little by little

When I first got to San Lorenzo nearly three months ago, the first week was exciting and filled with moments like ¨wow, its great that I am here¨and älright, the peace corps experience is finally happenning¨. Yet, after a week here, I started to get bored...really bored. On the pamphlet that details my project, at the bottom of it, it says ¨this site is devoted to someone who has a lot of motivation¨, so I guess that is what the Peace Corps thinks I have. There is no set project that I walked into, as most things that I work on are based on the seasons or when schools are in session.
So with me being bored, I just started walking around my community and tried to get to know people in my broken spanish. As expected, some interesting moments with a lot of lost in translation. It is especially tough with the older people because I can´t tell if they are speaking spanish or quechua or if i just can´t understand it...probably the third option. Anyways, people would ask me what I am doing and I would tell them that I am walking around (they give me the weirdest looks...especially if i am on a hike...if you are walking somewhere, it usually is because you are working, but not exercising).
What has really helped me out are these CAT tools, which have forced me to talk to practically every different family in san lorenzo and usually during the interviews I tell them my job description and often help with their gardens or doing something with english after that. This has opened the doors into doing other projects, like creating organic fertilizers and things like that. Though one part of my work is working on the canal, we have finished up the mingas (workdays) to clean up the canal so it can be used, doing projects at this point is going to be challenging because trying to communicate with the canal president is like talking to a wall. It is amazing how this guy got elected as president because everyone I talk to complains about the water situation here. Yet...he´ll probably get re-elected...that is small town ecuadorian politics for you I guess.
It really is amazing how time goes by faster when you have something to do nearly everyday, I finally feel like I am actually doing something. The first large project that I want to work in is getting a large shredder that can take food waste, chop it up, and in time, can be used as a compost/fertilizer mixture for gardens and farms. But the shredder must be built because I doubt anyone has one at a reasonable price in Ecuador. So I am going to have to talk to engineers in Guarandsa to see if they can help a gringo out, we´ll see.
I am also excited about august as San Lorenzo has its fiestas, in which the whole town parties every weekend for a reason I really don´t know, but I am sure I will find out soon enough.

truly inspirational

first off i would like to say happy 4th of the july to the millions of people (or 10) who read this blog, it is always interesting being in a foreign country on major american holidays, especially when you´re literally the only american in your whole province. on the fourth of july, i thought i would write about an ecuadorian...obviously, right?

now i am working with as many farmers and families as i can with their fields or indivividual gardens. one of them is named luis, and he has literally inspired my work here...not to get all cheasy here or anything like that. luis lives with his family (wife and two kids) and has only 9 fingers because he lost his thumb in a late night accident in Guayaquil (where he used to live) before coming to san lorenzo. He lives in a large house (shack might be the most appropriate word) with no running water, no electricity, soil as a floor, and numerous holes in the wall. This might not seem too bad but it gets pretty cold here in san lorenzo and makes for a pretty cozy sleep. Luis has never been to school and his knowledge come from life experiences-

this may not seem to bad as many ecuadorians live without running water, electricity and have soil as a floor. but luis lives with such a passion in his life, every time i see him or work with him, he has a smile on his face as if he is lucky just to be living today. their family does not have any expendable income but he grows everything his family needs (organically by the way) with all ailments to illnesses coming from plants that he grows, like manzanilla. He has a real passion for the environment and the land he works on, he really respects it. He tries to pursuade people to grow different crops (instead of corn, wheat or potatoes) and grow them the natural way because when you don´t have the money to afford fertilizers, you have to figure out another way.

every time i have ¨one of those days¨, i go talk to luis and his energy seems to cheer me up and make me realize that even the worst days here aren´t that bad.

oh on a side note, my mom sent me a camping shower so now i am not showering with cold water like the pervious 4 months. i thought i would look forward to this day like christmas morning but a part of me is going to miss those cold showers, something about them is psychotically refreshing. i mean, i could take them whenever i want but when you´re in the sierra, it doesn´t seem too tempting.

for those of you in the states, blow up a piece of america for me today