Thanksgiving and A Census

I may have mentioned this before, but it always feels weird to spend US holidays in a foreign country, especially with a holiday like Thanksgiving, which is truly an american holiday. Last year I happen to be travelling around because my brother came down to visit, this year I decided to impart some American culture on the lovely people of San Lorenzo. The thing that surprised me the most is that when talking to some of the people in my community, they knew what Thanksgiving was or should we say…el dia de accion de gracias. They didn´t know the history behind the holiday but realized that it was an American holiday where we eat turkey. I guess some American stereotypes shown on TV down here trickle down the countryside as well!
Anyways, I decided to cook a typical Thanksgiving dinner for my host family because their concepts of American Food are hamburgers and hot dogs (which is kind of sad that they are true about that part). To find a turkey, I decided to chop down a tree, whittle a bow and arrow out of it, then just go Rambo style and hunt a wild turkey out in the country…but then I woke up haha (it would be awesome to do that though). The truth is that finding a turkey in the local market or grocery store was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Most Ecuadorians do eat turkey during the holiday season, but usually it is for Christmas, not thanksgiving. They start offering turkeys on December 1st…nearly a week after Thanksgiving. Luckily, I did find one place that was selling parts of turkey, not the whole bird, so I was happy to at least find turkey, but then I had to explain to my host family that usually we have the whole bird, not just parts. Starting to cook at 10am, I cooked about 12 pieces of turkey, made a pumpkin pie from scratch (even the crust although the pumpkin I found was a little different than the dark orange ones found in the states), mashed potatoes, and a mushroom casserole (though I couldn´t find those crispy things that you put on the casserole). I finally finished at 5pm and we ate shortly thereafter. The cool thing was the my host mom and brother asked a lot of questions about Thanksgiving and what we were supposed to do (can we drink this? Why do we eat this type of food? Ect) and it turned out to be a great cultural experience. Plus, I got a big thumbs up about the pumpkin pie…I was a little worried because I had never made pumpkin pie from scratch before!
The other thing that happened recently was the national census happened here in Ecuador. The Peace Corps informed us to be ready to answer questions orally plus do a survey on a scantron type form. I was ready to inform them that I am a government spy being sent to a small country town to infiltrate any and all citizens and then extract oil for our big oil companies in Ecuador´s rainforest…but I think drawing attention to myself when I am already a tall pale skinned gringo probably wouldn´t be the best idea. It was actually pretty boring, I never talked to the census people because maria Elena told them that I live with her and that I am leaving in April anyways, so what is the point exactly?
I bet it was a treat for some of the census people though. I talked with a director of a school in which I do a school garden (in a small community outside of san Lorenzo) and she told me she had to ride a horse for 5 hours one way just to get to some of the houses that they had to census. That’s a devoted citizen! I am pretty sure she wasn´t paid for that. Anyways, I am not sure if I am going to do another blog entry before I head back to the states in two weeks (can’t wait!) for Christmas and News Years. Should be interesting seeing how things have changed since I have been gone…

A wedding

Seeing as how peace corps volunteers live in their respective countries for 2 or sometimes 3 years, they meet people from the country that they live in. Most become acquaintances, some become friends, some become a boyfriend or girlfriend…and then there are those special times when you find your soul mate and decide to marry them. That just happened to a volunteer here in Ecuador…and unfortunately it is not me (still searching ha ha). It happened to be my friend Laura (who lived in the same community as me-Pesillo-during our training days) and I honestly could not be happier for her. I had never been to a wedding in Ecuador…especially one with a gringa marrying an Ecuadorian, so going in I was thinking it was going to be an experience. Boy was it ever.

