Quito, Ecuador

so this is the end of my third day in quito and it has been pretty eye opening and very exciting, despite getting adjusted to the altitude and the terrible pollution. i'm a little congested and drowsy right now most likely due to the stark change in weather and the dusty air. right now it's about 55 degrees in Quito right now (for all my canadian friends, that's about 13 C), so as you can imagine it was a little surprising going from 95 degree (35 C) weather in cincinnati to this comparitively colder (and much rainier) climate. this week we have orientation, which so far has not included us orienting ourselves around the city. for the most part we have stayed close to the university and residence where we have been sleeping. there aren't too many exciting things around, save for the amazing bakeries, of which there are indeed many. the university where we are staying is called universidad andina de simon bolivar (andean university of simon bolivar). it is generally only for graduate and phd students who are completing their degrees in the field of social sciences. it is a very liberal university that was established under the principals of social justice and equality.

it occurred to me that i should briefly explain my program for those of you who don't quite know. i am studying in ecuador through a university in ontario called trent university. through their international development department, they offer study abroad programs both in ecuador and in ghana. for the ecuador program, we are living and taking classes in quito for the first semester. all of our courses focus on learning more about the people and geography of ecuador, mostly in an international development context. in the second semester each student does a 2.5 month field placement with an organization of their choice in a location of their choice. for the past few months i have been leaning towards working in the north of ecuador in the afro-ecuadorian region. i'm still figuring out what kind of work i want to be doing.

so by chance for the past three days universidad andina has been hosting an afro-ecuadorian conference, consisting of various different discussions on social issues in the afro-ecua region. unfrotunately i've been pretty busy with meetings for my orientation, however yesterday i was fortunate enough to sit in on one. when my friend kayley and i got to thbuilding where the events were going on, each discussion had already begun. we did not want to intrude so we decided to wait 'til the groups switched rooms. in the meantime, the door of the room where they were discussion health and food issues was open so we decided to eavesdrop for a bit. eventually a man came out and asked us what we were doing. we explained to him that we were students who were just interested in listening. he asked us where we were from, to which we answered the u.s. and canada and he replied, "nuestra gente tambien", meaning: our people, too. so with that he enthusiastically invited us in to listen. it was mostly a dialogue between two indigenous men from the andes and about 6 afro-ecuadorian men and women. they started out talking about how the two ethnic groups should collaborate to help each other, but they ended with the sad realization that the indigenous movements in ecuador have been so successful because they are more mobilized and have managed to convince the government/higher institutions that the culture and agricultural practices of their ancestors should be recognized and revived. the fact that they have indigenous roots within the ecuadorian boundaries has really helped them make many social and political gains. however, as was said in the discussion, the afro-ecuas have had virtually no access to resources, very little motivation to take action, and on top of that they do not have as strong of an ancestral connection since they don't really know where their roots come from specifically. this of course was the result of slavery. there was a very sad silence in the room after that point was made. the discussion then continued to highlight the differences between the two groups and it demonstrated how much work still needs to be done in the fight for equality and cultural/agricultural revival. it definitely reaffiremd how much i want to help out in that region. i just want to be extra hands, useful in any way possible.

other than that, we've visited various libraries at different universities and have met some of our professors. i am learning kichwa (an indigenous language of the andean region), which is taught in spanish by a kichwa man named enrique tasiguano. i have a feeling he is going to be absolutely wonderful. he is already very inspiring just by his enthusiasm for what he teaches, as it is one step further in the fight for social justice for indigenous people. i'm quite excited.

well, i should probably end this email now as i'm very tired and also very congested and drowsy. i will probably get a blog set up soon so that you all can read what i write AND look at pictures of what i'm talking about. i imagine it'd be easiest if i emailed you all every time i updated and you could simply follow the link to my page and read up on what i'm doing there. if any of you have any other suggestions please let me know.

hope you all are doing well! miss you very much!

love, love

lily

It's my third week in Ecuador, and so far it has been such a fun adventure.

