Digestion

I ended my site visit this morning as I ran down the hill to catch the bus. I should have anticipated that the 8 AM does not come until 8:20. Four hours and four buses later, I find myself back in Olmedo. We spent the afternoon watching the usual Sunday soccer games at the town cancha. It is nice to have my friends around again.

Some people speak of unbearably hot Amazon towns surrounded by dense jungle. Others tell of high humidity, bug nets, and towns so poor they have mud streets and bathe in the river. Others yet have hot showers, cold beer, and offices. The number of totally different experiences compares to the number of malaria strains present in Ecuador. Luckily I live above the government standard altitude requiring malaria pills. 1500 meters, if you were curious.

Highlights from the rest of my site visit:

1) During my first walk around the area, I ran into a guy wrestling a pig on a leash. I couldn´t figure out exactly what he was doing, even after I asked.

2) More than just a few meals consisted of a plate full of whole potatoes and potato soup (whole peeled potatoes in a thin broth). Good thing I have multivitamins.

3) The entire elementary school spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday playing a soccer tournament. I served as referee for multiple games.

4) I met with some of the women whom I will be helping with a large community garden. Within the first ten seconds of meeting them, they began complaining the municipio will not allow them access to the irrigation canal that runs under the street next to the garden. Seeing as the rainy season has not arrived in full capacity in two years, a large scale garden would be a challenge without irrigation. This led to my first meeting with the town president.

5) He asked if I could give him guitar lessons.

All in all, I come back excited from my site visit. Preliminary project ideas include the family gardens, community banking, and an afterschool youth group for the supposedly dangerous jovenes in the next town over. I´ve already got a contact who might be able to help with dance classes. I would teach music and take care of organization.

It is still early to tell many things about how daily life will function, but I can already see I don´t mind doing laundry by hand with a ginormous volcano staring me in the face.