Hi all,
It’s been a while, so I thought I’d post something up here.
The past couple of weeks have been great, and I think my Spanish is slowly starting to get better. I was actually able to have a conversation about social security and US taxes with my counterpart in Spanish.
My work at Nature and Culture has been picking up a bit and I’ve written a couple of articles and press releases for them about everything from Ecuador’s first place science project winners, to the Podocarpus National Park, to a cherimoya (a type of fruit) project that the organization is working on. In the next few weeks, I’ll be starting to work with the environmental education department to help develop some new programs and help out the city’s Eco-clubs. Outside of NCI, I started working at an orphanage in the city with another volunteer, which has been a blast. So far, we’ve just played a bunch of games, but in the upcoming weeks I’m going to start doing some basic science projects with the kids (like mixing vinegar and baking soda to make volcanoes… Ooo!) The kids are super fun and it’s definitely a nice change from my work at NCI. My arm hair is a novelty for them and, like the kids in my family in Cayambe, they all love pulling on it!
In food news, I experimented with making some whole wheat English muffins from scratch, and they actually came out really good. Holly (another volunteer) and I made pizza the other night together which turned into a fiery experience… You have to light the ovens here with a match, so I did and let the oven preheat for about 20 min. When we opened the oven to put the pizza in, the inside was still ice cold. Apparently a breeze blew out the flame (the oven is outside) and the gas had been filling up the oven the whole time. We let the oven air out for a few minutes to let all the gas escape, and then I lit the match to light her up again. Well, apparently all the gas wasn’t gone and a huge fireball exploded out of the oven. Now I’m lacking arm hair on the first couple of inches on my right arm. At least the kids at the orphanage will have less hair to pull this week! :) Finally, in more food news, a bunch of volunteers met up in Vilcabamba at the Hosteria Izychaluma (highly recommended!) for dinner two weekends ago. I decided to splurge and get the bacon wrapped filet mignon. For $5.80, you can’t go wrong and it was super tasty!
Life in Loja is still going well, although the weather was a bit chillier the past couple of days. I went on a little hike this past weekend which was pretty nice. A 20-min walk from my house and you can be up in the mountains. I also met up with the “bike guy” in Loja who is pretty hardcore, and I think I’m going to buy a bike in the next couple of days. We also got talking about how there are lots of trails surrounding the city of Loja but there are no maps, brochures or signage anywhere. So, I’m thinking that another side project could be biking all the trails with a GPS and then creating some bike maps and brochures for the tourism office here. My counterpart here at NCI thinks it’s a good idea too and we might even make it into a book with all the plant and animal species you can pass along the way on each trail. Being able to go mountain biking for half the week will definitely be pretty cool!
The end of last week was an unexpected funeral for the father of one of my coworkers in Catamayo, about 40 min outside of Loja. It turned out to actually just be the wake, so we basically all just sat around for a couple of hours and chatted. I was talking with some coworkers, including the director of the organization, about how funerals are different in various cultures and religions. They asked me how Jewish funerals are different, and I said one of the differences is that Jews don’t get buried with preservatives (since I didn’t know the word for embalming fluid) or, “Los judíos no van al suelo con preservativos.” They all made the strangest face and then started laughing hysterically. I had no idea what was going on. Were they making fun of Jews? I don’t think I said anything funny. Well, it turns out that I should have said “preservantes”. Apparently, preservativos are condoms in Spanish… not very useful when you’re six feet under! My face turned a shade of red that upstaged any stop sign in the city of Loja and the laughter continued for another 5 minutes. And, of course, everyone else in the office now knows the story and continues to make fun of me. :)
PS: Check out the following link to help provide scholarships to young Ecuadorian women and combat sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Peace Corps Ecuador is selling raffle tickets for only $1.50 and the prizes are awesome!
http://kidsatartnyc.com/PC/GADTIPS.htm
Enjoy the pics and as usual click a few times to enlarge. Once the large picture size loads, click "Slideshow" on the right-hand side of the screen to see the images at full-screen size.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Peace Corps??