Two weeks ago I moved in with my host family. It is exactly the situation that I wanted: a really close-knit family that has welcomed me in as their own daughter, my own space within the house (i have an apartment in the basement), and the ability to live for the most part as i lived in cincinnati and montreal with very agreeable terms. they allow me and encourage me to go out and travel as much as i want on the weekends, and when they're available, they're always very eager to take me out to show me the city.
so we'll start with the dad, roberto. he is a 65 year-old retired military officer who loves going to the gym. he works out practically every day. at first i was really intimidated by him, expecting him to be really serious and strict, but he is such a warm person. he loves talking to me about current events all of the world (but more so of everyday citizens rather than political hype), and he absolutely loves cleaning, cooking, and all things domestic. he gets mad at me when i help with the dishes, but don't worry everyone i still insist on pitching in.
my mom, montserrath, is wonderful. the first day i met her she gave me this huge hug and say "hola mi hijita bienvenida a nuestra familia!" (hello my daughter welcome to our family) she has been nothing but fantastic this entire time. we get along extremely well. she is a very artistic and crafty person. so far she has taught me to make some pretty amazing foods, namely tsango de verde (see description to the right), home-made mayonnaise which i surprisingly really like , seeing as i've never liked the heilmann's crap, aji (roasted chili pepper, which she dries out in the sun for about a week straight) sauce which includes cilantro and onions and deliciousness. she is a jehova witness who is very much committed to her community. the first saturday i went with her and her daughter Renata to a congregation service. when i walked in i was immediately greeted by about 25 people, who right away recognized I was new to the group. Aside from the really drab singing, it was a cool service because the minister asks for interpretations of the teachings from the people in the congregation, from very young to old. It’s more of a conversation and less like you’re being talked at.
My brother, Agus, is 25 and a car mechanic. I don’t hang out with him very much because he works a lot, has a 5 year old daughter, and goes out of town quite often. Since I’ve been here he’s gone away three times already. For the first two weeks he didn’t really talk to me, but now we’re getting along better.
Aaaaand my sister Renata! She is amazing. She is like the big sister I never had. We pick on each other like none other and in general just get along so well. She’s 22 and getting ready to start law school. We’ve had a great time going out together so far!
SO that’s my family. Classes have been pretty easy so far. In the first month we have only two classes…. 6 hours of Andean Societies a week and 12 hours of language. For me that is Kichwa, as most of you know. Kichwa continues to be more and more lovely. We’ve learned some really great songs. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how different the language is (lots of K sounds), and the spelling is so up in the air because it was not a written language originally. But all in all, I love it and imagine I will continue to love it.
Last weekend I went to Otavalo, which is an artisan town two hours north of Quito. It has the largest market in South America, a vibrant indigenous culture, and gorgeous scenery. The volcano of Imbabura looms over both the town and a massive lake called Lago de San Pablo. All the men sport long pony tails or braids, even those who dress in more modern clothing. The women wear these beautiful white ruffled blouses with small flowers embroidered on the sleeves and a navy blue wrap around their waste that is adorned with different colored fabrics. Quite an attractive bunch, I would say! So a few friends and I arrived on Saturday morning and met up with some other friends that were already there. We hung out in the market for a bit, which was pretty crowded. Afterwards, we went up to El Lechero, which is a sacred healing tree that is really old and knobby, and apparently produces a thick milky sap that is supposed to work wonders for sicknesses. You have to pass many farms to get to El Lechero, which makes for a very beautiful walk up. On the way down we decided to take a shortcut and go down a trail that passed by more farms. There were many rocky, jagged crevices in the trail that were up to 10 feet deep and we had to hop over them. There was one jump that was particularly difficult because the landing on the other side was slippery had a pretty steep incline going downwards. We all made it except fun little adventure. That evening I tried various different foods (see to the right), mostly having to do with parts of animals that we in North America tend to define as inedible. Very interesting stuff.

Okay, because this has been a very long post I will save my recent activity in the past week for another time. But it will be soon I promise! Love everyone

So I left off at last weekend. On Friday night at 2am (tenchincally Saturday morning) we had a field trip to el mercado mayorista in the south of Quito. We went to help a group of urban familes that have organized themselves to buy healthy food in bulk at a very low price. This system is called Canastas, which means baskets. Each family pays $7.50 and gets a large sack of different foods to feed their family for two weeks. There are now many canastas groups in ecuador. In general, the idea is to buy the food directly from farmers (preferably organic) to cut out middle men who jack up the prices of food, often ripping off both the farmer and the buyer. however, in reality that doesn't happen muich with the canastas in Quito (not sure about the other places), because of the market fluctuations. The farmers will sell directly to the group if the prices are low, but if the prices are high they go stragiht to the center of the market to sell their products to distributors/store owners. So sometimes the canastas get their food from the farmers, other times they get it from the distributors, not knowing whree the products come from.

All in all it was pretty fun to help out. This group is organized almost entirely by women, mothers who are concerned about feeding their families healthy, real food. We went with a few of them to purchase bulk products and helped carry them to the site where they organized the food for each canasta. There we rationed out the food into small plsatic bags or bundles, then wiated for all hte families (there were abotu 60) to come around to fill their sacks. we met some really wonderful people that day who were happy to see us he;ping out.

In other news, on tuesday i met with a woman named myrian who lives in esmeraldas, one of the two afro-ecuadorian provinces. she's a lawyer and has her phd in i think the situation of teenage pregnancy among her community. she told me of different organizatioins and towns that i could work in, and all this made me all the more excited to start figuring out what i want to do. there is a town in the north called borbon, where afro-ecuas, carchi indians, and colombian refugees live. i would love to work there and observe how these three different groups, who have all been displaced at one time or another, have come to make senes of themselves and one another. apparently 15 years ago there was intense racism and animosity, but now they are learning to exist together. Pretty interesting stuff.

