerly of Peace Corps. Dinner was good and we spent most of the time talking Ecuadorian politics with the three of them. Being three professional Ecuadorian women from varying backgrounds, they had very interesting perspectives on politics.

Anyhow, that night, Sue and I caught an 11:30pm overnight bus to Bahia. We arrived in town around 8:30am and went straight to the condo. When we got there, we discovered that we had the Penthouse suite with four balconies overlooking the beach. The place was huge and had enough beds and mattresses to sleep 12 people comfortably which means that it could have slept at least 30 Peace Corps volunteers - we have a habit of sleeping 2-4 a bed - sort of like a slumber party when you were say….10.

The place was perfect and we quickly realized that we could host the birthday party for Akul in the Penthouse. Late Sunday morning Akul rolled into town from Catacocha - a 15 hour trip for him. The three of us had lunch and then headed 20 minutes up the coast to Canoa.

When my cousin Shelly was here, we went to Canoa. It is a very small town with a huge beach. A bunch of other PCVs had spent the weekend there so we were meeting up with them. We hung out on the beach and at the bar all day. That evening, half the group was going to stay in Canoa, the other half heard about the “free” Penthouse so they decided to return to Bahia with us. So Susan, Akul, Yvonne, AJ, John, Andrea, Eve (not a PCV, but a friend of one), and I returned to Bahia. We made grilled cheese sandwiches enjoyed the evening view from the balconies and retired to bed.

The next morning, I got straight to work making some cake for Akul’s birthday. Having a real kitchen with real appliances threw me for a loop. How does one actually bake with Pyrex pans and a real oven? It took me a good 30 minutes and a consult from the building maintenance man just to figure out how to light the gas oven. Once accomplished, I baked a carrot cake and a cheese cake.

Andrea and I then went to the grocery store to get some party supplies and some other food. We purchased a large bottle of rum, 5 boxes of mac and cheese (hey this is a real party - nothing but the best for our friends) - spices, bread, chips, etc. etc.

Akul and I discovered an old gas grill in one of the closets and wheeled it out on the balcony. The burner component was gone, as was the tank, however, with a little ingenuity, we quickly realized that we could retrofit it for charcoal. The plan was set - we were going to grill out on the balcony tonight for dinner. As the morning progressed, Kris arrived in Bahia, as did the rest of the crew from Canoa - Elliot, his girlfriend Trinity, Ryan, Dave, and Jason H. In all we had 14 of us ready to celebrate Akul’s birthday.

Early that afternoon, Yvonne, AJ, Eve, and Ryan set out to find sea food and or some type of meet to grill up. Already having made my contribution to the food aspect of the day, I headed to the beach with Kris to throw the Frisbee. The two of us spent about 2 hours tossing the disc. Over the course of the week, I think I spent about 10 hours throwing the Frisbee - by the last two days I could barely even move my arms.

Later in the afternoon, I went with Elliot and Trinity to pick up a few jabas (cases) of beer. By 5:00pm the party had started. We all really had a great time and ended up making shrimp and beef kabaabs with a side dish of mac and cheese. Really, how can you go wrong with that? The other half of the building was another Penthouse owned by the Pedersons - an couple in their 60’s from Denmark who own a sailboat and spend their time either in Bahia or sailing around the world. They were good sports about our party and we offered them food - which they graciously accepted.

The next morning, most of the crew left Bahia to either return to their sites or to explore more of the coast. Akul, Kris, Susan, Andrea, Ryan and I remained. We spent a lazy day watching videos (including the Discovery Channel Planet Earth series that Rick and Melinda sent us). That evening we went out for dinner and continued our relaxing evening.

Wednesday, Ryan left and the rest of us went to Canoa to hang out on the beach. We ran into another American there - that the group had been hanging out with the past weekend. Erin was spending a few months traveling Central and South America. She came to Canoa 8 days ago and had been there since - Canoa does that to you - it just sucks you in.

That evening , Andrea returned to her site in Tabuga while Susan and I had plans of returning to Bahia for a nice quiet evening for the two of us. Kris and Akul were going to try their luck with a couple of Swiss girls they met at one of the beach front bars. By the time Susan and I caught a cab back to Bahia, Kris had struck out so we turned around and picked him up. Akul had run into some other people and wanted to stick around.

We got back to Bahia around 11pm, made some food and then got ready for bed. Just as I got back into bed, Akul came back - not much was going on in Canoa and he didn’t really like the crowd of people he was with. Akul made himself some grilled cheese while Kris and I got into a rather long and empassioned discussion. Actually, Kris talked, I just listened. Partly because he was drunk, partly because he doesn’t get to speak much English in his isolated site - he rambled on and on about a variety of topics - I couldn’t understand much of what he was saying, but wanted to be the good friend, so I just listened to him until I saw a break in the conversation - I then said that these topics were best discussed over a cup of coffee in the morning.

The next morning, Thursday, Kris left for his site, Akul, Susan and I headed out for Tabuga to spend a day with Andrea at her site. On our way past Canoa, we picked up Erin and brought her with us. We got to Tabuga around 2:00pm and had some lunch at one of the two eating establishments in town.
Andrea had been away from her site for a few weeks, so she had a lot of catching up to do with the locals. We followed her around town for a few hours as she chatted with everyone. Late that afternoon, we got a couple of beers and then bought some food to make dinner.

Andrea’s house/room is probably 10 ft x 10 ft. That includes her little kitchen nook. We managed to sleep four in there that night - comfortably I might add - though Akul, Andrea, and Erin had to share a bed.

