minga month

Friday marked the start of a month-long minga (communal work trip) with a group of 9 students from Duke University. We will be building chambira palm nurseries, constructing a traditional house and a composting toilet. The students will also be doing a feasibility study for use of solar panels in two Waorani communities. It is going to be a lot of work and a lot of logistics (mostly on my part) but I think it will be cool. The group seems really great. They seem well prepared, thoughtful and fun. Last night we all attended the ceremony to crown the new Indigenous Queen. This year it only lasted until 12:30 a.m. Jer and I arrived in pure Ecua-style an hour and a half late...and of course it was just getting started. It was a better program overall than last years (although the karaoke-like talent show in between the indigenous performances was pretty painfull) Am going to be super, super busy over the next month, so I apologize in advance for leaving my blogstalkers hanging. I just won´t have time to do much blogging...but I am positive that once I do, I will have lots of great stories and photos. stay tuned.