Quehueri'ono part 1

(typed Saturday) I’m reclined on pillows, relaxing, eating bonbons in bed as I type this. It is true. Now before you start getting grandiose ideas about the rough life of a Peace Corps Volunteer, let me explain. I am “relaxing” in bed because I have no energy. I am eating chocolate Ecua bon-bons because I am hungry...and mostly because I am trying to get this awful taste out of my mouth. You see, I have giardia. Yep, I ate or drank something very contaminated recently and those nasty little protozoa have attacked my intestines. Before I received this diagnosis, I was convinced I had worms. More like a colony of worms. I was certain that two opposing factions were warring over who was going to take over my small intestine. Let’s just say that there were many strange sensations, sounds and odors emanating from my body. But, it turns out I don’t have worms...I have giardia. Whew. That’s a relief... I think. Actually, I don’t know which would be worse. Worms sounds worse to me. And Giardia is supposedly very easily treatable. One dose of Fasogyn and it clears it all up by killing all the bichos. Yesterday afternoon I picked up the meds at a local pharmacy and eagerly took the dose recommended by the PC nurse. On my walk home I bought some bread because I realized that I should probably not take it on a totally empty stomach...and because I started getting a metallic taste in my mouth. The stale bread didn’t help. Neither did the plantain chips I bought at another store. I got home, made some soup and drank some Sprite. The taste remained. It tasted like I had been licking the dirty door of a stainless steel refrigerator. That’s the best way I can describe it. It was disgusting. I kept drinking more sprite to try to get rid of the taste. No dice. Nothing seemed to work. I plopped in our hammock and started reading some of the recent Columbus Dispatch articles Jer’s mom had sent us to try to take my mind off my stomach...and now mouth...issues. Then the power went out. I scrambled to find a flashlight and light some candles and then grabbed my headlamp to continue reading. The power went off and on several times before finally being restored. Then I peuked my guts out. Damn. There went all my meds down the drain. I was wiped of energy by this point, so I decided to crash in bed and watch a movie. (I happened to pick up a few new ones at my new fave dvd store in town. The lady sold me 4 movies for 5 bucks...and even guaranteed that if I didn’t like one of the movies that she recommended I could bring it back no problem. Deal!) So, I started watching In Good Company (I have a mini-crush on Dennis Quaid). All was going great...until with 5 minutes left in the movie, the dvd grinds to a halt and the screen is blurred on the final scene where Topher Grace is jogging and gets a phone call...and then I don’t know what happens...I don’t know how it ends! Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So disappointing. Damned pirated dvds...

Okay, so I have been putting off my telling of the story of my latest trip adentro. I have been living in Procrastination Nation this week. Not that I am obligated to share with the world my misadventures... I just don’t want to disappoint the three of you that are actually interested in what I am doing and the other two of you that are just killing time surfing the web while on the clock.

So...here goes. Last week I was travelling with the Waorani Women’s Association to the community of Quehueri’ono (also sometimes spelled Keweriuno...and pronounced roughly “Kay-where-eee-uuu--no” ) where we were to have the last in a series of workshops aimed at improving the quality and consistency of handicrafts made by the women. Quehueri’ono is home to arguably the most famous Waorani, Moi, who’s photograph is on the cover of the book Savages by Joe Kane and he once graced the cover of the New York Times Magazine (I think that was the one) in the 1990’s when the Waorani were fighting against U.S.-based Maxus oil company. (Fast forward 17 years and you find Moi still living and working in Quehueri’ono on a recently opened Eco-lodge...for details check out www.huaorani.com).

It was going to be a long trip to get to the community. We were scheduled to meet at the Women’s Assoc office at 7 a.m. As per usual, I was the first one there and the only one on time. Despite this, we managed to get the gas and the food without much delay and we left town within 15 minutes of the ETD. Remarkable. The average delay prior to this trip was easily 1.5 hours. I had a glimmer of hope that things maybe, just maybe, would go according to plan...

Once we were on the road, the bus driver put in a movie. As the opening credits began to roll I had this sinking feeling. “No! It couldn’t be... I CAN’T be... Please tell me you’re joking!!” Oh, no. My worst fears were realized. The bus driver put on the worst movie ever made: Little Man. I have ranted about this movie in previous posts. It is just inexplicably popular on Ecuadorian buses. I just don’t get it. I have seen it no less than 5 times here. Wait. Correction: It has been played on no less than 5 buses in which I happened to be a passenger. It is kind of comical, really. Every volunteer has a movie that they claim they’ve seen many multiple times on Ecua-buses. My friend Elliot once told me that he had seen the movie Shooter with Mark Wahlburg no less than a dozen times on buses. He proceeded on telling me where he was going on each of these bus rides to prove it to me. He was so outraged by it. Meanwhile I was just incredulous to the fact that he a) had been travelling so much; and b) was complaining about watching Markie Mark. Then again, I have a mini-crush on Mark too (right SMK?). I also had the bad luck of sitting below one of the speakers and had to really concentrate on not being distracted by the bad-dubbing job. Instead I focused on reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It was a book that my RPCV friend sent to me...saying that it is something that should be read in Peace Corps or something like that. Thankfully I was only about 400 pages into the 1069 page behemoth when it was still moderately interesting and before it teemed with anti-government and anti-public service rants. To be continued...