12.21.2009

Hola todos:

Another day, another power outage. It has been about 2 hours since the power went out, so I figured I'd use the time to write a blog. Luckily my computer's all charged up! It's actually quite peaceful to be without power for a few hours during the day. Everything gets quiet, children go out in the streets to play, and the rattle and hum of the day stops. I used to complain and get restless, but I've learned to use this time to work on being reflective--reading, writing, and thinking about the next step in my research.

Ahh yes, that brings us to my research. It has been a bumpy road to research land. I have literally tried everything in the book to carry out household interviews and to gain confidence among farming communities so that the farmers I interview will shell out information about their lives. Man, it's a tough job! However, I think I finally found a decent alternative to my original (and completely unfeasible) plan(s). There is a community of 350 families, about 2 hours outside of Quito approaching the
Amazon region, that is in the early stages of forming a Fair Trade cacao cooperative (these guys are different from those of La Providencia that I spoke of in my last blog--that plan fell through,as usual). I learned about these guys through a contact I made at the Yanapuma Foundation. For a 'nominal' fee, Yanapuma is going to set me up with a host family from the cooperative. I'll be able to live and work with small farmers, attend their meetings, and figure out what sorts of benefits, if any, a Fair Trade cooperative might bring them. Hopefully this plan will work and I'll find my way to collecting some quality data. Fingers crossed!

That's pretty much where I'm at for now. Besides filling out Ph.D. apps, I spend my time hanging out with my Host Family, speaking tons of Spanish, and drinking a boat load of juice. It's nice, but I'm ready to get my hands dirty and get going on this data collection business. It is almost January after all, and I'd like to have something ...anything!..to show for my 10 months spent in Ecuador. I'll say, tho', that my Spanish has improved exponentially. At times I still don't understand Host Sister or Host Father and his Italian accent, but for the most part, comprehension is alot easier than it used to be.

Oy, the heat is gettin' to me--it's nearly 98 degrees and the humidity is quite oppressive! The rainy season is soon to start, although I've only seen a few drops here and there. The Guayacos have prepared me for a season of crickets, mosquitoes, and heat.
Sounds fun, huh?! I'm still in disbelief about some of the cricket
tales I've heard. Supposedly these crickets are giant, they fly, and
they come en masse (you might think, "Oh--Locusts!" But no, they are crickets!) --that is, they cover your windows, your doors, infiltrate your house, your clothes and your shoes. There is no avoiding these crazy crickets. Rich or poor, rural or urban, these crickets are coming for us.

I'll let you know what happens :-)

I'm including some pictures of me and my Host Family at the local market. These markets are immense with fruit as far as the eye can see. The prices are amazing and the fruit--delicious. For example, I bought 24 succulent oranges for 2 dollars, 4 giant mangoes for 1 dollar, and 18 mandarin oranges for 50 cents. Unbelievable, no? I will really miss the fruit when I return to the U.S. Lately, we've been cutting mangoes from our mango tree in the backyard. The juice we make
from these mangoes is absolutely delightful. No chemicals, no
nothing--just pure,unadulterated mango. It's heaven!

Power's back! And with that note, I think I'll have a nap. Nice talkin' to ya! :-)

Bahia Bahia!

For some reason I've been putting off blogging the same way I would put off studying for a biochemistry exam. It may be because it's extremely difficult for me to sit at my computer in 90 + degree heat, or perhaps it's just because I haven't felt the urge to reflect lately. Not sure. But, I'll tell ya'll one thing--the heat sure does wipe me out! It has been in the 30's here (centigrade), with humidity reaching up to 90% at times. Dang.

I don't know where to start, since I've had so many adventures since I last blogged. My most recent adventure was a trip to Bahia de Caraquez, in the province of Manabi. From Guayaquil, Bahia is about a 7 hour bus ride up the coast. The roads are really bad, and the ride is a bit unpleasant. However, I managed to make it there safely and find a $6/night hostel as soon as I got into town. This place was really cool, run by an Australian expat who knows how to make a great American breakfast.

The night I arrived, I went out to eat dinner--sola, as always. Somehow I managed to make friends with the blonde surfer dude who was sitting next to me studying Spanish. His Spanish sucked, but hey, we've all been there. Turned out he was 51, dating a 24 yr old Ecuadorian, and had been living in my hostel for 2 months! Sketchy? Maybe, but I am certainly not one to judge.

