I'm going with bullets for this one
* It seems as if the rural trash recollection project that has been in the works for the past few months actually might happen. Basically, due to a lack of vehicles there hasn't been trash pickup in the rural areas of the canton for at least a few years. There is still a lack of vehicles, but we are going to begin recollection in 5 towns every other week along one of the routes in the campo. This is going to be accompanied by the instalation of 55 gallon tanks along the route where people can deposit the trash from their house, because no one wants to have to store their trash for two weeks at a time. We are also going to be offering workshops on composting. The idea is that people will use their organic waste to make compost or feed their pigs, and that will eliminate most of what would smell after two weeks of sitting in a bag.
We are trying to hold a meeting and a community cleanup in each of the communities. The problem is that there have been two so far where the ride that we've arranged has fallen through at the last minute for whatever reason. Being that there is no phone service out there, when this happens, there's no way to tell people.
*There was a meeting scheduled on friday night in one of the communities in the campo. Originally I was supposed to be going with a coworker, but he had to go to Guayaquil for some reason that I don't quite understand, leaving me to facilitate the meeting, and then stay the night with someone in the community. Fine, no big deal, I've done it before. What was not, however, communicated to me was that this town that I've never been to was not actually on the main road, but a small ways away. I went on the bus and it dropped me of at the beginning of the road to the community. As the bus pulls away I realize that it's pitch dark and no one told me that I would need a flashlight, and that noone has come to meet me. I begin up the road to the town, which is kinda sorta barely visible, and wind around for 100 meters or so. I come upon a donkey tied up on one of the bends, and then there is a dip, at the bottom of which is a stream. For some reason this stream hasn't dried up like the rest of the streams in the area either. I searched by cellphone light for about 10 minutes, but couldn't find a way across, and gave up. There was, however, no bus back that night. I had to walk a couple of miles to the next town over where I have previously stayed, and was going to be helping with a community cleanup the next morning. They were quite confused and amused when I showed up.
* I bought a guitar the other week. I did it as much out of needing something to fill time as a desire to play. As such, it was the first highly questionable purchase that I made here. That's pretty good, right?
* We harvested the first cucumbers from the garden at Escuela Albert Einstein. There are a couple of tomato plants that have a dozen or so green tomatoes that are a couple of weeks away as well. I want to get more cucumbers planted, and some swiss chard as well.
* Ecuadorians are really excited when they find out that I can make pizza. One of such people is my 84 year old neighbor who is a baker. I taught him how to make it, and he's made it twice in the past week, to sell in the bakery. He modified the recipe, though, and decided to put egg in the crust. The second time he made it he borrowed a microwave to reheat the slices, which, he previously didn't know how to use.
* I find myself being excited by certain American items that I never have had any real attachment to before. Especially Oreos and Prego pasta sauce.
*I miss good ice cream.
*Arenillas hosted a basketball "cuadrangular" (4 team tournament) with teams from the three closest cities last night. We placed third, meaning we lost our first game and won the second, which is probably a fair result based on the tournament. It was great to play real basketball.