Today the Spanish class prepared a delicious feast for the Kichwa class, and in turn we sang them songs, accompanied by our prof on the guitar. Oh how i love my schoolwork in this program!

Hi everyone,

I'm sure most of you already know about the police force's attempted "coup" on Thursday, but I figured I'd tell you my experience of it (though not that exciting) and pass on links to some photos/videos/articles.

soo on thursday morning i went to class as usual, a bit sleep-deprived and overwhelmed because of all the millions of things i had to do that day. I had a really long kichwa quiz, two article summaries to write before my afternoon class was going to begin, to print out some stuff for my US embassy appointment, and then go to the US embassy to get my passport notarized so that the US could know I was in ecuador. ha. so that day i had all of my important stuff with me (passport, original copy of visa, study acceptance letters, credit card, etc etc).

so i only accomplished taking my kichwa quiz because by that time the police forces had already stormed the palacio to protest against president correa's decision to cut their salary bonuses (even though they already receive monthly 500 dollars more than the average ecuadorian). president correa, as i'm sure many of you saw/heard, proudly and angrily tore at his shirt ordering the police to kill him if htey wanted to...... meanwhile the police were trying to ward off pro-Correa protesters by setting off tear gas and actually killing someone. They then tear gassed Correa pretty badly, because he refused to wear a mask. So Correa went to the hospital to get treated and the police decided to block him in there and refused to let him out.

All that stuff I'm sure most of you have read about/will read about. So early afternoon I walked home with my friends who live close by. Almost nobody was on the streets, and those who were seemed very rushed (some of them even running a bit). No taxis would stop for anyone. Because there were no police officers, there was a higher risk of getting robbed and me, with all of my important stuff, was just hoping and hoping i'd make it home fine. And i did.

in the early evening my family and i decided to take a walk. kinda crazy i know but we were dying to get out of the house, and things didn't seem too intense in our neighborhood. heh. kinda wrong. when we went out the air was filled with the fumes from tear gas and flares. it was impossible to breathe normally. a block up from where we were walking there were pro-Correa protesters demanding that hte president be released, and a block up from that the police had lit tires on fire to block road access to the hospital where the president was holed up. there was this rich family who you could tell was not from the city driving up the road and the looked really concerned about the tires and the protesters, so they ask my host mom, "what's it like up towards that way?' pointing north. being the jokster she is, my host mom replies, "oh everything in all the stores are half price!!" and continues walking. hahah.

until about 9 pm, the government refused to air any news programs except for the one they sponsored, which was only playing re-runs of news coverage earlier in the day. even bystanders who were photographing for "personal" use got their cameras taken away and broken. some student groups started protesting as well against correa, and when a young law student was getting ready to rant about the poor policy making of correa, they cut her off.

finally they started airing other news stations. right outside the hospital, about a 15 min walk up from where we were walking earlier that night, hundreds of military troops arrived to combat the police forces and rescue the president. the police were throwing flares and the military was using shields and rifles and machine guns to fire at the police. even some civilians who had guns showed up to participate. it was insane. we could hear everything from our living room window as we watched it on tv.

the next day, my friend and i went downtown. it was mostly calm, although everything felt a bit more tense with rows of soldiers standing on the perimeter of the president's plaza with their huge guns. now we are in a state of emergency until monday, although classes are going to resume i'm pretty sure tomorrow. this has been so interesting to experience first hand, albeit a bit unnerving!

photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkervizcarra/sets/72157625070473142/show/

articles: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11449775

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOwpnpQoccM

So i have a lot of updating to do! two weeks ago my program had a field trip to the two northern-most provinces in ecuador, carchi and imbabura. in carchi, we were in el angel which is a town about 6 hours WALKING from colombia. we were about 3500m above sea level, and it was absolutely freezing. we slept the first night in a beautiful hostel (that's where the pictures of hte flowers are taken), and the next day we went on about 2 hour hike up to the highest farmlands in the region, which were owned by my professor myriam's friend Euler's family. in the 1960s euler's father had organized with other peasant farmers in the region to fight for their own land, which at that time was owned by a hacienda owner. for all the land put together (50 something hectares, i believe), it cost the farmers $200, which was extremely expensive for them at the time. but, with a loan and support from the government at the time, they were able to break away from the hacienda owner and finally have their own land. today, euler's family is one of the only families in the area that practices organic farming. everyone else uses the most toxic pesticides to harvest their crops, mainly potatoes and some grains. they think that euler's family is crazy and cheap, because using pesticides here is a sign of higher economic status. some of the farmers have permanently stained blue skin because they do not use protective covering whent hey go out to spray their crops with the pesticides. more than just dyed skin, they have developed serious health defect; particularly the children who go out into the fields with their parents to spray the crops have developed learning disabilities or difficulties concentrating in school, because the chemicals have severely damaged their hormones/neurons.