The wedding was located in Puyo, the largest city in the Ecuadorian oriente (Amazon region), just on the cusp on the Amazon rain forest. There is nothing like the beauty of the rainforest and the ride from the highlands dropping into the rainforest is really breathtaking. The energy within the volunteers who made it was palapable, you could feel it in the air. Plus to top it off…I was asked to be an usher…you know I didn´t turn down THAT opportunity. It was a catholic ceremony and was surprisingly short and to the point although it was done all in Spanish and I am not sure some of Laura´s family and friends could understand it. That is beside the point however because actions have more meaning than words. Fast forward to the reception…my work is done and its time to get to the speeches. Only in a wedding like this do you get the bride, groom, maid of honor, and best man´s speeches translated by one of the volunteers (good job Lydia!). I don´t why…but I found this unforgettable, the groom´s speech was especially good. Then came the first dance ( a slow dance with a mix of bachata…because its Ecuador) and the booze starts flowing. You know it is an Ecuadorian wedding when the caterers are giving out shots of whiskey and water and we are gathered around in a circle dancing or talking and that the standard wedding gift was 20 dollars in a envelope (hey, we make 300 dollars a month, what do you expect?). Back to the shot giving, that is how we drink in Ecuador, no one has their individual drink, there is one selected person who serves you a shot of beer, wine, or hard stuff in a cup and then it gets passed to the next person in the circle. It gets a little getting used to…but now I don´t know of another way to drink! Anyways, meeting the groom´s family and friends was fun, his family is from the coast (esmereldas, where the population is predominately afro-ecuadorian) and Columbia, though he is Ecuadorian and they relocated to Puyo. There is a unjustified stereotype of Columbians in Ecuador and I was happy to let them know that no, I don´t think you are a criminal and I just want to be your friend.

Overall, the wedding was a blast and I hope for the best Laura and Rodrigo… que el matrimonio dure para siempre.

crazy times

I guess you´re really not a peace corps volunteer until the country you´re working in has an attempted presidential assassination attempt, right? I mean, that should be one of the requisites besides learning a new language, awkward conversations with drunk people, planned projects that don´t go according to plans and being asked to translate ¨Billy Jean¨ or other Michael Jackson songs to Spanish. I don´t want to brag…but I´m pretty good on the latter subject. Anyways, here is the story about this presidential assassination attempt. Apparently, President Correa and the fellow assemblymen want to lower the wages of the national police force and lets just say that the lovely men and woman of the national police force are not too pleased with these turn of events. For the last couple of days, in every major city there have been marches and protests by the police force and their allies. The other day I happened to be Guaranda when one of these lovely marches passed and I have to give it to the people of Ecuador, they know how to protest and march with the best of them. }
Well yesterday (sept 30th) they was a giant protest and rally in Quito, the nation´s capital and home of President Correa. He gave an impassioned speech (on a side note, latin American presidents really know how to make emotional speeches, nearly screaming at the crowd of people below them) about peace and tranquility but I don´t think it mattered. As he was trying to get through the mob to make another speech, somebody decided to drop tear gas around the group of people that happened to include the president. The president, obviously not wearing a gas mask, sustained some respiratory injuries and was immediately rushed to the nearby hospital. Not deterred, he continued to talk to the media while recuperating in the hospital, take that national police force! The ironic thing about the whole situation is that the people who protect Correa on a daily basis where the people who were trying to take him out, unbelievable. I don´t understand it, you´re unhappy with your wages and decide to make a pre-emptive strike on your country´s leader? Lets face it, judging by what I have seen from the National Police Force, I´m not sure that they should be asking for MORE wages, just sayin´.
It does not stop there, in Guayaquil, with the police protesting and making their opinions known, many people decided to start vandalizing buildings and stealing items from local supermarkets, mom and pop stores, even mcdonalds! I guess stealing stuff makes you want to have a big mac or quarter pounder with cheese. Businesses, public transportation, schools and airports were shut down on that Thursday (30th) for fear of more unsavory activity. Suffice to say, I am not allowed to go anywhere (especially the major cities like Quito or Guayaquil) until everything calms down. Luckily…the news is saying things are getting back to normal (at least in Guayaquil) slowly and surely, we´ll see. In other news, things in San Lorenzo couldn´t be more calmer, all the kids are excited because they have the day off (writing this on a Friday) and don´t have to go to school…you know, the whole ¨get the day off because the president was almost assassinated!¨ day, we never got those days in the states. Good times…but not really.

