An Alternative to Development

My posts have been a bit out of order lately, mainly due to lack of internet. I lastly wrote on my birthday (Saturday) and ended with saying I would have more after I returned from the cloud forest. That post was completed about a week prior to the actual posting, so I am, in fact, back from the cloud forest. So what is the cloud forest? The Intag Cloud forest is first and foremost a climite region in Ecuador. I wish I knew the specifics of how it is formed, but I don't. I know it is at a lower elevation that Quito and on the west side of the westernmost Andese Mountain range. I assumed it is formed in the same way the clouds are trapped by the Cascades in Oregon, by forming over the ocean and rushing onto land only to be blocked by the mountians. What happens here next is the warm weather and calm winds allow the clounds to slowly rise and pass over the mountains. The water condenses making this zone super wet, but is warm enough in the day to support a huge variety of life and create a semi-rainforest atmosphere. The property itself that we visited for 5 days was called La Florida, and is run by a man named Carlos. Carlos is an activist and for all intents and purposes a hippy by American standards. But the label of hippy doesn't do him justice. He is both well educated and well articulated. For the past thirty-some years he has dedicated his life to Intag and protecting the natural beauty and biodiversity it has to offer. He has purchased swaths of farmland and allowed nature to reclaimd its rightful place as a prosperous forrest. He also lives in the cloud forrest with his wife and family and a few other Ecuadorians and gringos. Everything they eat they grow, and if they don't grow it they purchase it from the nearest town of Otavalo. The food is all organic and everything on the property is recycled into compost to continue the process. We had coffee, oh the best coffee in the world, quinoa, potatoes, fuits, juices, everything was homemade (at one point a cookbook even existed; written by one of the Intag community memebers). In addition to the wonderful food and company we were given the opportunity to listen to lectures by the local community memebers, beginning with Carlos and his struggle against the mining companies. The community of Intag has time and time again fought off commercial mining interests, first the Japanese, then the Canadians, and now the Chinese. Each time the dispute has intensified, and with road improvement being completed in the region, I fear that this new fight is only just beginning. In the past Carlos has been called a environmental terrorist by the government, had his home raided, and has gone into hiding. All to protect the land that the Ecuadorian consitution gives rights to; rights that protect it from extractive practices. It was in this lecture that Carlos put the indigenous sruggle, and his, in a nut shell. He said that from the indigenous people's perspective the earth has existed and will continue to exist without us, but we can not exist without the earth; so how can somone own something that they depend on? We listened to a woman speak on the protests and an incident in which private security came to Intag and berated protestors with tear gas. Last but not least we listened to Mary Ellen, a member of the community and expert on Ecuadorian history, give us a lecture about post colonialism ecuador; ending in the 1910s. We went on a hike though the cloud forrest with a man who had grown up in the area, and whose knowledge of the plants, both medicinal and not, was astounding. It was an amazing trip. We spent time learning about the world we are taking a part in, and learning about each other as well. Our first night we spent playing a question game where anything was game; regrets, fears, apirastions, first experiences. I don't think I've ever felt so comfotable opening up to a group of friends. And lastly we did an early celebration of my brithday, though I missed it (a virus went around the program while we were there). I did get my present afterwards, an authentic Cuban Cigar which I promptly smoked the following day. I can't say enough about this trip, and as always I am at a loss for words to discribe my program and the profound impact it is having on the way I see the world. I am now at my Quito homestay and have begun the first series of lectures on Development Paradigms. I'm sure some interesting conversation will come of this, but as always I'll leave you on the edge of your seat until next time. Chiao friends!

Liver Deliberately

These last 12 days seem like they just whisked by. I finished the first paper over the course of 6 hours, exhausting but necessary. The rest of the week was pretty smooth, the weekend brought with it more dancing and hanging out with friends. This last week was one of the more stressful ones yet, I had another paper and presentation, plus a final presentation for spanish class, a final exam, another program assignment, and a separate program paper. Amazingly it all got done, although I'm still not sure how. All the work came brought with it a short lived cold, which put a damper on things. The hardest part of the week was finding out one of the gringos would be leaving us. After eight months abroad he had decided it was time to go home. So this post goes out to Max! While we miss you here I'm sure home missed you more. Other than that not much has changed. I've had a bunch of opportunities to play soccer, and was even told I play well for a gingo. My spanish continues to improve with everyday, I'm learning so many new things and have been working hard to incorporate complex grammar into speech; which is insanely hard. Today I leave my host family for a week in the forest with my program. We'll talk with activists and observe nature, then return to Quito on Friday. I'm looking forward to the break from urban life and the opportunities to indulge in both as mnay raw fruits and veggies as I can consume, as well as fresh picked and roasted coffee. We also have a male bonding event planned which consists of smoking Cubans and chilling in nature. Our program director also told me he had put in a special order for a cake on Thursday for an early birthday celebration. I don't know why but being so far from home, knowing somone I've only just met is planing something for my brithday makes me feel even more at ease. Saturday we meet our Quito homestay, and it's my birthday! I guess 21 doesn't mean much here, but for me being in Ecuador is the best birthday present I could have. Anywho, there will be more to come I'm sure after I return from the Cloud Forest, Chiao!