despite the sad reality of many of the farmers, the land in carchi is incredibly beautiful and we had a wonderful time there. euler's land is the last plot of fertile land before you reach the paramos, which are the dry, grassy highlands with unusable soil. there the frailejones (those cactus-looking trees that have really furry leaves) grow, el angel being the only place in ecuador where they are found (i think they're also in parts of colombia/venezuela, but they are very rare).

after our visit to el angel, we stopped in el valle del chota in imbabura province, on oru way back to quito. there the climate is quite different. it's a dry, hot, desert valley where bamboo, sugar cane, and la tuna cactus are cultivated. it is also the home of about 50 afro-ecuadorian communities, comprised of former slaves to jesuit hacienda owners in the region. we visited the afro-andean town mascarillas, which in recent years has initiated a few community tourism projects, mainly the production of clay masks that resonate the african-mask tradition. they started this project as a way to revitalize their culture and form a stronger connection back to their roots. my friend maliina, a native from greenland who has also struggled to hold on to her identity, is very interested in working in mascarillas with this organization.

we spent the night in mascarillas with the families of the women who were part of the mask-making organization. they put on a little dance performance for us and then aftewards we got to dance a bit with them.

Hey everyone. So I'm finally updating after 2 months of nothing! I hope none of you were writing me off as dead.

All righty, so let's get cracking with my trip to the Amazon that happened at the end of October. I went with the other people from my program to these two Amazonian Kichwa communities called Santo Domingo and San Jose, just outside the city Tena, along the Napo river in the Amazon. The communities actually aren't that deep into the jungle, but coming from the Sierra it is an immense change in vegetation, weather (so freaking hot!), and culture. The objective of this trip was not only to generally experience the Amazon, but also to help this organization that works with the two communities record the traditional knowledge of the chakra farming system to pass on to future generations of these communities. "Chakra" means farm in Amazonian Kichwa, and the chakra system is their method of farming, which is centered around the fundamental goal to preserve the natural organization of the rainforest. They do so by planting all crops the way that they would naturally grow in the wild. So banana trees are always planted next to yuca (cassava) plants, etc. They cultivate such a wide variety of plants that the community members do not really need to buy anything, save meat if they can afford it, from other towns. Any sickness or injury can be cured by medicinal plants that naturally appear in the jungle; the foundation of their are made from bamboo shoots grown on the chakras; they make jewelry and clothing from strong fibers extracted from native plants. Having immediate access to all these basic necessities, these communities are almost entirely self-sustaining.

So for two days we followed families who own chakras around their land, recording them giving explanations of how to plant certain crops and their specific uses. Many of the families cultivated cacao as their primary cash crop, most of it being sold to Kallari, a grassroot collective that sells high quality organic fair trade chocolate, which is processed in the town of Salinas de Guaranda, located in the Andes at 3500 m above sea level. In the US, a small Kallari chocolate bar sells for about 8 dollars. In Quito, it sells for 2 dollars. The earnings made from each sale goes back into the production facilities in Salinas and the chakras to supply farming materials and provide an income for the families. It was really cool to meet the groups that are part of this cooperative and further understand the initial stages of chocolate production.

The rest of the time was spent swimming in the river with the children of the communities, getting our asses kicked in a soccer game (gringos v. Santo Domingo), eating delicious food, failing miserably at communicating in Kichwa, etc. The second night in San Jose we watched the documentary "Crude" with community members. I don't know if any of you have seen this film, but if not you really should. It's about the case against the Chevron oil company who about 30 years ago started drilling in the northern Amazon province of Sucumbios, which resulted in serious health effects for the indigenous communities living in the region, as well as expansive environmental damage. Because the oil contaminated the rivers that the people live off of, many children and adolescents developed cancer and brain damage. We watched this movie with the community of San Jose because the Canadian oil company Ivanhoe is in the process of surveying the area around their farms to start drilling. It was a really intense experience to watch this film with this community because they were learning about the threats that are looming over their way of life and their land. Some individuals started asking us questions that we really did not know how to answer, such as the oil extraction process that Ivanhoe practices, their environmental "conservation" policies, etc. It was really difficult because they were looking at us expecting us to have these answers and a solution for what htey should do, but we were just as uninformed as they were, and it really wasn't our place as foreigners to tell them what htey should be doing. The evening ended with this unsettling feeling of uncertainty because no one could really offer a way to initiate resistance, especially when these people already live incredibly difficult and hardworking lives. We concluded that people in our program would help do research for the community on Ivanhoe's policies and give them to the leaders later on.

