After Tena headed back up to Quito, where the plan was to spend a couple of days relaxing and catching up with people before heading back on a happily relaxing journey back to England.
The first part of the plan went fine, stayed with my friends Akiko and Vanessa (Vanessa is Ecuadorian, Akiko I met at the spanish school in Quito and is staying with Vanessa), went shopping, out to eat and generally wound down a bit.
Unfortunately when it came to the journey home, broken planes and cancelled flights gave me what added up to a 29 hour delay. But I did get to spend some lovely quality time in Miami, and finally scraped home early Friday morning.
So, journey over! Quite a busy two months in all. Learned some spanish (and some kichwa!), attempted to improve a communities water system, met lots of indiginous Ecuadorians and new friends, managed to see quite a bit of Ecuador, and squeezed in a little biking, riding and kayaking.
I think I need a holiday now to relax.
If anyone's still there, thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed it.
love,
Hayley
End of blog.
(until next year...)
Saturday, 22 September 2007
Monday, 17 September 2007
Tena
After leaving Santa Ana, I spent this weekend in Tena - a small jungle town and the whitewater capital of Ecuador (its sort of on the way back to Quito), with the hope of squeezing in a little bit of kayaking.
I organised a guide from the English (well, Irish)-run "River People" company, and today me and Alex did the Jatun Yacu river (grade III, more or less, and pretty much the only river in my ability level out here. Everything else is scary death grade IV and V creeking things). And it was very very awesome. Especially after I woke up after paddling straight into a very obvious hole. Big bouncy happy wave trains, warm weather, warm water, no swims, fantastic picnic lunch and jungle scenery, including mountains and volcanos. Perfect. Yay.
Just to make people jealous, here´s a description of the river:
"The Jatunyacu or "Upper Napo" is the last free-flowing, major tributary of the Amazon in Ecuador, and drains from the Volcano Cotopaxi and the rugged and pristine Llanganates National Park in the Andean Cordillera. The most popular section is from Cando to Puerto Napo, and can be broken down into shorter sections. At normal levels, the river is class III with a few mild class IV rapids. "Jatunyacu" means "big river" in the native Kichwa language and also means "big fun" for paddlers. There are lots of surf waves, great scenery and several Kichwa communities along the river."
Also went to the Tropical Park here (forgot the camera, grrr). I saw my first real-life ostrich, lots of monkeys and parrots which speak better Spanish than me.
I organised a guide from the English (well, Irish)-run "River People" company, and today me and Alex did the Jatun Yacu river (grade III, more or less, and pretty much the only river in my ability level out here. Everything else is scary death grade IV and V creeking things). And it was very very awesome. Especially after I woke up after paddling straight into a very obvious hole. Big bouncy happy wave trains, warm weather, warm water, no swims, fantastic picnic lunch and jungle scenery, including mountains and volcanos. Perfect. Yay.
Just to make people jealous, here´s a description of the river:
"The Jatunyacu or "Upper Napo" is the last free-flowing, major tributary of the Amazon in Ecuador, and drains from the Volcano Cotopaxi and the rugged and pristine Llanganates National Park in the Andean Cordillera. The most popular section is from Cando to Puerto Napo, and can be broken down into shorter sections. At normal levels, the river is class III with a few mild class IV rapids. "Jatunyacu" means "big river" in the native Kichwa language and also means "big fun" for paddlers. There are lots of surf waves, great scenery and several Kichwa communities along the river."
Also went to the Tropical Park here (forgot the camera, grrr). I saw my first real-life ostrich, lots of monkeys and parrots which speak better Spanish than me.
Completo!
Well, finished work!
Had a good last week - the weekend before, as I mentioned, was (another) festival at a different community. It was the final for a football tournament, and they take football very seriously here (its good fun talking about the last world cup).
Monday was a community "minga" - where the whole community, more or less, get together to do necessary work in the village. Now that the vacations are over they have then every Monday, and that Monday was "cleaning" the area around the school - basically slashing at overgrown bits of jungle that are threatening to take back the village. Like Day of the Triffids. The way everyone works together is great and it gives a real community feeling, but the three hour long community meeting in the afternoon was possible less great. Especially as half of its in Kichwa, of which I know about 11 words. But there was lots of diversion from representatives of various political parties who kept turning up. Its election time in a couple of weeks, and there´s a lot of publicity and interest at the moment (lots and lots of parties on the left). I got a free t-shirt from one of them :-D. On Mon spent the evening in the village "bar" -its more of a socialising space really but people buy beers or a box of wine from the village shop (someone´s front room) and its got 2 tables and pool table.
