This week I had the chance to participate in my third Awá general assembly that took place in the community of Pailón in the province of Carchi. It is probably my most significant experience working for the Awá federation of Ecuador as I had tangible results to present and felt I had a meaningful impact without having to mobilize the microphone. There were between 250 and 300 participants including all the Awá leaders from the 22 centers of Ecuador as well as representatives from the three sister Awá organizations from Colombia. The Colombian organization CAMAWARI came along with 50 of its “guardia indigena” all carrying their symbolic wooden stick representing Awá resistance against all the violence they are dealing with on their side of the border. Many national and international organizations were also invited but many did not show up for security concerns. In fact as far as foreigners go we were only one italian, two french,  and one french – american (myself). I feel very fortunate that I was granted a permission to go to Pailón and contribute in the critical organizational process the Awá federation is going through. This border community is reached by hiking three hours from Chical along the San Juan river that seperates the two countries. It is a stunning part of the country and despite all the hype, extremely peaceful.

Everything went according to plan: two rented buses left from San Lorenzo and Lita and took us to Chical where we were we had a quick snack before starting our hike. I walked with a group from the community of Mataje and made it to Pailón in a little less than three hours. My back was killing me as I was overloaded with my tent, sleeping bag and other western comforts. Stuff I ended up not using at all since Silvio, the FCAE social development coordinator who is from there, invited a bunch of us to stay at his parents house. It was luxurious jungle hostel by all Awá means with abundant and immediate clean water to bathe, real beds with sheets and covers and delicious breakfast. I was amazed and never had such a comfortable stay in any Awá community I have visited. We naturally paid our host for the food but it was little compared to the great service they were proving all of us. I lent my tent and sleeping bag to friends of mine from Baboso who made good use of it squeezing three souls in there during the four nights of the assembly. I was glad that they carried it back for me making my hike back to Chical, where the rented buses were waiting for us, a piece of cake.

My only direct intervention was simply introducing myself to the assembly as a Peace Corps volunteer and briefly explaining what projects I have been working on with the FCAE and the DEIBNAE (the Awá education department). I had printed out a copy of the environmental education facilitator’s guide that both Olindo (president of the FCAE) and Pedro (director of the DEIBNAE) presented formally and submitted it for review to the assembly. It circulated around and I got some positive feedback from teachers, students and colleagues from the office. My most significant contribution however was much more subtle. Working with Manuel, teacher of Baboso, I had a chance to share several of concerns with the way things are run at the federation and he used many of my arguments to ask the tough questions to the Awá governmental counsel. The Awá leaders are mostly passive during the bi-yearly work and financial report and stay quiet after all the gargantuous numbers speed in front of their eyes apparently demonstrating transparency from all the money spent on the various projects in operation. The numbers were all rounded up and showed minimal details (a round number for all salaries and for each workshop). Considering that most of the Awá community leaders are illiterate it is quite simple to get by without any questions asked for the FCAE financial department. This time around was no different from the last three financial reports I’ve witnessed. Manuel asked how come these incredible amounts of money dazzling in front of their eyes materialize in such little tangible result. Olindo deviated the question by focusing his response on the health situation and throwing the blame on the health ministry.

As for the education report and the presentation on the new model of educational managment that the Ecuatorian government is pushing I helped as much as I can. Firstly by making the presentations as clear as possible with minimal words and mostly using pictures, table and charts. Unfortunately I think that Pedro who was actually giving the presentation didn’t have a full understaning of what he was trying to explain and most participants were quite confused. During lunch break we put together a new chart to help disipate the confusion and I think it was relatively effective and the proposal the FCAE and DEIBNAE presented was approved by the assembly. I am part of the team that will have to write it for its submission to the ministry of education. As far as any tangible results from the assembly goes there isn’t too much to say. The Awá “Plan de Vida” process was further encouraged, claims to improve the health service within the territory revendicated and the need to tackle the internal conflict with illegal mining activity once again addressed. In terms of leadership two members of the governmental counsel had been formally seperated as a disciplinary measure and two young women were selected to fill these empty seets of the board: a new vice president and organizational strengthening leader.

