This and That

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.

A few of weeks ago was the Reconnect conference for those of us in my training group. The 35 of us who remain of the original 42 returned with a counterpart to Tumbaco, sight of our training. We volunteers stayed with our host families from training, which was absolutely wonderful.  Mine always makes a point to remind me that I have a second home there, a message that has definitely set in. Reconnect happened to coincide with my birthday, for which we ordered Pizza Hut and ate cake, though disappointingly, no one attempted to shove my face in the cake as is the custom here for the cumpleañero.

Basically all of the volunteers expressed some degree of frustration with how things are going in out respective sites. According to everyone in the Peace Corps, staff and volunteers alike, this is par for the course after 4-5 months. Some people were annoyed with their living situation; others with their work situation or the language barrier many had hoped to have overcome by that point. Ecuadorian culture and its complete lack of regard for punctuality and machismo were other common targets of people’s ire, as was rice (though not by me of course).

Aside from the airing of the grievances*, there were also workshops in project planning and cross-cultural communication (how to work with people who live in small towns in the campo) that we attended with our counterparts. I went with Daniel from the Office of Environmental Management in the municipio. I came away impressed with him and his knowledge and motivation. That said, I also have been growing increasingly skeptical about working with the municipio because of the budget situation and how it has derailed essentially all of our office’s plans, and the general lack of direction that they have provided me on what they would like me to work on.

I was in no hurry to return to Arenillas so I went to Gringolandia Cuenca, the third largest city in Ecuador with a few friends. It’s on the way home from Tumbaco in the sense that half of the country in only an hour or two out of the way because I have to travel 12+ hours to get to any official Peace Corps meeting. We stayed in a sweet hostel, went to an English language bookstore, and watched football on the satellite hookup at an American owned bar that caters to the expat community. It was a nice break, but it felt weird to be there.

I returned to some bad news, my friend and neighbor Victor had been hit by a car and was in a coma.  He passed away last Thursday.  Victor was one of handful of people who I feel like went out of his way to make me feel welcome here, inviting me to things, introducing me to people, and letting me use his workshop to build my furniture. I am not exaggerating in saying that at least 15 of his family members are also my friends and neighbors as well. He’ll be missed.  The funeral process here is a three-day event. There was essentially a three day wake that began when the body was brought back from the mortuary, and lasted until it was carried in a procession to the church for the mass. There were chairs set up outside in the street, and when the body first arrived at 11:15 at night the whole community was present. The custom here is that there has to be someone present to accompany the body at all times over the three days. After the mass, the body was carried across town in another procession. First the flowers, then the people carrying the casket, then the rest of the walkers, followed by the cars and motorcycles. It reminded me of a second line, but lacking the music. A few more dedications were read at the cemetery, and the casket was placed in an above ground crypt. From there everyone returned to the house for one final night of mourning and reminiscing.

On a happier note, it’s the fiestas patronales of Arenillas this week. Every town in Ecuador (Latin America? The Catholic world?) has a patron saint, and a big celebration on that saint’s day. Festivities kicked off last weekend with the Pregón, a parade of the different schools and institutions in town. Everyone is in costume, mostly traditional indigenous wear, and prepares a dance or other performance. I was at Colegio Technico, the big high school, last Thursday talking with Renee, one of the other PC volunteers here in Arenillas. We were invited to learn the dance that the group would be performing the next day in the Pregón, and think nothing of it, accepted. Next thing we knew they were inviting us to be in the performance and handing us our costumes. I’ll post the video when I get a copy. Other events on the official festival calendar for this weekend include: a city wide dance in the park, a 4x4 rally, and what I believe is a foam party held at a discoteca, sure to bring glory to our patron saint.

The power has been out here as I’ve been writing this. I just went outside for a moment and found out why this is. The power company is cleaning off all of the moss and other plants growing on the lines. They’re doing this by throwing a weighted rope over the line, grabbing it by both ends, and sliding it along the length of the cable, thus scraping of the plants. Asi es la vida.

The Apartment

I present to you, my apartment.  I ran out of memory while going to the laundry area so that part got cut off.