Normally I am not a social person at all, but when I travel alone I seem to make all sorts of crazy and fun friends. There were only 3 or 4 of us in the hostel, including a South African that I ended up talking with over breakfast. We talked about what it's like to live in Africa (even tho' she claims she's not part of Africa)-- apartheid, violence, racism, baboons, refugee camps, all that good stuff. It was uber interesting. For example, she tells me that a normal occurrence in her neighborhood is to see people stained in blood screaming on the streets. She seemed unfazed talking about it, which means she has probably been desensitized for a while. Armpit hair and all, she was one interesting gal.

My initial reason for heading out to Bahia was to work on an organic farm outside Bahia. In the end my plans fell through ($230 for 2 weeks volunteering on a farm seemed a li'l outrageous), so I hung out in Bahia. It seemed harmless at $6 a night, and the beach was beautiful. (I should mention that I've added in some pictures of my Bahia adventure to this post--including some pics of the beach, cacao, a cat I fell in love with, and the local towns).

Ohh--right now I'm in Guayaquil and my family is preparing lunch. So hungry! I think today is pork chops with tamarind sauce. Yummy!

So, anyway. I decided to take a tour in Bahia of a giant lagoon and nature reserve called El Humedal. The tour agency told me that I'd get to see snakes and caimans and all this cool stuff. Turns out, since Ecuador is suffering one of the worst droughts in history, El Humedal is all dried up--not a drop of water anywhere. As soon as I arrived I realized the tour agency had screwed me just a bit. Oh well, these things seem to happen quite often here. It was actually quite sad to see a giant lagoon in such bad shape. But hey, that's the payback we get for destroying our environment, right?

My tour guide was a 21 yr old student who knew a bunch about the natural world--including the names of birds, insects, flowers, and even different species of cactus. Since El Humedal was all dried up, we hiked around and then sat and talked for a while. I told him about my research and that I was interested in learning about Fair Trade cacao farmers. The next set of events is crazy and I still don't really understand what happened!
Here we go:
Tour Guide tells me that he has a huge group of Tour Guide friends that are coming to visit El Humedal, a local church, and an organic cacao farm, and invites me along! I accepted, as a gracious gringa always does, and as soon as I knew it, a big bunch of Tour Guides were ascending upon El Humedal. These were no ordinary tour guides tho'. They were primarly interested in promoting ecotourism to help prevent the destruction of the environment. The majority were quite young, but very friendly and engaging. Most of them wanted to practice their English with me, which was fun. We rode in a truck that had seats on two levels *and* on top! Yup, I rode on top of a truck. It was awesome--the views were spectacular as we rode along the countryside. I tried to catch a few pictures up there but they all came out rather blurry.

We ended up at a local cacao farm, where we watched the process of harvesting cacao and making (very delicious) chocolate. It was nothing short of amazing! And the smell of the factory was absolutely delicious. The best part of the whole experience was being introduced to the head of La Providencia, a local cooperative that is in the early stages of establishing Fair Trade practices. I've been warmly invited to return to La Providencia to help promote their cause among local farmers and to interview local families. I just got off the phone with my contact there, and I'm headed up again tomorrow! It's a long haul, but well worth it.

There's so much more, but it's lunch time. Hopefully ya'll will enjoy these pictures.

Will blog again after lunch! :-)

A new adventure.

Hola todos:

It's been a while since I've blogged. Lately I haven't been inspired--hard to believe with all of Ecuador's natural beauty around me--but a combination of homesickness, stomach ailments, and oppressive machismo left me stuck in a rut. Now I think I'm finally climbing out!

I'm posting some pics from my most recent trip to Quito for Fulbright orientation. It was actually a pretty good program. The first day was all lecture. Boring at times, I admit, however some of the lectures were very interesting. I talked at length with a dude from University of Quito San Francisco (I think that's the name) about how the current President's plan to redistribute land will end up failing miserably-- destroying habitats and decreasing productivity. We'll see.

