adentro part I

I spent a good part of the day yesterday looking for a new apartment...one that has oh, say, more than 14 drops of water coming out of the faucet per day. After several hours of riding my bike up and down every freaking street in town rubbernecking for handwritten se arrienda un departamento signs, stopping and asking random old ladies and store owners if they knew of any apartments in the neighborhood available, getting lots of vague directions to where a sister-in-law was renting a place, and staring down mean dogs.... I had seen a grand total of 4 (four) apartments. None of which I would ever willingly choose to live in, even if it did have water. There are slim pickings in Puyo these days. Not only are there few apartments currently vacant, the ones that are vacant all seem to have the same funky moldy smell.

Feeling defeated, I returned to our pink waterless apartment building in the midafternoon only to find the landlady fixing the waterline to the building. A new meter had been installed and an hour later we had water gushing from our faucet. She had seen me out looking for other apartments and while I would like to humor myself by thinking that my apartment search expedited the long overdue waterline repair I am not sure that is really what catalyzed the action. In any case, I am happy to have water in our pink palace. We´ll see how long it lasts...

This morning we woke up to the sound of dripping water. Evidently, someone had left the water on in one of the apartments on the third floor (all of which are vacant, as those tenants had the sense to get out of dodge months ago) and water was flowing out from underneath the door, across the landing and down the steps towards our floor. Lovely. I just love this place sometimes.

Okay, enough griping about our pink prison (this is a gross exaggeration, as our apartment is actually fine. Just having no water makes life, well, difficult). I still haven’t talked about my big trip adentro…and it will be hard to ever distill everything we did and experienced during that week in Menepare, but I will try. First, the preparation for the trip was an adventure—lots of supplies and food to find and buy. The students divided up into teams and got a lot done. They were well organized and efficient. We had a plan for loading the bus and picking up all the supplies we needed. On the morning that we were supposed to leave, however, I get a call saying those three words we have learned to loathe: no hay paso. The recent rains had damaged a bridge and we couldn’t get past it to the community. The Duke guys didn’t know this of course show up to the office early with all their gear, ready to roll, only to find out the trip would be postponed. As the hours dragged on and the rain continued to pour it became more and more clear that we wouldn’t get out of town that day. This delay definitely put a damper on the group’s spirits. The next day we finally got the green light to go. But somehow even though we had an extra day to get everything organized, it was almost like we were less prepared for some reason. Mentally, maybe. But the morning we left was a little wacked… first, the bus and the Waorani showed up EARLY, while the gringos showed up LATE. I think some of the students were chuchaqui, as they were very slow moving and slow reacting. They were supposed to help load the bus with all the construction supplies, but by the time they finally showed up, we were done. Manuela suddenly decided that we needed to leave that second, never mind the fact that all the kids weren’t there yet and she had previously said we didn’t have to rush. This then forced me to (as my mom would say) get snippy with both her and the students… I hated being put in that position, but someone needed to crack the whip and tell them (to borrow another one of my mothers phrases) to get their poop in a group. This of course catalyzed the proverbial “hurry up and wait” phase whereby we rushed around to load up the bus, only for it to stop for someone else to get off to buy something random while we sit around and wait. Probably the most interesting step, however, was telling the bus driver to go down my street (which is currently under construction and littered with large piles of stone, rock and sand interspersed with potholes) to pick up a 250 pound piece of ferrocement which was the floor Jer and I poured for the composting toilet. You should have seen the drivers face when I asked him if we could put it on the roof of the bus… yeah, I had failed to mention that we would need to load that particular piece of cargo on the bus. Small detail. After separate stops for food, gas, phone cards, more mesh screen, rope, the floor, and then the students and their gear, we finally hit the road. En route, we watched the movie the 11^th hour which was a little surreal. Once in Menepare we unloaded the bus and began to set up camp. The sun was beating down on us as we unloaded all our gear, materials and food. That night a small group of us met with Fausto, the President of the community (who is, ironically, Kichwa) drank some chicha and learned that he would not be available for most of the next day, as he was preparing for a big belated Mother’s Day celebration in the community. This put a bit of a kink in our plans, as he was to lead the casa tipica (traditional house) construction team.

Well kids, I am out of time and out of steam. Will have to finish this titillating tale next week. Tomorrow we head to Tepapare to trabajar (sorry, just needed a little more alliteration to end this post). Wish us luck.

Keepers of Eden

One of the many memorable moments from this last week was when Manuela, the President of the Waorani Women´s Association, decided to set up her laptop and projector in order to show movies in the community of Meñepare. Yep, there we were in the jungle watching the Waorani become totally mezmerized by a movie that featured them--in the same jungle---and their struggle with oil development in their territory. The kids were enraptured by the images of their family that were projected on a wooden schoolhouse wall. It was a little surreal being in a remote jungle Waorani community with little infrastructure...watching a movie about the Waorani.