On our last evening we had a "cultural exchange", which consisted of the San Jose community performing beautiful dances and plays and we North Americans singing awful songs such as "Land of the Silverfish" (a Canadian classic) and showing them pictures of what Toronto looks like. We were really unprepared, to say the least, but all in all it was a really fun evening and the my Kichwa classmates and I ended the night by singing songs we had learned in class, which everyone loved. It was a great time! This trip was incredibly eye-opening because this lifestyle is impossible to find in the US nowadays because of the cultural genocide of Native Americans.

Immediately after the trip to the Amazon, I took a 10 hour bus ride south to the city of Cuenca for the Fiestas de Cuenca, commemorating the independence of the city and also Day of the Dead/All saints day, etc. My host mom grew up in Cuenca, so I went there to meet her siblings and mother and enjoy the long weekend with the gang. The first night was pretty fun, touring the city with the extended family and drinking disgusting amounts of Zhumir, an awful alcohol made in Cuenca that is basically watered down sugar cane. My host mom’s sister Patricia won a trivia contest in this one plaza and all of the sudden got up on stage and starting singing the city’s anthem, “Chola Cuencana”. It was a riot. Unfortunately, after the first day, my host family developed home-body tendencies and did not want to go out to enjoy the festivities. So I spent the rest of my time in Cuenca sight-seeing by myself and partying a bit too hard with my friends from my program Jenna, Jayson and Marcel. My friend Aram from my Arabic class in Montreal was passing through Ecuador at the time and I met up with him and his friend for a day as well! It was really exciting to see someone from my other home; it was a nice reminder of my other life, which at times I can forget or really miss.
After some crazy events, my friend Jenna and I decided NOT to go back to Quito right away and instead went to Vilcabamba, where I was farming two summers ago. We got in some great rest and relaxation time, and also went on an exciting yet treacherous hike. I met up with people I had met the year before, most importantly Jen, one of the owners of the farm I worked at. It was AMAZING to see her again, albeit it was only for about 30 minutes. I also tried kuy (guinea pig) for the first time, which was really delicious but did not have a lot of meat on it. It was also insanely greasy, despite every Ecuadorian maintaining that it is a lean, non-fatty delicious treat. Anyway it was a fun experience! Please enjoy the pictures of the poor roasted kuy, it’s got an adorable face. I apologize to any vegetarians I might offend with these photos or the previous comment.

The last week in November I went back to Esmeraldas to visit my placement for a week. Generally, this week is meant for each student to really get to know the organization or community where they will be working for almost all of next semester. My week was a little different, however. The trip to the Amazon made me seriously reconsider what I wanted my research focus to be during my placement. I felt like the Cultural Diversity Center I had found in October was a good organization but maybe too similar to something that I could easily do/will most likely end up doing in the US. I wanted to have an experience that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. There was even a point in time when I thought of not going to Esmeraldas at all, and instead finding a placement in the Amazon. However, there was no time to find a placement in a different location and I eventually realized that I really did want to be in Esmeraldas, but that I would just change my focus. Learning about the chakra system made me really interest in traditional/natural/non-western/ancestral medicine, and I decided it would be interesting to learn about it in the Afro-Ecuadorian cultural context. For many Afro communities, ancestral medicine is really important, and I want to explore how a group of people whose ancestors were enslaved and displaced have come to realize an ancestral medicine, living on a different continent in a different environment from where their ancestors originally came from.
So my week was spent looking for an organization that would help me find what I was looking for, while also helping out in the office of the Cultural Diversity Center, just to make sure that wasn’t where I wanted to work for three months. I became really good friends with the director of the organization, Jacinto, and I am actually going to help him out with his project planning as a side activity while I’m in Esmeraldas. For my main project, I will be working with Janine, the secretary of Health in the province of Esmeraldas. She works with different communities within the province that practice natural medicine, promoting intercultural health education as well as the preservation of traditional knowledge. So I will be working with her in three different ethnic communities: Chachi (an indigenous group), Epera (another indigenous group), and Afro-Ecuadorian. I will spend a week in each indigenous community and a month in the Afro-Ecuadorian community, helping them record the uses of different medicinal plants and working in the community gardens/farms where they harvest the plants. Although there are still many uncertainties that remain, I’m very excited for what I’ll be doing and can’t wait to learn more about this topic.

