I returned a few days ago from the Intag Cloud Forest in Northwestern Ecuador and I am now settling in with my host family in Quito and getting back into class mode. The week in Intag was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, my laptop and Picasa conspired against me to erase all of the 100+ photos I had taken while I was there, including tons of upclose shots of beautiful tropical birds and photos of my rural homestay family. I wish I could have shared those pictures with you all to show you how incredible beautiful Intag was!
There are entirely too many stories from my week in Intag to explain here, so instead I made up a list of things I did while I was there that I had never done before:
1. Drank fresh cow milk
2. Shared a hammock with a chicken
3. Cut worms out of potatoes and then proceeded to use them
4. Fetched the cows from pasture (there´s a great story behind this one)
5. Played soccer with true ¨futbol¨players
6. Ate something that still had a tail when it was on my plate
7. Hitchiked (a lot!)
8. Bathed in a waterfall
9. Took care of a sick, crying baby
10. Protected healthy cows from a rabies cow
11. Caught and held tropical birds
I know there´s tons more but I can´t think of them right now. For the first four days in Intag, I stayed with half of the group on a forest reserve and studied botany and ornithology. We woke up at 6am every morning to set up mist nets to catch birds so we could measure and record them. We learned botany hands-on by hiking through the cloud forest and identifying every plant we saw. We got to meet the women of a cooperative in Intag who weave bags and hats out of fibers from the native Cabuya plant. We also met a lot of local activists who have been integral in the Intag fight against the mining companies and learned the whole history of their struggle. On the last day in Intag we worked on a ¨minga,¨which is a community service activity that everyone in Ecuador is required to participate in at least once a year. We planted trees on a forest reserve and helped begin building a bridge across a river.
The second half of the week in Intag I spent with a rural homestay family in the town of Santa Rosa, about an hour´s hike from the reserve. The family consisted of a single mother, two daughters about my age, one younger daughter, and one of the older daughters´ 6 month old baby. I spent most of my time in the kitchen helping them cook, all day long. There was a week-long minga going on in Santa Rosa, and since my host family didn´t have a man to participate in it, the women in my house cooked lunch and dinner for all of the men working, which was probably about 15. Sometimes before dinner I played soccer with the men working on the minga. It really is true how better Latin Americans are at that sport than Americans!
I also helped out with taking the cows to and from pasture, herding and tying up the pigs, and taking care of children at a daycare in the town of Pucara. I also danced - a lot. One of my host sisters asked me the first night I was there if I liked to dance, and I said yes. So we danced, every day, in a little room with a radio. Sometimes they would turn on the radio, sit down, and tell me to dance for them. I thought it was one of the most awkward things ever at first, but by the end of my stay it was really fun.
I was very struck during my rural homestay at how little these people had and yet how willing they were to give or share anything they could. I was also really taken aback by the extent to which I experienced the machismo society I had been warned about. It isn´t chauvenistic, per say, because it´s accepted as normal. The women stay at home, cooking and cleaning and caring for the children, while the men go out to do manual labor. When the men come back for lunch or dinner, any women not directly involved in serving them food leave the room, and wait. An hour later once the men finish eating and leave, the women come back and then eat with each other. No one seems to be offended by this custom; it´s just the way it works here. What´s even stranger is how incredibly quickly I was desensitized and became used to that little ritual.
One day during my rural homestay, I saw five tanks filled with soldiers holding machine guns drive by the house, up the mountain towards the town of Apuela. When I asked what they were doing there, one of my host sisters told me they worked for the mining company. They were hired as private militants to secure a mine site in Junin and to quell community resistance. She talked about it like it was nothing special-a commonplace sight to witness in Intag.
For the entire second half of the week in Intag, it rained. My host family told me that the past year had brought more rain than they had ever seen. The potato, rice, and coffee crops in the area were all but completely destroyed. It also had a huge impact on all the roads connecting these tiny rural towns to the larger cities in the Sierra. The roads had gotten so bad by the day we left Intag that our bus never showed up to take us back. We ended up hitching a ride - all 25 of us, with luggage - in the back of someone´s wooden truck. It was definitely quite a bonding experience for all of us!
I met my Quiteño host family early Sunday morning and they are wonderful. There´s a single mom and two daughters about my age, and they live right downtown in Quito. For my birthday on Monday, even though I had just met them, they gave me flowers and a cake - it was adorable! This weekend is Carnaval, a huge Latin American holiday, and they are taking me down to the city of Riobamba.