School, school, school, school, school

School, School, School. School, School. Nearly three months off did not help my dedication to studying, and with a whole country of distractions at my hands its been nearly impossibly to hunker down and work. This is especially sad because day one I was assigned a story due the next day. A 5 page paper in Spanish due the day after with a presentation, and an observation based anthropology assignment due the day after the paper. WTF. Not that I was expecting it to be easy but that's a bit much. It also doesn't end there, we have another paper due the following monday, and the wednesday after that. Not going to lie I feel a bit overwhelmed. I also do not have reliable internet with my host family, and I don't want to have to use my brothers computer everytime I need to write a 5 page paper in Spanish. I have been going over to a fellow SITers house to work, but when the gringos get together, like we did yesterday, nothing gets done. Today I went over to pump this thing out, only to arrive and find out a thunderstorm had knocked out the power; and with it the internet. (Disclaimer: I'm done venting now. Sorry for the complaining). These last three days, other than the school stress, have been pretty awesome. Superbowl Sunday was great! The gringos and I had a reunion at the local TGI Fridays to watch the game with a few of our host family members. With only two days separating us at the time I haven't been more excited to see a group of people in a while. Monday was the start of classes, I was a bit dissappointed to find that I palced into the lower intermediate level; the lowest here in Ecuador. As the days have gone by though, I'm finding more or less we are all about on the same level. The advanced speakers are a bit ahead, but not by much. I've also been working hard to catch up, talking with my family as much as possible. And they're beginning to open up to me now that I can hold a semi-decent conversation, which has been really rewarding. I've been learning a lot of words and today got the chance to brush up on my written Spanish with a friends host brother.While at my friends house, the one with the power out, we sat and talked with her mom and host brother in Spanish for three hours. It was fun, I really like her family. They are really nice and interesting people and I think I bonded with her host brother by sharing the same favorite soccer teams and a love for rock climbing. We ate zuccini cake which was absolutely delicious! Forgot to mention this but earlier during school we were told to go to the market and haggle for some fruit. The haggling didn't go so well, but on the other hand we got tons of fuits to eat. In hindsight this wasn't the best idea because we ate a lot of them on the spot and I am now suffering the consequences. Nothing too serious, but I haven't really had much to eat after then out of fear that things wont go well. Back to tonight. I came home to spaghetti tongiht, Im guessing my mom made it because I mentioned my Italian heritage and she has noticed that I haven't been eating much (by Ecuadorian standards, I challenge any westerner to come here and try to out eat on of these guys). Last night I had mentioned wanting to help change the water bottle on our water machine, you know, trying to not be completely helpless. My family had told me they didn't have an extra, so I told them it was cool and went about my business. Today I came home to a new bottle waiting for me to hook up. Apparently my mom told my dad not to do it specifically because I wanted to. These people crack me up. I was hoping the gesture would get them to start asking me to help out a little more, at times I feel like im useless, but they interpreted it as me REALLY wanting to change the water bottle. And so, well, I did. I really like my family, they are genuinely nice. Today I found out my brother wants to persue grad studies in graphic design in Argentina after undergrad here in Ecuador. It's been great getting to know them and I cherish the time I have here. I think I'm starting to miss home though. It hasn't even been two weeks but I find myself thinking about how comfortable home is and the friends I have there. As well as the ease of access I have to calling friends and family just to chat. I miss you guys a ton! At the same time I'm having the time of my life, everyday is something new, and I feel like my Spanish improves 1000X with every conversation. That's all I've got for today. Not posting because I don't have internet but I'll write again soon and hopefully get these up shortly.