My friend Nathan and I went to Salinas, where the Kallari chocolate is produced. While they are famous for their chocolate, they are actually better known for their amazing cheeses. More than thirty years ago after a serious earthquake that damaged the infrastructure of the entire town, a European farmer suggested to the Salinero farmers importing cows from Switzerland to make European-style cheeses and form a cooperative to help the town recover collectively. After the town’s recovery, this cooperative decided to keep going, and now the produce an incredible variety of cheeses for export. When we were there we sampled different cheeses such as gruyere, gouda, tarsit (I don’t really know what this is), goat cheese, etc. They are also famous for their mushroom cultivation, so we also sampled those on a pizza. It’s the best pizza I have had in a really long time.

So, for the past two weeks or so, I have been training to hike the highest active volcano in the world, Cotopaxi, two hours south of Quito. Reaching 5800 meters, it is a very snowy peak and is supposed to be one of the most difficult hikes in Ecuador. To train for it I have been hiking other mountains: Pasochoa, Ilalo, Ruku (old) Pichincha, Guagua (baby) Pichincha, and Iliniza Norte. Enjoy the photos taken on each trip (see below)!!

4200 m. Last erupted 100 years ago.

This was my first hike in 5 months, at a much higher altitude than i am used to, and i was incredibly exhausted. See photos below

Note: because it was cloudy and rainy that day, i did not get a good photo of what it actually looks like, so here is a link:

http://www.cohp.org/personal/ecuador/images/Pasochoa_subpeak_50.jpg

Not very high, but a beauitful place to camp and get spectacular views of the other larger mountains

4682m (photos above.... don't know why they are merged with the ilalo photos)

4784 m

5100m

5897 m.

The most difficult thing i have ever done in my life. we hiked up in the night during a full moon, which was incredible. around 4am the clouds and the cold rolled in, which made the hike a bit more miserable. i had to do some ice climbing up a side of the mountain, 30 minutes from the top. while that part was really fun, it used up every last bit of energy i had and the remaining two hills to hike up to the top were done so miserably and with lots of tears shed. the top was incredibly windy and miserable and you couldn't see anything because of the clouds. on the way down i was kindof panicking because i was absolutely freezing and couldn't see anything more than 5m in front of me. in hindsight i was overreacting way too much and am kindof shocked i lost my cool to that extreme. it made me realize that i need to trust more in myself, the guide, and the mountain when doing these treks. anyway, here are the small number of photos i took, since i oculdn't see anything and it was ungodly cold.

Hello everyone, as usual i went AWOL for a good while, but i've been very busy and also went recently went through kindof a hellish time here in Esmeraldas. the combination of too much traveling and too much partying landed me ill with a really bad flu, which put me out for the first 4 days in which i was supposed to be working in Esmeraldas. I spemnt my 21st birthday curled up in my bed with a fever and no energy to do anything, not even move. this time period was also awful because i was recently arriving to a completely unfamiliar place with this new host family that i barely know. since then we have gotten along great and i'm happy here, despite the living situation being a little cramped (there's 7 of us in a relatively small house. still have my own room and wireless, though.) anyway, the combination of being too sick to go to my placement and having way too much time on my hands to sit and ponder things made me start to really doubt my project on medicinal plants. i convinced myself i was not qualified to do this job because i have no knowledge of public health, let alone in ecuador, and really no familiarity with diseases indigenous to this region. because i felt like i would need a lot of time to learn all this stuff before starting my activities and other more relevant research, i felt like i didn't have enough time to fully carry out this project the way i envision it being done. haha i thought all of this before even going to the office to see what it was like! i dreaded going, convinced myself i was too sick each day, developed a rash on my arms and neck every time i thought about it (though im sure it was also brought about by the heat). so when i finally showed up to the office of the board of health they were ready to get things moving and told me, "all right! so we're going to an indigenous community on saturday and you have to lead workshop on intercultural health!" at first i freaked out, inwardly, because i have never given a workshop on a topic i know so little about. i expressed my concerns to my director who told me i shouldn't worry too much about it and now is as good of a time as ever to learn. and i thought, yeah she's right, i've been letting insecurities get the best of me and really need to cut it out. so i was ready to dive in. because my director had to go to quito for a conference for a few days, i was left to finalize the plans for the visit to the community with this woman who is a member of the Epera indigenous group (a group originally from panama) and was supposed to be kindof our liason with the community leader so that we could get approval to go that saturday and so that i could stay there for a few days longer. well, unfortunately the woman decided to not come into esmeraldas and instead went straight to a conference in quito as well! she said "maybe monday" (as in 5 days ago) she'd come into the office, though that did not sound promising. so i got this horrible premonition that it was always going to be like this with this organization, taking 10 days to even begin planning a visit to acommunity, and with nothing to do in that interim period because my director would always be too busy for me. so i freaked out and convinced myself i needed to find something else, maybe even leave esmeraldas altogether. so i told my program adviser back in quito, told this guy who runs this cultural diversity center that i was going to work with a while back, seeing if anyone could help me. then i thought maybe i was being unreasonable since i had only worked one real day in the office at the board of health and that maybe i should give it another chance. but then i also reasoned that it's been nearly 10 days since i've felt better and i've only worked one day, which probably isn't a good sign. my thoughts changed every day and i didnt trust myself to make decisions or commit to anything for fear that it was the wrong choice. i was a mess.

