Jungle Part II and being Sick

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Dog Karma - yes, you read that right, Dog Karma. I seem to have it right now in full force. A couple of weeks ago, right after my blog about the neighborhood dog becoming my buddy, I experienced yet another round of good dog vibes.

I was out at the FRATES communities giving presentations at the local schools about the state of Ecuador’s environment. It was an overcast, slightly rainy day; I had just given a presentation to the kids in El Porvenir and was walking the 25 minutes or so down the road to the turn off for Vencedores. The week before, I came to Vencedores to speak with the teacher. On this trip I had to wade across the river (waste deep in places) with my backpack and computer held high above my head. Given the fact that it was raining today, I figured the same was in store for me - only this time I also had CODEAMA’s LCD projector to lug as well.

As I reached the turn-off to Vencedores, I stopped dead in my tracks. There were three dogs blocking the path. The one closest to me, started to growl and show its teeth. He then ran towards me barking. I got into a protective stance with CODEAMA’s projector between me and the dog. The dog proceeded to run right by me and down the road as if I was not even there. How odd this was. I walked towards the two remaining dogs ever so cautiously. They came up to me, gave a sniff and then seemed to lead me towards the community - if I stopped, they stopped. If I walked they walked. Was this a test? Was I being led into some weird dog trap? I mean I did just read Call of the Wild, the dogs in that book seemed to be rather cunning.

The three of us made it across the river and to the school. I set up for my presentation and while I was giving the presentation, the dogs laid down, one on either side of me. At the time, I remember thinking, “damn this is weird.” After the presentation, I said goodbye to the teacher and students, packed up my stuff, and then glanced at the two dogs. They were just staring at me wondering what we were going to do next. I simply said vamos (let’s go) and they got up and we walked out of the community.

By the time we reached the river, the rain has caused it to rise a little and I was unsure of making it across without getting really wet. I looked at one of the dogs and said, “well what are we going to do now?” I said it in English - I just wanted to see how far this dog karma thing would go. The dog proceeded to pick a path for me across the river. I know you think I am completely wacked out on malaria meds, but I am serious. It would find a shallow spot, wait until I got there, then move to find another spot. If a spot was too deep, the dog would return to where I was and start again.

We made it back to the road where I was prepared to say goodbye to my new found pals. Instead, the dogs decided to follow me. Together we walked the 11km (7 miles) to the main highway. The dogs walked ahead of me and anytime the road curved and I lost sight of them, I would come to find them minutes later looking back waiting for me. We passed two other packs of dogs on our walk. Both packs full of barking mean dogs. My two pals ran the gauntlet through these dogs and blazed a path for me. If any dog barked at me or even made a menacing growl, one of the two would step between.

I felt bad that I didn’t have any food to give them except for one piece of bread. I split the bread into three pieces, one for each of us, and gave it to them at the midway point. I think they were expecting steak, but they didn’t let on that they were at all disappointed.

We finally made it to the main highway. I sat at the bus stop while the two dogs rested at my feet. When a bus came along, both dogs tried to get on the bus with me. I don’t know what I did to deserve such devotion from two random dogs, but whatever it was, was obviously well received by the head dog dispensing dog karma.

I got back to Puyo and headed to the office to get a few more things taken care of before we headed out on the next Waorani trip. Our friends Kris and Roger were on their way into town and I knew that I would have a busy night catching up with them and packing.

I put the finishing touches on my revised Peer Support report for my PC boss Cisco. I was going to send it to him on Tuesday morning and then conveniently disappear into the jungle for a week. Roger and Susan both wrote letters to include with the Report. I had low expectations that any of it would make any difference. I had been receiving a steady flow of feedback from Volunteers. It appears that most everyone has a negative view of our Country Director. Some Volunteers sent me some scathing critiques, some sent constructive feedback, and some just sent their condolences to me for being in the shitty position I was in.