While in New York at the U.N. meeting on indigenous issues, Manuela was given a copy of Keepers of Eden, a film that adeptly captures the modern challenges facing the Waorani. Anyway, it was interesting for me to watch the movie (narrated by Joanne Woodward) because I know almost all of the people that are featured in it (plus it had some unflattering footage of Puyo). Although I couldn´t hear all of the audio (it was hard to hear the small laptop speakers over the noisy generator and constant rain on the tin roof), what I did hear did not paint an overly-romantic and overly-simplistic characterization of the Waorani as other books and films have done. It also showed the ugly side-effects of oil and western cultural influences on the Waorani---including the alcohol problems and the paternalistic dependency on the compania that has been created. The sad part is, that although someone made this film and is undoubtedly profiting from the film, little benefit is being returned to the Waorani beyond some additional awareness of their plight. I am not aware of any profit sharing or other benefit to them besides giving them one lousy copy of the movie. The least the producers could do is give them a few hundred copies so that the Women´s Association could sell them in their store for a profit and reinvest that money back into projects to benefit them. Ahhh...but that would be too easy. Anyway, all blogstalkers should definitely

Alive and well....almost

Well, we all survived our jungle adventures in Meñepare. We were dirty, stinky and exhausted, but all in one piece when we got back to Puyo. Some of the students have since developed some stomach issues. On the bright side, they are dealing with them in the comfort of Puyo (running water, CABLE tv! and lots of food choices, not to mention professional medical care).

There is soooo much to write about from the last week. I just need to find the time to get it all out. Yesterday I was so tired I couldn´t motivate myself to do much of anything besides rest up and eat. Jer and I did decide that I am going to look for another apartment. Yep, the more than a month straight of no water (besides a few drops in the mornings) has finally pushed us over the edge. The stinky bathroom, partial showers and accumulation of dirty dishes that I can´t wash that then attract fruit flies and cockroaches...yeah, I´ve had enough. So the search begins...

Rain delay

Well, right about now we were supposed to be getting to Puerto Napo and turning off the main road and heading to the Waorani community of Meñepare...but we have a slight delay...it seems the recent rains have damaged one of the bridges leading to the community, thus leading to the oft repeated phrase that has been the bane of many volunteers´existence of late: "no hay paso." Soooo.... this means we must wait until the road and bridge is repaired before we can travel there. I guess the good thing is that we are forced to wait in Puyo rather than on the side of the road (always the optimist). Since the problem area is along the oil road, the company is usually good about fixing this sort of thing, but we still have no good idea how long it might be. Sooooo....the waiting game begins. Some of the students are catching some zzzz´s, others are catching up on news from home, and others are hanging out. I left my house full of hungry Peace Corps Volunteers...
I am trying to put it all in perspective to the students (who have been awesome through the whole preparation). These things happen. It is part of everyday life here. I mean, the last few times I have travelled adentro, there have been delays of varying kinds...from gas shortages grounding the planes, to communities renting our reserved canoes to higher paying people. Asi es la vida. We just have to be patient and wait...

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.

fair share of fair food

Well, it is fair time here in Puyo. Nope, no fried Snickers bars or fried cheesecake or any of those great Ohio State Fair favorites. Yesterday I did a sampling of random fair foods. Here is the list, of what I consumed, what I paid and my fairfoodrating from 1 to 5 .
Ceviche de camaron (shrimp) $3. For taste, I give it a 4... It was pretty darn good. But, it was crazy expensive and I was still starving after I ate it (I thought it came with a plate of food, not just soup) So I give it an overall fairfoodrating of 3.
Besito (lame excuse for fresh fruit dipped in chocolate) $0.50. rating: 1. I got about 4 soggy, mushed strawberries that were dipped in a chocolate fountain pot right after a little girl stuck her finger in without any parental repremand. RIP OFF!
Chocolate candies: $0.50. fairfoodrating: 3. The chocolate was ok nothing to write home about.... but I at least felt good supporting an organization that employs disabled Ecuadorians.
Salchipapa: $0.50. fairfoodrating: 3. It is hard to screw up thick french fries. These had a great topping blend of kechup, mayo and onions topped with a splayed hotdog bite. Taste was good, but not as hot and fresh as it could have been.
Mystery meat with papas and salad: $3. fairfoodrating: 2. I was with two of my Waorani friends and we were mesmerized by the roasting of a big slab o meat over a fire. The Colombian guy was a slick salesman and convinced us to buy a plate to share. The potatoes were tasteless, just greasy. The meat was pork we think, fatty and grisly. A fun experience eating with the women...but I am worried that it will come back to bite me...
Oblea (or something like that): $0.65. fairfoodrating: 4. This was my favorite thing of the day. It was a big thin waffle-wafer-like cookie smeared with a variety of jam-like spreads on the inside.

So, all in all it was a pretty underwhelming assortment of fair fares and jacked up prices.

Other random thoughts and observations:

My favorite view from last night was seeing an SUV pull up with a bunch of naked mannequins stacked on the roof like cordwood. Definitely did a double take.

The Waorani Women´s Association has a booth at the fair---and it is the best looking one of theirs to date I have to say (thanks in part to the cool display boxes Jer made). And, this fair more than the others, the women seem much more engaged and almost excited to be participating. They all actually showed up to set up the booth this morning....and EARLY! Yay! Well, going to head back to the fair and then it is off to Tena for toilet taller number 2.