October Showers Bring Courtyard Gardens

It's officially October and you know what that means... MLB playoffs!  As well as some Ecuadorian-specific things, such as the beginning of the rainy season.  Tonight was the first Camioneta ride home in the rain and half of us were really prepared (perhaps too prepared.. cough cough Chet put on rain paints over his jeans) while others braved the pelting wind in tee-shirts.  

But the rain also means exciting things for us, specifically less dust to wipe off of our faces at the end of the day AND the start of our vegetable/herb garden!  While our original plan was to use the expertly-crafted boxes Eliah built for a rooftop garden, their services were heavily demanded for compost containers when it became clear that the nine of us consume a lot of food.  So at least for now, we've decided to focus on revamping the courtyard, which no offense to last year's PDs, is pretty gross.  We have two plots on either side of our walkway, one to be used for our vegetable and herb garden (featuring plantas de tomatoes, onions, mint, basil, and lettuce) and the other to be used for small lime trees and aromatic flora.    

Eliah demonstrating his craftsmanship back in August

A closer look at the box base

I'll be using part of this three day weekend to weed and plant, while the other half will be spent at the Ecuador vs. Colombia (World cup qualifier!) futbol game this Saturday.  If you can, be sure to check it out and look for the five Gringos somewhere in the crowd... that is assuming we can claim our tickets (we've been having some difficulty finding the box office open).  

Time to get back baseball and listen on Shawn's radio to the Yankees beat the Twins... 

Don't you just love October? 

 

- Jackie

Barrios and Presidentes

Now first things first - what exactly is a barrio? A barrio is a small community, or perhaps a large neighborhood (from what I can tell); the divisions between them are apparent only if you know which street is what. Our library is located within the barrio of Rumiloma, but we are within close walking distance to San Fransisco, Tena, Fajardo, Chaupitena and a few others. Each barrio has its own president, and it just so happens that Rumiloma elected a new president just a few weeks ago. The president-elect, Mr. Jose Vilane, has shown a great deal of interest in our library and what we are doing within the community. He even stopped by the library a few weeks ago to formally invite us to his presidential inauguration.

Nine PDs and Bibi rolled up to the Casa Barrial last Saturday afternoon, after spending the morning picking up trash for the minga. The fanfare was significantly smaller than that of Washington DC last January, but it was exciting nonetheless. We shared the room with presidents from several neighboring barrios, presidents of the major bus companies, and a representative from Sangolqui. In the speeches given by Mr. Vilane and several community members, we (the "senoritas" of Manna Project... sorry about that, boys...) were thanked repeatedly for the work that we have done and continue to do in Rumiloma. One man said he has been living in another barrio for over 10 years, but that he is seriously considering moving to Rumiloma because of the numerous unique opportunities that exist here - including our library.

The short ceremony ended less than 1.5 hours later, after a free almuerzo (that I actually ate) and a lot of "Que le vaya bien's" to each of the people sitting at the front of the room (it's Ecuadorian custom that you greet and/or say goodbye to everyone in the room). As we jumped back onto the bus and set off for our various Saturday night activities, I (at least) felt a sense of contentment about what we are doing in Rumiloma and our surrounding communities. It was nice to be reassured that we are making an impact.

Thanks for checking in! Off to the biblioteca and Women's Exercise! (It's aerobics night... lots of squats... ay.)
Sarah

The men at the front of the room... and the random gringo who was invited to sit up there, too
(the President is the one with the tie... and you can see Erik's blond head over to the right)

Bibi gives her impromptu speech

PS. The Casa Barrial doubles as a pre-school... can you tell by the pictures? :)
PPS. Check out our new and improved (i.e. updated) Amazon Wishlist link to the right!