Tuesday rolled around, we all went to Susan’s office to load up the bus. I went to my office to send my report and to tie up the last of the loose ends before heading adentro. It was such a nice feeling to send my report to Cisco knowing that I wasn’t going to have to think about this crap for at least another week.

After a couple hours of packing and organizing, we were on our way. The bus was filled with Duke students, Waoranis, Susan, Kris, Roger, and I, as well as a photographer from the States. We were packed to the gills with food and supplies.

At the halfway point, Puerto Napo, we stopped to get a snack and to pick up Jeff (the PCV from El Chaco) and Mary Fifield (from Global Pediatric Alliance). They were coming adentro with us. We got to Menepare around 3:00pm and unloaded all the gear. Some of it we hauled down to the river to go on a canoe to Tepapare that night. Unfortuantely, the Duke students were more interested in setting up their tents than they were in helping load the stuff onto the canoe. So, the PCVs in the group, and Mary, took care of hauling the stuff down to the river. This will be a recurring theme in the trip. PCVs doing the grunt work as Duke students ponder the finer points of life, play guitar, or just sit around watching the PCVs do work.

That night, was a relaxed night in Menepare. We ate dinner, played some guitar, chatted and then went to bed. The next morning we packed up camp and headed down to the river to load the canoes with the rest of the gear and with all of us. Somehow, Jeff and I got the short end of the stick. We got into a canoe and had nothing to sit on. So we grabbed a couple of buckets and flipped them over to rest our buns on. What we discovered, or at least what Jeff discovered, is that two hours of sitting on a small plastic bucket makes your nuts go numb. The poor guy looked at me at one point during the trip with a most alarmed and painful look. I asked him what was wrong and he only said, “nuts, numb, not right, hurts” he then got off the bucket and crouched the rest of the way to Tepapare, thus liberating his nuts and restoring feeling to his manhood.

When we arrived in Tepapare, around 11:30am, it was a wonderfully sunny day. We unloaded the canoes and set up camp. The Duke students and the photographer set up in the school house. The PCVs and Mary set up in the teachers house (there has not been a teacher in Tepapare in months). Kris, Susan, Jeff, and I then began the arduous task of hauling water for the bathroom and water for cooking. The water for cooking was being hauled about a quarter mile from a small stream. Kris, Jeff, and I made this trip multiple times every day, notice I only said Kris, Jeff, and I. Yes, we would get up at 6:00am and haul water for breakfast, then again at lunch, then after lunch, then for dinner, etc. etc. I think certain members of our group just thought that the water fairy came every night and delivered water while they were sleeping. Now to be fair, there were a few times when other people hauled water. Mary carried her fair share, Susan hauled enough water to make the King and Studer clans very proud, Roger was seen hauling water. Hmmmm, did I leave anyone out?

Now, again, to be fair, some of the Duke students took it for the team and did the majority of the cooking for the whole group. This was no easy task, cooking for 40+ people everyday over a camp fire that was only big enough for two pots at a time. I was pleasantly surprised at the creativity and ultimately the taste of the food we had on this trip. I never knew there were that many things you could do with rice and pasta. Team Duke, mainly Katherine and Cammy were fantastic. Mary joined in on this cooking team towards the end of the trip and was an excellent edition.

Again, my job, when it came to food, was making the guacamole each day. I mean, I had other tasks (hauling the f---ing water) and I did my fair share of cooking as well, but the majority of the cooking was done by the three ladies mentioned above. I tip my mildewy, stinky hat in their direction - they were goddesses on this trip.

My general job on this trip was to be the team leader for the eco-toilet group. I was responsible for getting a toilet completed in Tepapare before we left. This task was challenging, frustrating, and downright humorous at times. Because we were making the floor out of cement, we had to get it poured the very first day we were there so it would have enough time to cure (using a ferrocement technique you need 7 days, we were going to push the envelop and move the floor in 4+ days). To make things more interesting, I was modifying the design as well using metal wires of a smaller gauge. Secretly, I was betting on a 60% chance of success.

