5.17.10

The past week here in Tena I have been helping with an event put on by a non-partisan civil society from Quito. The event was a forum about communities’ rights in relation to petroleum companies. Oil extraction is a major industry in Ecuador and also a controversial issue here. Our organization mostly helped by handing out invitations to the event to important community leaders but this week I did a lot of reflecting on the differences between the U.S. and Ecuador regarding environmental issues. I learned a lot listening to many different Ecuadorians’ opinions on the issue of petroleum. As an American, I also can’t help but feel like a hypocrite as I’m listening to what Ecuadorians have to say about it. While I’m here to do work to benefit the environment, I’m completely aware that our American lifestyles back home are a huge part of the world’s environmental problems.
The region of El Oriente is very rich in petroleum and about a third of Ecuador’s petroleum is exported. Oil extraction does in fact bring money into a community and provides jobs but also comes with great risks. While a lot of communities benefit from this money, it’s not a long term, sustainable solution to poverty in rural communities. With oil extraction comes contaminated water, rivers, soil, deforestation and sickness. And after this, communities are left with nothing but a little bit of money to sustain them for a little while.
Ecuador is one of the world’s greatest biodiversity hotspots. Environmental protection is actually written into their constitution. I learned today that everyone has the right to “transparency and knowledge” regarding any environmental issues. This means they have to right to know about any oil production activity in their community- who’s doing it, for how long, what sort of damages it will bring, who will benefit etc. So while this information is by law available, the problem is that it is rarely communicated; roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined- including the role of the government. Information about risks and potential environmental damages are rarely conveyed before oil companies enter a region. And I think it’s highly unlikely oil companies would be willing to tell the whole truth about these things too.
A major difference here is that Ecuadorians are greatly aware of the importance of the natural resources they have. And most Ecuadorians I have met are highly in favor of protecting their biodiversity and natural resources. In America I think it’s much harder for people to make the connection that protecting natural resources now will ensure money and health for the future. Here, everyone I have talked to so far about my work or environmental issues agrees it’s important work- protecting forests, rivers, wildlife and other resources. The government program “Sociobosque” is a great example of that. Landowners who enroll in “Sociobosque” receive money to not cut down forest on their land for farming or development. This provides a steady (while small) income but opposed to one lump sum landowners could get from lumber, it’s definitely more sustainable.
Learning more about oil extraction here in Ecuador, puts environmental issues into a more obvious global perspective for me. While countries like the U.S. are creating much of the demand for oil and resources, communities here are the ones who pay for it in many ways.

5.10.10

After living in Latin America for 3 months, I think a good topic to write about is dancing. I have developed a theory that if you’re Latino, you can dance. And dance well. It has not been disproved yet. A common question I receive is “what do you like to dance?” At first, I didn’t know how to answer this question, my response was “what do you mean, as Americans, we just dance…anyway you want- move your feet a little, maybe clap once in a while...” Here they want to know, do you dance Salsa? Merengue? Reggaeton? During my time here, I’ve received a couple dance lessons in a formal setting but have learned a lot more by dancing at the discotecas with Latinos.
Here are some things I’ve learned:
If a Latino asks you to dance, you’re pretty much stuck dancing with him all night, choose wisely.
Latinos can move their hips in ways north Americans are physically incapable of.
Most North Americans insist they will only dance after some some social lubrication in their system aka alcohol. Here, alcohol is unnecessary for good dance moves. Even the people who say they can’t dance well, really can according to North American standards.
If you need to escape from the Latino who first asked you to dance, a perfect escape route is to say you have to go to the bathroom and never return, they’ll move on quickly.
You’re much luckier to be a girl when going to the discotecas- they rarely have to pay the entrance fee nor do they get frisked at the door.
There is a very wide range of levels of dancing here. From what I’ve seen it can be generalized by region: in the Sierras, I think the people are more serious. The dancing I witnessed there was a simple 2 step shuffle. Occasionally the party breaks into everyone moving in a big circle of shuffling dancing. In El Oriente, dancing is mostly done in pairs to Salsa or Reggaeton music at clubs. It’s generally socially unacceptable to dance solo especially if you’re a girl. Also no matter where you go in Ecuador, no eye contact is necessary when dancing with a partner. Also the noise level of the music is not going to allow for any sort of normal conversation. I feel like it’s necessary here to give whoever I’m dancing with a warning beforehand that I’m not a very good dancer. I don’t want them to be appalled. Recently I had a few different people tell me while I was dancing that it’s a good thing I’ll have plenty of time here to learn how to dance. While I took some offense to these statements, they are right, my white girl dance moves don’t compare at all to Latino standards.

5.3.10

As I’m settling in here in Tena, I want to give all you readers an idea of what it’s like here. Tena is a city of 22,000 people in ‘el Oriente’ region of Ecuador. It’s in the Napo province and the next largest city is Puyo, about 2 hours south. I’ve been here permanently for about a week now and everything is going pretty well.

I will live with a host family for the first 3 months and can then look for a place of my own if I want. My host family is really great here, I’ve been very lucky that I’ve had 2 great families to live with in Ecuador so far. Now I live with a woman and her 11 year old daughter who are happy to have me and excited to learn how to make things like lasagna and good salads from me. The 11 year old likes to talk a lot (she especially loves to tell me all about plot lines of horror movies). My host mother is very patient with my Spanish and has made me feel very much at home in her house. She also has a lot of good advice like which men to stay away from in town, and has introduced me to a lot of her nice friends.

I’ve been going to the office on weekdays but am feeling a little lost about what sort of work I should be doing (it appears this is a common theme among my other Peace Corps colleagues as well). I know there is a lot of investigation to be done into the environmental education curriculum here and a lot of potential work to do. Right now, i feel like my lack of spanish skills are holding me back from being able to do meaningful work but i’m supposed to be solely “integrating” these first few months anyway.

My leisure time here usually consists of reading, writing e-mails (I should do more of that though…), cooking and eating with my family, sitting around and talking to people or watching telenovelas. Life here is very tranquilo.

I’m happy to have a regular schedule now and have come up with a good way to respond to e-mails. So please keep them coming! Sending love from Ecuador to you all.