bus riding

One of the things that I love about Ecuador and one of the things I prefer in Ecuador over the US is the public transportation system. You literally can find a bus that goes to every single hole in the whole town of 200 people in the middle of nowhere everyday because of the fact that only people with money have cars (and that means a large percentage of the population rides in a bus) and two…Ecuador is a very small country (the size of Nevada or Colorado). For this reason, you can get from one part of the country (say the coast) to the other side of the country (the amazon jungle) in one day by riding the bus…and that is with going over the andes mountains. So being a peace corps volunteer and not being allowed to drive a car, I frequently take the bus if I need to go somewhere…and I really enjoy it, here is why:
1. Bus drivers and their crew: Ecuadorian bus drivers can be a dicey proposition sometimes but I can safely say that I haven´t been in an accident while riding in a bus. Most of the highways here are two laners and the bus drivers love to play chicken with oncoming traffic, I am thinking they get bored with the endless driving they have to do and can´t afford speed pills so playing games with oncoming traffic helps keep the edge. A bus driver always has an ayudante (a helper) that comes around and collects the passenger´s fares. These guys need to know all the prices from every imaginable stop because the bus makes a lot of stops…I mean a lot of them. They all yell out the major destinations while hanging out of the bus. For example, if I am going to Guayaquil from Quito…he´d probably be yelling ¨Ambato! Riobamba! Guayaquil!¨ or something like that. Usually the ayudante is a younger guy…I always thought this would be a pretty cool summer job if I was in high school. Plus, when the ayudante has nothing to do, he usually hits on the hottest looking female in the bus, which isn´t bad either.
2. Venders: This is one of the first things you´ll notice while travelling on the bus, people will try to sell you anything. Bus rides here don´t have layovers in large cities where you can stop and have a bit to eat. So usually, the food comes to you. Any type of food is sold, from candy to potato chips to secos de pollo (chicken and rice) to banana bread to drinks. But it´s not just food they try to sell you…movies, music, herbal remedies, Colombian cocaine(kidding)…you name it, you can buy it on a bus here. Sometimes people will randomly get on the bus, make a 5 or 10 minute speech about their product (and how their relative is terminally ill or they are) and try to get the sympathy buy. Usually it works on me…but the ginseng tea is tremendous!
3. The People in General: This is the favorite part of riding the bus for me personally. People seem to be a little more open and friendly in this country and it´s not uncommon to have a long conversation with a stranger on the bus. It probably helps that I´m a gringo and people are interested in what the hell I´m doing in their country. People don´t pop in their ipods and tune out the world (although some people do this). Sometimes I´ll sit next to a drunk who wants to try out their English skills on me. Usually the standard conversation is:

Drunk: Hey! TEACH ME ENGLISH!

Me: Sir, please calm down, yes I can teach you a few words

Drunk: HELLO! GOOD MORNING!

Me: very good

Drunk: How do you say ¨I want to have sex with you¨ in English?

Other times I will sit next to an indigenous person who speaks kichwa and likes to look at me, then say something to their friends, look at me, and then laugh. I feel out of the loop in this conversation. Now I know how the people in my community feel when I speak English around them.

Riding the bus isn´t always fun, especially for a gringo. When i find a seat, I usually can´t stretch out my gigantic legs unless there is no one sitting next to me. And if I don´t find a seat, a lot of times i can´t stand up straight because the bus is not big enough for my height (this is usually a problem taking the bus back to san lorenzo). But then again...I am really going to miss this interactions when I go back to the states and am stuck in traffic for two or three hours a day…

Fiestas part 2

The thing about living in San Lorenzo for over a year now is that now I have seen everything that happens in a calendar year and know what is going to happen. For example, in July and August there is an extensive increase in drinking and partying because in July there are fiestas every week in Santiago (a small town near San Lorenzo) and in August the fiestas come to San Lorenzo. You know the fiestas are coming when they start building the plaza de toros (bull stadium) and the old ferris wheel, which is as bad as you might think it is. The bull stadium is built out of wood and holds about 150 people and is really the main attraction of the fiestas.
The toros are a staple to every campo community during their annual fiestas and it really is a family affair. In San Lorenzo, I got to go with the guys in a community up to the paramo, which is the land above about 13000 or 14000 feet and it is freezing cold. Anyways, a bunch of guys from the community and their relatives head up to the paramo where they round up the bulls that they are going to use for the fiestas like old western cowboys. It really made me feel like I am in a western movie…only if we´re speaking Spanish and freezing our asses off. Now I wasn´t on a horse doing the rounding up but I heard a lot of cussing a Spanish as people fall off their horses trying to round up these wild bulls. Once the bulls are rounded up…they are taken a nearby ranch and on the day of the bullfighting, the bulls are brought to the plaza in a large pick up drunk.
Having these bullfights is not like what you might of seen on TV or how they do it in Spain. It is truly community bullfighting, as in, anybody who wants to hop in the ring, takes off their jacket and can give it a go. Usually, those who know what they are doing spend the majority of time hanging around these pesky beasts. However, there is always a drunk who can barely stand up gets in there, nearly gets decapulated by a bull´s horn and gets dragged out of the ring by two of his buddies. Now obviously…if the local gringo decides to watch the events…you know, just to watch, you know his skinny butt is going to be dragged in there for a little bit. And I was…and I lived to write this blog entry so you know he didn´t die. I am not going to lie to the 10 people that read this…I was pretty scared about going in there after seeing other people get hurt. I am used to being around steers…but these are bulls (meaning they haven´t been castrated), they have large horns and let’s just say they haven’t been halter broken either. So when they get set loose in the ring, they can get pretty nasty. Luckily for me, I wasn´t drunk and had enough reflexes to not let the bull hit me and got a decent cheer from the crowd. In and out of there, 3 to 4 minutes tops I would say. But once you do something once (like I intended), they expect you to do it every time they have the bulls because…well, they love doing it and expect everyone else to love doing it as well. And maybe I will…but this time after a beer or two to calm the nerves a bit. ¡Que viva la fiesta!

