6.10.10 Bugs
As the insects here are a daily presence, I feel it’s time they deserve a blog entry.
First, the fruit flies are incredible here. They seem to be able to multiply within seconds. I can prepare a salad and in the time it takes to eat it, fruit flies seemingly have hatched, reproduced (maybe multiple times, probably have gone through a few generations even) and have covered the dirty cutting board. They seem to be everywhere there is a bit of moisture and never seem to leave. I have a cloud (ok very small cloud…) of fruit flies around my head as I brush my teeth in the bathroom and usually everytime I move a plate in the kitchen another cloud flies up.
The other constant inhabitants are ants. But the ants here are about half the size of the little ants you have crawling around your kitchen counters in the US. However, what they lack in size, they make up in numbers. Again, anywhere there’s a bit of moisture, or food of course, there is a line of ants marching. Their speed in seeking out a bit of something sweet that has spilled is impressive. They also always somehow find a way to crawl around my hands and arms even when I think I have had no contact with their marching line.
While these cohabitants are relatively benign, and are easy roommates to have, the mosquitos and biting flies are definitely not welcome. My host family recently forced me to put up my mosquito net around my bed, they thought I was really crazy for waiting so long to use it. We’ve taken pretty serious measures to control the mosquitos in the house nowadays- all the windows stay closed (not as stifling hot as you would imagine surprisingly) and bedroom doors are to be closed at all times too. The mosquitoes haven’t really been bothering me much, before the net there were one or two buzzing in my ears at night but nothing to drive me crazy. I realized last night, the only problem is if there’s one stuck in your net for the night…
The biting flies however are the worst by far. They’re tiny- about the size of fruit flies but completely vicious and relentless. Luckily, they’re really only a problem for me when I travel to remote villages in the jungle for my job (not very often). I learned the hard way the importance of wearing protective clothing last week. I went to a community meeting in shorts thinking it’s ok, I have my DEET bugspray. They seemed to be more attracted to the DEET…my legs look like I have some sort of horrible disease and the kids in this community thought it was pretty funny that I was being eaten alive. I’ve been told the longer I’m here the less the bugs will bite or maybe the more accustomed I’ll be to their venom. I look forward to that day.
I am often awed by the beauty and rarity of other insects here daily. One of my favorites is the Blue Morph butterfly. It’s a giant bright blue butterfly that I’ve seen a few times and everyone stops what they’re doing to point it out everytime (go look it up, but really more impressive in real life). Other impressive but not so beautiful nor pleasant insects include the spider that lives in the corner of my friend’s room that’s about the size of my palm. He says he doesn’t mind it, however because it eats the other insects flying around (perhaps he’s also a little afraid to remove it). The past few nights he’s also had giant cicada/moth-like insects enter through the window. They come in and make a whole lot of noise with their giant wings (I’m talking about the size of a sparrow) untll they settle near the light and wait to be removed. While they’re a big nuisance and cause angry awakenings in the middle of the night for my friend, it was great amusement for me to watch him catch them, throw them out the window and have them fly right back in seconds later.
My mother will be surprised to hear that I’ve changed my attitude a bit since living here surrounded by insects. It drove her crazy that I never killed the spiders living in my bathroom at home (we lived in peaceful harmony, there was no need to kill them unnecessarily) and I preferred to bat away mosquitos rather than kill them. But here I don’t have much of a problem turning on the shower even if there’s a small family of ants in it and smacking mosquitos. There’s definitely enough to go around here, a few won’t be missed.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
6.2.10 Kids & Dogs
The kids here are great, the dogs here are not. Most of you who know me well would know I would normally think of that sentence in the reverse order; I’m not great with kids, dogs are the greatest things in the world. In this country I have developed (a valid) fear of dogs and cross the street whenever a unfamiliar one is closeby. But the kids here flock to me.
My goal by the time I leave my host family’s home is to know the names of all the kids on the street who greet me on my way home everyday. So far, I have about 3 out of 15 or so. One of my favorite things here is random conversations with curious kids, they usually go something like this: what’s your name? (which I repeat multiple times, Grace is difficult to pronounce here). Where are you from? How old are you? Do you have brothers and sisters? Then I usually explain what I’m doing here, where I’m living, how long I’ll be here etc. Then the more fun questions start: “do you know Michael Jackson?” (at first I thought sure, I know of Michael Jackson, he’s a world renowned musician, who doesn’t?) but they mean do I personally know Michael Jackson. I have to explain, no I didn’t know him, he lived very far from me, no, I never even saw him. The conversation usually continues from there with them asking me how to say lots of words in Spanish. It’s great, sometimes I learn some new words or else I leave feeling like I actually taught something or did something that I was able to actually do correctly (not a feeling I have often here…). The kids also love to ask about TV shows and movies and are greatly surprised to hear that we watch the same shows on the Disney channel as them. Although, I need to brush up on my American teen idols and Disney channel shows to really have better conversations with them.
I recently started running a few times a week here and it’s often that I have a whole entourage of kids join me. It’s great fun and at the beginning they would hold me to running appointments with them. They usually run in their flip flops (there’s one kid who never wears shoes at all) and show me good new routes in the neighborhood. I also feel better running with kids because they know how to handle the dogs around here.
