I am nearing the end of my site visit in Tena. Saturday I´ll be traveling back to Cayambe for a week more. I already love Tena and may never need to leave. It´s been super hot here but other than that I have no complaints. The people here seem to be always happy and very friendly, I feel totally safe and it´s small enough that a bike will be perfect transportation. There are two beautiful rivers in town, lots of nice places to eat outside (this is important) and sections of jungle here and there. This week I´ve been doing a lot of observing of the work at the organization I´ll be working with: The Amazon Partnerships Foundation/Tarpuna Causay. My work will be pretty unique in that I´ll be living in a city but will be traveling to remote Kichwa communities often. This week I got a small preview of life in these kind of communities. Here´s a brief description of The Amazon Partnerships Foundation: They aim to both preserve the environment and Kichwa culture by giving funds to community projects that uphold these ideals. However, these projects are unique in that the actual community decides what kinds of projects they need or want rather than the Foundation organizing and managing them. Some examples are water collection/purification tanks, dry composting toilets and reforestion. Other than getting the word out about their organization, the Foundation has a relatively hands off approach to ensure that projects are responsibly upheld and that they´re actually necessary and desired.
In other news, here´s a quick synopsis about what it´s like to be a ¨gringa¨in Tena. Even though Tena is known to be a touristy city, I definitely stand out as a foreigner and get a lot of stares on the street. I´ve found conversations with strangers in Ecuador are all pretty similar; they usually go like this: 1) Where are you from? 2) What are you doing in Ecuador?/how long have you been here?/do you like Ecuador? 3) How old are you? 4) Are you married? (here´s where they would ask for my phone number if applicable) 5) how many siblings do you have?
So far this repetitive conversation hasn´t gotten tiring yet and I´ve found people are naturally curious about gringos in their towns. All are very welcoming of Americans too. I have talked to a few older men who have told me, after I say I´m from Wisconsin that they too have traveled there. I find this hard to believe but I go along with it.
Grace!!! The Jatun Sacha Biological Reserve that I was at was like a 20 min. bus ride from Tena! Tena was the closest city! So cool that you get to live in the city and still visit the small sites! How's your Spanish coming along?
ReplyDeleteI have finally accepted and decided to go to NYU for grad school starting this fall. Thus, I am apartment hunting and find it exhausting, lol. Every time I come across a really good price, it's always a let down bc it's too far away from the school, haha. I possible might room with a Peace Corps buddy, lol. And with my moving, that means that there will be 4 volunteers including myself from the same region in NYC. We're all very excited, lol. Hope the other volunteers are as awesome as you are!!!!