Minga de Limpieza Comunitaria

This past Saturday marked our first Minga of the year.  (Minga |meen-gah|noun: an Ecuadorian word for people coming together to do a community service project)  

Nine PDs awoke at 6:45 a.m. to the smell of brewing coffee and a scramble to collect brooms, gloves, and as many trash bags as we could find.  Though we sleepily commuted into Rumiloma, we perked right up as we stepped off of the bus to find a dozen kids and parents already gathered in front of the library, ready to clean up their community.  As we split into groups to tackle the various neighborhood streets and sidewalks, we found many residents cleaning streets and sidewalks by their homes as well, asking us to borrow supplies.

Our neighbors, brushing up garbage from the drain pipes 

We spent the better part of 3 hours cleaning up around Rumiloma; my main job was to run around making sure everyone had enough trash bags, haul full bags back to the library, label them with kids' names and then weigh them to keep track of which kid collected the most, by volume.  By 11a.m. we had run out of bags (something I never thought would happen given the amount we stole from the house and wiped out of the library stash) and rounded up all of the kids in the library to tally the weight results, which are the following:

Total Combined Kids' Weight: 376.5 lbs 

Total Combined Profe's Weight: 70 lbs (plus Sarah's 2 tires)

------------------------------

Total Weight: 446.5 lbs 

Team Iori proudly showing off their loot 

A few notes about the weights: the profes had significantly less weight because we mostly helped the kids (we're not lazy, don't worry) and there was an estimate of 60-70 lbs not weighed that were left on street corners, where other residents were instructed to put their trash for pick up.  Though there were only 4 kids who got our grande sopresa, we dolled out lollipops to the other kids who answered our environmental quiz questions correctly and provided other refreshments for the families.  

Mike and Dana haul kids (and trash) from the plaza to the library

Lucia, Shawn, Erik and Bibi weighing the trash

The whole group in front of 450lbs. of collected trash!

Everyone helps throw trash bags into the truck

Some people question the sustainability of such an event, wondering if the streets will simply become riddled with garbage again a week later.  While that reality is more likely than not, clean-ups are a powerful tool for a number of reasons: they bring people together, engage them in a service dedicated to the area where they live, and quite frankly, after participating in something like picking up trash for house, you tend to think twice about dropping a candy wrapper onto the street.  

The event also opens the door for bigger projects.  There are two major trash issues in Rumiloma: burning household trash, mostly out of habit since there are reliable waste haulers now, and water contamination as a result of excessive litter and agricultural/livestock practices.  It is a priority of our environmental program here in Ecuador to tackle both issues in collaboration with USAID, FONAG (El Fondo de protección del agua), and most importantly, local leaders and organizations.   But I'm getting ahead of myself.. you'll have to wait to hear more about that in future posts!

Litter-less and feeling free (not really because quarterly reports are due next week!), 

Jackie

When Nomads Come Together

Tonight's guest blog comes from Erik Swanson, a native-born Tennessean but Coloradan ski/snowboarder at heart.  Erik is both one of my apartment-mates, and Minga extraordinaire with whom I'm co-running a community clean-up in Rumiloma this Saturday.  On top of that, he is co-running the Microfinance program with Chet and running around the valley in recruiting university students to volunteer in our library.  In his spare time he enjoys weekly trips to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant (and bringing us lots of dumpling leftovers!) and playing rugby on the weekends, which is what he chose to write about tonight: 

"During my freshman year of college, the sport of Rugby became a formidable part of my life. In the recruitment meeting, many of the seniors talked about the worldwide community that the sport has slowly created over the years. I quickly came to realize the unique camaraderie that rugby players share, especially at the social that follows a game (or "third half").

During the application process for Manna Project, I noticed many differences between the Nicaragua and Ecuador programs, most notably the "Minga" program that is unique to MPI-Ecuador and that I believe best falls into line with my past experience with Amigos de las Americas. I also noticed that there would not be a chance for me to play rugby had I chosen MPI-Nicaragua. Knowing that there were more than a few teams in Ecuador, and 3 in Quito, I wanted to put what the seniors told us all about in that initial meeting to the test.