More like Posh Corps! They say every Peace Corps experience is different, and my case is certainly not an exception. I came to Ecuador expecting to live in a bamboo hut in the jungle and carry my water from the river each morning, and now I’m living in what seems like Beverly Hills. The “barrio” I’m living in (called Zamora Huayco) is pretty high-end and instead of the broken glass on top of the walls like in Cayambe, many of the folks here have electric fences! My host mom’s house is pretty nice, complete with marble and parquet floors, a gas water heater, great shower pressure, washing machine, etc. (Other volunteers reading this, please don’t kill me! :) ) Some of the other houses in the neighborhood are ridiculous as far as Ecuadorian standards go (check out the pictures). The climate here is beautiful too. We’re at about 6900 feet above sea level and the weather has been about 75 degrees and sunny virtually everyday. There are two rivers that run through the city, a bunch of parks, a supermarket, movie theater, several really nice squares, and to top it off they even sell my favorite cookies and cream ice cream at several scoop shops around the city (a cone is 80 cents!). The city is surrounded by lush green mountains, and there was even an article in a local magazine today titled, “Loja casi un paraíso,” (Loja, Almost a Paradise). As far as Ecuadorian cities go, this place is definitely nice. All in all, I can’t say I’m having too tough of a time living here!
The organization I’m working with (www.natureandculture.org) has kept me busy over the past two weeks or so, and some of the projects they’re involved with are pretty interesting. Unlike national parks in the States where the mindset is to keep people and development activities out, my organization is trying to preserve both the amazing natural resources found in the region and the culture of the numerous indigenous peoples that live within the reserves through sustainable small business activities. The thought is that if the people living in and around these areas can sustain themselves through environmentally friendly, yet profitable, practices they’ll be more prone to protect and defend these areas while preserving their own centuries old cultures at the same time.
One of the first events I went to was a meeting at the Banco del Estado. This bank invests in many of the activities of the local governments in the region, and my organization was giving some presentations stressing the importance of investing in land preservation for watershed protection, erosion control, etc. The next day, we went to a huge event within the El Carmen watershed, which was attended by the mayor, close to 1000 school kids and university students, and a slew of other important folks. Nature and Culture Int’l (NCI), using money primarily from donors in the States, purchased all the land that encompasses this watershed to ensure that it’s preserved in its natural state hence helping to protect the city’s water supply. At this event, NCI was signing the land over to the city to manage and protect, since NCI likes to empower local people and governments. It was quite the event (complete with marching band), and was followed by a huge tree-planting campaign by the school kids. Unfortunately, the tree planting ended pretty abruptly when some kids knocked over a giant wasp nest and the thousands of swarming wasps sent the kids screaming and running down the road! The other big event these past two weeks was a trip down to Zapotillo in the southwest corner of the country. The scenery along the way was amazing, and it was super neat how much the climate and vegetation changed as we headed from 6900 feet down to about 500 feet in Zapotillo. This area is super hot, and for a good part of the year pretty dry. The notable feature here is something called a Tumbesian Dry Forest that extends from southern Ecuador into northern Peru. There are only four of these types of forests in the world, and NCI has purchased large areas to protect. Many of the trees here actually lose their leaves during the hot, dry summer to preserve water, and some, like the extremely weird looking Ceiba tree, have green, photosynthetic bark. NCI will be helping to strengthen local capacity and manage the use of natural resources to benefit about 30 rural communities. Some of the projects currently underway are the commercialization of the fruits of the Palo Santo tree (whose essence is now being used in a new perfume - "Amor America"), and the production of a bunch of goat’s milk products, like cheese and yogurt. (There are probably more goats than people in this region!)
There are two other volunteers working with NCI in Zapotillo from my group (Levi and Mandy) so it was good to see them. Zapotillo is a pretty small town (about 1500 people), so it was a big change from Loja! The city is located on the banks of a river, and on the other side of the river is Peru. There’s a bunch of illegal smuggling that goes on between countries here, especially when it comes to gas. The Ecuadorian government highly subsidizes gas here and the cost of a gallon is fixed at $1.48 for regular. On the other side of the river, however, Peruvians are paying $5 to $6 for a gallon. You can see why the Peruvians are always trying to sneak gas across the border from Ecuador to sell at home! Besides gas smuggling, they have some really good ceviche (fish “cooked” in lime juice and cilantro) in Zapotillo, and it was also nice to just sit and sip some coconut milk from coconuts freshly opened with a machete. Levi and Mandy ended up coming back to Loja with me (Levi and I got to ride in the back of the pickup truck with a beer for the 5 hour trip back, which was pretty nice) since there are no ATMs in Zapotillo and they needed $. They also have to travel all the way to Loja to pick up their mail!
Other than work, the weekends have been a blast spending time with the other volunteers and their Ecuadorian friends. Last weekend, a few of us headed down to Vilcabamba for a few hours (40 min south of Loja), which is the massage and facial capital of Ecuador. The place is very tranquilo, as the locals would say, with some awesome scenery. A 75-minute full body massage can be had for $18! We also went to a salsa/reggaeton club in Loja to dance and sip some Espiritu Lojana, a really strong, hot, yellow, spiced drink made with sugar cane liquor (I think). It’s pretty gross, but it’s only a dollar so people drink it! And to finish off the past weekend, we went to a U2 cover band concert (how Ecuadorian!).