Ya Mismo

There is a term here in Ecuador, “ya mismo,” which is simultaneously great and the bane of my existence. Literally translated, it means “already the same.”*  In reality, though, it is used to express an indefinite amount of time, anywhere from minutes to days. It can also be used as a sort of polite way to brush someone off. For example:

“When will the food be ready?”

“Ya mismo.”

Inerpretation - Anywhere between a couple of minutes and a couple of hours.

“When will you be arriving to the party that started two and a half hours ago?”

“Ya mismo.”

Interpretation: - They’ll probably show up by the time everyone else was just considering leaving.  Usually this is really annoying, but if the party is dying because it has run out of food/drink, and the latecomer brings more, this could be a good thing**

“When are you free to come over for dinner?”

“Ya mismo.”

Interpretation – I’m too polite and nonconfrontational to say no outright, but I don’t really want to.  Think of one person saying “we should get coffee some time,” and the other person politely agreeing but specifically avoiding making an actually plan to do so.

I like to think*** that “ya mismo” harkens back to a time before most people here had a clock in their home. When people arose early to tend to their crops before the heat became oppressive, and afternoons were spent trying to stay in the shade, perhaps in a hammock, and that the days sort of blended together. Couple this with a lack of energy from what probably was an inadequate diet, and it really was all the same if some things happened immediately, or in a few hours (days?), or in some cases, didn’t happen at all.

I hope you all have enjoyed reading this entry. I’ll be sure to write again. You know, “ya mismo.”

* The word “mismo” means “same”. The word “ya” can either mean “already” or “soon” or “about to.” How the same word can mean something that is about to happen or has recently happened is beyond me,

** The latecomer never actually brings anything, but hypothetically, I suppose it’s possible.

*** I like to come up with completely unsubstantiated, romanticized theories of how certain aspects of Ecuadorian culture developed.  I realize that this is incredibly patronizing and borderline racist.

Moving

This weekend I’ll be moving into a new apartment. It has 3 small rooms, is entirely made of concrete, and I couldn’t be more excited.  I told my host father Thursday, and he seemed typically indifferent, but I haven’t told my host brother who I’m anticipating will be upset. It’s in Ciudadela Las Mercedes, which is the neighborhood with the school that I work at, and is 5 minutes closer to the municipio where my office is. This may not sound like a big deal, but I’m hoping that it means the difference between arriving at work dry or soaked in sweat, though during the warm season I’m sure there will be little difference.  It’s also close to a tienda that sells choco-bananas which are exactly what they sound like and cost 10 cents. The only downside about the new spot is I’ll no longer be living half a block from the empanadas that I can only describe as deep fried chicken potpies.

My rent is going to be $80/month, which is $10 more than the Peace Corps allots for people living at my level. It’s pretty common, though, that volunteers living in small cities are stuck paying a little bit out of pocket, so I’m actually pretty pleased about the price. As of right now, I have acquired a gas tank, stove, mattress with bedding, fan, plastic stools, and small pull out couch. All of these were purchased/gifted from other Peace Corps folks who are leaving. My landlord is also letting me borrow a dresser/armoire that she didn’t use. Thus, I’m doing well from a budgetary standpoint, having $360 left of the $465 settling in allowance that Peace Corps gives us.  I’m in the market for a used refrigerator, but so far I haven’t found one, and the cheapest new mini-fridge around runs $210.  Other than that, the main costs I’m anticipating are going to be outfitting the kitchen, buying a couple of chairs, and buying wood and a circular saw.

Wood and a circular saw? Yes, that’s right. One of my goals is that by the end of my service I’ll be more self-sufficient. You know, in a prepared for Peak Oil, Armageddon or the Zombie Apocalypse sort of way.  Along these lines, I’ve decided that making my own furniture is a worthwhile endeavor. I’ve picked out plans for a table and some shelves that I’m going to build, and if that goes well who knows what else I’ll be inspired to do.  It’s time to put that Williams Middle School Tech Ed training to the test.  I’m also planning on painting the walls in at least one of the rooms, though I feel like I’ll be worse at that than I am at making furniture. 