the dog days

In baseball, there is a stretch of time called ¨the dog days¨of august, in which all the teams start going through the motions. They start their seasons in early april and finish them at the end of september, playing nearly every day for nearly six months. At the beginning of august is when teams have gone through a large portion of the schedule but can´t quite see the finish line. Usually they´re tired of playing and want the season to be over with.

That is kind of how I feel with my peace corps experience right now. I am going through the ¨dog days¨. For me, it is just all the little things that build up over time where at some point you feel that is the way it is and is always going to be. Just a note, I don´t want to sound too pessimistic here because I still feel like I have hope in my community and don´t get me wrong, I love my community and all the people that live here, especially my host family...BUT at some point all the ¨yeah, that sounds great, I would love to try that¨lines that are thrown my way and then nothing ever happens really starts to get on my nerves. It really makes you not want to trust anybody on their word. It is not like the people are malicious and want to lie to you, maybe they are just too nice to say no to the gringo and just plain forget (which I would put these odds at about even).

The one of the tens of thousands of things I have learned in San Lorenzo or my experience in general is that if I am the one that is initiating everything, then the odds of that project continuing to exist after I leave are slim to nil. I can´t tell you how many times I have had a conversation with a farmer about the benefits of having their own garden, implementing new crops or trying out organic methods, them agreeing with what I say and being genuinely interested and willing to try it out...then we set up a meeting on their property and they´re not there or too busy too show up. Now I realize that all of these farmers work all day in their fields and are extremely poor and don´t want to take any more chances to even further deplete their income. But if everyone you knew grew corn, planted and harvested at the same time and there was one guy who grew lettuce and cabbage in addition to their corn, wouldn´t you think that the guy who grew cabbage and lettuce would have an easier time finding a market for their product? Lets not get into the fact that growing corn on the same piece of land every year for the past 50 (or more) years severely depletes the nutrients of the soil and actually hinders the amount of corn you can grow and harvest every year. Lets just say say that a 24 year old gringo with a weird ass accent isn´t going to get through to a 75 year old farmer with a 4th grade education. But hey, it sounds good on sunday afternoon when he´s drunk off moonshine and you´re explaining the benefits of organic farming.
Well, enough of my smart-ass rant because I´m not trying to be cynical. I do have a lot of success stories and I really hope that my time in the community has not or will not be a total waste of time for all those involved. I am still excited and optimistic about the shredder project as we are going to make harinas (flours) from the wheat and corn seeds in addition to the fertilizers and animal feeds. The flours can be a value added product which can be sold to families in the community and potentially other markets around San Lorenzo. We hope to have a demonstration within the next couple of weeks and maybe a few people will get excited and want to continue along with the project.

I hope so...woof, woof.

well it´s a start

So finally, FINALLY the shredder has made its way to its cozy home..San Lorenzo! After hearing from the people in Quito, who built the machine, 3 weeks ago that it was done and that they would figure out the shipping details...well that is one thing you don´t trust in this country. If you want something done, you really have to bug the hell out of people and make them feel that you are pestering them to really get anything done. I honestly could of let the people in Quito linger three or four more weeks but that would of been three or four more weeks of my community not starting this project. So finally, last wednesday, the people are arthur fried (the company in quit that built the shredder) sent the machin to Ambato, where I rented a truck and had it shipped to San Lorenzo.

Maria Elena (my counterpartand host mom), a few jovenes from the community, and I had out first test run with the shredder yesterday. It took a few minutes for the baby to warm up and start (at first I thought that it would never start...¨my god, 2000 bucks out of the window¨ was my first thought) but it did and we sampled some organic waste (small leaves, branches, plants and grass) and then worked in some corn stalks as well. The thing works great and the jovenes seemed to enjoy the machine as well, which is a good thing since we will try to start an ecological group using the young men in the community as a start. This machine was built to shredd corn stalks and grind them up, which is a great thing since we will try to sell an animal feed using the corn stalk as a base to the families who have animals (which is pretty much 99.9999999% of the community).

