Hayley's Blog

...and home again

2007-09-22T23:42:00.000+01:00

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...)

Tena

2007-09-17T01:46:00.000+01:00

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.

Completo!

2007-09-17T00:59:00.000+01:00

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.

A few days left...

2007-09-12T22:43:00.000+01:00

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.

So let´s talk about water...

2007-09-09T21:47:00.000+01:00

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.

Banos

2007-09-04T01:17:00.000+01:00

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.

Some more Puyo (aaaargh), and ants

2007-08-30T16:00:00.000+01:00

So this week so far...on Sun after going to Puyo went to the river to watch people fishing. I was imagining a few people sitting by the river with robs but it turned out to be a big community event with 30-odd people with huge nets diving in the river- very impressive. Mon went to the Municipial in Puyo (local gov head office) to the Health and Sanitation dept (ooooh exciting) to pick up some videos to organise this health/video evening. Except after waiting for most of the day it turned out they don{t exist anymore - I suppose its a learning experience! Otherwise been doing more work on the water and quality in the community and generally moseying around :-)
School starts next week for the children, and I might run a couple of activities there. Not sure if that could be rather hard work though...

Last night watched a film in one of the houses with a DVD player (oh yes). Just like home, except for the big bowl of roasted salted ants being passed around rather than popcorn. Spent some time with Lillians aunt while she made chicha, and realised that it is indeed made by women "masticating" (chewing lots) the yuka before spitting it back in and letting the whole lot ferment for a few days before drinking. Mmmmm.

Going to Banos this weekend for a mini-break - its supposed to be pretty with lots of waterfalls and toursity things. And possibly even hot water, you never know.

Chickens, dogs and babies. And some water project.

2007-08-26T17:45:00.000+01:00

Settled in more now in the village, and got down to a few different things last week. Less of the fiestas (probably a good thing) but have now had a very sad tummy for 9 days and counting. Am now not eating fish, chicken, meat or pretty much anything that isn´t boiled and a safe shade of white...

Anyway, more interesting.. Found the small town Palora early last week. This involves crossing the Pastaza river in a cable car - very exciting when you realise that what you believed to be a nice safe way of crossing heights is now a small precarious hanging basked on what can only be described as a very high and speedy zipline. With maybe 12 Ecadarians hanging on for dear life, accompnied by the obligatory chickens, dogs and numerous babies.

Speaking of babies - a nice thing. One of my friends, Alyssa (aged 15...very young), had a baby a month ago which they hadn´t named yet, and they have decided to call it Hayley! Which makes me happy. Though I think its mainly becuse they couldn´t think of anything else, but its nice that there will be a little Hayley in the Amazon. Full name - Hayley Lilbet Tapia Evatatuca (though I having a feeling that the spelling of Hayley will end up changing by the time the paperworks done).

The chicken at the front door has now been removed (after it lost a leg because I kept walking into it, it was decided to be a bit old. Its now hanging on the wall instead). Ate ants last week, you fry them and eat them a bit like an afterdinner snack. Like peanuts, except you crunch the bones -do ants have bones? or shell - savour the insides and then spit out the rest. They were nice but I couldn´t get over that they were ants. Also had quite a lot of fresh fish (but not any more) - the men like to get up at 5 or 6 and go fishing, and then come back with them for breakfast. Mmmmmm. Also been visiting the rivers lots of swimming and washing (usually with many small dogs and children but no chickens). Yesterday went for a walk in the "tropical parque" - a big ecoloigical project near where I live with one on the boys from the village. He worked as a guide in the jungle for 10 years so knew an enormous amount about all the plants and animals etc. He found some stuff for my (hundreds of) mozzie bites and we visited a sacred waterfall where he has felt lots of good spirits.

Have been working lots also! We spent time cleaning out the filter in the water sysetm - I found out that currently the system was bypassing both the filter and chlorinator, so any water that does make it to houses was basically river water probably plus some rust. One problem is that the filter seems to get dirty enough to clog pretty much every 2 weeks, so am looking into some pre-filtro type mechanisms and ideas to help out there, and hopefully tomorrow we will get the chorinator going again. Also been running lots of tests of the water and then talking to people about the results - trying to raise awareness etc (ie bacteria = not very good, lots of bacteria = very not very good, boiling = very good indeed). Tomorrow should be coming back to Puyo to get health videos for the community to run a video evening on water awareness and stuff (it hopefully will be more popular than it sounds like it should be - not a lot else goes on in the evenings). Will also be holding some more meetings with the water board committee, and planning to get the community together for a day of work where everyone pitches in ("minga") to work on the distribution lines to the houses.