So, while the community, Duke students, Mary and Susan were having an introductory meeting, Roger, Kris, Jeff and I poured the floor. This was about all that was accomplished on Day 1.

Day 2 started rather well. I was stoked to get to work building the base for the toilet, again another design change as yet untested. The community picked a site for the toilet - an excellent site at that and we scrounged some scrap wood to start our building. This is where the comedy and frustration begin. In the community, there was a hut with milled lumber (4 x 4s and 2 x 4s). This lumber would have been ideal for the toilet construction. When I enquired about using it, I was told that I could not. So, we used the scrap pieces we found and some old trees and started to cobble together a base for our toilet. All the while, we would ask the Waorani if the type of wood we were using was ok for building. They would say yes, and then as soon as we dug holes and put in posts, they would tell us that it was not ok for building and we would tear it all out again. This happened multiple times during the week with each time ending in them letting us use some of the good wood. Finally, on the second to last day, they told us we could use any of the wood we wanted. We essentially built the toilet 2.5 times during the week and we ended up digging 8 post-holes when only 4 were needed. If only we had the good wood to begin with. Oh well, it could have been a communication barrier that we faced, or as Kris and Roger speculated, the Waorani didn’t trust us with their wood until they saw that we knew what we were doing.


Meanwhile, Susan and her team were working on making a nursery and Team Duke was making a rainwater capture and purification system. All the teams did a fine job and we all got done before we had to leave.

The last day we were there, we moved the bathroom floor. I was worried, it had been wet the last couple of days and I was afraid the the concrete was not dry enough and that it would crack, essentially ruining it. We had about 8 of us lift the 1.5m x 1.2m x 3cm floor. It held and we placed it on the base frame we built for it. The bathroom project was a success. We had to tell them not to use it for a couple more days to give it more time to dry.

Meanwhile during this whole fun week of toilet building, Susan had to take one of the Duke students back to Puyo to go to the hospital. I don’t want to steal her thunder, so you’ll just have to read her blog: www.ciao79.blogspot.com.

The week in Tepapare wasn’t all work. We did take a couple of excursions into the jungle. One of which was an hour and a half long hike to a waterfall. The waterfall wasn’t anything spectacular, but the hike was nice and Manuela did a great job teaching all of us the native plants and their uses. She even tried to teach me how to weave a quick basket out of palm leaves, I failed miserably. On the way back, Jeff, Kris, and Jason (a Duke student) split from the group to meet up with one of the men from the village who said he was hunting. What we discovered was that he was hunting seeds - not as cool as we thought it would be. Anyhow, two kids were with him and they said they would take us back to the village. For reasons inexplicable to us, they started on a run, so we followed suit. Nothing like running through the jungle in rubber boots chasing two Waorani kids. They were magical - they effortlessly under vines, over logs, through streams. We made the return trip in about 15 minutes and then proceeded to sit in the river to bathe and cool ourselves off.

Another excursion was in canoes about an hour down river to a place where they hunt things other than seeds. When we got there, they immediately pointed out a troop of huge monkeys - we tried to follow them, but they quickly dispersed. We also saw a sloth and a number of really cool birds including several toucans.

On the return trip, one of the canoes had engine problems. This posed a bigger problem for us because we needed both canoes to get back to civilization. The Waorani didn’t seem too worried so we followed their lead. When we got back to Tepapare, we had lunch and then the men and women sold and traded a lot of their artesenia. The students and other PCVs were happy because they got some cool stuff and the Waorani were happy because they got some cash and some cool stuff as well.

Later that night we were treated to some cultural dancing. The women went first in their traditional garb (gringos participated as well). Then all of us men took off our shirts and danced around chanting. Oh what fun it was - I think the Waorani got a bigger kick out of us than we did out of them. Cultural exchange is a wonderful thing.

