Just a quick note today. I am working on funds for my shredder project and am filing for a grant with the USDA for support. However, there is a limited amount of funding that PC Ecuador can get (100,000) for all the applicants, which may seem like a lot but since every recipient gets around 7,000...and when there are a lot of applicants, not all of them get accepted. Soooo....there is another program that Peace Corps does for funding called Peace Corps Partnerships. In this program I fill our my project sheet (what I am doing, the materials needed, how it is going to affect the community, etc) and hopefully, I recieve donations from friends, familily, organizations (profit or non-profit) from the U.S. to help finance the project down here, since my community can´t afford to pay for everything.
So if any of you are reading this blog (all 5 of you haha) and would be interested in supporting my project (if you don´t know what the project is...read my post called ¨a project¨), respond to the blog with your contact info (name, address, phone number, organization) and I will put your name of the list of potential people who could donate. Or if you have rich friends or know of someone or an organization that would be interested in donating, reply or send an email to me. In the form, I have to put down 8 or 9 people or organizations that could show an interest just so Peace Corps knows that there are people that could support this project, it doesn´t mean that peace corps is going to contact you asking for money, but it is more to gauge an interest. Check out the link below to read about other projects that PCV´s are doing around the world and to see how peace corps partnerships works...I kind of sound like a Peace Corps tool but hey...have to get the word out about this.
Here is the link
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
lets have a strike!
I guess when ecuadorians decide to do something, they really put their hearts into it. It really doesn´t matter what it is, drinking, partying, working, or in this case, striking. We don´t have just one national strike in Ecuador right now, but two. First, the teachers are striking because their benefits are being cut and many of the teachers that have put in the years are set to get a pay cut, some of them get their salaries cut in half. So basically the teachers in the large cities (Quito and Guayaquil) are striking and all the schools around the nation fall in line, usually. Some schools are teachers in Guaranda have crossed the line and have resumed school, others haven´t, especially in San Lorenzo. I think that some of the teachers are enjoying it because they get some extra vacation time but who knows how long they will be on strike. This means that I can´t work with the schools doing gardens and environmental education...which is a large part of my work, but it gives me more time to work on other projects so I guess their is an upside to everything.
The other strike involves the indigenous population, who are striking over water rights because the government wants to privatize water, or so is the rumor. The indigenous people are blocking the roads, especially near cities in the Oriente, where there are lots of groups. Honestly, I am not sure what to make of all of this but people rallying together against ¨the man¨is a pretty common theme in latin america, especially ecuador. We´ll see where it goes from here.
Oh, by the way, in addition to me duties in San Lorenzo, apparently I am a part-time firefighter as well. A few weeks ago I was tending to the garden I have at my house when my host-mom´s sister tells me to grab a shovel and help with a small fire that was on a hill in San Lorenzo. I wasn´t too shocked as most of the farmers here burn their land after they harvest their crops, in this case, corn. But this fire wasn´t exactly a controlled one burning just the intended area. So I rushed up the hill to join my fellow san lorenzens and put out the fire. The closest homes to the fire didn´t have hoses that could help put it out so we took our shovels and smacked down the flames while putting dirt on the others. The fires weren´t that big, but I would like to exaggerate the fact because it makes me sound like a real badass to put out blazing flames with a shovel and dirt. Anyways, the good part was that these fires were happening around 6pm in the afternoon so the cold of the night soon put them all out. That is about how exciting things get in San Lorenzo, you have to start fires to get people really excited about something.
The other strike involves the indigenous population, who are striking over water rights because the government wants to privatize water, or so is the rumor. The indigenous people are blocking the roads, especially near cities in the Oriente, where there are lots of groups. Honestly, I am not sure what to make of all of this but people rallying together against ¨the man¨is a pretty common theme in latin america, especially ecuador. We´ll see where it goes from here.
