Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Dos Voluntarios en Ecuador

To begin with, I would like to apologize for my erratic picture uploading. Internet (and for that matter, transportation... weather... anything, really) here in Ecuador is not quite as reliable as it was in Costa Rica. It´s been a slow and frustrating process. There are still a lot of photos that I have not been able to post in my web albums yet, but I will continue to try to upload photos from Ecuador until they are all up. Hopefully that will happen tonight. Oh, and additionally, there is a link to the web album for Ecuador now. Look just below the link to the Costa Rica photos.

Now, where to begin? After our first two weeks in Ecuador, I wasn´t sure what to expect from the Ecuadorians. As far as I could tell, Ecuador was a crazy, disorganized country filled with crazy, disorganized (though kind and earnest) people. However, Molly and I have finally had a relatively chaos-free week, and though I still maintain the opinion that most Ecuas are certifiably crazy, I am starting to think that it´s at least the good kind of crazy. I think. I hope. At the very least, there have been a lot of good, kind, crazy Ecuas helping us out lately. Lukas, for example, who has been trying to help us find volunteer work; Manuel, who set us up with a group of young periodistas (journalists) so that we could help them with their periodico (newspaper); and the kids in Tyler´s Barrio (neighborhood), without whom we would have probably ended up lost and/or dead somewhere on the coast of Ecuador last weekend rather than in Quininde, where we helped out with a campemento for jovenes (youth camp... come on, people, learn to speak Spanish).

Additionally, the Peace Corps workers here in the province of Esmeraldas (who may or may not be equally as crazy as the Ecuadorians) have been very helpful. Three in particular: Tyler, of course, and also David (who works in Quininde) and Ali (who works in Muisne). Thanks to them, Molly and I had a great opportunity last weekend to put the skills we learned as interns as the O´Keeffe Museum to good use. Molly and I traveled with several chicas from Tyler´s barrio to meet Tyler, David, and Ali (and a group of about 25 chicas from Quininde, Sua, and Muisne) in Quininde at a retreat center to help host a leadership camp for young women. We spent the weekend helping out with workshops on a diverse range of topics such as leadership, life, business, the environment, reforestation, and sexuality. We also helped run camp-y activities like bingo, swimming, and s´more-making. Several of the highlights of the campemento:
- A trip to the bosque (forest) where we got to witness some reforestation work and talk about the environmental issues that are facing the province of Esmeraldas (there are a lot - pollution of every kind, deforestation, y the introduction of foreign species that are damaging the forest and the water supply in the province)
- A boat trip out into a beautiful laguna, where we also go to swim and teach the kids Marco Polo
- A trip to an integral farm where we got to eat a variety of exotic fruits as well as visit to "la Cascada del Amor" (the Waterfall of Love... ha)
- A workshop on sexuality that was run by a couple of the jovenes from Quninde, who got to teach the other girls the things they have been learning about sex and sexuality from David
- A business workshop led by Tyler where the girls got to simulate starting up their own micro-business
- Spontaneous dance parties with the girls (an aspect of a girls camp which I will be sure to miss when we host a similar camp for boys this coming weekend)

As I said, Molly and I will be headed to Muisne next weekend to help with a similar campemento for boys of the same age group. It is sure to be a totally different experience... and I am not really looking forward to it. Not my favorite age group of boys.

In the time between camps, Molly and I have been volunteering with a group of periodistas who have been having financial problems with continuing to produce their periodico twice a week. It seems as though they have been having trouble with money management and misusing money, and they have additional need for money for cameras and tape recorders. We´ve helped them to make a budget and plan a pitch that they are going to present tomorrow at the Municipio (city hall? I am not sure what the American equivalent would be) in order to get some funding for their paper. I have to be honest, despite the fact that these children are TERRIBLE money managers and have not kept records of their expenses and don´t even really know how much money they need to ask for... they are darling and I have really enjoyed spending time with them and helping them. We have a lot of work to do on their presentation tomorrow. They didn´t feel like they need to make an outline or be prepared at all, and Molly and I spent the day today trying to convince them that they they need to be organized so they can make a professional presentation. (This, I think, is the essential difference between Ecuador and the US. Their way of doing things is far more laid back and - dare I say it? - a little lazy, and we have this strict, uptight, and workaholic way of working). We finally convinced them it would be a good idea to prepare and practice, and once we do that tomorrow morning, we´ll head to the Municipio. I hope all goes well.
*Note - if anyone wants to donate a camera or tape recorder to these kids, send me an e-mail or something. I would love to arrange something like that for them.

I won´t get to the internet again this week, since we´ll be in Muisne at the boy´s camp from Thursday to Sunday. After that, we may be headed back to Quito... it depends on how the UNC v. Kansas game goes on Saturday. If we win that game, Tyler (also a UNC Alum) and I have vowed to find a bar in Quito that is showing the game. Either way, I will hopefully have time for one more blog post before Molly and I head to the Galapagos on Wednesday. I can´t believe we are headed to the Galapagos already... time is flying.

Besitos para todos!

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