I´ve been taking Spanish and Ecuadorian history classes all week, and tomorrow we have an excursion to several Ecuadorian flower plantations - some traditional and some modern. Classes are long (two hours or more each) but good. I think my Spanish is improving exponentially! I also just found out the other day that I am a finalist for the Truman Scholarship and will be flying back to the States around March 6th for my interview. Let me know if you´ll be in the DC area around that time!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Los Primeros Viajes a los Bosques
I've been in Quito now for five days, and I'm beginning to get used to the city and the language. We've been doing a lot of orientation all week, which was incredibly boring, but we've also done a lot of hiking and exploring the city. We've gone out to eat for just about every meal so far, and I still haven't spent as much money as I would have going out just a few times in the States! I got a sandwich today for 30 cents and it was fabulous.
On Wednesday we took a really wonderful trip to Yanacocha (Quichua for lago verde, or green lake), an Andean forest nearby. It was about a two hour trip to the park, on a bus that was clearly not made for curves, hills, and dirt roads. We hiked around the forest for most of the day and learned all the names of Andean plants and birds in Spanish. It was absolutely beautiful. I've uploaded most of the pictures I've taken so far, and you should be able to see them in my nifty little slideshow (--->)!
Today was our first day of classes, which meant a five hour Spanish class starting at 8am. Needless to say, that was a little rough. But fortunately I'm picking up Spanish much faster than I expected. Once you're emersed and really have no option but to understand and communicate back, it just starts to come more easily. I can't wait until I'm relatively fluent and feel more comfortable talking with local people. After class, we went to a big international orchid festival in the city. The view from the botanical gardens was unbelievable, and the flowers were absolutely beautiful!
Tomorrow morning we leave for the Intag Cloud Forest to study cloud forest biology and live with a rural homestay family. I'll be staying with a family involved in a women's cooperative there that weaves beautiful bags and hats, and I'll be helping the women with this work. I'll also be working on my group's Field Investigation Project, taking soil and atmospheric measurements of the area. It will be a nice change of pace from the busy city to stay for a week in a rural area without electricity (even if that means cold showers!).
The other really cool thing about visiting Intag is that I'll be able to meet the people who have organized an inspiring movement to prevent construction of an open-pit mine in their region of the cloud forest. "Open-pit mining" for gold and copper is the Ecuadorian equivalent of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. It has the same devastating effects on surrounding ecosystems and local communities. The mining companies wield extensive power in local and national politics, just like the coal industry does in the U.S.
Local communities are subject to health hazards through the resulting air and water pollution from the mines, and they are severely disempowered and marginalized by the mining companies. In addition to the impacts on ecological and human health, the mines bring with them increased crime, corruption and poverty. The mining companies extract all of the benefits from these operations and pay none of the external costs, while local communities are left to deal with the costs and receive none of the benefits.
The ongoing movement in the Intag Cloud Forest to prevent construction of one of these mines is the equivalent of the Coal River Valley wind project in Ohio. Local communities and concerned people from all around the region are rising up to stop an economically and politically powerful industry in order to protect the region's other valuable resources: its biodiversity and its culture.
Whether you look at the political and legal systems of a country like the U.S. or one like Ecuador, it becomes immediately clear that policies are designed to benefit extraction-based industries and the upper class. These policies don't protect the poor or even the general population; instead they serve to legalize and facilitate their exploitation and disempowerment. All in the name of economic growth and "progress." I think it's about time for a new system. So hopefully I will be able to spend my month-long independent study at the end of the semester working with these wonderful people and helping to conserve their land and culture.
On Wednesday we took a really wonderful trip to Yanacocha (Quichua for lago verde, or green lake), an Andean forest nearby. It was about a two hour trip to the park, on a bus that was clearly not made for curves, hills, and dirt roads. We hiked around the forest for most of the day and learned all the names of Andean plants and birds in Spanish. It was absolutely beautiful. I've uploaded most of the pictures I've taken so far, and you should be able to see them in my nifty little slideshow (--->)!
Today was our first day of classes, which meant a five hour Spanish class starting at 8am. Needless to say, that was a little rough. But fortunately I'm picking up Spanish much faster than I expected. Once you're emersed and really have no option but to understand and communicate back, it just starts to come more easily. I can't wait until I'm relatively fluent and feel more comfortable talking with local people. After class, we went to a big international orchid festival in the city. The view from the botanical gardens was unbelievable, and the flowers were absolutely beautiful!
Tomorrow morning we leave for the Intag Cloud Forest to study cloud forest biology and live with a rural homestay family. I'll be staying with a family involved in a women's cooperative there that weaves beautiful bags and hats, and I'll be helping the women with this work. I'll also be working on my group's Field Investigation Project, taking soil and atmospheric measurements of the area. It will be a nice change of pace from the busy city to stay for a week in a rural area without electricity (even if that means cold showers!).
