Invoking God´s Wrath...One Trash Fire at a Time

We have trash pick-up here every Wednesday. A truck come through the center of town and will pick up any bags of trash by the road. I usually take my glass and metal trash to be picked up while I compost my organic trash and burn the rest. I was starting a fire last week with old newspapers to burn my trash (Thanks Steph and Matt for the gift that keeps on giving!). My old and half-senile neighbor came by and tried to take the newspapers I was balling up out of my hand. He kept saying, "Give me your Comercios" (El Comercio is the Quito paper). I tried to tell him that the papers were in English and he couldn´t read them, but he was insistent that I give them to him. Now, this isn´t the first time that he has asked me to give him stuff, so I kept telling him that I needed the papers and the were no good for him. I eventually used all the papers to start the fire and then moved away from the smoke. Don Alfredo walked over to me, looked me hard in the eyes, and told me a story. He said that before he got married, he worked for a Frenchman who owned all the land around the town. He said the one day the Gringo brought out a huge bag of money and asked Don Alfredo to separate it into piles of old and new bills. The man then put the new bills in his safe and took the old bills outside. He then lit the pile of old money on fire while Alfredo watched. Don Alfredo said the he asked the man to give him the money, but the man said that the money was old and useless. Don Alfredo said he still couldn´t understand why the man would rather burn his money that give it away. Then Don Alfredo pointed to a small hill by my house and said, "A week later, the Gringo was driving his tractor on a hill like that. The tractor fell over on the Gringo and he was crushed to death." Don Alfredo then patted me on the shoulder, nodded knowingly, and then asked again for some newspapers. Like I said, he is only half-senile. The story worked, and he got some of the papers I had in my house.

I went back to Tilipulo to transplant the plants that we planted in February. They were doing well and we ended up making 7 more beds. This time we worked with the parents of the kids in the school because they said that the kids hadn´t showed them how to make the beds. It went well and the parents said that they learned a lot. As you can see from the pictures, we made a big difference. The plan is to come back in September after Summer Vacation to plant twice the area. Also, some of the parents said that they were going to make gardens by their houses. This is my real goal for working there. Hopefully with their own gardens, they can improve the diets of the families (especially the children) of that town.

I was in the High School this week, and some of the girls of the third year (15-16 years old)were making maps on big pieces of paper. One of the maps was of all the mountain ranges of North and South America. They were copying it out of their Goegraphy book, and it looked nice. I complemented them on it and asked where Ecuador was on the map. One of the girls said, "Jay, this is a map of mountains!". I said I knew that, but where was Ecuador on the map. She didn´t understand what I ment until I pointed it out and said, "Here!". Then I asked if she knew where the US was. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "Jay...this isn´t a map of Europe!". My Fault.

It isn´t hard to figure out why a 16 year old would think that the United States of AMERICA is in Europe when you consider their teachers. I next went into the office and the teachers were huddled around a sheet of paper saying, "Victoria is taller than José, but shorter than Maria. Pablo is taller...". I listened for a minute as they argued over who was the tallest. Finally, I told them the answer and explained it. They were amazed and asked another question. Apparently the teachers have to take an IQ test next week and wer working on practice tests with some difficulty. Since I could get the questions, I am now teaching logic classes to the teachers every day until the test. They dodn´t have experience with these types of tests, and since their raises depend on the results, they are excited to learn.

I actually like the problems. Here are a few examples that they couldn´t get. Fill in the blanks with the numbers that continue the sequence. The answers are on the following post. Good luck.

1) 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 8, 27, 16, __, __, __

2) 2, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, __, __, __

3) 2, 3, 4, 9, 16, 29, 54, __, __, __

4) 0, 1, 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 24, __, __, __

Answers to the Questions

I hope you got them all...

1) 81, 32, 243

2) 4, 12, 13

3) 99, 182, 335

4) 44, 81, 149

The 1 Year Countdown

Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince that only from the mountain top can you see the valley, and only from the valley can you see the mountain top. As I try to sum up my experiences from the first year in La Libertad (April 20th 2008 - 2009), I keep thinking of this line. It may be a cop-out, but I don’t know if I can fully grasp the significance of being here for myself or the people I know. Although I live at over 11,000 feet, often I feel like I’m right at the bottom of the valley. Either way, I don’t think I’ll "see" what I’ve been doing here until I’m out of it. I’ve heard that most PCVs quit right away or at the 1-year mark. I think that there are a lot of people who want to quit earlier, but want to stick it out at least a year. We have already lost two this last week, and I’ve heard a couple of other friends say that they may leave.