Almuerzo

I've realized that if I were to view this blog as a place to write summaries of what I've been doing, I would never feel inspired to write anything. Thus, I'm going with a topical approach from here until I decide not to. Today´s subject: lunch.

In Arenillas, and I imagine in most places in Ecuador large enough to have a restaurant, yet too small to have fancy restaurants, you have as best I can tell two options for lunch. More often than not I go home and prepare it myself. I could go on about how how it´s great to have that break in the middle of the day and the value of family mealtime (though not the case in my host family), but this post is really meant to be an ode to option #2, the Almuerzo. Almuerzo is both the Spanish word for lunch, and the name of the style of meal. All almuerzos consists of two courses; some kind of soup, followed by a plate thatis half filled rice, plus your meat and some kind of salad. They also come with a cup juice, or two if they´re especially awesome. Yes, that's 5 items. In short, if you're like me, and have learned to embrace rice, they´re about the best thing ever, and will most likely be the only balanced meal that you eat on that particular day. Sadly, my go to almuerzo place just raised its price this week from $1.50 to $1.75, making it no longer both the best and cheapest option, but now just the best.

What makes a good almuerzo place? I´m glad you asked. Number one, they have the day's choices written. There's nothing more disheartening than having to pick from Cuerito (pig skin) and Guatita (cow stomach), and not being able to leave because they already served you your soup.  Second, they give you your meal quickly, not waiting until you've finished your soup. This is critical, as it allows you to add half of your rice to your soup, or more if there is nothing on the plate that mixes well with it. Usually the meat is in some kind of sauce or the salad is something more than shredded lettuce, and this isn´t an issue. I said I embrace rice, but I'm not crazy enough to say that a pile of plain white rice is riquisimo (delicious) as some Ecuadorians do. Third, the ají has to be good. Ají is the homemade hot sauce that sits on the table at every restaurant here. It varies from tasty and tangy to unpleasantly spicy depending on the establishment, and, as a last resort, can be eaten plain with rice in order to give  the rice some flavor.  Fourth, the two cups of juice is a sure crowd pleaser. Almost all juice is make by sticking fruit, water and sugar in a blender and straining the results. One with each course please. And for the love of god, make it cold. The juice is such a crucial part of the almuerzo that it is even included in to go orders, in which case it is put in a plastic bag.

Drinks that come in bags will be the subject of a future post.

Plant Nutrition

My current dilemma: do I want to buy a 200 liter barrel?  It seems likely that at some point, possible in the near future, I´m going to be doing some gardening. Specifically, I´m probably going to be working with anywhere between one and three schools to start school gardens, which they can use to grow food and teach.  I also could start a garden on some unused land in the municipal nursury where I could do some experimentation with methods and fertilization. 
I would hope to begin a compost pile at each school, but the matter remains of what to use for fertilizer to begin the gardens.  The quickest organic fertilizer taht I could make is manure tea, which is just like it sounds like.  You fill a burlap sach half way with manure and put it in a giant barrel. If you want to get fancy, throw in some molasses and yeast and really get the microbial action started.  It takes about 2 weeks, and when it´s done brewing you water it down some more, and then water your crops with it.  The cheapest barrel I´ve seen is $38. I don´t think I really need 200L, but a 100L barrel is still $30, so there isn´t much point in going smaller. I would keep the barrel at the tree nursery, at least at first, and I could fill smaller containers with the concentrate to carry it elsewhere. Yes, these are the things a Peace Corps volunteer thinks about.

In other fertilization news, Worms! Yes, worms. We broke ground today on a new lombriculture system at the nursury. By broke ground, I mean, spent hours picking through the large compost heap and removing rocks, trash, and thick sticks. Once that is done and we have reached ground level, we are building three 1x5 meter beds out of cynder blocks. One bed will be for fresh organic matter, one for partially decomposed organic matter, and the third will be for the worms. Worms turn dirt into humus, which is possibly the best organic fertilizer there is because it´s both rich in nutrients and has excelent soil structure. Hopefully we´ll have the beds done sometime next week.