First week at CEFFA

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