I’ve also heard that a lot of people don’t get going on their projects until the second year. I hope I’m on this side. I’ve had work the last 12 months, but nothing too spectacular. The chicken project, the gardens in Latacunga, and possibly with the Government hopefully will make my last 12 months memorable.

I would like to take this milestone to thank everyone who sent packages, cards, texts, phone calls, and well wishes down here. Without the support of friends and family, I don’t know where I’d be. (That goes for a lot more than just Peace Corps service!) I hope this message finds you all well up North and enjoying the first tastes of summer.

I miss you all and can’t wait to visit in July, but first I have to get to work.

Right now, it arrives...summer !

¡Ya llega verano! I heard this, which translates into the title of this post, a couple of times this week. This is good news because that means hopefully that it will stop raining. Winter here means clouds, rain, and mud, while summer means clouds, wind, and dust. neither is ideal, but at least I'll be able to dry my laundry.

I went into Quito on tuesday for my friend Maria's going away party. We had a good time, but it was tough to say good-bye at the end of the night. I then went on wednesday morning to Mindo, a town 2 hours west of Quito. There is another PCV from my Omnibus there who is working on a chicken project. I wanted to get some ideas and any excuse fro going to the tourist haven of Mindo wasn't going to slip through my fingers. I've heard that Mindo is beautiful and I wasn't disappointed by the scenery or the project. The weather was great and other than all the bug bites I got, everything went great. The project is a lot bigger than what we will start with, but I picked up some hints and more importantly some contacts in Quito.

Both schools in La Libertad were on vacation this week, so it was a good time to visit Mindo. The lack of school and the drier weather also meant that it was a good time to play baseball. My buddy John wanted to come up to visit the kids he works with in Latacunga on the radio, so he came up too. It was fun to play, and luckily it didn't rain until after we finished.

I think old age is catching up with me! Two weeks ago I jumped for a ball while playing soccer and was undercut by the other team's Forward. He banged my Quad pretty hard and the next day I could hardly walk. It is still hard to squat, but doesn't hurt too bad. Last week the only goal I gave up in a 3-2 Reina de la Paz victory went in off my middle finger and jammed it. It hurt after the game, but nothing too serious. I was visiting my neighbors when one of the ladies saw me looking at my finger. I told them what happened and she took my hand, asked for some cooking oil, and then started very roughly rubbing the oil in the joint. The pain was intense, so I pulled my hand away. The ladies were all disappointed that I couldn't "take it", and said that it would help. I couldn't look like a whimp, so I gave her my hand back and sheprocedded to manhandle it for 10 minutes. Needles to say, when I woke up in the morning, it looked like I had a giant purple sausage growing out of the end of my palm. Ecuadorian home remidies to the rescue again.

I don't think I'll let them work on the sprained ankle I got this week.

Chiquito Postito - Small Post

Things have been busy here (I can tell by the lack of progress on the collection of short stories that I´m currently reading), but slow (I can tell by the lack of stories to write about) this week. I was able to go top Latacunga las Saturday to watch the UNC game. Unfortunately, Carolina lost, and even more depressing was that that was the first full live college basketball game I saw all year.

We are getting started on the chicken project finally. I had a short meeting after we finished working all day in the community bank this week. We now have a rough idea of the next few steps that we have to take. Everyone is excited to get started (including myself). I´m trying to keep their expectations low because we may not get funded. I talked to my boss about the project and she said it was a good idea and suggested that everyone work individually instead of in a big group. She thinks that this will cause less problems amongst the group and even though we will lose some of the "team building" benefits, it will work out better. The ladies were all very excited to learn that they could work by themselves which shows how little they trust each other (even Sisters were happy they didn´t have to work together).

Also, my boss and I talked about trying some value-added projects with the onions we grow. She said that she had just talked to a guy who works for a large food processing company in Ecuador that is always on the look out for more product to buy. She said that his company sells onions packaged in vinegar and can´t get enough raw material. She thought it´d be a good match, so she started to write down his information for me. I said that I´d never seen the long white onions that we grow packaged that way. She stopped writing, looked at me, and then throw away the guys info. "I forgot that you only grow those types of onions. You can´t do anything with those." she said.