so a week and ahalf ago this guy from the cultural center took me to meet a woman who is in charge of this program where she plants medicinal plants with adolescents from all over the province. it seemed like a really good alternative, so i told her i'd have to talk to the board of health and see what they say, and if things dont work out then maybe i can work with her. so i went to talk to my director at the board of health, who showed up 4 hours later than she was supposed to for our meeting. basically we talked things out and she told me that unfortunately she really didn't have all that much time for me. i dont think she really knew what she was getting herself into, which may have been my fault for miscommunicating perhaps. she was a little sad to see me go, but we both knew it was the right thing anyway.

SO. onto this new organization, which i feel really great about! it's called el centro familiar de la formulacion de alternancia (CEFFA). as i was saying, its this alternative education center located in Tazones, about an hour and ahalf away from the city im in right now, intended for youth in rural areas that do not have access to good education systems, or whose work on the farm conflicts with the state's school schedule. so every 15 days the 21 students and my new director meet at this education center for a week of classes and working in the medicinal plant project. so ill be helping out with everything to do with this project, as well as cooking for the kids, working in the office during the weeks when we're not at the center, and visiting the kids' communities to meet their families that practice ancestral medicine. i'm very very very very excited that i found something so cool and down to earth that is also active and has many ways for me to get involved. I visited the center on Tuesday with my new director, Maria, and it was really great. We had to cross the river by foot, then make a little trek up this shaded pathway until we got to this beautiful space, with an abundance of cacao, banana, and palm trees. whereas i was under the impression that it would be a little community center with a little medicinal plant garden, it's actually this huge one-story building with lots of open-air spaces, and practically a farm. maria told me that i would fall in love with it, and so far i have no reason to believe that won't be true.

okay, i should get going now. tomorrow begins my first week at el CEFFA with the kids, which i can't wait for! i will report when I am back, and hopefully have some photos for you all.

lots of love!

hmm what else? well as i write this the dog just took a dump in my room. gross. don't know why she thought that was okay... surely it means she's done it before.

good afternoon everyone, i hope you are all staying cool and refreshed as i suffer from a heat stroke here in esmeraldas! no, only kidding. but it is really freaking hot here.