Enjoy the pics below and as usual click a few times to enlarge...
The organization I’m working with (www.natureandculture.org) has kept me busy over the past two weeks or so, and some of the projects they’re involved with are pretty interesting. Unlike national parks in the States where the mindset is to keep people and development activities out, my organization is trying to preserve both the amazing natural resources found in the region and the culture of the numerous indigenous peoples that live within the reserves through sustainable small business activities. The thought is that if the people living in and around these areas can sustain themselves through environmentally friendly, yet profitable, practices they’ll be more prone to protect and defend these areas while preserving their own centuries old cultures at the same time.
One of the first events I went to was a meeting at the Banco del Estado. This bank invests in many of the activities of the local governments in the region, and my organization was giving some presentations stressing the importance of investing in land preservation for watershed protection, erosion control, etc. The next day, we went to a huge event within the El Carmen watershed, which was attended by the mayor, close to 1000 school kids and university students, and a slew of other important folks. Nature and Culture Int’l (NCI), using money primarily from donors in the States, purchased all the land that encompasses this watershed to ensure that it’s preserved in its natural state hence helping to protect the city’s water supply. At this event, NCI was signing the land over to the city to manage and protect, since NCI likes to empower local people and governments. It was quite the event (complete with marching band), and was followed by a huge tree-planting campaign by the school kids. Unfortunately, the tree planting ended pretty abruptly when some kids knocked over a giant wasp nest and the thousands of swarming wasps sent the kids screaming and running down the road! The other big event these past two weeks was a trip down to Zapotillo in the southwest corner of the country. The scenery along the way was amazing, and it was super neat how much the climate and vegetation changed as we headed from 6900 feet down to about 500 feet in Zapotillo. This area is super hot, and for a good part of the year pretty dry. The notable feature here is something called a Tumbesian Dry Forest that extends from southern Ecuador into northern Peru. There are only four of these types of forests in the world, and NCI has purchased large areas to protect. Many of the trees here actually lose their leaves during the hot, dry summer to preserve water, and some, like the extremely weird looking Ceiba tree, have green, photosynthetic bark. NCI will be helping to strengthen local capacity and manage the use of natural resources to benefit about 30 rural communities. Some of the projects currently underway are the commercialization of the fruits of the Palo Santo tree (whose essence is now being used in a new perfume - "Amor America"), and the production of a bunch of goat’s milk products, like cheese and yogurt. (There are probably more goats than people in this region!)
There are two other volunteers working with NCI in Zapotillo from my group (Levi and Mandy) so it was good to see them. Zapotillo is a pretty small town (about 1500 people), so it was a big change from Loja! The city is located on the banks of a river, and on the other side of the river is Peru. There’s a bunch of illegal smuggling that goes on between countries here, especially when it comes to gas. The Ecuadorian government highly subsidizes gas here and the cost of a gallon is fixed at $1.48 for regular. On the other side of the river, however, Peruvians are paying $5 to $6 for a gallon. You can see why the Peruvians are always trying to sneak gas across the border from Ecuador to sell at home! Besides gas smuggling, they have some really good ceviche (fish “cooked” in lime juice and cilantro) in Zapotillo, and it was also nice to just sit and sip some coconut milk from coconuts freshly opened with a machete. Levi and Mandy ended up coming back to Loja with me (Levi and I got to ride in the back of the pickup truck with a beer for the 5 hour trip back, which was pretty nice) since there are no ATMs in Zapotillo and they needed $. They also have to travel all the way to Loja to pick up their mail!
Other than work, the weekends have been a blast spending time with the other volunteers and their Ecuadorian friends. Last weekend, a few of us headed down to Vilcabamba for a few hours (40 min south of Loja), which is the massage and facial capital of Ecuador. The place is very tranquilo, as the locals would say, with some awesome scenery. A 75-minute full body massage can be had for $18! We also went to a salsa/reggaeton club in Loja to dance and sip some Espiritu Lojana, a really strong, hot, yellow, spiced drink made with sugar cane liquor (I think). It’s pretty gross, but it’s only a dollar so people drink it! And to finish off the past weekend, we went to a U2 cover band concert (how Ecuadorian!).
Enjoy the pics below and as usual click a few times to enlarge...
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