The other really cool thing about visiting Intag is that I'll be able to meet the people who have organized an inspiring movement to prevent construction of an open-pit mine in their region of the cloud forest. "Open-pit mining" for gold and copper is the Ecuadorian equivalent of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. It has the same devastating effects on surrounding ecosystems and local communities. The mining companies wield extensive power in local and national politics, just like the coal industry does in the U.S.
Local communities are subject to health hazards through the resulting air and water pollution from the mines, and they are severely disempowered and marginalized by the mining companies. In addition to the impacts on ecological and human health, the mines bring with them increased crime, corruption and poverty. The mining companies extract all of the benefits from these operations and pay none of the external costs, while local communities are left to deal with the costs and receive none of the benefits.
The ongoing movement in the Intag Cloud Forest to prevent construction of one of these mines is the equivalent of the Coal River Valley wind project in Ohio. Local communities and concerned people from all around the region are rising up to stop an economically and politically powerful industry in order to protect the region's other valuable resources: its biodiversity and its culture.
Whether you look at the political and legal systems of a country like the U.S. or one like Ecuador, it becomes immediately clear that policies are designed to benefit extraction-based industries and the upper class. These policies don't protect the poor or even the general population; instead they serve to legalize and facilitate their exploitation and disempowerment. All in the name of economic growth and "progress." I think it's about time for a new system. So hopefully I will be able to spend my month-long independent study at the end of the semester working with these wonderful people and helping to conserve their land and culture.
Monday, February 2, 2009
El Primero Dia
I've been in Ecuador for just over 24 hours, and I already absolutely love it.
I arrived safely in Quito last night after flying down from Miami with a bunch of people from my program. We're staying at an adorable little hostel in the city this week to do orientation and get acclimated to the country. This afternoon we did a "drop off" in the city, where we had to get to a certain destination, without a map of the city or the bus system, by asking people for directions. We also had to find someone to talk to about the environmental problems experienced here in Quito. Oh and we had to do this alone, or in pairs. It was a little overwhelming for the first day, but it was a really great way to get to know the city and to start speaking Spanish.
The city is absolutely beautiful. There are lots of parks and open space, palm trees everywhere, and the Andes mountains tower over all the buildings. The weather is incredible - not too hot, not too cold. It's the perfect temperature to wear jeans and a T-shirt and be completely comfortable all day long.
The food here is also really great. I've started eating meat again, so I won't miss out on that part of the cultural experience, and I've already gotten to have some fairly traditional local meals. The fruit juices are incredible! And despite how good it is, food and drinks here are unbelievably inexpensive. I had a three course meal for lunch today for $1.75! And of course, I came to the country two weeks before my 21st birthday, and I haven't gotten carded at all - a bit anticlimactic.
Before coming down here, I didn't really know many details about what we'd be doing. Now the more I find out, the more excited I am to be here! Tomorrow night, our program arranged for us to take salsa dancing lessons. Next week, we are traveling to the Intag Cloud Forest, an incredible remote and pristine high-altitude rainforest. After that, I will finally get to meet my host family and settle in for a long stay in Quito.
Hopefully next time I have internet access, and the time to write, I will have some exciting stories!
Love and miss you all!
I arrived safely in Quito last night after flying down from Miami with a bunch of people from my program. We're staying at an adorable little hostel in the city this week to do orientation and get acclimated to the country. This afternoon we did a "drop off" in the city, where we had to get to a certain destination, without a map of the city or the bus system, by asking people for directions. We also had to find someone to talk to about the environmental problems experienced here in Quito. Oh and we had to do this alone, or in pairs. It was a little overwhelming for the first day, but it was a really great way to get to know the city and to start speaking Spanish.
The city is absolutely beautiful. There are lots of parks and open space, palm trees everywhere, and the Andes mountains tower over all the buildings. The weather is incredible - not too hot, not too cold. It's the perfect temperature to wear jeans and a T-shirt and be completely comfortable all day long.
The food here is also really great. I've started eating meat again, so I won't miss out on that part of the cultural experience, and I've already gotten to have some fairly traditional local meals. The fruit juices are incredible! And despite how good it is, food and drinks here are unbelievably inexpensive. I had a three course meal for lunch today for $1.75! And of course, I came to the country two weeks before my 21st birthday, and I haven't gotten carded at all - a bit anticlimactic.
Before coming down here, I didn't really know many details about what we'd be doing. Now the more I find out, the more excited I am to be here! Tomorrow night, our program arranged for us to take salsa dancing lessons. Next week, we are traveling to the Intag Cloud Forest, an incredible remote and pristine high-altitude rainforest. After that, I will finally get to meet my host family and settle in for a long stay in Quito.
Hopefully next time I have internet access, and the time to write, I will have some exciting stories!
Love and miss you all!
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