A Month in Ecuador, Trials an Tribulations

hola todos

life here in banos ecuador is fairly wonderful. in some ways better than last october and in some ways less so, but overall excellent.

bobby and jody (usa) and Karl with a K (england) , my dear friends are extremely busy due to the growth of the programs and, so much so that I don't see them nearly as much as anticipated, and therefore not very available for the fun and games that i was hoping for, i was aware that life would be different and so the adjustment to not having the same style of community is not a hard one. There is a good group of volunteers here, 2 woman from the states, an australian man, a french woman. We are all getting to know each other and a couple of nights ago met and had some beer and laughs. Also on that evening met a man riding his motorcyle through each country in north, ce ntral america (Adventure Motorcycling for Dummies: Preparation and Bike Modifications , his website access)

We are 5, Kim from Weymouth, Ma via MCLA, Liz windover from Williamstown & Cathie via Haverford College, myself and Kelsey Chandler, Williamstown. Kelsey who bought a ticket last minute and met us here at the start of our second week. She has saved us as she went to my house and retrieved the 2 Tikki Tikki Tembo books which are integral to our theater project .

We are a great group although the pains of establishing routines and getting to know each other has involved a fair amount of intense discussion periods. They are being referred to 'as those long talks of yours/ mine" but so far it seems that all understand the value. So far, each time we have found our way to a place of peaceful interactions. Everyone is extremely motivated, kind and fun. So we cannot go wrong.

The volcano on the back side of the very green mountains that surround this tourist town has been booming loudly and sending of HUGE plumes of smoke into the sky. A beautiful sight and nobody is at all concerned. So we join the forces of people gawking at the sky and ooohhing and ahhhhing. It is an incredible sight.

Our housing is ridiculous. Ridiculously wonderful that is. From the girls' room the waterfall (you can google Banos and the waterful wil usually be one of the main attraction shown) is in sight, but from any window the depth of beauty is amazing. It is green and clouds come and go, wafting between the steep inclines. It is rainy season and in the moment it is pouring. This could continue or stop and the sun could blast through and be here for the entire day or a few moments. I suspect that nobody is able to predict the pattern of sun to rain. Yet for our purposes, it is the beauty that is the overriding reality. We are having plenty of sun and no complaints.

Our tasks are being established. Frenchy is a trained librarian and has been here for months, so I have handed over the books and all relative jobs. We are making stilts, almost completed 4 pairs. Some with handles to leave behind and some that strap on so that we will have these to use in the future.

Stilt pants, they are looking phenomenal. The pants that I always want to buy, but can’t because every tourist does and wears them in public, while no self respecting Latin American wears them, well we are using these. Each pant will have a couple of different pairs of pants. They are tough to make, but will be beautiful.

Oh, also a great diarama model from one of our crappy, broken suicases on wheels that I took for Willams College dumpsters and we dragged our books here in... as always this part of the trip is ridiculous, our trying to make it through airports with the weight of our gifts.

Our airport to banos trip was so phenomenally simple. An airport pickup by a husband and wife team and a tour en route in the 3 hours ride to our home here. And I believe that we have all found ways to feel useful.

Although my quick pace and tendency to oversee all, combined with the reactions of the others has more than once threatened the balance. I will work on this. I am working on a more patient approach, but ask that they work on either, taking full responsibility for communicating any issues or resign themselves to accept and be happy with the outcome.

I am open to any and all change that might make our work together have the best outcome possible.

Written post-trip: This went very well for a while, then it did not. Before I even realized it, our communication had stopped. I was on the outside of this group of five.

I continue to think of this situation with sadness. After months and months of reflection on how, why, and what, I have been able to identify some of the ways that I may contributed to the downfall of our group’s cohesiveness. I can only hypothesize as there were no explanations, no questions, no discussions allowing for the opportunity to make change.

I will always wish that this could have been different, that one of us could have had the insight and strength to force the group to work together and to clear the air and maintain the bond that we had begun to develop. This was our responsibility to each other.

While I shall do all that I can to slow down to a more human pace, this is a connection that I made and a project that I believe in with great commitment. Therefore it is important to me that we are a useful contributing entity. It is important to me that we as a group are making efficient use of our time, resources etc. So far we are balancing these pieces well and I hope that we will only improve as each of us comes to better understand the others' styles, strengths / weaknesses and trusts the good intent of everyone of us.

This group is outstanding and wonderful! Yes, I maintain this truth. If only the group had pushed themselves to effectively communicate.

For fun, liz and kelsey and i have played soccer for 3 days running. We play on a small basketball court and often with kids half our size, so we feel pretty awesome as soccer players. It is not uncommon to see one of us furiously heading, chesting or dribbling around half of the other team, shooting and scoring, of course feeling so omni-powerful, only to recognize that the 4 kids you went by just got out of diapers....... aha welll...... fun we are having.

Somedays we make it to the baths, but less than i imagined 2, 3 or 4 times only in the week and a half and Kels has not been yet. Eating, sleeping and being at home is something. Hot showers, whew, wild.

Life is almost TOO COZY, am i really in latin america. With home cooked meals we are functioning on a $5 per day food budget. Housing is $6.20 a day and so life is quite affordable. Our hosts own a restaurant and offer us a mean there anytime for $3.00. This also comes with plenty of conversation, smiles and often a free drink or two.

Spanish feels almost unnecessary and the ones without this skill are very comfortable. I wish people worked harder on spending more time in the language of our community. I have found that this is often the case though, while I understand many of the reasons, I still wish it were different.

What other adventures:
Bike ride to the Amazon Basin:
A $5 rental fee, #1.50 busride back and we coast most of the way to the Amazon Basin

River Rafting:
Yes on an Amazon River tributary, an amazing concept.

The jungle this weekend.
Either Mera which is a 1/2 hour bus or 4 hour bike ride and the location of the animal reserve, "merazonia" (my original contact here) or further to Puyo which is on the map. Jesse the ecuadorean librarian has a family home and has invited all of the library volunteers there...yehaaaa.

Hike into an indigenous village next weekend:
The 2nd trip there for the library. We will bring books as well as our Tikki Tikki skit on stilts.

Tikki Tikki Tembo Drama:
Yessie, Arte’s local librarian, is all set to be our narrator. She poked her head out of the 2nd story window yesterday and began to excitedly exclaim her new understanding of the value of the upcoming stilt production. The play went wonderfully. Absolutely great. Our et was painted directly on the outside wall, the crowd of library goers and volunteers seemed to love it.

Teaching mural. This turned out beautifully. As so often is the case, the job was larger than expected. Even on the very last morning, one of the volunteers had to scoot to the library to wrap up their part of the painting. It will serve wonderfully as a teaching tool and is very nice to look at. When I returned 6 months later, the report was that it was getting a lot of use and new volunteers were continuing the idea onto the other two walls.
besos, amor y mas
sue
artedelmundoecuador Banos, Ecuador