Let me explain that the dogs here are not really at all like dogs in the U.S. They’re more wild animals than pets. Most roam the streets freely (I could probably count on one hand the number I’ve seen on leashes) and are not terribly friendly, although here in Tena, they’re much calmer than in more rural places. I have found a good running route and I say it’s good because there are no mean dogs who will chase me. During Peace Corps training however, we were taught the universal trick to ward off scary dogs- find a rock and only threaten to throw it, they’ve been hit enough times to know what will happen when you reach down to pick up a rock. I haven’t used this trick yet although I definitely should have one day when a pack of dogs made a nice bite hole in the bottom of my pants when running. Generally, so far, it works if I simply slow down or cross the street when a dog looks threatening.
I decided early on when I first moved here, it would be a sign that I’m integrating well when the dogs in my neighborhood don’t bark at me when I walk past at night. For the past few weeks, they sit calmly in the middle of the road when I walk past at night- integration complete.
The kids here are great, the dogs here are not. Most of you who know me well would know I would normally think of that sentence in the reverse order; I’m not great with kids, dogs are the greatest things in the world. In this country I have developed (a valid) fear of dogs and cross the street whenever a unfamiliar one is closeby. But the kids here flock to me.
My goal by the time I leave my host family’s home is to know the names of all the kids on the street who greet me on my way home everyday. So far, I have about 3 out of 15 or so. One of my favorite things here is random conversations with curious kids, they usually go something like this: what’s your name? (which I repeat multiple times, Grace is difficult to pronounce here). Where are you from? How old are you? Do you have brothers and sisters? Then I usually explain what I’m doing here, where I’m living, how long I’ll be here etc. Then the more fun questions start: “do you know Michael Jackson?” (at first I thought sure, I know of Michael Jackson, he’s a world renowned musician, who doesn’t?) but they mean do I personally know Michael Jackson. I have to explain, no I didn’t know him, he lived very far from me, no, I never even saw him. The conversation usually continues from there with them asking me how to say lots of words in Spanish. It’s great, sometimes I learn some new words or else I leave feeling like I actually taught something or did something that I was able to actually do correctly (not a feeling I have often here…). The kids also love to ask about TV shows and movies and are greatly surprised to hear that we watch the same shows on the Disney channel as them. Although, I need to brush up on my American teen idols and Disney channel shows to really have better conversations with them.
I recently started running a few times a week here and it’s often that I have a whole entourage of kids join me. It’s great fun and at the beginning they would hold me to running appointments with them. They usually run in their flip flops (there’s one kid who never wears shoes at all) and show me good new routes in the neighborhood. I also feel better running with kids because they know how to handle the dogs around here.
Let me explain that the dogs here are not really at all like dogs in the U.S. They’re more wild animals than pets. Most roam the streets freely (I could probably count on one hand the number I’ve seen on leashes) and are not terribly friendly, although here in Tena, they’re much calmer than in more rural places. I have found a good running route and I say it’s good because there are no mean dogs who will chase me. During Peace Corps training however, we were taught the universal trick to ward off scary dogs- find a rock and only threaten to throw it, they’ve been hit enough times to know what will happen when you reach down to pick up a rock. I haven’t used this trick yet although I definitely should have one day when a pack of dogs made a nice bite hole in the bottom of my pants when running. Generally, so far, it works if I simply slow down or cross the street when a dog looks threatening.
I decided early on when I first moved here, it would be a sign that I’m integrating well when the dogs in my neighborhood don’t bark at me when I walk past at night. For the past few weeks, they sit calmly in the middle of the road when I walk past at night- integration complete.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Monday, May 3, 2010
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.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Due to a lack of updates, I now have much to write about-- read on if you have a lot of time.
All us trainees are now together in Quito for one final week. We’ll be sworn in as real Peace Corps volunteers at the end of this week and then will move to our final sites.
Since my last update, we have left our first host families and have been living out of suitcases for a few weeks. I was sad to leave my family of very generous women I lived with in Puruhantag. My last few days there were during Semana Santa (the holy week leading up to Easter) and during my free days my host family included me in the holiday festivities. One day we made fanesca- a traditional soup Ecuadorians eat for Easter, which includes 12 grains and dried fish. It usually takes all day to prepare (with many peoples’ help) my host mother also took me to see las banderas (dancing with flags, see photo), and on a quick tour of the rose nursery where she works. They were a great family to spend 2 months with- great guides, patient with my Spanish and the two toddlers provided a lot of entertainment and were even good playmates.
After leaving our host families we spent the next 2 weeks on technical training trips split up by program and regions where we’ll be living. Highlights of the trip were days spent in Cuenca, which feels like a very European city. Here we had a lot of good meals, ran a 15km race through the city (which I definitely should have trained more for…) Another fun day was spent hiking in Cajas National Park- a paramo (Ecuadorian grassland) ecosystem. From Cuenca, 7 of us who will be living in el Oriente went to Macas where we spent a fun day hiking through dense jungle and learning about GPS, gave a “charla” (a lesson) at a school with the 7th graders, saw a presentation of traditional dancing and spent a lot of time eating ice cream.
This week in Quito we had a free day on Sunday so we walked around the historic district and saw beautiful churches. The rest of the week we have full days of interviews, and other logistical presentations. Thursday is swearing in day and Friday we’re off to our lives for the next 2 years!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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.
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.
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