Back in the swing of things

Geez can you believe it’s nearly June and I still haven’t updated? Sorry ;) Truth is, I started an update a while back but never got around to finishing and posting it. I was supposed to go to a COS conference this week, but whatever-the-politically-correct-acronym-for-that-pig flu has hit Ecuador and thus our travel has been restricted. Good for me because I didn’t really want to travel all that way anyway and good for you because you finally get an update. Not so good, however, for the folks with the flu I guess.

So…despite the circumstances, the trip to the US was nice. It was good to spend time with family as time with family and friends is the only thing I really consider a sacrifice in PC. I’ve always loved the time I’ve spent in Fredericksburg, and it was nice to visit San Antonio as well.

I arrived in Zapotillo at an obscenely early hour on Good Friday (April 10). Easter was pleasant but rather uneventful. The kids and I painted easter eggs Ecua-style with brown eggs and colored pencils. I had some photos of this but I can’t seem to find them now.

Then back to work as usual on Monday. I started back at work in the office with a market study for palo santo essential oil. I made fairly good progress on it, considering that the only resource I had was dialup internet for two hours (on a good day) during lunch. The palo santo is a tree that is native to regions near here and the reserve has about 3000 hectares of land full of the trees, from which they pick up to 52.8 (out of an available 37,500) quintales of fruit during the annual harvest, which takes place in march/april. The locals are paid for their work and the fruit is sent to the city to extract the essential oils. Up to about 50kg of the oil can be produced annually and a portion of what is sold goes to the community bank as a bonus.

The next week I tagged along for measuring (with GPS) some land in order to legalize the community member’s property, charging only the processing costs charged by the government. I admire my work partners in the great progress and successes they’ve had over the years in this work because it is extremely tedious, the worst of the struggle being getting the people to understand that you are doing them a huge favor. The dudes wouldn’t let me walk around to measure the land so I mostly got to sit and chat with the locals, which is always a learning experience. Oh well, one day they’ll teach me GPS too.
04.5 Work Partners napping after a loooong day of measuring land

Other April happenings in-town included a friend’s daughter’s birthday party, elections, a week of protesting alleged election fraud and burning tires, and re-elections.

Portrait of me, compliments of Sayra ;)

Then we started work on a trail…the guys who are used to me let me help make the stairs, saw, use a machete, etc. Our first stair model was like this:

…to which I said, this is never going to last a rainy season let’s put some boards in and the guys said no, that’s a lot of work. The next week at work the boss (without my mention) said we needed to make the stairs more permanent. HAH. So my model got implemented, though I wouldn’t dream of getting credit for it. All that matters is that the stairs outlast cows, goats, and RAIN.

In early May I went out of town with a work partner for a workshop in Rainforest Alliance certification, which is basically a broad, yet flexible, socially-responsible, international certification for agricultural products. All of the other participants worked in coffee or cocoa production and we went on a fieldtrip to a cocoa farm and processing plant, so it was really cool to learn something completely new.

And then my work partner and I took advantage of some free time to explore Guayaquil. I didn’t take many pictures because it is supposedly very dangerous there, but the iguana park was too cool not to photograph.

On May 13th some visitors came from the US, a representative from the US branch of NCI and a representative from the San Diego Zoo. They wanted to get to know the forests because they are interested in maybe doing species conservation work here. I really hope they follow through on it, it could be a great partnership.

On May 15th we had an in-office workshop about ethics and values. It was cool, but very long. I made cinnamon rolls, so at least I contributed something...

Other recent, random news: Ecuavolley tournament in town. Ecuavolley is like volleyball, except not cool. My friend Stefanie got a puppy. Oh and my cool new camera allows me to take cool new pictures of all the cool (not new) stuff around here. Sit back and be amazed…I think they’re self-explanatory.

Rest in Peace, G'pa Moeller

Edward C. Moeller, 80, of Fredericksburg, died Monday, March 9, 2009, at Austin Heart Hospital.Graveside services and interment of the ashes are planned for Friday, March 20, at 2:30 p.m. at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio with the Rev. Joe Waltz officiating.Arrangements are under the direction of Beckmann Funeral Home.Moeller was born March 19, 1928, in Peoria, IL, the son of Carl J. Moeller and Genevieve M. Julien Moeller. He married Colleen F. Dierdorf on June 26, 1954, in Wilton, IA, and she survives.After joining the U.S. Navy when he was 17, Moeller was deployed to the Pacific region.Afterwards, he was employed by Precision Aircraft Assembly and upon retirement, moved to Fredericksburg.In addition to his wife, Moeller is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Jeffery W. and Susan Moeller of Austin, and a daughter, Sally A. Nelson, of Illinois, and six grandchildren.He was preceded in death by his parents as well as a brother, Robert J. Moeller.Memorials may be made to the charity of choice.