I also went to the school to run my "water awareness" activites. At least, I had the activity sheets and lots of bribery for the students who finished first (so so effective). The little ones coloured in my pictures, and I managed to run a discussion on the importance of safe water with the older ones (though "discussion" makes it sound a lot more organised than it actually was). Working with the kids was good fun though, I know most of them and I think they all know me, since I´m about 6 inches and several shades paler than most other people in the village.
At the end of the week spent time discussing the work etc with Telmo (the head of village) and the people who are supposed to look after the system, and that was quite good. The stuff I found about about illness in the village (and there is a correlation between the illness and the boiling water - 80% of families who dont boil water had someone with an upset tummy in the last week, compared to "only" 40% for families who tend to boil water) quite clearly shows the problems caused and I think its helped people understand a bit, and raise awareness...I hope so anyway.
Anyway, Friday was my last day and I had mentioned to a few people and the family about heading to the bar for a few drinks etc to say ciao, and we also had a really nice last meal in the house (they asked me to bye Carolina´s "madrina" - godmother. Which is nice and quite cool so I said ok, but not too sure what it involves. I don´t think much religion. If I go back, apparently we will have a formal traditional godmothery ceremony).
On arriving at the village bar after the meal, it turned out that quite a few people had turned up (round about 35, I think once word gets out about a party you get a few more people). But it included all my friends, and lots of people who I saw around a lot as well. Telmo and the volunteer coordinator both make little speeches saying thank you for the work the work I did and how and why it was important to them and the community- which was really nice as more than occasionally I have felt a bit like I was making head-beating-against-brick-wall type progress (and then I had to make a speech too which was incredibly articulate as you can imagine). Afterwards there was lots of dancing and drinking etc. Just lets say I didn´t feel very well when I got up at 5.45am for the 6 o´clock and a bit bus the next day.
Had a good last week - the weekend before, as I mentioned, was (another) festival at a different community. It was the final for a football tournament, and they take football very seriously here (its good fun talking about the last world cup).
Monday was a community "minga" - where the whole community, more or less, get together to do necessary work in the village. Now that the vacations are over they have then every Monday, and that Monday was "cleaning" the area around the school - basically slashing at overgrown bits of jungle that are threatening to take back the village. Like Day of the Triffids. The way everyone works together is great and it gives a real community feeling, but the three hour long community meeting in the afternoon was possible less great. Especially as half of its in Kichwa, of which I know about 11 words. But there was lots of diversion from representatives of various political parties who kept turning up. Its election time in a couple of weeks, and there´s a lot of publicity and interest at the moment (lots and lots of parties on the left). I got a free t-shirt from one of them :-D. On Mon spent the evening in the village "bar" -its more of a socialising space really but people buy beers or a box of wine from the village shop (someone´s front room) and its got 2 tables and pool table.
I also went to the school to run my "water awareness" activites. At least, I had the activity sheets and lots of bribery for the students who finished first (so so effective). The little ones coloured in my pictures, and I managed to run a discussion on the importance of safe water with the older ones (though "discussion" makes it sound a lot more organised than it actually was). Working with the kids was good fun though, I know most of them and I think they all know me, since I´m about 6 inches and several shades paler than most other people in the village.
At the end of the week spent time discussing the work etc with Telmo (the head of village) and the people who are supposed to look after the system, and that was quite good. The stuff I found about about illness in the village (and there is a correlation between the illness and the boiling water - 80% of families who dont boil water had someone with an upset tummy in the last week, compared to "only" 40% for families who tend to boil water) quite clearly shows the problems caused and I think its helped people understand a bit, and raise awareness...I hope so anyway.
Anyway, Friday was my last day and I had mentioned to a few people and the family about heading to the bar for a few drinks etc to say ciao, and we also had a really nice last meal in the house (they asked me to bye Carolina´s "madrina" - godmother. Which is nice and quite cool so I said ok, but not too sure what it involves. I don´t think much religion. If I go back, apparently we will have a formal traditional godmothery ceremony).