What we will try in the next coming weeks is to give demonstrations and talks to people in San Lorenzo and all smaller communities around San Lorenzo showing exactly what the shredder can do and how it can make organic fertilizer and animal feed. This will HOPEFULLY lead to more people giving organics a shot when people plant corn in september or october.

As with everything in this country...we´ll see how it goes...

Over halfway there...

Like they always say, time sure does fly when you’re living in Ecuador while constantly humbling yourself with the language and playing with animal poop on a constant basis, or do they? Well anyways, on april 30 was the end of the first year at San Lorenzo (I wasn’t there for the big celebration…sure everyone there missed me a lot) and I can honestly say that, well I hope to get more stuff done in my second year than the first one. Most people say that the first year at your site in for integration and building the base for the projects that you and the community want to do and the second year is to implement them and hopefully make them sustainable. We’ll see about the sustainable part, especially when it comes to this shredder project. The good news is that the company in Quito that is building the shredder, Arthur Fried (they have a website is you are completely bored and want to look at farm equipment for awhile), has built the shredder and I have seen the finished project. Within the week, my community and I will have to find the transportation from Riobamba (where Arthur Fried will send the shredder) to San Lorenzo, where it will be its home to many incredible sustainable projects in the future…not sure if that will happen but it sounds really good.

On a personal note…I am dating a mona (female monkey, people call people from the coast monkeys…well people from the sierra do, lots of jokes that go back and forth from people from the coast and sierra) and I very happy. Her name is Marta and she is a cousin of my host sister, Mamuchi. She came to San Lorenzo for her vacation days from college for a few weeks and well…there you go. She lives in Guayaquil, so there is a distance but so far, so good. A mona and a gringo…only in peace corps I guess.

One down, one to go…

gracias!

well after 6 months of talk, planning, waiting, waiting, getting the approval from peace corps, waiting some more...the shredder project has finally been funded! i found out from peace corps that my project got fully funded on my birthday and i couldn´t ask for a better birthday present than that. Peace corps is going to send me a list of all the donors and how much they donated but for the people who donated...thank you sooooooooo much from the bottom of my heart, there are not words to describe my gratefulness to you all. I promise to get this project running and am determined to make it sustainable and will try to post pictures when i can.

More or less, the plan with the project is develop an ecological club using young men and woman (jovenes) in the community to help construct the compost beds and help with the collection of organic wastes from families one time a week. There is already a truck that comes every thursday to pick up the trash and recyclables (i can´t spell haha)...why not a truck that picks up the organic wastes too? Figure I am not asking too much here. We´ll see what happens but i am excited because this will be the first thing in the community that has my footprint on it. Gardens with families and school, workdays with the canal, giving talk about organic agriculture and teaching english are fine but i feel that none of these actually have a shelflife and can be sustainable...i am hoping this project can.

On another note, it was my birthday on the 12th and it was great to celebrate it with my host sister, who turned 21 on the same day. Actually there was another kid that turned 22 on the same day...amazing, i never knew somebody with the 12th as a birthday in the states and here i find two people in the same community of 300 people in ecuador...small world.

anyways...till next time (i am going to withhold a comment about obama and healthcare, don´t live in your country right now haha)

The Aftermath

I guess every society on earth has a time of the year where they do nothing but drink, sing, eat, and sing some more for day and after day for a week (or until they just can't do it anymore and pass out in the middle of the street). For ecuadorians...it is definitely carnaval. Now, I'm not sure if my judgement is clouded because carnaval is craziest in the exact province in which I live, but all I can say is...wow. Starting from wednesday before valentines day, there was a guaranteed parade/dance/drinkfest every day/night in either San Lorenzo or Guaranda or some other city/village until the tuesday after valentines day. And let's just say I partaked in these festivities, not unwillingly because you know...it helps with the "integration process". Highlights from this weekend that was.

1. I was chosen to be a "caballero" (gentleman) for the San Lorenzo election of the queen of carnaval. The queen of carnaval is akin to a miss usa or a beauty pageant. It's a pretty big deal. The reason why I was chosen (not just because of my stunning good looks haha) was because each organization has to have a representative there and my counterpart's organization had one. It was kind of cool because I got to wear a suit and tie and i didn't think that i would need it after the swearing in ceremony. Suffice to say, our representative (kristina) came in 4th place. Not sure if it was because I did a bad job or if she was picked out 2 days before the election took place and was way in over her head, eh.