so i suppose i will pick up where i left off, and tell you all about my week at the education center/ farm, which was fantastic. since i'm doing field work, i have become more rigorous about keeping a journal, and i think it might be nice to share portions of the daily entries with you all in this post.
Day 1. Description of the classroom:
A hexagonal structure made of wood and bamboo shoots. It is entirely open air save one side of the structure. School desks line the perimeter, and are painted either orange, navy blue, or green. There are two dry erase boards, a map of Esmeraldas, and various charts on nutrition, agricultural cultivation, etc. Bats and birds inhabit the ceilings, and roosters and hens walk across the floor whenever they please. The classroom stands next to a space to hang laundry and in between the dormitories and dining room/kitchen. It is very much married to the house and the land.
Day 2.
I’m trying to be positive about things, but right now I really do not want to be here. I don’t know how to relate to anyone here. The girls are young and pubescent, and the boys are nice but SO macho it’s ridiculous and sometimes frustrating. I don’t know why. I think I just like conversing with adults better than kids, since I was always the youngest person around growing up. I don’t really know if what I want in a placement exists anywhere. I think I was looking for something more focused on medicinal plants, but that would mean someone would always have to be sick. Maybe I should have had a shaman or a curandero as my coordinator. Where the hell would I have found that, though, when this knowledge is generally supposed to be pretty exclusive? I had poured my hopes into finding the perfect placement, but I just don’t know where to look for that, and it’s very disappointing.
Day 3.
Last night I learned some things from Maria and the students, about the history of CEFFA and the kids’ role in medicinal plants. The majority of the students cultivate medicinal plants at home. They each bring them from their houses and transplant them to the garden beds here at the education center. If any student does not have a plant specie, they then take that plant to their house and transplant it, so that it can multiply. The cool this is that when Maria asked them who has medicinal plants in the house, everyone who does raised their hands with such enthusiasm, as if it was something they are all very familiar with and really wanted to talk about. They each started naming off all the plants they use at home and for what purpose. It was really exciting to see them all so excited about it. I cannot wait to meet their families and see the communities where they live. I’m sure they’re very special. Maria was talking about wanting to compile a book of the families’ recipes for curing sicknesses using medicinal plants, a project I would love to be a part of. I need to make that very clear to her so she knows where my interests lie.
(Later that evening)
Today was a really awesome day. This afternoon I helped the kids do garden work. Antonio, one of the students (the oldest, 26 years old), taught me how to properly use the machete. The trick is to keep the blade very low and parallel to the ground. The students thought it was pretty funny, my attempts to be a diligent farmer. I’m getting there, I guess you could say. Afterwards I helped another student named Jimmy weed in the cacao nursery. It was nice to just make small talk with the students, to learn more about them. I also learned that when a farmer’s seed does not grow come sprouting time, they are known to have ‘mala mano” (a bad hand). My English class afterwards was great. I taught them all expressions for greetings. It was a lot simpler and more engaging—I created mini dialogues with each of the students, and was able to see what difficulties they have. I think it’s mostly understanding my accent, in English and Spanish.
In the evening we had “la noche cultural”, or cultural night, which consisted of lots of dancing. In the very beginning, when the marimba music started playing, about six of the boys just flocked to the dance floor. They danced so effortlessly, their feet moving in the same patter, keeping the beat, nad their arms stretched out like wings, as if they were in constant preparation of flight. I was honestly in awe. This was their ancestors’ culture that they knew like the back of their hand. It was very much their culture.
The kids taught me how to dance to the marimba, particularly with the song called “Yo soy el hombre”. There was also this skit they put on and made me participate in, called “La Calderona”. Basically it starts with the girls washing their clothes and chatting. It then changes scenery to the guys, or “los compadres (compas, for short)” who ar emaking small talk when all the girls walk by like models. The compadres start to go crazy because the girls are so beautiful. They begin flirting and attempt to court us, using little limericks and verses to try to flatter us. Each girl has to take turns turning down a guy with a verse. The guys then act completely distraught, and another “compa” has to defend his friend’s intentions by courting the girl he is interested in. it was so fun. And afterwards each couple begins to dance. Another girl, “La Calderona” is supposed to come in and dance flawlessly, distracting the boys. They all flock to her and dance with her, at which point the other girls grab their partners by the ears and drag them back to dance with them. Antoher boy, el Calderon, enters the scene and tries to steal each girl, which angers the boys and they threaten to fight. It was really quite hilarious, and made me realize that for them, marimba is not something that needs revitalization or even preservation, really. It is very much alive and thriving.
Day 5
So my last description of the kids dancing marimba seems to be a bit of a romanticization. The students have to learn these marimba choreographies for presentations when important people come visit CEFFA or when they are invited to a special event. There are about six or seven of them that actually feel the music in their heart and pulsing in their veins. The rest of them don’t put all that much energy into it, and were not paying too much attention to the rhythm or the steps. This irked Maria, since she’s tried so hard to get them to appreciate this music and dance from their ancestors. She gave them a pep talk which went something like this: “When I hear this music, I feel it in my heart. It moves me and makes me want to dance. Today the youth do not feel this part of our culture in their hearts, and because of that we are losing ou culture. So for this moment, forget your reggateon and feel this rhythm in your soul, where it belongs.” That almost made me cry. For the rest of the evening everyone gave it their best shot. Even I had to dance my heart out. Supposedly in March I’m supposed to dance in full uniform. That should be interesting and hopefully not too disastrous
Day 5.
Today I left CEFFA to come back to Esmeraldas. Tonight I have to travel to Quito. I gave this really awful goodbye speech that did not even come close to summarizing how happy I am to have gotten involved with CEFFA, nor how grateful I am for everything these people have shared with me, some stranger with a crazy accent. They gave me a whole avocado when everyone else just got one half. They harvest sugar cane and cacao for me. They gave me chocolate made from the cacao on the farm, when no one else could have any. They’d get water for me to wash my feet with after I’d get them covered in mud. This morning I was washing my boots at the water tank with my cup I normally use for lunch. Antonio sent Jimmy to help me, so that I wouldn’t have to reach down into the tank. A little ridiculous, but they insisted. Well, Jimmy happed to let go of my glass in the water tank and it sank to the bottom! I told him it didn’t matter, since I wasn’t having lunch there that day. But Antonio insisted that Jimmy give me his cup so I could have a complete dish set to return to Tia (or Auntie, the woman who cooks for everyone). So you see! They cover up for me and look out for me! They taught me how to dance. They’re wonderful. I hope this doesn’t come across sounding like they were my servants, because that’s really not how it was. They are just incredibly generous to newcomers, despite how much I tried to show them I should not be treated in any special way. Right now as I write this I feel so happy. This week at CEFFA has really moved me.

So you see, I went through quite a range of emotions during that week, but in the end I left incredibly happy and wishing I could just live there forever, which I took to be a very good sign. I’m getting ready to go back for my second session, and will report to you all afterwards, and I PROMISE to have pictures the next time! Love, love.

Here’s a video clip of a performance of “Soy El Hombre” in the post below