On arriving at the village bar after the meal, it turned out that quite a few people had turned up (round about 35, I think once word gets out about a party you get a few more people). But it included all my friends, and lots of people who I saw around a lot as well. Telmo and the volunteer coordinator both make little speeches saying thank you for the work the work I did and how and why it was important to them and the community- which was really nice as more than occasionally I have felt a bit like I was making head-beating-against-brick-wall type progress (and then I had to make a speech too which was incredibly articulate as you can imagine). Afterwards there was lots of dancing and drinking etc. Just lets say I didn´t feel very well when I got up at 5.45am for the 6 o´clock and a bit bus the next day.
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
A few days left...
Its all going very quickly.
As will my bus if I don´t keep this short.
Anyway, yes, still having fun, managed some impromptu rafting down the river Paztasa (only because we went on a jungle walk up the river and it got too late to walk back, so the guys cut down some trees, tied them together and away we went...), been bitten to pieces by evil ants, ate what was pretty much a slug, managed another fiesta, some work too, sort of.
Have a couple more days left to wrap up my work (wrote a report today, thank everything for google translate), and then off to Quito via Tena for a bit more excitement.
As will my bus if I don´t keep this short.
Anyway, yes, still having fun, managed some impromptu rafting down the river Paztasa (only because we went on a jungle walk up the river and it got too late to walk back, so the guys cut down some trees, tied them together and away we went...), been bitten to pieces by evil ants, ate what was pretty much a slug, managed another fiesta, some work too, sort of.
Have a couple more days left to wrap up my work (wrote a report today, thank everything for google translate), and then off to Quito via Tena for a bit more excitement.
Sunday, 9 September 2007
So let´s talk about water...
Skip this post if you´re not interested. :-p
Well, ok, I´ve been here for over a month now helping to work on this "sistema del agua". In actual fact I´ve ended up doing a lot more water quality monitoring and work raising awareness within the village (or attempting to). This is because the water system in the village does work, up to a point - though technical issues do include the fact that the main filter in the system clogs very rapidly (so if it isn´t cleaned regularly the system grinds to a halt), and that a reliable distribution lines only reaches to the centre of the community rather than to each house. However, one of the very important problems at the moment is that the community lacks the infrastructure in an administrative capacity.
Basically, someone needs to collect money from the families on a regular basis to pay for the system, to regularly clean the filter, to regularly add chlorine to the system. The way things work in Santa Ana means that it is unusual for someone to have a "regular" job like this. Most people spend time working in the "chakras" (gardens), fishing, working in the jungle or making artisan materials, which means its very flexible for them. This work on the water system also is done for the good of the whole community rather than benefitting one person themselves, which means its very difficult to get one person to commit to operating. So many of these issues are culteral-based rather than any technically.
On a side note - the addition of chlorine to the system is very important and I think is one of the big issues here. If (or "when") the system has no chlorine left and it isn´t topped up, the water is almost certainly no longer safe to drink. And almost all the families in Santa Ana believe that the water system water is automatically fantastic and completely clean - so requires no boiling or further preparation. The worry here is that when a community that has become used to chlorinated water, and suddenly switches to contaminated water unknowingly (when the operator forgets to redo the chlorine levels), there´s likely to be a nasty outbreak of illness. Not a good thing.
In Santa Ana, there´s no lack of water, only of clean and safe water for drinking. I´ve been running a survey, and an overwhelming majority of families have had at least one family member ill with a bad stomach in the past month or often the past week. Its not completely definate that this is due to the water, but its a good indication that somethings lacking (there´s another question on the survey asking if people boil their water before drinking - I´m really hoping for a negative correlation). However the fact that water is so easily available disclines people to put in the work to get this system completely finished (I bet that, if given the choice, they´d prefer an internet system in the village to than drinking water).
Anyway. Just thought I´d put in some notes on the work what I´m sposed to be doing here. Other work-y stuff has included drawing up some "designs" for improvements to the existing filter ("lets put a lid on it so the rain doesn´t get in!"), some very sketchy designs for a pre-filter system, running these water quality tests throughout the village and feeding-back results, attempting to get surveys completed, and this week I´m very much looking forward to doing some water and health awareness work with the children in the school (I think) - have just been printing off pictures of hands being washed for colouring in, and wrote a wordsearch (in spanish! Be proud!).
Was going to do another post about fun things too but out of time. Just know that there was another fiesta yesterday, and I feel a little bit weary today. But I´m getting to like chicha.
