The Damn Dam Revisted

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Last week I returned to the dam project with my Peace Corps friend Jason. The plan was for Jason to give a workshop/talk about fish-farming which is a very popular activity in these parts. Fish-farms provide food security and a source of income for a lot of poor rural families. So Jason was giving his fish talk and I was tagging along because they wanted me to give a presentation on the environment and ecotourism.

Jason came in on Sunday afternoon, Sue was on her way back from the Gender and Development Committee’s - Camp Alma. You will have to read her blog to get more details on that. Anyhow, when he came in we went over our notes and planned out our workshop for the next day.

Sue finally returned around 9:00pm - she was exhausted from a 12+ hour trip and Jason and I were tired and had to catch a 6:00am bus the next morning - so we all went to bed relatively early.

The next morning Jason and I walked down to the main road to catch the bus. It didn’t come at 6:00, it didn’t come at 6:15 or 6:30. We were freaking out because it would cost $20 to take a truck there and neither of us wanted to pay that, especially since we are doing this project as a secondary project - which means that it is not an official part of our PC work - we just want to help out, which is exactly what Peace Corps is all about.

I went back to the house to get some more cash to pay for a truck if we needed it, as I was walking back to the main road, I saw our bus. We managed to catch it and were on our way. When we got to the community, the community president told us that the bus leaves the terminal at 6:30, which means that it passes my street around 6:45, which it did. Too bad he told me just the day before that the bus left at 6:00 - oh well, we were there.

We had to wait around for a few hours before our workshop began so we decided to check out the dam. As expected, the dam damn was no longer working and was broken again, this time in a new part. At least Jason and I can say that it was not our fault since they didn’t follow any of our suggestions or our design plan. I feel sorry for them and they seemed to be taking it well. I even detected a few times when they were laughing at themselves for screwing up.

Jason gave his presentation and did a hell of a job. The community members asked a lot of questions and were actively participating - this is a sure sign of success in these parts. My presentation went well enough, however, I was at the end of the workshop and they were all a bit shell-shocked at this point by the wealth of great info that Jason gave them. None-the-less it went well and they were very appreciative of the fact that we came on our own time, for free, to help them out.

Each time we go out there, they ask us for money for various projects - it makes me feel uncomfortable because I can’t be in the habit of giving them money and I don’t have it to give, however, what they want it for is more than worthy. This time they asked if I had an money or knew of a source that could pay to send their teenagers to high school. It costs about $70/year. They also wanted money to help with their dam project and to buy some water tanks to catch rain water. It really makes you think long and hard about the things you buy in the States. I could go out to dinner and the movies in the States and it would cost as much as one year’s education here. I could buy a new pair of running shoes in the States and it would cost the same as a 200 gallon water tank here. Perspective - my whole experience here in Ecuador has been about Perspective.

Life in the office is chugging along. I am still procrastinating on certain projects, as expected, and kicking butt on others. Bolivar and I went to Quito last Friday to sign some paperwork for the Peace Corps vehicle CODEAMA is buying and to sign some papers for a USAID grant that we got for new computer equipment in the office.

Bolivar has been planning the Feria de Puyo - which is the equivalent of a fair back home. He has been working with the Municipio everyday for the last month. However, because of his hard work, he was able to secure us a municipio vehicle and a driver to take us to Quito. The plan was that he and the driver would pick me up at 3:00am in front of my apartment. I am a smart guy, I’ve been in Ecuador long enough to know that there was no way on God’s green Earth that they would be on time. However, it is nearly impossible to override my internal wiring - I am a punctual person by nature and hate being late. Instead of doing the logical thing and sleeping an extra half hour or so, I got up at 2:30 and went outside at 5 til 3 to wait for Bolivar.

It just so happened that it was pouring outside - a true torrential rain. I found a spot under a roof overhang that kept me dry enough. I also happened to see a really cool tree frog that was clinging to the same wall I was leaning against. The two of us passed the time together - he wasn’t much of a talker and I think that I eventually bored him because he hopped away without so much as saying, adios.

I waited until 3:45 when they finally pulled up. Bolivar asked if I had been waiting long - I smiled and said “are you kidding, you guys were right on time.” He smiled and said, “Jeremy, I know you and I know you were here at 3:00.” We conversed a bit about the concept of “ecuatime” and that you are never really late for anything here in Ecuador. Ironically, given my personality, I don’t really care about waiting around for people here or when meetings start late - I hope this is something I take back to the States with me. I do, however, still get upset when I am late. I don’t think I will ever change that personality trait. Some, like my wife, may call it a flaw, however, I am proud to be punctual and it is what makes me, well….me.