Oh, by the way, in addition to me duties in San Lorenzo, apparently I am a part-time firefighter as well. A few weeks ago I was tending to the garden I have at my house when my host-mom´s sister tells me to grab a shovel and help with a small fire that was on a hill in San Lorenzo. I wasn´t too shocked as most of the farmers here burn their land after they harvest their crops, in this case, corn. But this fire wasn´t exactly a controlled one burning just the intended area. So I rushed up the hill to join my fellow san lorenzens and put out the fire. The closest homes to the fire didn´t have hoses that could help put it out so we took our shovels and smacked down the flames while putting dirt on the others. The fires weren´t that big, but I would like to exaggerate the fact because it makes me sound like a real badass to put out blazing flames with a shovel and dirt. Anyways, the good part was that these fires were happening around 6pm in the afternoon so the cold of the night soon put them all out. That is about how exciting things get in San Lorenzo, you have to start fires to get people really excited about something.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
A project
Well, I finally have a long term project to work on, something that I can busy myself every day since family or school gardens are exactly a 9-5 job and I think I might go crazy if I don´t have something to do everyday. The project is basically constructing a shredder that can chop up food and organic wastes and then can be descomposed in beds to fertilizer, with the help of the cure all of animal shit. Then, these bags of fertilizer will be sold out of my counterpart´s cooperative to farmers at discount prices that are far lower then the chemical stuff they buy in the city. Hopefully this project can be small business project as well as we can hire some jovenes (young men) from San Lorenzo to be the employees and then long term would be to form a sort of ecological club in San Lorenzo using this project as a base.
But before that happens, a lot of stuff needs to happen first. We need funding for this project, so I am filling out a PL-480 form, which is like a grant from the USDA to help fund a developmental project abroad. It can be up to 7,000 dollars which could easily covers the costs of this project. However, I am primarily responsible for doing the PL-480 and it should be interesting because I have never written a grant before, let alone in Spanish. Lets just say I am wearing out my spanish-english dictionary as we speak. It is really tough and frustrating at times but it is helping my vocabulary so I guess there is always a benefit. So if we get the funding, we can either buy or construct the shredder. What is exciting is that a friend of mine´s cousin actually makes the exact shredders that we care looking for...it really is a small world. Then we have to ask for the support of the local government to help us gather up the kitchen scraps and organic wastes from the families around San Lorenzo. There is a truck that comes by once a week that picks up the trash so this could be doable. If they don´t want to support us, then it might be a little harder. You never know with small town politics. We´ll see, but I am really exciting about the potential of the project in the benefits (organic fertilizer, education for the young kids who work, employment, small businesses, and the knowledge for the farmers that they can actually cust their costs and improve their soil at the same time).
Also, I am excited about our reconnect conference next week, I will be able to see some other PCVs that I haven´t seen in a few months, though we won´t all be together, since it is regional and they split us up depending on the region (coast, highlands, jungle). But something is better than nothing I figure.
Till next time....
But before that happens, a lot of stuff needs to happen first. We need funding for this project, so I am filling out a PL-480 form, which is like a grant from the USDA to help fund a developmental project abroad. It can be up to 7,000 dollars which could easily covers the costs of this project. However, I am primarily responsible for doing the PL-480 and it should be interesting because I have never written a grant before, let alone in Spanish. Lets just say I am wearing out my spanish-english dictionary as we speak. It is really tough and frustrating at times but it is helping my vocabulary so I guess there is always a benefit. So if we get the funding, we can either buy or construct the shredder. What is exciting is that a friend of mine´s cousin actually makes the exact shredders that we care looking for...it really is a small world. Then we have to ask for the support of the local government to help us gather up the kitchen scraps and organic wastes from the families around San Lorenzo. There is a truck that comes by once a week that picks up the trash so this could be doable. If they don´t want to support us, then it might be a little harder. You never know with small town politics. We´ll see, but I am really exciting about the potential of the project in the benefits (organic fertilizer, education for the young kids who work, employment, small businesses, and the knowledge for the farmers that they can actually cust their costs and improve their soil at the same time).
Also, I am excited about our reconnect conference next week, I will be able to see some other PCVs that I haven´t seen in a few months, though we won´t all be together, since it is regional and they split us up depending on the region (coast, highlands, jungle). But something is better than nothing I figure.
Till next time....