Got some bad news this week. One of my friends decided to quit. His work wasn´t going well and his Grandmother recently got very sick. He thought he´d be of more use at home, so he left. Another very good friend got kicked out of PC. She had been traveling a lot without telling anyone. She wasn´t happy in her ste and had an Ecuadorian boyfriend in the city near her, so she spent a lot of time there. It sucks that she is leaving because she was one of the few people I talked to regularly, but I think she´ll be happier in the US.

Bush League Bullfighting

How do Bullfighters get started? Is there a Minor League of Bullfighting? I'm sure questions such as these have kept you up as many nights pondering as they have me. Fortunately, I can now answer both of these questions. Last week I went into Machachi on Saturday morning to see "7 Brave Examples of Local Bullfighters". I had seen the signs proclaiming this in La Libertad and decided that I had to go. A friend and I got there at 12:00 (That's when the sign said that it was going to start, but this being Ecuador, the festivities didn't start until around 1:00). When we got there, we were the only ones there except guys setting up the DJ equipment. We were able to get the best seats in the house. I say seats, but the "stadium" was really just a ring with grassy knolls around it that were formed into stands. The day was nice, and sitting there by this small bull ring shaded by trees and the mountains looming in the distance was pretty cool.

Finally the fights started and I realized that the "7 Brave Examples" were a little better at being brave than being examples. It was just like minor league baseball. A lot of young guys working on their game, with a couple of over-the-hill guys trying to hang on, and one stud prospect. They all had the Matador gear on and tried to do all the moves, but ended up getting pretty beaten up by the bulls. Luckily nobody got hurt. It was funny to see one of the kids get flipped and then run to the side of the ring. While the helpers kept the bull occupied, he was talking to his coach in the stands. I couldn't hear the conversation, but I imagine that it went a little like this...

Bullfighter - Coach, I'm getting killed out there. What should I do?

Coach - Well, do you see those horns on the end of the bulls head?

Bullfighter - Yeah.

Coach - I'd try to avoid those.

Bullfighter - Thanks.

Before the fights, I was hoping that they would kill one of the bulls. Once I got there, I changed my mind. I didn't think that these guys were good enough to cleanly kill the bull, so instead they rushed the bull and tapped it on the back in the same spot that they would have stabbed it. That was a lot safer, and the bulls didn't have to suffer. They have bigger fights in Quito and Riobamba that I now want to attend to see the real deal.

Happy April Fool's Day! I hope you all had a good day because I know I had fun. I got three of my friends good, and one rumor that I started is still making the rounds. What can I say, I got to have something to keep me busy.

Work has been OK lately. I finally got the High School to let me teach some nutrition classes. My plan is to get them to use the vegetables that they grow for lunches for the kids instead of just rice, potatoes, and candy like they serve now. Also, I want to do a health fair with the kids making food for the teachers and parents to taste test. We'll see how it goes. I think I may finally start assisting with Chemistry and Physics too.

My buddy John went the other day to see the garden that we had planted in Tilipulo. He said that it is doing great. I'll be back there in a week or so to transplant the new plants. Hopefully this will be the start of more outside work.

I was walking through town the other day and a truck pulled up next to me. It was a government truck and a guy from the Ecuadoran Agricultural Ministry was driving. He said that he was visiting my town and heard from some people that I was doing some experiments in crop diversification. I showed him what I was doing with alternative crops (to little success). He was interested and asked me to come by his office in Machachi to see how we could work together. I think he wants me to organize Ag classes in La Libertad. Nothing really exciting, but any work is good work.

Finally, To add on to the pile of bad/odd things that have happened to Ecuador since I got here, the main traffic hub in the south of Quito was heavily damaged this week when a water tunnel running under it broke and then created a huge hole in the middle of the Trebol or Clover. You can see pictures at http://www.interactive.net.ec/noticias/crater_en_el_trebol_en_quito_incomunica_a_la_capital.html

and

http://www.ciudadaniainformada.com/ciudadania/ciudadania-despliegue-noticias/ir_a/ciudadania/article//quito-en-emergencia-por-colapso-de-colector-del-trebol.html

It is going to take a while to get this fixed and will make my travel to and from Quito a little harder.

P.S. - We tied last week's soccer game 1-1, but I didn't give up a goal in my half