This weekend ended up being all that I had hoped for. I'm not sure how much I helped out legitimately, but it felt great to be there anyways! The trip started with a long bus ride to Puyo in which I slept most of the time. When we arrived we went to the store to pick up some food basics (cookies and milk), got some rubber boots to trek through the mud, and then got picked up for another 2 hour ride to the edge of a road leading into the community. From there it was a half hour walk to get into the actual village.
We got in Friday around 5 or 6pm, so we had just enough time to have a small meeting about what was going to take place on Saturday. After that we went to dinner, and I'm still not sure exactly what it was we ate since we both forgot our flashlights and it was extremely dark. I think it was some kind of cow soup. At any rate, out of hunger it was delicious!
Saturday we started the meeting (and when I say we, I mean my co-worker and the indigenous leaders). It was really encouraging to see how excited and emotional everyone was about the threat of petroleum companies coming in and exploiting their land. The meeting went on for longer than 10 hours. At the end of the meeting it seems that everyone agreed that it was the best decision to create a legal proposal to protect their lands before the companies come in for the "consultation process."
When we got back to Puyo Sunday morning, we had just enough time to run up and grab some food to go before catching the bus back to Quito. Leave it to me to get whatever the lady behind the counter recommended. When we got to the bus we found out I had gotten a traditional dish called Menudo which is a soup with the different insides of animals...heart, lungs, intestines, who knows what else. I was so hungry I ate almost all of it, and now I can say I had it. I can't say I would order it again.
Anyways, now I'm back in Quito in the office getting ready to teach English to the son of the receptionist in the office. I'm training for a half marathon in the end of November so started running again and I feel great! Stopped taking kickboxing classes and now looking for a new studio- the trainer ended up being a creep who doesn't know what 'no' means. Lucky I know how to punch now, hehe. Until next time bloggers!!
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