The Field!

Hello all! I apologize for just now writing but I actually have been away and wasn't on the internet or computer for two whole weeks. Personally, I see this as an accomplishment because I like my computer a lot. Anyway time to recount my experiences of Pulingui and Palmar. Two very different places.

Pulingui

We left en route to Riobamba (the city about 40 minutes from Pulingui) and about halfway there our bus broke down, and when I say broke down, I mean the tire basically fell off. Yep, it was a good experience, so we drove one tire short (of 8 tires, not 4) to the nearest town where we transferred busses and from there we went the rest of the way. When we got there, it was nice and chilly, and stayed that way the entire week, since we were at an elevation of about 3200 meters and in very close proximity to Chimborazo, the highest peak in Ecuador and due to its proximity to the equator and the equatorial bulge, the closest point on earth to the sun! I had a really good view of it when it wasn't covered in clouds directly from my bedroom window. I took a whole bunch of pictures of it but here is the best one when the sky was clearest.

Speaking of my bedroom, the living situation in Pulingui. So my host family consisted of a single mom and her 13 year old daughter. The mom cared for her elderly father who lived downstairs from her so I technically lived in a different house from her although it was right across the dirt road from me, a 10 second walk. The house I was in had four rooms, my bedroom, seen below which consisted solely of a bed, a kitchen/eating area, a bathroom, and another room that had tools in it.

Now the bathroom had plumbing but no running water, so I had to get used to using buckets in place of running water to take showers, wash hands, and flush toilets. Suprisingly, it wasn't that difficult to adjust to the concept of bucket showers, the water was at least warm that way. However, it was so cold outside that I was shivering when there wasn't any water on me. Since the house had no heat and it was probably only like 40 degrees at night, I had to bundle up. Every night I ended up wearing sweatpants, a jersey, a sweatshirt, socks, and gloves and then bundling up under the wool covers. I also lived at the top of a hill. With the air significantly thinner and me having a hearty cough, climbing up the hill was a blast, but not really. That was quite the experience. There was a lot of dust everywhere and tons of dogs, most of which were kind of mean and aggressive and intimidating. However the food they gave me was awesome and I could never finish it. The soups at every meal, including breakfast one day, were great for warming me up.

Now, the work I did in Pulingui. First day, we went to market for the campaign that we were to have later in the week. We walked around a tiny village handing out fliers and giving our spiels about the products and giving free eye exams. We prepared a chat to an artisan group that my host mom was a part of where they sell woolen products to tourists but they don't get very many tourists so therefore they don't make much money. They are also being outdone by machines. However, that week they didn't have time for our chat so the group after had to do it. We also built our model stove that is the basis for the major product of our team, where we decide how much people could benefit from a potential portable stove. We went to the campaign that we had previously marketed on Friday of that week and a lot of people showed up but it was a very poor community and a lot of people didn't have the $7 that it costs to buy the glasses which was pretty sad. That Sunday we split up and marketed for 2 more campaigns in the towns of Cuatro Esquinas and San Simón. Those campaigns are probably going to be more successful for one, because they have a bit more money and also seemed very receptive to the idea of the campaign.

That Saturday was my day off. A bunch of people went to climb part of Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador at about 20,700 feet. I, however, having a nasty cough decided that would be a bad idea and hopped on a bus with a friend to the touristy town of Baños. Located at the base of another large volcano, it has a lot of natural sulfuric springs that are supposed to be really good for you. I quite enjoyed the experience. I also got my first ever massage while I was there which was also nice.

Palmar

After our week in cold Pulingui, we went to the warm Ecuadorian coast for a week oceanside. Our biggest project there was working with an organization called NeoJuventud, which is an organization run largely by kids that does many projects around their community. Their latest project includes opening up a small pizza joint, which had awesome pizza. They also made an investment in an oyster farm, the first of its kind in all of Ecuador. Their other big project involves planting the largely deforested mangroves, which are trees that grow in water. We contributed in small part to each of these projects. We went to a small town slightly more inland called Río Seco to market for our campaign later in the week. We were thinking it would be a good turnout at the campaign because the people were receptive to it however, the day before the campaign, there were two weddings in the town so the a lot of people didn't show because they were up until 6 AM and probably hungover. I was kind of disappointed with the work for the week because it was heavily activity based and not as much work based. We met with an artisan group that makes necklaces and bracelets out of recycled paper and tried our hand in making one of their beads. It was pretty cool. We also baked cookies and bread and went around selling it to promote Palmar Pizza and had a day where we cleaned up the beach. Anyway, here is the picture of the mangroves:

Other than that, the climate there was very warm, but relatively dry. However, when the sun came out, it was rather oppressive and drained me of my energy. On those days, when afternoon came, I couldn't keep my eyes open and needed to take a nap. This made going to the beach really nice. A couple people from the group that was there the previous week got stung by jellyfishes but only two people got mild stings the week we were there. The beach also provided a really nice breeze so it felt great to just sit in the hammocks and read in our free time. Here is my favorite picture of the beach at sunset:

And the last thing is my host family and the food. Technically, my host family only consisted of my host mom and dad. However, at any given point in the day there were between 10 and 12 people there because their kids and grandkids and who knows who else were also always there. They were a super nice family but hard to understand because they spoke with very different accents than I am used to and also very fast, even when I asked them to slow down, which I don't think they really knew how to do. They took me to a quinceñera though which was pretty cool. I was offered drinks but had to turn them down because our program prohibits drinking in Palmar because it is a fishing village and they have had a lot of issues with alcoholism in the town and we don't want to be seen promoting that. But the quinceñera was super fun and an altogether new experience for me. I was out until about 2 that night and had an early morning the next day though so I was super tired. The food in Palmar was good. Lots of fish, as you can probably imagine and TONS of rice, but the rice was good, it was like sticky rice and quite flavorful. But now I am sick of rice and starch in general because I probably ate about 2 weeks worth of starch in the one week I was in Palmar.

So overall, those two weeks were a great experience. Pulingui was definitely something I was not used to: sleeping in 40 degree weather with no heat, no running water and dusty roads but I came here for new learning experiences and indeed it was. Palmar was a little bit better off but both places pushed my comfort zones in different ways and I am super glad. Now I am back in Cuenca for the week then I am off to Loja for a week and Zamora for a week. I will have my computer with me on that trip and regular access to the internet at least in Loja. Keep in touch! ¡Chau!