Though his hair is longer now, this is a classic Erik face

I found Nomadas R.F.C and quickly got into contact with Miguel Montes, the captain of the team, who invited me to a tournament at the Universidad Catolica in Quito that Saturday. I quickly found out that the team was composed of expatriates from all over the world (hence the name Nomadas R.F.C or Nomad Rugby Football Club). I was amazed by the fact that people from Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, France, the UK, and the states had all come together to form this team. Despite the fact that the Argentines generally provide most of the comedic relief, it is an extremely welcoming community, holding everything said in that first recruitment meeting to be true. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to play the sport in South America, but even more grateful for the opportunity to instantly step into a group of people that legitimately accept each other as they are. The ability to so quickly find like-minded people has augmented every aspect of my life in Ecuador.

We practice in a French school in Quito known as La Condamine, mostly because one of our players manages the grounds. The field is located on the northern side of Parque La Carolina. Despite the occasional presence of multiple llamas on the field, I gladly dedicate my Saturday mornings to training with Nomadas R.F.C. 

The field at La Condamine (llamas regretfully not included)

- Erik"

Welcome to the Jungle!

... or perhaps more accurately, welcome to the transitional Cloud Forest!

Last weekend, the entire group set out for our first retiro (retreat) to SierrAzul, an enormous nature sanctuary, dedicated to protecting the Cloud Forest from deforestation and poachers. It's located about 40 minutes (via semi-uncomfortable camioneta ride) outside of the town of Baeza and about 2.5 hours away from Tena, where the rain forest begins. Its location between the mountains and the rain forest gives it a unique feel and makes it home to a few cool animals like the spotted bear, puma, and the tapir (which is apparently the size of a cow... who knew?!).

We made our way out to the sanctuary on Friday after a wakeup call at the ripe hour of 6am (which I, at least, had not seen in quite some time), 1 van ride, 2 bus rides, 1 (severely cramped) camioneta ride, and a 30 minute walk. Basically we were out in the middle of nowhere... and it was wonderful.

Once we arrived, we took the rest of Friday to relax and go on a short hike... and prepared for our big excursion. Saturday was the day of THE hike. What kind of hike, you might be asking yourself... it was a 14 kilometer, 7.5-hour hike to a waterfall. We were up and ready to go by 9am on Saturday morning, with our beautifully enormous rain boots (except for Erik and Chet, whose feet were unfortunately too big, but were troopers and stomped through the knee-deep mud in tennis shoes and Chacos!), and backpacks stocked with water, snacks and rain gear.

The hike was wonderful. It gave us time to talk to each other, time for personal reflection, and an opportunity to experience the beauty of unaltered nature. Additionally, we learned how to remove ourselves from knee-deep mud pits, face plant with grace, and drink water from the river (seriously). We returned to the cabin area around 5:30 - just in time to take HOT showers with phenomenal water pressure (they actually steamed!), eat dinner, and play countless rounds of Catch Phrase and Phase 10... until they shut off the generator and made us go to bed. (Thankfully, Krysta brought her Wonder Woman cape. I'm not sure we would have survived without it...)

On Sunday, we slept in, ate a big breakfast, and hiked/drove our way out of the sanctuary, back into civilization and back to work!

Last weekend was the perfect first retiro... thanks to Shawn and Bibi for all of the planning! (And a special thanks for all of the frosted Galapaguitos and chochos!) I'm excited to see what our next group traveling adventure will bring.

Thanks for checking in,
Sarah

Erik and Chet can barely contain their excitement on the bus!

This is where we stayed! Pretty sweet, eh?

Hiking through the forest

Haley stops to take in the view

Drinking spring water from the river
(gross, Krysta...)

Group shot in the river (please note the super cute boots)

4 hours later - we made it to the waterfall!

Shawn checks out the cascada

The group at the base of the waterfall

The view after emerging from the forest

Playing Phase 10 until they shut off the generator...
Thank goodness Krysta thought ahead and brought her cape.

Group shot before heading out on Sunday morning - clearly there were some focusing issues... :)