Ok could go on and on, but out of time and written too much anyway. Maybe update a little tomorrow. Or next week. xxx

Much jungle

2007-08-19T17:32:00.000+01:00

A lot seems to have been packed into the last week! Finally made it to the village (nobody turned up to meet me in the local town, so after 1hr sitting in the bus station with the taxi drivers I managed to get on an appropriate bus. The journey was interesting, with the whole bus emptying at one point to clamber over a precarious bridge to get on a new bus at the other side. And once arriving at the bus´s "destination" - middle of nowhere with lots of trees-, hanging around for a bit before following a boy "¿Santa Ana, si?" into the middle of even more nowhere. But it turned out the village was just around the corner, and once I arrived the people there were lovely.

I´m stating with a family just outside the centre of the village. The accomadation is basic - washing in river, earth floor, lots of fresh air and a dead chicken hanging in the front door (I think leftover from a festival) but actually really comfy, and I have my own room with a bed etc. The family have two children (well three but the eldest lives somewhere else), aged 4 and 9, and they like me a lot for no apparent reason.

I´m not sure that this was the best week to start working. It turned out that this week there was a three-day festival in the next town, so on Tues after a community meeting everyone headed down to that, and then again on Wed...Very traditional - a Catholic priest first blessed the festival, and then lots of ceremony for the new village priest to be ordained. Lots of tambours (drums) and trad clothes, and dancing, and especially the local drink -"chicha"- which is a fermentated corn drink that I can really only manage a little off. Unfortunately scary little old ladies passing round buckets of the stuff don´t believe you when you say this, and then it is traditional to tip the remainder over the persons head. We then spent the night in that village, and I didn´t smell great the next day.

The water system in the village is interesting- from what I can can its a good design. The main techinical issues are the distribution lines to the houses, and a very quickly clogging slow sand filter. One of the main problems is also to do with funding for running the pump. Most people have little newly-built bathrooms with a sink and toilet, but with no running water. Most people also seem to use river water for drinking, but they do always boil it first. Though when water is running through the system, I think they´re happy to drink that without boiling, which probably isn´t a great idea. Next week I will start running tests on it all, and the people in the village who´ve I spoken to seem really interested in that (or just polite, not sure). I´m basically working with the woman in the village who is in charge of the system, with also time to run my own work. I think on Wed we´ll be heading back here to Puyo to collect some films and equipment to organise a film night covering water health issues in the village, so that should be interesting (the village organisers seem pretty up on this kind of work, but I don´t know if it filters down to everyone else).

Yesterday I spent working with the community to move rocks from one place to another place (I would carry 2 pebbles, little old ladies would stroll past with six boulders) - they´re planning to build pools for fishing. It was hard work but I enjoyed spending time with more of the people, and after work everyone had lunch together - very social! My spanish is improving but it is infuriating for me, though eventually I can usually work out what I want to say! Also learning a (very) little Quichwa - the indigineous language which most people speak in addition to Spanish, as a lot of people are from the Quichwa tribe. There are two other volunteers in the village at the moment, but I haven´t seen them that much (one in working with an ecologist and is away a lot, and the other is leaving on Thursday). Its very very interesting here - although the village are used to having volunteers, Santa Ana is most definately its own community with volunteers welcome to stay rather than being in any way "for" them.

Last Post in Quito

2007-08-12T22:31:00.000+01:00

Again, the title says it all really. Been spending the week doing more spanish, and also travelling around to some of the places outside Quito. Last weekend went up to Otavalo, a market town about 2/3hrs from Quito, and is the place to buy artisan-type handcrafts. I bought a hammock, and we had some nice typical Ecuadoran food (chickens´feet and all), and then went for an explore to find the sacred Kichua waterfall - La Cascada de Peguche - site of "ceremonial bathing" during festivals (and also a popular picnic spot). It was a great walk, as soon as we (myself and my friend Marie from the school) walked out of Otavalo we didn´t see another tourist for 5 hours, and it was beautiful (see the photos, now up on facebook). Especially since we took the scenic route (I was mapreading). The journey back to Quito was even more exciting- we managed to squeeze onto the last two seats on the bus, which meant hanging on next to the driver while he texted, sang overtook on uphill blind corners, and told us how he was tired since he´d been driving since 3 that morning. It wasn´t very relaxing.