Friday, August 14, 2009
Fiestas
One of the first things I learned about Ecuadorian Culture (besides ecua-time) are these annual events that each community has called fiestas. They are usually held one month a year every year where everyone in their respective communities, plus it seems like every known relative, get together and have fun, ecuadorian style. For what reason? Supposedly it is religion (catholic) as one weekend my community celebrates the patron saint (Lorenzo, hence the name of the town), another is the virgen, another is something I can´t remember off the top of my head. All that I can tell is that their may be a lot of religious sentiment and some people do go to church and worship, I see a lot of booze, bullfights, and baile.
Now I haven´t been to fiestas in every town across Ecuador, but I have been to three or four, and as far as I can tell, the majority consist of these few items. If you don´t have them, it can´t be an Ecuadorian fiesta.
1. ¨Toros¨ - I am not sure why they´re called toros since the ecuadorians actually use young cows, but I guess toros sounds better than saying, lets go to the vacas. Usually there is a fenced in area, similar to a corral, and people stand around watch as people bullfight the cows. In San Lorenzo, they built a small stadium out of wood and charge people to see the toros, but hey, atleast you get a stadium seat. A lot of times people from the crowd hop it and give it a go, it is pretty fascinating to watch. Usually, it ends up being drunk people who run in the ring and try to get the cow´s attention, once successfully done, they run to the side of the ring and hop over before the cow rams them. Sometimes it is successful, sometimes it isn´t. The crowd gets into it when someone get tromped, as long as they are not too hurt. By the way, there are red cross people in the crowd as well. Being stomped and showing off your scars in alomost like a badge of honor. My local friends want me to give it a shot, we´ll see how it goes.
2. ¨Baile¨- or dance for all you gringos out there. Pretty self explanatory, as it starts around 10pm and goes to about 2 or 3 in the morning, when the music shuts off. Mix lots of beer and trago (a rum type liquor) plus a DJ on the stage plus ecuadorians and you get the drift. 80% of the men are drunk and even some of the women drink too, but not as much. What gets me in that the songs are mixed into sets, so during one song you can dance from 15 minutes to sometimes 45 straight minutes. It is no wonder that ecuadorians don´t move around a lot when they dance, you would get too tired and the buzz might actually wear off. Not to worry though, there are people that walk around and hand you bear or trago during the dance. We wouldn´t want to lose the drunkeness factor.
3. ¨Games and Fireworks¨- A small old ferris wheel was built in our plaza, foosball tables are here, endless vendors hocking food, trinkets, music, and DVDs are everywhere. At night before the baile, firecrackers and small fireworks are blown up. Firecrackers are a big deal in San Lorenzo, everyone loves them.
So there you have it, enjoy.
Now I haven´t been to fiestas in every town across Ecuador, but I have been to three or four, and as far as I can tell, the majority consist of these few items. If you don´t have them, it can´t be an Ecuadorian fiesta.
1. ¨Toros¨ - I am not sure why they´re called toros since the ecuadorians actually use young cows, but I guess toros sounds better than saying, lets go to the vacas. Usually there is a fenced in area, similar to a corral, and people stand around watch as people bullfight the cows. In San Lorenzo, they built a small stadium out of wood and charge people to see the toros, but hey, atleast you get a stadium seat. A lot of times people from the crowd hop it and give it a go, it is pretty fascinating to watch. Usually, it ends up being drunk people who run in the ring and try to get the cow´s attention, once successfully done, they run to the side of the ring and hop over before the cow rams them. Sometimes it is successful, sometimes it isn´t. The crowd gets into it when someone get tromped, as long as they are not too hurt. By the way, there are red cross people in the crowd as well. Being stomped and showing off your scars in alomost like a badge of honor. My local friends want me to give it a shot, we´ll see how it goes.
2. ¨Baile¨- or dance for all you gringos out there. Pretty self explanatory, as it starts around 10pm and goes to about 2 or 3 in the morning, when the music shuts off. Mix lots of beer and trago (a rum type liquor) plus a DJ on the stage plus ecuadorians and you get the drift. 80% of the men are drunk and even some of the women drink too, but not as much. What gets me in that the songs are mixed into sets, so during one song you can dance from 15 minutes to sometimes 45 straight minutes. It is no wonder that ecuadorians don´t move around a lot when they dance, you would get too tired and the buzz might actually wear off. Not to worry though, there are people that walk around and hand you bear or trago during the dance. We wouldn´t want to lose the drunkeness factor.