Well, ok, I´ve been here for over a month now helping to work on this "sistema del agua". In actual fact I´ve ended up doing a lot more water quality monitoring and work raising awareness within the village (or attempting to). This is because the water system in the village does work, up to a point - though technical issues do include the fact that the main filter in the system clogs very rapidly (so if it isn´t cleaned regularly the system grinds to a halt), and that a reliable distribution lines only reaches to the centre of the community rather than to each house. However, one of the very important problems at the moment is that the community lacks the infrastructure in an administrative capacity.
Basically, someone needs to collect money from the families on a regular basis to pay for the system, to regularly clean the filter, to regularly add chlorine to the system. The way things work in Santa Ana means that it is unusual for someone to have a "regular" job like this. Most people spend time working in the "chakras" (gardens), fishing, working in the jungle or making artisan materials, which means its very flexible for them. This work on the water system also is done for the good of the whole community rather than benefitting one person themselves, which means its very difficult to get one person to commit to operating. So many of these issues are culteral-based rather than any technically.
On a side note - the addition of chlorine to the system is very important and I think is one of the big issues here. If (or "when") the system has no chlorine left and it isn´t topped up, the water is almost certainly no longer safe to drink. And almost all the families in Santa Ana believe that the water system water is automatically fantastic and completely clean - so requires no boiling or further preparation. The worry here is that when a community that has become used to chlorinated water, and suddenly switches to contaminated water unknowingly (when the operator forgets to redo the chlorine levels), there´s likely to be a nasty outbreak of illness. Not a good thing.
In Santa Ana, there´s no lack of water, only of clean and safe water for drinking. I´ve been running a survey, and an overwhelming majority of families have had at least one family member ill with a bad stomach in the past month or often the past week. Its not completely definate that this is due to the water, but its a good indication that somethings lacking (there´s another question on the survey asking if people boil their water before drinking - I´m really hoping for a negative correlation). However the fact that water is so easily available disclines people to put in the work to get this system completely finished (I bet that, if given the choice, they´d prefer an internet system in the village to than drinking water).
Anyway. Just thought I´d put in some notes on the work what I´m sposed to be doing here. Other work-y stuff has included drawing up some "designs" for improvements to the existing filter ("lets put a lid on it so the rain doesn´t get in!"), some very sketchy designs for a pre-filter system, running these water quality tests throughout the village and feeding-back results, attempting to get surveys completed, and this week I´m very much looking forward to doing some water and health awareness work with the children in the school (I think) - have just been printing off pictures of hands being washed for colouring in, and wrote a wordsearch (in spanish! Be proud!).
Was going to do another post about fun things too but out of time. Just know that there was another fiesta yesterday, and I feel a little bit weary today. But I´m getting to like chicha.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Banos
Banos is awesome.
Reasons:
1. Hot water out of taps, and a shower
2. Real (really real) coffee - first time in 6 weeks
3. Pretty buildings, coffee shops, and bars
4. Hot volcanic thermal baths at night while watching waterfalls
5. Horseriding in the mountains (and nothing bad happened)
6. Completely coincidentally seeing a friend from school who I hadn´t seen for three years, and going mountain biking today with her and other people from the hostel
7. And therefore being able to have a fluent conversation in English for the first time in three weeks.
8. And having a log fire in my room to warm everything up.
Only a couple of minor imperfections:
1. It was a little cold and rainy, but this did give me an excuse to buy a silly poncho :-)
2. When warming up wet (but clean, honest!) socks infront of the aforementioned log fire accidently setting one on fire, and now having a slightly charred and smokey (but warm and dry) sock.
Excellent weekend for recharging metaphorical batteries.
Reasons:
1. Hot water out of taps, and a shower
2. Real (really real) coffee - first time in 6 weeks
3. Pretty buildings, coffee shops, and bars
4. Hot volcanic thermal baths at night while watching waterfalls
5. Horseriding in the mountains (and nothing bad happened)
6. Completely coincidentally seeing a friend from school who I hadn´t seen for three years, and going mountain biking today with her and other people from the hostel
7. And therefore being able to have a fluent conversation in English for the first time in three weeks.
8. And having a log fire in my room to warm everything up.
Only a couple of minor imperfections:
1. It was a little cold and rainy, but this did give me an excuse to buy a silly poncho :-)
2. When warming up wet (but clean, honest!) socks infront of the aforementioned log fire accidently setting one on fire, and now having a slightly charred and smokey (but warm and dry) sock.
Excellent weekend for recharging metaphorical batteries.
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