The 2nd day was *awesome* to the power of awesomeness. We went ziplining! It rocked. I'd done it once before but this time was so much more fun because there were tons of people and it gave me a chance to really get to know the other Fulbrighters. Each one of them has really interesting projects and they are all friendly and intelligent and awesome. I'm glad I got to meet them. Unfortunately that's the only formal time we will have to spend together, so we are all trying to keep in touch with email and Facebook.

So, to catch ya'll up a bit, I recently moved to Guayaquil. While the family in Machala was really nice and nurturing (a little too much at times), I felt like I had to get out of there to stay sane. In all of my two months living in Machala, the Host Parents refused to give me a pair of keys to the house. I wasn't even allowed to cook for myself. I had very little freedom and I think that's what really got to me. So, I moved. And that's that.

My new family is awesome, so far. Host Mother is a little wacky, I admit, but very cool. In fact, we just finished conversing about how she completely rejects the concept of machismo. I love that. She is definitely the head of the household and it's awesome. Host Father is an artist--*quite* good actually--and Italian. He came here to Ecuador when he was 30, met Host Mother, and hasn't left since. He speaks perfect Spanish with a tiny hint of Italian accent--I love it. His art is scattered all over the house--it's really beautiful. Actually I was a bit in shock when I first saw this house--it's bigger and nicer than my house at home! Couldn't believe it. Marble floors, artwork everywhere, a pool, an outside patio with a mango tree--everything anyone would ever want in a house. It's quite a stark contrast to Machala and in fact, it's taking some getting used to, but hey, I ain't complaining. I'll have to see if they have a card reader so that I can upload some pictures of the house.

Yesterday we were eating lunch outside on the patio when a GIANT iguana came to meet us. He was just chillin'. I think he might've wanted some lunch, too. Host Parents thought it necessary to scare him away, but if it were my choice, I would've chilled with the dude. He was way cool.

Other than that, things are pretty good. I'm finally meeting up with my professor at ESPOL to discuss how the heck we are going to make contacts with cacao and banana farmers. Oh, btw, I expanded my study to include Fair Trade cacao as well. I'm tempted to *only* look at cacao, since I think there will be a stark difference between FT and non FT, but professor dude wants to still look at banana too. I suppose that's cool, since that's what I set out to study originally.

So that's about it. Will try to write again soon.

Ciao ciao! :-)

Pics from Mitad del Mundo and Mindo.

One more pic of the prettiest sunset ever.
















Here's a view of the Pululahua volcano crater. I'm not too sure of the story behind the crater, but I do know that there is a little agricultural community down there. I didn't get a chance to walk down--next time I'm in Quito I'd like to montar some caballos and ride through the crater to see it up close.
















Did my best here to get a panoramic-ish view of Mindo cloud forest. This place was really neat with tons of birds, insects, and fun stuff to photograph. So far no snake sightings, although I'm hoping for one soon.
















Here's the reserve where I ziplined through the cloud forest. They wouldn't let me take my camera up there so I couldn't take pics. It was the coolest experience I've ever had. I even saw a Toucan!


















Another picture of the reserve where we ziplined.










Butterfly species called 'morphos.' We saw hundreds of these guys.












All sorts of different species of butterflies hatching at the butterfly farm.












Not sure what the name of this guy is, but was he fast and difficult to photograph!













A giant centipede. Watch out, they move fast!















Me with one foot in the Northern hemisphere and one foot in the Southern hemisphere at 0 latitude.


Hope you enjoyed these pics....more to come!

Some pics from my trip to Quito and beyond...

A view of Quito from the plane
(taken through a window, so a li'l fuzzy).


Views of Quito from my hotel room.
Prettiest sunset I've ever seen!


Views from almost 14,000 feet
(I went up the TeleferiQo--a gondola/cable car
type system--on a cloudy day,
got stuck coming back down for about
45 minutes or so....scary!)



Me lookin' dorky as ever at 14,000 ft!


Best meal I've had in a long time: Club sandwich,
papaya juice, and tres leches cake. Yum!
A great way to end a day of sightseeing in Quito.

More bananas!