The trip to Quito was mildly uneventful. Most of the way was in the dark and Ivan, our driving was jamming the tunes, which just so happened to be an 80’s mix of US music. He bought a MP3 cd of music (250 songs) for a dollar. You gotta love those prices here. This was a cd that could be best described as a mix of every tv advertised music mix imaginable. You know of what I speak, the late night TV where they advertise the 2cd box set of 80’s love songs blah blah blah. I told Ivan that I wanted to make a copy of the cd, it really was good. I am also amazed that the MP3 format can fit 250 songs on one cd and that his car cd player could play it.

When we got to Quito we ran into a bit of a snafu. The main cloverleaf in the highway - the one that connects all roads into and out of Quito collapsed a few weeks back due to a sinkhole. Luckily I brought a map, unluckily, Bolivar and Ivan felt that they could negotiate Quito by site. We kept turning down roads and going in circles. I kept telling them that I knew how to get to the Peace Corps office - they didn’t listen though. I think that it must have had something to do with National pride. How could a gringo from the States know their capital city better than they.

Silly guys, they came up against the second of my wonderful personality/mental traits - I am never lost and have a great sense of direction. This trait could be proof that I was adopted by my parents or perhaps it skips generations. Finally they listened to me and I got them to the Peace Corps office - right on time.

We signed our papers and took a look at the vehicle that Peace Corps is selling to us. It is a 2003 Toyota Landcruiser with 88,500 km. We are getting it for a great price, I’d tell you that price, but then you’d complain that your government is wasting money blah blah blah. Let’s just say that CODEAMA is paying what it can afford and that the addition of a vehicle to CODEAMA will extend its outreach and greatly improve its efficiency.

Bolivar was beside himself when he saw the vehicle. His eyes lit up and he kept thanking everyone - the man was truly pumped. I was surprised too. This whole vehicle process has been a pain in the ass. The PC Ecuador director started the process back in September by telling Bolivar at a meeting that he would sell us an old vehicle for cheap. Since then I have been the person in the middle and have ridden the rollercoaster of misunderstandings. We went from getting a vehicle, to none are available, to getting it again, to PC telling us that our proposal and amount we could afford was not sufficient, to none are available, to wait for a few months so we can give you one of the better ones, to we have one for you, but it has broken windows, high mileage, and dents, to we are selling you the best one in our fleet. So, we somehow managed to get the best one in the fleet. We are picking it up in a few weeks - woohoo!!!

After signing papers and chatting with various PC staffers at the office, we went to the USAID office on the other side of town to sign some more papers for our grant for computer equipment. Again, Ivan and Bolivar pretended to know where they were going and failed to take my advice. We turned a 15 minute cross-town trip into a 30 minute trip with a lot of circles thrown in. I equate this to driving around a mall looking for a spot closest to the store you want to go to, however, not knowing where in the mall that store is. I finally told them to park and that we could walk where we needed to go in 5 minutes.

The USAID office is very unassuming and has high security. The woman who gave us the paperwork was not very nice and seemed put off that we were disrupting her day for 5 minutes to sign papers. We signed the papers and walked out, Bolivar immediately said, “man, she was cold wasn’t she.”

At about that point, I got a call from Matt Bare. He is the new volunteer in Puyo that is replacing Katie - though he is officially working for a different counterpart than she did. Anyhow, the new group swore in on Thursday and he was headed to Puyo. We offered him a ride with us. This meant that we had to return to the Peace Corps office to pick him up. You’d think that we would go back the way we came, however that would have been far too easy. Instead, Bolivar said that he had a new way to go - much faster. So…..30 minutes later we got to the Peace Corps office and picked up Matt.

The ride back to Puyo took about 7 hours (normally a 4.5-5 hour trip) because of a variety of things. First, getting out of Quito was a hard to do traffic, Bolivar’s poor sense of direction screwed us countless times, we stopped for lunch, ice cream, to pick up animal feed for a project in Puyo, and a short sight-seeing trip into downtown Banos for Matt. Either way, we made it and dropped Matt off at his new home. Sue met us there with the keys. Matt is moving into Katie’s old place. The family below was so excited to see him and their little girl kept calling him Katie.

