Countdown

"agonizing loneliness characterizes the life of the pioneer"

It's been 5 months here, and I am ready for a vacation back to my home-town! Who knew I could actually miss that place?? Every day my anticipation and impatience grows. There is so much to think about, but all I can think about is getting there...

The dry toilet construction went really well. We flew out of Puyo to the community of Pumpuentsa where we had 5 days to construct 4 dry toilets. It was difficult, exhausting, and beautiful. At first it was difficult to get organized, but once we had the "man-power" we needed, it all went very smoothly. More appropriately, the "woman-power" was much more effective in construction. The cement mixing and tile-laying required a lot of patience and waiting, which it seemed to me the women were more adept. The men were a great help in building the structure and the roof. It was truly a community effort, and although it was tight, we finished just in time.

For me personally, I learned a lot from the trip. First of all, I've never built anything before, so that was really exciting. I also learned that scorpions like dirty clothes and if I get a bite I can go into a coma for 2 days...how close I came to being bit is too scary to recount. I also learned that there is a bug called coloradilla which buries under your skin and sucks your blood leaving you with little mosquito-bite looking bumps. FUN! Another first, I've never cooked over a fire before (other than s'mores but that doesn't really count). This trip required cooking on a fire pit 3 times a day every day. Despite the fact that we only had 5 or 6 ingredients, we managed to cook something different nearly every meal!

Outside of my trip building the toilets, there's been a lot happening. The fiestas of Quito just ended on the 6th. There was so much going on, it was unbelievable. There was a concert on every corner, chivas passing by constantly (chivas are open-air party buses), candelazo (delicious warm strong sweet drink), parades and dancing. It's been a great way to end my first trip to Ecuador. Now, I go back home to the freezing cold and snowy christmas and new years. I cannot wait! =)

Here is a pic of a woman demonstrating how to use the dry toilet

In a Divine Place

These past few weeks have been a blur for me. I have found a sort of routine here which has made the time really fly. It's strange to be so comfortable here sometimes, and because I'm so comfortable it makes me very homesick. I'm enjoying my time here a lot, but I am also excited to have some time back in the states. Being in this daily routine and watching the days and weeks pass without anything remarkable happening makes me kind of bored and uncomfortable. BUT, I meditated on it this morning and realized I am in a very human and divine place. I have no plan, no idea where I'm going next, and am constantly wondering who I am and want to be-- but all of these questions keep me grounded in a strange way.

Also being here for such a long stay has given me a deeper perspective on traveling as a conscious person rather than traveling as a tourist. Yesterday I met a woman from the states who has been living here in Ecuador for over  year. As I kept overhearing her talking "Ecuadorians are like this, Ecuadorians are like that," I was thinking of how an Ecuadorian would feel hearing her over-generalizations and assumptions...then I was thinking of how many times I've done that in my travels. How many times have I left a country and later explained the people and their culture as if I was some qualified scholarly expert just because I  had traveled there for some time? I don't want to think about how many times I've done that, actually. And furthermore, I've been a total hypocrite because I lash out at anyone who classifies us from the states as 'obese, lazy, stupid, close-minded...etc.' These generalizations were (and are) not only damaging to the people we are describing, but I was also spreading these stereotypes to the minds of those people who may never have the opportunity to experience the culture and country for themselves. I apologize if I have come off this way in any of my conversations or blog posts in the past- I am really going to make a conscious effort in the future to not only stop myself from perpetuating these stereotypes, but also to challenge others who may do the same.

Week of Adrenaline...

I think I had the most interesting week ever this past week. It all began when I got held up by a guy on the street. Overall, I'm actually kind of proud of how I handled the whole situation...I think. Once I realized the guy had no knife or gun it was a lot easier to be confident, even after he decided his weapon would be a piece of cement rock.  End of the story, he didn't get anything out of me. What ensued after that night was what was really painful...

The next day I explained what happened to my boss at the hotel, and he decided he was going to teach me how to defend myself with his martial artist "expertise." He explained to me that I can actually defend myself with as little as a rolled up magazine. A hit to the eye and to the groin is all I need to do...as he then showed me how to do- a little more 'hands-on' than I would have liked and he ended up hitting me right in the eye with the corner of the magazine. I ended up in the doctor 4 days in a row with a cut across my cornea and a choice between a contact or an eye-patch...wonderful. Apparantly a magazine is a great weapon-- at least against a small white girl in a hotel library! A glue-sniffing ladrone--not sure how well a magazine will work, I wouldn't recommend it.

During all of this mess my best friend came to visit for a week, which was awesome! We went all around Quito doing her Christmas shopping, checking in the sites, and almost getting robbed. To be fair, there were signs warning tourists "robbery zone," but I couldn't help it-- I mean, what robbers go to a "robbery zone" to rob people? I imagined they would try to be a little more discreet than that! But lo and behold, the sign held true and if a policeman didn't step out of a building at the time we did, we may have been cut.

After Quito we went to Banos where we did all kinds of fun activities- rafting, biking, hiking through waterfalls, zip lining...unfortunately we both ended up getting tag-team sick. She was sick for about a day and a half, I ended up being sick for about 3 or 4 days. We still had a great time though and fit in just about everything we wanted to do.

Looking forward to November, where I have a 3 day vacation from work for the Saints day Nov 1, Day of the Dead Nov 2, and Cuenca Independence day Nov 3. Going to be a good month =)