It's been a while. Right now I'm livin' it up in Quito on a pseudo-vacation, that is, a vacation from Machala! I had very good intentions of going to a conference about the introduction of a food security survey here in EC, but those plans went down the drain fast! I blame it on the 170 cable channels in my hotel room. Another reason I decided to flee Machala was that the family I live with was planning another trip to San Isabel for the weekend (Thurs-Sunday). I really did n't want to go, and the family won't allow me to stay in t he house when they're away (for good reason). At times I get overwhelmed living in their house--it's constant mayhem there. As one of my friends pointed out, however, this is the most intimate look I'll have at Ecuadorian life. Very true. I need to step back once and a while and remind my self of that.

Hopefully I won't need to justify a pseudo-vacation to Fulbright--I doubt I will. Seems like they help us out when we need help, dole out the payments, and let us do our own thing. I like this deal. Oh! And for those of you who were wondering (LM), I finally got my payment and am all set on the money front. Phew! They just announced our 'Mandatory Orientation' in Quito from October 30-31st. This cracks me up, since all of us have been in Ecuador for at least a month by now! It'll be nice to hang with the other FB'ers--we're spread out all over the country--Quito, Cuenca, Loja, Machala, Guayaquil, Puyo, and a few are somewhere out in the Amazon (here the Amazon region is referred to as 'el oriente').

On a fun note, Host Father's friend, Javier, is a nature guide and has offered to take me to the oriente. I plan on going next weekend. Before I leave South America I am going to find a flippin' anaconda. Mark my words! I didn't watch Jeff Corwin and Brady Barr all those years for nothin'! I'd also like to see some sort of wildlife--maybe a jaguar or a sloth. Sloths are so cool. Have you ever seen one climb up a tree? They really know how to kick it properly. Indeed.

On a less fun note, my project is finally underway. Well, sort of :-)
I've been slacking a bit but have managed to do about 25 interviews with banana farm workers--pre-tests, if you will. Believe it or not, I've learned alot about the banana industry. I'm inserting pictures to show the ins and outs of cultivating bananas. The process is almost identical in every farm, unless the farm is considered 'organic' (I should clarify: according to farmers that I've spoken with, organic farms use pesticides, but at a 'minimal' level- -whatever that means). Depending on the size of the farm, several (7-10) workers go out into the farm to cut down the bananas from the trees . The system is incredibly organized! Each banana tree is labeled with a colored tag. Different colors indicate different maturation stages of the bananas. On the 'dia del embarque', which is usually one or twice a week per farm, workers go out and find those trees with bananas that are ready to be picked and cut (as indicated by the tag). O ne worker bends the banana tree with all his might, while another worker forcibly cuts the banana bunch off the tree. The bananas are then inspected by the workers and those with marks or disease are thrown out (actually, they're thrown on the ground for others to grab and eat--really!).

Each section of the farm has its own system where bananas are loaded onto a pulley system of sorts and pulled into the processing part of the farm. Here's where the fun part begins. Bananas are sprayed with chemicals and pressurized water to rid the bananas of bugs and marks. When I was observing this process, I saw that the majority of workers were not wearing gloves, masks, or protective gear while exposing themselves to these chemicals. I asked the owner of the farm why the workers weren't wearing protective gear. He said that he urges the workers to wear the gear, but in fact, the workers don't want to bother with it (hmmm, ok). However, during the time of an inspection, workers don their gear--head to toe.

After the bananas are sprayed, they are transferred to a pool of water to continue the cleansing process. He re, workers cut the 'coruna' (top part) of the bananas and cont inue the inspection process. Unacceptable bananas are thrown into the reject pile, otherwise known as the 'rechazo'. This giant pile of bananas isn't exported to the US or Europe, rather, it is taken by truck and sold in the Sierra region.

Some of the rechazo is also given as gifts or used by the owner and
his/her family for food. These Ecuadorians sure do like th eir bananas--I never realized that a banana could be utilized in so many different ways. Sometimes my family even uses the peel for making banana cookies! Anyway, after the bananas are done bathing in the pool, they are taken out, weighed, inspected again, and packed up. Bananas headed to Europe are packed in airtight bags within a box, while bananas headed to the US are not packed in airtight bags, due to the shorter transport time. The workers then load up the boxes in a giant truc k that heads for the Port, where bananas are loaded onto a boat th at heads out for Europe or the US. In all, a very organized process that involves alot of work and manual labor.

Now ya'll are schooled in bananas. But that's only the beginning! :-)

(PS: Below is the cockroach that I slept with. Hey, if it's good for you.....)