Que Chevre

I met my host family! After a long dat at the migration office, and a post lunch beer in the Mariscal aka Gringolandia we boarded a bus to the suburb of Valle de Los Chillos. There we were dropped off in front of a church and waited with our academic director for the families arrived, my family came second. They drove me to their neighborhood, San Pedro de Taoaba, and then into their gated community which I think is called Hacienda. I live in a three story house, on the second floor. My room is the former baby room of my host sister who also lives in Hacienda. My host dad is reserved, to be honest I have difficulty understanding him, but he has been nothing but nice thus far. My host mom is a house wife, but not in the typical sense. She does most things, but leaves many to either the kids or house workers. Shes a sweet lady and I look forward to talking with her more. My host brother, Felipe, is ridiculous, in a good way....I think. My first day here we went to pick up his dad from work, met a few friends at the mall and then we hit the town (after a minor bout of gringo stomach). With seven people and two cars we drove into Quito to farrear, and we danced. It took us a while to get organized but eventually got into the club La Bipolar. We danced to American Pop, Reggeton, Electronica, just about everything. It was a blast. At first they were dismayed by my choice not to drink, but after a while they didn't care, it just ment more for them. We danced for hours, I was even taught a couple new moves to add to my salsa repetoire! All in all it was a fun but long night. Apparently we are going to be going out again tonight, it might be a challenge to get some rest on the weekends around here. So we didn't go out! Which I am totally cool with, I was exhausted and the alternatve was my first semi-bilingual experience. Let me back track though. I woke up today to breakfast, that being a snadwhich my second in two days, not bad odds but it seems to be a popular snack in my household. I was offered eggs and more but I figured I would let my host mom, who had already moved on to cleaning, continue doing what she needed to do and not worry about me. At around 2pm I went down stairs to what I thought was family lunch, after asking my bro “estamos iendo a un lugar para almuerzo?” to which he replied “no,” I quickly realized I would in fact be leaving the house. Still in pajama mode (though wearing jeans for presentableness) we left the house together. Me, Mom, Dad, Bro, Sister, and Baby. We arrived in a new part of Los Chillos, along the drive I managed to call my host mom a rat and be convinced that another person in my program would be joining us for lunch. Neither were true (suprise, suprise, lost in translation seems to be the theme of these last two days). The house we pulled into was spectacular, big and beatiful. We sat down at a table and were served by a woman I would later find out was the wife of my host dads friend from childhood, and introduced my host mom to my host dad. This culture is completely new to me. We were served dinner by this lady, with two other older Latinas cooking in the kitchen. She didn't eat with us but talked with my host mom while the rest of us ate. I felt really bad because I barely scratched my plate, after being told a million times how offensive it is to not eat what youre given. After all, a happy student = a hungry student, or so goes my directors take on Ecuadorian homestays. I ate as much as I could, while I was winning the battle with myselg I was definitely losing the war. I was saved by a phrase my host mom dropped which I translated to mean “If you're not hungry you don't have to keep eating.” Good looks host mom. After lunch I went on various errands with my bro, meeting with friends and chatting or just hanging at the corner store. It ended with hanging with the guys we partied with, and some we didn't, last night at the park. After that we returned home, I ate another sandwhich, finished my laundry, and then as it got closer to 8 began meeting up with friends at the house. I was cohersed into eating dinner with the family, something I was glad to do. Unfortunately the sandwhich held me over, and again I had to excuse myself before my plate was clean; I hope host mom isn't offended. I also took part in my first dinner table discussion with my host tio and tia, and host sister and brother-in-law (who oddly enough reminds me of Abe; so if you're reaidng you have a semi-twin down here in Ecuador). Friends began to come over, Mauricio, Clara, Nati, Sharon, and Christian. I told my bro I was too tired to farrear (party) tonight but would be down to smoke hookah (pipa). He told me plans had changed (I have no clue when) and that we were just gonna chill and drink beer, my kinda night. I chatted for 4 hours with these people. It started with Clara asking me why I didn't talk much, and that she dind't care if my Spanish wasn't great. It was on. I don't know how, but I got indo a dicussion and managed to share my feelings of learning language and what I want to do, as well as discussing Mauricio and Nati's majors and future careers; all in Spanish. When Christian and Sharon showed up I had an English speaking buddy (Christian lived in NY for two years trying to go to architecture school). I talked all night, some in English, some in Spanish. I made jokes, laughed with the guys and girls, shared stories of camping and city life, it was fantastic. It ended with me and Felipe (host bro) walking Nati home and laughing the entire way, bringing up jokes from the day before, again all in Spanish. Not to toot my own horn but I think I'm getting the hang of this Spanish thing. Tomorrow is soccer with my new friends here in Hacienda and the Superbowl with my gringos. What a weekend. Classes start Monday and I have my first assignment due Wednesday. I'm not ready at all but it's time I got back into school work and preparing for my ISP. Sorry for the long post but more so than ever, I can't wait to see what this trip has in store for me.