It was a huge fiesta night in Quito on Thursday and that was good fun - 10 de Agosto is possibly the founding of the city (or something similar) and the whole Old Town was open with festivities until 2am, with each old city square having different entertainments and much merriment. School at 8.30am on Friday was less fun.

This weekend Cotopaxi was abandoned in favour of Papallacta, a highland town famous for its hot springs and spa. Much more relaxing and very very pretty (except that it rained and the cloud came down, but apparently the views are great otherwise). Lounging around in 40 degree thermal spas for the afternoon wasn´t too bad though, really. Went out on Sat night and ended up salsa dancing until the early hours (I can salsa!). My head hurt a little this morning, but it must be due to the altitude.

Off to jungly tomorrow, maybe update next weekend... xxx

A full week...

2007-08-04T23:15:00.000+01:00

Busy week! Lots of espanol, and also travelling around Quito and surrounding areas. Went to the President´s House (it was meant to be educational, but had to have a tour guide in rather fast spanish and most of it went straight over my head). Did get a photo of me with some official-looking (and very good-tempered) palace guards. I´ll work out how to upload photos sooner or later. Also went to the very big central museo, with lots of shiny inca gold, many many pots, and a lot of very graphic religious paintings. And no shruken heads.

Yesterday took the "Telerifiquo" -its a ski-lift cabin!- up to the mountains on the edge of Quito and walked up around there. You could see all the other peaks too, including Cotopaxi (might be next weekends trip) with its snowcap. Very thin air, which makes me slightly dubious about tackling Cotopaxi, which I think is at about 5800m, 1000m higher than we were already.

Also managed to make it out for a couple of evenings which was fun, mainly with people from the spanish school and in Quito´s "Mariscal" district - Quito´s new town and basically the place where the tourists and backpackers end up. They all pretty much speak excellent english, usually as a fourth or fifth language, which makes things easier for me but makes me feel a little inferior. Also been attempting to source some bits and pieces for my kit to take out to the jungle - looking for an industrial-size bottle of methanol with a very limited vocabularly is challenging (did it though! at least I think its methanol - "alcohol desnaturalizado con metanol" sound ok?)

The Equator and some other stuff

2007-07-30T23:01:00.000+01:00

Went to Quito old town on Friday night con mi familia espanol- very very beautiful with all the old streets and buildings. Lots of the houses have been converted into sort of open air restaurants and are very pretty with balconies and fountains. Apparently up until very recently (>5yrs) the old town was really dangerous, even in the day but the city had a big push to renovate it and make it safe, and it looks like its worked. Its been renovated really well-all the old buildings are the same but there{s lots of discreet lighting underfoot or above the narrow alleys. It reminded me a little of a cross between Barcelona and Havana. Lots of churches (pretty much on every corner - I think theres 25 in a very very small space). Also saw some of a street music concert-traditional folky with men in ponchos with panpipes. Heehee. Also went up to the top of the city hill where the city monument and could see everything...

Went to the equator an Sat - there is a huge monument outside Quito marking the equator within a sort of national park. Its very impressive. However about 10 years ago scientists started playing with GPS in the area and realised that their monument was out of the Equator line by about 200m. Which is a shame.

However, that gave them the opportunity to build a new musuem on the real equator line as well. It was a great musuem - yes we got to do the water going down a plug in both hemispheres (its true that it goes clockwise/anticlockwise depending), and on the Equator itself it goes straight down. So that was reassuring.

We also had to walk along the Equator line with eyes closed, as apparently you are supposed to feel wobbly as youre in the middle of the world. I did feel wobbly, but then walking along with eyes closed always does that for me. We also had to balance an egg on a nail (apparently easier) and hold out your arms to have someone push them down - apparently you have less "resistance" on the equator. I am not completely sure about these (maybe the egg one was real)- possibly we were being suggestible? Does anyone know if the equator really makes you wobbly and weak?