Seeing as another month has gone by, I figured I ought to update my blog. Life is still excellent here in site. The rainy season has begun in paradise, which means LOTS of bugs, humidity, heat, and all of the lovely things that accompany those. However, I’m happy as ever, if only slightly itchier and less well-rested. I really like the rain, though, and it’s transforming everything, which is so cool to see. Below is a Guyacan tree, which flowers at the start of the rainy season.
So pretty! I have yet to see the waterfalls that everyone keeps talking about, but I’m very excited for them. The river got pretty high and turbulent with the last rain. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but it’s a decent size river.
River in dry season
River after rain

Since my last entry, I’ve moved away from just accompanying other people in their projects and into starting my own projects. So far my work has been restricted to one community, which I prefer because working with few people allows me to get to know them better, which is not only enjoyable for me, but also helps us be able to get more work done. Besides, I LOVE the community…it’s so beautiful! I usually get a ride out to the community, stay for 2-3 days, and then get a ride back.
The community where I work

The first project I started was computer classes in the elementary school. The school is a one-room, 1st-6th school with 12 students. Class runs from 8am-10am, recess is 10-11, and then class resumes from 11am-1pm. Imagine for a moment being in a class with 12 students in six different grades for four hours a day with one teacher. It’s a challenging environment, to say the least. Well, the school has had one computer for three years with no one who knows how to use it. Computer classes went really well and we covered how to assemble/turn on/turn off a computer, mouse use, painting, and typing. The structure of the class actually worked to my advantage, as the teacher could only work with one grade level at a time, leaving most of the other kids to work on worksheets, etc., and 1-2 kids to practice on the computer. Since typing is something that requires more practice than instruction, I continued to give the kids time to practice typing, but we moved onto environmental education classes as a group.

Oh and I taught PE one day and we played kickball. Kickball, indeed!

hangin´out at recess

Dancin' at the Christmas Party

computer class- alejandra with all her deditos nice and comfy in their casitas

EE Class fieldtrips to the forest

Having said that, school lets out this week and I am looking forward to the opportunity to work more in-depth on other projects. I have two other main projects that I’m working on. First is a nutrition/nutritional security program that consists of three main components: 1) family gardens 2) theoretical nutritional education 3) practical nutritional workshops…that is, we are planting gardens, learning why what we are growing is good, and learning what to do with what we are growing (cooking classes). I am starting with a group of three families and the garden we are planting is going to be a little bigger than a family garden, and will serve as a model from which other families can learn. This garden is my first official financed project in Ecuador, hooray! (Granted the financing was less than $50, but whatever) Since there is not much excess water in the community, the idea is that families will plant small, individual gardens for family consumption only. So far, so good, but we’ve only just begun.

mmm roasted squash seeds

clearing the land for the garden

Seed bed

Main plot- 5m x 10m

The other project is small business development with the goat herders. I want to work first simultaneously with organization and controlling the quality and availability of input materials. Like I said before, the goats really only produce enough milk for the business in the rainy season, about three months a year. The rest of the year, if the women want to sell their products they have to buy milk. In the rainy season, that would be no problem as milk costs as low as .30/liter. However, in the dry season, when they need milk, it can cost up to .80/liter. What’s worse is the market price for the products they make is higher in the dry season and lower in wet season as well. Therefore, in the dry season they lose money because their costs go up and in the wet season, they lose money because of market flooding. Also, the women only sell to people who seek them out and sometimes in fairs, which generally require a lot of time and transportation and generate few sales. So what we want to do is find a way that the women can have sufficient, consistent milk output year-round and organization so that sales, too, stay consistent year-round. The work, then, has various parts. One being business consulting, how to organize a business, how to set up a client list and take orders, how to keep records, how to analyze if a business opportunity will be profitable, how to calculate costs and prices, how to do a market study, etc. Another part is setting up pastures and stables for the dairy goats as well as better controlling the health and well-being of said goats. Hopefully this will have many effects as the goats will become healthier, produce more and better-quality milk, and increase incomes. This should motivate people to want to move towards a more controlled approach to raising goats, decreasing the amount of time that the goats spend in the forest, thereby aiding NCI’s forest-conservation efforts. We’ll see…we’ll see. I’m working on helping to write up a proposal for the pasture part of the project with an Ag. student who is doing an internship at NCI.

Hope you all are doing well. Thanks to those who have been sending emails, they always brighten my day.

Oh, and I wanted to share these pictures too:

The chicken decided to relax in the hammock for a bit...

This is what the kids do when there's no school...hehFound this in my room in Cabeza de Toro...the kids thought it was hilarious that I put it in the forest instead of killing it.

Abrazos,
Sarita