Overall I felt that my work was more recognized than any time beforeas it was directly or indirectly mentioned of several occasions. My most satsifying experience however was to discover a new Awá community, my tenth since I started working with the FCAE. Pailón is a beautiful community in the midst of a pristine cloud forest. I always get very emotional when I am in an Awá community, they are very special places and I feel blessed every time I walk further into their territory. I should be able to participate in one more assembly before the end of my service hopefully culminating in the presentation of my overall contribution to the Awá people of Ecuador no matter how small it may seem.

The Inti Raymi celebration lasts a whole week and culminates in a huge street party known as San Pedro or la noche San Pedrina. I was invited by Edwin and his family to party with them in Tabacundo where this ritual is particularly famous. So last weekend I went to the family farm and had a chance to spend some quality time with my ecua-family. I naturally helped around as much as I could by preparing their weekly deliveries of fresh produce. There was a couple that had recently moved in from the States coming with the new PC group of youth & family program. It was a refreshing experience to come back to my roots here in this country and leave behind my work with the Awá for a few days.

On Sunday night we all went out, the two little girls for dressed up with the traditional skirt and we were all ready to dance in the streets of Tabacundo. It takes the form of a large parade where different indigenous groups and organizations present their musicians and dancers. We tagged along one random group and were warmly welcomed. This is a quite touristy event and they used to seeing the gringo make a fool of himself. The party was great but the amount of alcohol served around was ridiculous but an unfortunate tradition of San Pedro. People keep sharing cups of the cheapest, nastiest peach wine that give you the worst hangover you’ll ever get. Well I guess it got me as I wasn’t much use on Monday and had to cancel important meetings with the Awá education department. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one not to show up and it got postponed.

Work has been catching up with me as we are wrapping up key projects and have to present progress made at the upcoming FCAE general assembly. I helped out a lot with education piece making two presentations and printing the draft of the environmental education facilitator’s guide. The Awá education director was struggling with powerpoint: he had 32 slides filled with text! I reminded him that most of the Awá leaders at the assembly are illiterate and would be bored out of their mind if he showed them this presentation. We got rid of the text, added pictures and cut down the presentation to 13 slides.

I have high expectations for this assembly and am prepared to play a more active role in it. Not only do I have tangible results to share but this will be my third FCAE assembly so I think I understand the Awá cultural context much better and should be better able to contribute constructively to the discussion. I have always looked at such spaces as sacred and dedicated to the Awá for them to discuss different issues and make key decisions with minimal external intervention. I would never intervene if I did not feel I could truly contribute to the discussion in a meaningful way for the Awá’s sake. There is an African saying that goes: when you show up in a village for the first time, keep your mouth shut and listen. Many foreign development agencies ignore this wisdom completely and believe to have the answers to problems they barely understand, ignoring the socio-cultural context. I have been listening for over a year now, I certainly don’t grasp all the idiosyncrasies of Awá culture but the little knowledge I have could perhaps be beneficial for them, giving them perspective on certain issues.

On July 4th, the day I posted this blog entry I joined my Peace Corps buddies from the North Squad to celebrate the US national holiday. As the tradition obliges we cooked up a barbeque and played US sports throwing a football and baseball around. We all met up at the Yahuarcocha lake right outside Ibarra and were lucky to have a beautiful sunny day for the occasion. I actually got a pretty bad sunburn. It was great to check up on all these people I only see ocasionally and a bit sad as well since some were giving their farewell to all of us as their time has come to leave the country. I stayed as long as I could but kept reminding me to keep a low profile as I had a tough hike the next day in yet unknowed Awá territory.

It’s that time of the year again. The summer solstice interpreted and celebrated all around the world in so many different ways is certainly one of the most important rituals for the Kishwas from the Sierra. Inti Raymi or Fiesta del Sol in Spanish is their way to thank Pacha Mama (mother earth) for providing them with abundant crops this year and praying for another year of good harvests. I had the chance to go with a group of Kishwa visit different communities outside Otavalo and take part in the festivities. It was definitely not the touristy Inti Raymi type of party they give out in the centre of Otavalo for all the gringos to capture on video. That said the gringos did have a key part in this event as the christian NGO World Vision was funding the bus rental and the stops were based on their different project sites. