wow.

Greetings family, friends and random blog fans. I know you all have been waiting with baited breath, anxiously logging on to the web to find out how our swearing-in ceremony went… if we made it to Puyo…what our first days on the job are like…what our apartment is like…if Jer and I have strangled each other yet…etc Okay, I´m really not that vain. But, for those of you that really are that curious (or just bored at work) I´ll tell you about some of the high and low points from the previous week.

Last Tuesday morning, we said a teary goodbye to our host family, loaded our big gringo bags in a pickup truck, smooshed Jer in the back with the bags, covered it all (Jer and our two other site-mates included) with a plastic tarp (of course it was raining) and drove into town to catch the bus to take us to Quito. We were in Quito Tuesday through Sunday morning of last week to finish up our training ---including some fascinating sessions from the U.S. Embassy, U.S. AID, the U.S. MilGroup (a U.S. Army Coronel), a self defense specialist for the U.S. foreign service, among others. We filled out a lot of papers, and actually got to do a little relaxing and sight seeing (very little…but I was so excited to see part of Old Town Quito---which has a very quaint, very European feel, very cool architecture---especially compared to the otherwise concrete-boxy buildings most everywhere else) …and of course swear-in and become official Peace Corps Volunteers!!!

The great chocolate affair

Our swearing-in ceremony was really cool---it was at the ambassador´s house (which was a posh lil´pad). We sang the U.S. national anthem (which near the end, a jet flew overhead for a very dramatic effect…or so we thought. It turns out, we were near a flight path to the airport, and jets flew over every 10 minutes or so. Oh well.) and then sang the Ecuadorian National Hymn; the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador spoke; we elected two volunteers to say a few (mostly funny) words; other volunteers played some music (violin and classic guitar); we raised our right hands, swore to uphold the U.S. constitution…and then we chowed down on some really awesome bagels and cream cheese (something that we hadn´t eaten since we had been in country).

Before leaving Quito, Jer and I rented a locker in order to store most of our fleece, long underwear and other cold weather Sierra-wear that we definitely will NOT need in the Oriente. We were reunited with two of our big bags that had been in storage since we got in country and laughed at some of the silly stuff we packed in that bag (like, more fleece), rejoiced in some of the stuff that was there, including my French press coffee mug---no more instant Nescafé!!!---the two beers that Zuber gave us before we left the country (yes, Zuber, it was a brilliant gift!), and the emergency chocolate bar… and lamented some of the stuff that wasn´t there (i.e. kitchen utensils, electrical adapter, etc).

We got to Puyo Sunday afternoon and tracked down our landlord, who brought us the keys to our pink (inside and out) apartment. It is brand new (construction dust included) pretty spacious (2 bedrooms, big open kitchen/living room area…probably 800 square feet) and very nice for Ecuadorian standards—or ´bout any standards for that matter. Like many houses here, however, it doesn´t have any closets or cabinets, so finding a place other than the floor to put our stuff (which at this point is mostly clothes and PC papers) is tough. We missed out on renting the third floor apartment (which was quite a scare when we thought we lost our apartment entirely) and instead got the second story apartment, which is not nearly as quiet or have as good of a view (our living room window looks out onto the next building just a few feet away) or have hot water, but I really don´t feel right complaining. As I said, it is nice…and hardly a hut in the jungle as most people might anticipate for Peace Corps housing. Since most of the stores were closed on Sunday late afternoon, we couldn´t buy much…including a mattress. So we slept on our sleeping bags on the hard tile floor. Not the most comfortable night´s sleep (especially since I was still sore from dancing like a rock star on the night of our swearing in).

On Monday I went to the office of my counterpart organization, AMWAE---the Organization of Waorani (also commonly spelled Huaorani) Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon in downtown Puyo. While I waited in the little craft store for my counterpart, it started to POUR down rain (Puyo is one of the rainiest cities in the world, I´m told), a very wet puppy jumped on me, marking my clean, white shirt with muddy pawprints. I waited for about 45 minutes and was beginning to get worried. Little did I know that the AMWAE offices had MOVED since I was here in March---so they are no longer adjacent to the artisania store where I was waiting! Because Spanish was the second language of both the Waorani woman and me, we weren´t able to clearly communicate to each other what was going on. Very confusing. So, yeah, on my first day on my “job” I showed up to the wrong building…when I finally figured out where the new offices were, I was well over an hour late. Not the greatest way to start my first day of my service. Luckily it wasn´t a big deal. My counterpart realized I didn´t know where the new office was…and we all laughed about it. Plus, arriving late I think is actually fashionable here.

As a cultural note, Ecuadorians are notoriously late…to just about everything. I´m not saying that as a critical outside observer, there was actually a government-funded campaign to emphasize punctuality. I´ve seen several stickers and posters advertising the punctuality campaign!

One of the first things I did with my counterpart was go with her to buy and deliver some food to an elderly Waorani woman who lives in Puyo and is very ill. A taxi driver patiently waited while we stopped at the store, bought a big bag of food, delivered it, then waited outside furniture stores so she could show me where I should buy a refrigerator, bed, etc. They guy was really patient. We called the same taxi guy to pick up our mattress, refrigerator, and lovely white plastic chairs (at three different stores). He patiently followed our bad directions the wrong way down one way streets, and stopped at each store where our stuff was. He even helped carry the refrigerator up the stairs to our apartment…AND he took Jer to find a gas tank and parts to go to our cosineta (which is essentially a 4-burner gas cooktop). We got his name and number and will definitely be calling him again. His name is Edison.

As another interesting cultural note, I have met quite a few Ecuadorians with first names that were the last names of famous historical figures, including Darwin (very popular name), Lenin, Stalin…and yes, even Hitler. Yikes!

Yesterday we finally decided to bite the bullet and put down some cash to buy a couch and some chairs…with cushions that is (you just can´t quite cuddle up and read a good book in those ubiquitous white plastic chairs). We had seen a decent priced set at a furniture store the day before, and went to buy it…only it was gone. All gone. Incredibly, they had sold the whole set in the few hours since we had seen it. Supposedly they are getting more on Saturday, but I´m not holding my breath. We´ll wait and see…and until then I guess we´ll use plastic.

So, I just got back from lunch “hour” which is more like two hours. Another cultural note, many offices (mine and Jer´s included) close from around12:30 – 2:30 p.m. each day. I have used these hours to familiarize myself with the city of Puyo, and to search for such mundane, but key, furnishings for our apartment…like sheets, a ladle, a lamp, and any type of storage unit for the kitchen, bath or bedroom. Prices for things here, are, well interesting. Since they use the U.S. dollar, it at least makes it easy to figure out. For example, Food: cheap. Paper products: pricey. Home furnishings: all over the board. I had a great lunch of chochos, tostados, chifles and ceviche (something uniquely Ecuadorian…It is hard to translate much less describe. Suffice it to say it is GOOD, high in protein, yet vegetarian) served up fresh in a yellow plastic bag…for 50 cents. I then discovered a little place that sells absolutely amazing chocolate dipped, cold-yet-not-quite-frozen bananas for 15 cents, which was a little steep (I had previously bought a smaller version for just 5 cents near La Esperanza) but it was damn good...and I plan on going back tomorrow. P.s. the bananas down here are not the cardboard flavored variety that are abundant in the states. They are fresh, ugly, and yummy! So, bottom line, food is pretty cheap. As I was munching on my street fare, I was on a mission to find a ladle and a lamp. After finding some metal ladles for $3 and $4.50 respectively, I finally settled on one for $2.30. Still more than I wanted to pay. Meanwhile small, crappy plastic shelf organizers made in China are like $12, a big one was $30. Screw it. I´ll store stuff on the dusty floor for now. On a Peace Corps budget, neither is a good option. (Be sure to check the scienceking blog for more details on our prices and our purchases.) Oh, my kingdom for a garage sale or an Ohio Thrift store!

OK. Back to more serious topics. Wow. I was just talking to one of the Waorani women here in the office. It started as small talk, how old we were, how many brothers and sisters we had, how many kids she had (2, one boy and one girl) and then she said that her father died when she was 15…he was killed by the Tagaeri, which is another indigenous group that is totally isolated from the western world. He was speared to death.

Yesterday, I tried to read through a number of papers and books that my counterpart left for me. I am still trying to learn as much about the Waorani as I can before I really put myself out there to try to help with any big projects. I want to be extremely cautious and respectful of their culture, especially given their past conflicts with western influences (mostly in the form of exploitation by oil companies, illegal loggers, unscrupulous missionaries, and irresponsible tourism companies, among others). Right now, I guess I am struggling to get a complete, yet succinct and unbiased summary of their history, culture, past activities, etc. The English-Spanish-Wao terero translations, not-withstanding…it is complicated! I´m currently typing all of this offline, in hopes that when I do have internet access, I will have more time to surf and do more of this type of research.

Just last week, President Rafael Correa issued a document with seems to outline a National Policy for the Indigenous Groups in “Voluntary Isolation” such as the Tagaeri and the Taromenani. There is essentially a No-Contact zone of Ecuador where the these groups are supposed to be able to be left alone to live like they have for centuries before. How these two groups interact with the Waorani and other indigenous groups…I´m still trying to figure out.

Also last week, the Nation of the Waorani sent a long, eloquent, yet pointed letter to President Correa which expressed their concerns over Petrobrás, a Brazilian oil company, plans for oil exploration in Block 31—which is the ancestral hunting grounds of the Waorani. They allege that this violates convention 169, which I think is a U.N. Human Rights violation (there are some acronyms that I´m not sure of). The letter ends with these two sentences, “Le pedimos que no se apresure en decisiones que pueden significar más violaciones de derechos humanos y la destrucción de nuestro futuro. Si su gobierno no cumple sus leyes nosotros utilizaremos las lanzas y aplicaremos el código guerrero Waorani.” Wow.