3. ¨Games and Fireworks¨- A small old ferris wheel was built in our plaza, foosball tables are here, endless vendors hocking food, trinkets, music, and DVDs are everywhere. At night before the baile, firecrackers and small fireworks are blown up. Firecrackers are a big deal in San Lorenzo, everyone loves them.
So there you have it, enjoy.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
parades, elections and bucket baths
So San Lorenzo celebrated its 475 anniversary on June 1st and they have a parade evey year to show off the organizations that they have in the community. One of the organizations is the cooperative of san lorenzo in which my counterpart in the manager of. So I wake up that day knowing that there is going to be a parade and celebration but what I didn´t know is that I was going to be in it as well walking with her. It definitely was a little awkward since we walked in the front of the parade just behind the president of the junta parraoquial (its like the mayor ) and no one walking behind us for a great length as everyone in town is there looking at you. I didn´t know whether to wave and stop or just keep walking while drunk people are yelling in a mixture of slurred spanish and kichwa (or quichoa)...at 10 am.
Last sunday the community had their junta parroquial elections (city council), in which my counterpart and her brother were on one of the lists. I would consider their veiwpoints to be more along the lines of the green party, or some type of a liberal candidate. Suffice to say, they ended up coming in 5th place out of 5 lists (although, one person was chosen from each list to be on the city council, so my counterpart´s brother made it that way). Anyways, this is important to me because in small towns, to get any projects going, you need to converse with the junta parroquial. I haven´t talked with the president too much but from what I hear she is pretty easy to get along with so I feel this won´t hinder anything moving forward, but who knows. What I am really glad for is that the elections are finally over in this town. Not a day didn´t go by that I didn´t hear a song from each of the party´s (yes, they all have songs) lists being played ad nauseum for hours every day. 6am? why not....10:30pm?....sure, lets give it a go. Then, we have each people who represent the lists drive around in their trucks with megaphones attached to the top of the trucks yelling out their propaganda. They sure enjoy their politics down here.
On a different note, at our house, we were out of running water for about a week at the start of june so i learned how to live without running water for awhile (wasn´t too bad, just a little more work). Anyways, I had to bath myself and learned the time old tradition of the bucket bath. I don´t think I have taken one of those since I was washed as a baby in the sink of our house. I found it a little hard not to get the shampoo out of my eyes when I washed my hair, I think I need to lean back further on attempts in the future. Live and learn I guess.
Last sunday the community had their junta parroquial elections (city council), in which my counterpart and her brother were on one of the lists. I would consider their veiwpoints to be more along the lines of the green party, or some type of a liberal candidate. Suffice to say, they ended up coming in 5th place out of 5 lists (although, one person was chosen from each list to be on the city council, so my counterpart´s brother made it that way). Anyways, this is important to me because in small towns, to get any projects going, you need to converse with the junta parroquial. I haven´t talked with the president too much but from what I hear she is pretty easy to get along with so I feel this won´t hinder anything moving forward, but who knows. What I am really glad for is that the elections are finally over in this town. Not a day didn´t go by that I didn´t hear a song from each of the party´s (yes, they all have songs) lists being played ad nauseum for hours every day. 6am? why not....10:30pm?....sure, lets give it a go. Then, we have each people who represent the lists drive around in their trucks with megaphones attached to the top of the trucks yelling out their propaganda. They sure enjoy their politics down here.
On a different note, at our house, we were out of running water for about a week at the start of june so i learned how to live without running water for awhile (wasn´t too bad, just a little more work). Anyways, I had to bath myself and learned the time old tradition of the bucket bath. I don´t think I have taken one of those since I was washed as a baby in the sink of our house. I found it a little hard not to get the shampoo out of my eyes when I washed my hair, I think I need to lean back further on attempts in the future. Live and learn I guess.
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