Andrea is so integrated into her community. It is something that lacks in my service. Because she lives in a town of 400 vs. 30,000 like me, she knows everyone and they know her. People stop by her house all the time, especially kids. It is a little weird at times, when the kids will hang out on her front steps while she is in her room. Even when we were there speaking English - the kids would just sit and stare. I think it would drive me nuts if I had to deal with that 24/7 which she does. I have the utmost respect for Andrea, she embodies everything that it means to be a Peace Corps Volunteer.

The next day we went to the Eco Reserve where she works and took a nice long hike. After the hike we walked to a local farm where they make and sell yogurt and bought a ton of yogurt. Andrea knows the people really well and we were able to see their small processing facility and even helped carry some crates of yogurt to their roadside stand. For these efforts, we were rewarded with a free liter of raspberry yogurt.

That afternoon, we returned to Bahia to spend one more night in the Penthouse. Akul made a curry dish for dinner and we ended up making more grilled cheese and mac and cheese as late night snacks. We attempted to find a dance club that was open, but failed miserably. The only place we found was a club for teens. Of course the young Ecuadorians wanted us gringos to join them in the club, but for me it hit a little too close to home. It would have been like going to a club with my former students - WEIRD!!!
So we returned to the Penthouse and had our own little dance party that evening. The next morning we took advantage of a sunny day to spend our remaining hours on the beach. We all then caught buses in the afternoon to return to our respective sites. Susan and I left town at 3:00pm and with some bad bus luck, didn’t end up getting home until 7:00am the next day. We spent a lot of time waiting in bus stations. Andrea only had a 2 hour trip to Tabuga. Akul had his 15 hour trip ahead of him. I am not sure where Erin was headed, but it was in the general direction Akul was headed so they left together.
Bahia was a success. I must thank Andrea Garzon for the free use of the Penthouse and the relaxing time on the coast. I didn’t do any work on the EE guide (the original reason for the trip) but that is ok - things will work out just fine - Whitney, Andrea, and I have already planned a work weekend for later in September.

Returning to work this week was hard, but I managed to readjust. Monday and Tuesday I spent time reworking a grant proposal with Bolivar - actually, I spent most of my time just being annoyed with him - 6 weeks ago I told him that I didn’t have time to do this, yet he managed to coerce me into spending hours and hours looking up useless stuff about the Kyoto Protocol and some other carbon-trading stuff. I also made another kid’s page for the paper and had a meeting with the staff of the paper to tell them that I was only going to do 3 more pages. I am calling it quits after 60 editions and I told them that they should recycle the pages starting with the first one - this way they can advertise to local teachers about the kid’s page and have a list of all the topics that will appear.

Juan Carlos, Jason K. and I went to the FRATES communities to meet with the people and discuss and plan for our respective projects. We were out there on Thursday - it was a brutally hot and sunny day. At one point I remember thinking that this would go better with a cold beer and I turned to Juan Carlos and said, “do you know what we should do on our way back to town?” He responded, “stop and get some beers.” It was nice to know that we were on the same page. So, we did exactly that. We went to a bar by the river, got some beers and a volquetero (dump-truck ceviche - a famous Puyo dish consisting of fried plantain chips, roasted corn, white beans, a can of tuna, and salsa). It is delicious and something that all visitors to Puyo must try.

Casey, the new volunteer in Puyo came to town this week. She stayed with us most of the week since her host family was not quite ready for her - something about her host father being shot - I don’t know the story, but I will fill you in when I do.

I really like Casey, she is so easy going and fun to be around. Mid-week she took an overnight trip with her counterpart to a town called Arajuno to work on a project. When she returned Friday afternoon, I was sitting in my hammock watching Lord of the Rings. She came in and said, “I love these movies - I watch them all the time.” Now this is a woman that I can respect.

I am glad that the weekend is here. Susan, Matt (other PCV in Puyo), and I plan to check out the Bio Station near Puyo. Sue and I have a plan to visit something new each weekend that have left in Puyo. I will also spend some time this weekend in the office working on my EE guide and checking out sports scores from Ohio State and the Cleveland Browns. Heck, I may even catch up with family and friends on SKYPE.

We did receive a bit of frustrating news though - Sept.27th - 29th we will be on standfast during the Ecuadorian elections which means we can’t leave our sights. This is unfortunate, because our friend Frank from the States is coming on the 25th and it really puts a wrench into our plans with him. We will work it out though.

One interesting thing about the elections is that in Ecuador it is illegal to drink or sell alcohol the day before and the day of the elections. Violators are thrown in jail. I am not sure of the history regarding this regulation - whether alcohol makes you vote poorly, makes you more apt to riot, or makes you not go to the poll and subsequently not vote for the opposition. I’ll research this and let you know what I find.

Until next time………….

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Photos

The swim to the falls
This is where we had to swim into the falls.

The waterfall
This is on the property of the guy who wants to preserve his 400 hectares of forest land.

Frog
This is a frog by the waterfall.

More Simpsons References
This is a nice name for an internet cafe. How creative people are around here.

Ecuador´s Navy
Never fight a water war in Ecuador.

Bahia
Our building is the 3rd highrise from the left.

Canoa
Hanging out on the beach in Canoa.

The Oven
It takes a few PCVs to get an oven working.

Jason and Yvonne
These guys started the dinner making process.

Having Fun on the streets of Bahia
Akul, Andrea and Susan are being goofy in Bahia

Akul on Balcony
This was one of the views from the condo.

Our dinner
This is what we grilled for dinner.

Birthday Cake
My carrot cake for Akul.

The whole gang in Bahia
Here we are in the Penthouse.

Comments

[chris]

Navy
The Ecuador navy is sweet. If I remember correctly, they finished third, in that boat race that John Candy won in the movie 'Summer Rental'.