2. Any time that you can get an elvis pressly impersonation from a drunk ecuadorian who can't speak a word of english so ends up singing "jailhouse rock" but with more a yelling incoherent jumble of noise, well, you have to take that and I run with it. By the way, as far as ecuadorians are concerned, i know elvis pressly and michael jackson personally, especially michael jackson because i live in southern california.

3. Being sprayed with a shaving cream like substance, being dowsed with water, having flour thrown on you at any particular moment is actually a lot more fun than it sounds or reads. And if you don't like it, then you're not enjoying carnaval. Que bonito es carnaval!

4. My parents happend to visit me and San Lorenzo during the craziest two days of the year, and they were not immune to the carnaval treatment. They were here on monday when San Lorenzo does their true carnaval celebration with a parade in the morning and then a drunken dancefest from about 12pm to 8pm (or whenever the DJ stops and everyone is passed out drunk). And no, they weren't part of that dancefest, though that would of been some great photos for sure. It's always an interesting time when your parents give water and flour poured on them...and you're waiting for the outburst of anger...but then it doesn't happen. I warned them.

5. Que bonito es carnaval, this line is going to be stuck in his head for the rest of my life as i heard about 32897409374 renditions of the song over the past month. Que bonito es carnaval is the stock line, then for the next few stanzas, you can put in whatever frase you want to. Therefore, there can be as many ways to sing the song as you want, and I am pretty sure I heard every last one humanely possible.


I would say imagine a mardi gras or news years celebration and mutiply that over a week and now you get the generally idea of carnaval in Guaranda. Now that carnaval is over, I guess I have to go back to reality and work again.

(sigh.)

please help!

hey everyone,

my project for the shredder has been approved by Peace Corps and you can now look for it on the peace corps website. how you might ask? easy!

1. either google peace corps partenerships or go to peacecorps.gov and look for partnerships.

2. click on ¨donate to volunteer projects¨

3. then go to ¨search by country of service¨ and pick ecuador (not saying you can´t pick another country because i´m sure all the lovely other PCVs out there would love your support too)

4. then click on community compost project or my name Raser,J and read about my project some more if you want.

5. help a brother out!



I know things are tough and not everyone has a lot of expendable income right now and there are defenitely more troubling things out in the world (Haiti) but if you know somebody, anybody, that would be interested in my project, guide them to the peace corps partnerships page on the peace corps website and search for my project.

Thanks!

que bonito es carnaval

Here is the thing about where I live and I would say the province (though I would not want to make any rash generalizations), it's pretty tranquilo (calm), not a lot of weird or crazy stuff happens. I wouldn't say its boring, but when you think of the places you want to visit in Ecuador, Guaranda or any other spot in Bolivar would be on top of the list...unless we're talking about Carnaval. Carnaval is kind of a big deal around here, it is the biggest celebration in the province and especially in San Lorenzo. People talk about it all year, everyone's cousin, or uncle, or 2nd stepbrother venture in from around the country (and many times outside the country) to celebrate. Kids make water balloons, water guns, or use bucket of water to toss on family members, random people in the street, or of course...tall gringos. I'm not sure exactly why they toss water for carnaval and when i ask, i get the "oh, its carnaval." They also tell me that during carnaval people throw flour and cooking oil on you too. Keep in mind this is happening right after the new year, has been going on the entire month and will continue all of February I am sure. Carnaval has special songs, dances, and foods that are prepared for the week of February 12-18th. Oh yeah...I am sure there will be heavy drinking involved as well, it wouldn't be an ecuadorian celebration without a little parajo azul.

As far as my work goes (if you really want to call it that)...little by little. Everything moves about 10 times slower down here when trying to work with people, especially government organization. I do understand that a gringo's request for a random town of 300 people may not be the highest on anyone lists down here. Just learning to be more patient and go with the flow. I am waiting on the OK of the shredder project by Peace Corps Quito and once it is OK'd there and Peace Corps Washington, then the project can go on the peace corps website and hopefully the 10 people that read this can donate and tell their wonderful, caring, extremely good looking friends to donate as well! In the meantime, I am giving talks about organic fertilizer, school gardens, and when I can, help with the canal that we have here, but that thing is such a quagmire that I am not sure if it worth the time and effort.

Well, till next time...