Saturday Sue and I both went into work to get some necessary things done. That afternoon, our friend Roger was came into Puyo to spend a couple days with us. It was so great to see Roger. He was coming off of a month of being sick, but said he was feeling better. We went to dinner at El Jardin and spent most of the day and evening talking shop about Peace Corps. Roger is planning to extend for a 3rd year when the time comes and is even contemplating making Peace Corps a long term thing in his life - going from assignment to assignment. I wish him the best of luck if he does it and admire his sense of adventure at age 52.

Sunday we went to the market in town and bought a mountain of fresh veggies and fruits. I made dinner that night and Susan made a great fruit salad. We invited Matt to come over as well for a welcome to Puyo dinner. The four of us had a great time chatting. Matt was giving us his PC perspective and us 1-year vets were telling him how it really was.

The next morning, Roger left to return to his sight and Sue and I started yet another week of work. I have a lot to get done in the next couple of weeks. I have to make enough kids pages to last me through May since I’ll be going into the jungle for two long work trips in coordination with one of Susan’s projects. I also have to get some work done on the Environmental Education guide - I have been procrastinating on this one for far too long and I have a planning meeting in Quito at our 1 year mid-service training.

Monday afternoon, our PC friend Becca came to Puyo with her friend from the States. They wanted to go out to stay at FRATES and see the waterfall out there. I hooked her up with Antonio and got them to the bus stop. They were going to spend Monday night out there and then come back to our place on Tuesday night.

Susan and I fell behind on our laundry, since we have had a lot of rain lately and no dry time on the weekends to do the wash ourselves. So, we decided to take our laundry to a new 4-hour place that just opened up in town. They charge 30 cents a pound, which is a good price and the 4 hour time was the kicker for Sue. We took everything, including our sheets. This was against my better judgement, but in Ecuador, you try everything at least once. We dropped the stuff off and they said it would be two hours - well we wouldn’t be walking back this way for another 5 hours so we thought no problem. 5 hours later when we came our laundry was not done. They said it needed 10 minutes more to dry - Sue said “10 minutes, that’s all.” They said, “ok, 20 minutes.” I then said that we would return in 30 minutes. Sue and I crossed the street and had a couple of beers while we waited - this gave us a chance to shoot the bull about our days.

After 30 minutes we returned and they still were not done, though they said some of it was done, including our sheets. So, they gave us a bag of our clothes and told us to return tomorrow for the rest. We got home and discovered that our sheets were indeed NOT in the bag. Susan was a little pissed off, I just had that feeling of - I should have known better.

We returned the next day and picked up the rest of our clothes and sheets. No worries - in PC you learn to adapt to anything and if we can’t go one night without sheets on our bed then we have no business being PC volunteers.

Tuesday, Becca returned from her trip to FRATES and raved about her stay. She and her friend absolutely loved it. This made me feel great. They said that Antonio did a great job hosting them.

That night we made another dinner and had Matt over again. The new volunteer in Macas, Tracey was also in town for a training session so she came over as well. I made my Mexican Lasagna, Sue’s favorite, and a cheesecake. Sue made both a salad and a fruit salad, and Becca made this awesome cauliflower and garlic dish. We ate well and chatted late into the night.

Today, I am sitting at FRATES typing up this blog on my laptop. Karina, Juan Carlos (the new Agriculture Project Coordinator at CODEAMA - he replaced Yadira) and I are supposed to give a talk/workshop with the three communities. Nobody has come yet, the meeting was supposed to start at 8:00 and it is now 9:30 - they are not late though - nobody is ever late - they arrive exactly when they mean to arrive.

I am glad that I brought the laptop, it is allowing me to get some important stuff done - like updating all of you on my life. Until we actually get the PC vehicle that we bought, every trip to FRATES involves getting on a 6:15 bus, giving a one or two hour presentation, and then waiting until 3:00pm for the return bus. You always have to bring something to occupy your time.

Until next time,
Jeremy

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Comments

[Greg]

Promptness is relative
Jeremy, since we share the same "genetic" need to be on time and to know where we are going, maybe we were adopted from the same parents? Then again, maybe we inherited our promptness from mom and our sense of directions from, um..., er.... grandpa?