The next morning it was raining, yet time to head back up river on the canoe to catch our bus. We started loading stuff into the canoe with the damaged motor until the driver said no more. The canoe had half the bags, about 6 Waorani and Jeff and I. We headed out at a snails pace in a nice rainstorm. At least it wasn’t cold. About an hour in and 1/3 of the way back the motor died. The second canoe came along with the rest of the luggage and equipment, but was lacking Roger, Kris, Susan, and two Duke students. The canoe was dangerously overloaded so they stayed behind. So, what happened next. That canoe pulled up to ours and two Waorani, Jeff, and I were told to jump in. Hmmmmm…..I don’t follow the overweight logic at this point. Anyhow, we made it back to Menepare where the bus was waiting and unloaded the canoe. It then went back down river to get the rest of the people who were left behind and the second canoe. After 4+ hours they too returned and we were on our way back to Puyo.

Once in Puyo we dropped our stuff off and headed to a farewell Duke students dinner where the Waorani that Susan works with gave gifts to all of us for helping.

That night the gringos went out for a few well earned beers - we stayed out until 3:30am. Crazy me was at work the next day by 8:00am. I work too much and I know it, but can’t seem to fix the problem.

That following week it was back to the weekly grind at the office. I was out giving presentations in the communities, preparing documents for some of CODEAMAs projects, and doing the kids pages. The fun part of the week was taking Sue to a town near Banos called Rio Verde and staying in a decent hostal for the night. We had a good dinner there and a good breakfast. Afterall, it was Sue’s birthday. The next day we went to Banos and I treated Susan to an hour long massage - she needed a little therapy. Roger was passing through Banos that day as well so we had a snack and a beer with him.

We then went to Ambato, Becca’s place, where Susan was completely surprised by party in her honor. 15 of us were there - all her best friends in PC-Ecuador. We place Susan Trivia, ate pizza, went dancing, and had a great time. The next morning I made Pumpkin Pancakes from a Williams and Sonoma mix I had been saving for months. They were a huge hit.

Again, read Sue’s blog for more details - her version is probably more accurate.

We headed back to Puyo, content with our weekend away from the jungle and away from our site. The only bad news was that our camera somehow broke.

Monday and Tuesday were awesome work days for me - nobody interrupted me and I got a lot done on my EE Guidebooks - work I had been putting off for far too long.

However, Wednesday I awoke with a fever of 101. This was the beginning of the worst PC week. After the fever of 101 I had chills, then the fever grew to 104, then it broke and I was sweating all over the place. That night the cycle repeated and it found me lying on the floor of our apartment in a pool of my sweat with Susan asking if I was ok. I don’t remember laying down, but the tile floor was sooooo comfortable because it was cold. I took a cold shower and started the chills and fever process all over.

The next day, after speaking with the nurses, I headed to the hospital/doctor to have him check me out and do some blood work. Afterall I spent two weeks in the jungle the last month - who knows what may have got me. My test came back negative for malaria but indicated that I probably have a bacterial infection. Though I have no symptoms other than fever, no nausea, no diarrhea, no inflammation. The doc gave me two antiobiotics and said that should do it. That afternoon the fever cycle continued. The next morning I felt good enough to go into work for a little bit and ended up leaving with the chills. My fever came roaring back and was with me all last night.

I am now in the PC Quito office on a Saturday and will be getting more bloodwork to make sure nothing was missed. I feel moderately better, but still feel like a truck ran over me or as I described to my family - I feel as bad as I did when Earnest Byner fumbled at the endzone against the Broncos costing the Browns a trip to the Superbowl.

Anyhow, don’t be alarmed, I’ll be fine - I am just weak, tired, and a bit grumpy. Sorry no photos this time, just don't have the energy to point and click right now.

Peace,
Jeremy

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Comments

[stacey]

This is an amazing story jer. I really think this dog karma is working well. Keep it up and stay healthy