After that went up to Pululahua- a live volcano with settlements within the crater, which was really beautiful. We were at the top and it was an 8km hike to the bottom which would have been fantastic, but unfortunately had taken a taxi from below and only managed to persuade him to wait for 15min.

On Sun went to a traditional market, and then a genuine Ecuadorian bbq (or I suppose as genuine as they get) at a friend of my friends from Spanish school. Yummy.

(oh yes, forgot to mention. At the Equator musuem there was also lots about the indigenous jungle cultures. Got to see a shrunken head (yes, a real one), made only 150 years ago. And it was made by one of the tribes who I am staying with - apparently they were the ones who were good at shrinking heads. Also saw some nice comfy genuine jungle huts, and lots of exhibits of happy friendly jungle animals and insects. Including a rather nasty little snake thing that likes to swim up orifices when you are busy relieving yourself in a lake/river. And yes Charl they do have serpents. Think I will stay in nice safe Quito, where I nearly know my way around and everything. :-( )

Quito etc...

2007-07-27T23:11:00.000+01:00

Hola!

See, practically fluent.

Have been exploring Quito a bit more now in the afternoons after my lessons (have done 3 mornings now and it is making a difference).The city itself is interesting - I´m staying in the north, and then as you go sounth you get towards the business-y district, then new city (the touristy area with lots of hostels, bars, shops, and my school), and then the old city. Hopefully I´ll be heading up to the old town tonight with my spanish family to see it all- apparently its beautiful at night. The city as a whole is a mixture of pituresque and not so, but being able to see the surrounding mountains is very cool. Its quite polluted though- a mixture of the large numbers of cars and the humidity, I think.

Tomorrow I am going to go to the equator (oooh southern hemisphere) with a friend from the school (was considering hiking but I´m tired) - there´s a big monument and a museum where you can do equator-type things (not sure what, maybe flushing toilets?) and hopefully also visiting a big nearby volcano where lots of people live within the crater. Not sure what they do if it erupts, apparently its live.

Am feeling a bit more settled in now which is nice and I´m really enjoying at the school - I hadn´t realised how small it is, but it only seems to have 40 or so teachers and students at most at one time, and almost everyone is having one-to-one lessons. Today five students who had been there for about six weeks left and we had a bit of a party in the morning break :-) Also found out that there will be quite a few volunteers in the jungle when I go, which is good!

Arrived! (stage 1)

2007-07-25T21:04:00.000+01:00

Woooo made it! And the journey wasn´t too bad, though I could have done without a 2hr delay in Miami... Met lots of interesting people on the way, from the two Americans sharing a copy of Harry Potter 1, to the little girl emigrating to Florida with her family (and not happy about it), the two Israelis just beginning on their year-long south america trip and the mother and child travelling to Columbia for the first time in 11 years to meet up with lots of long-lost family. Maybe I just look a bit lost and in need of companionship?

The family I´m staying with are really lovely - luckily the dad (Patricio) speaks pretty good English, though he´s trying not too, and they are looking after me (I have the mobile numbers with strick instructions to ring if needs be). Quite proud since I just worked out how to get the bus, though Patricio gave me a lift into town this morning.

Had a three hour spanish lesson this morning (oh dear its difficult) and the school is really friendly - I only had a chance to chat with a few people briefly but there seems to be lots of people travelling alone and should be easy to meet people. Decided not to do another three hours this afernoon though, I think it might have killed my brain.

So...

2007-07-23T18:33:00.000+01:00

Right. An introduction to what this is all about...

I'm heading off to Ecuador in about 11 hours.

The plan is to spend some time in the capital city of Quito before heading out to a small community called Santa Ana on the edge of the Amazon to work as a volunteer for six weeks, mainly on their potable (drinkable) water system. Since they don't speak very much English out that way, I'm using the time in Quito to have 2 weeks or so's worth of Spanish classes, and also to do some travelling around the area.

I'll post more about the water project itself later (but I do have a very shiny portable water lab kit which is exciting, as long as it gets through customs, what with the bleepy stopwatch and the interesting-looking pots of white powder - microbiological broth, actually).

Hopefully it'll be better weather out there than it is here. Hooray.
(I'll start packing now)

Testing testing...

2007-07-20T11:59:00.001+01:00

Ooooh the blog works. Goody. Now I just have to make the colour scheme less violent and go and do useful things, like making sure I have some money.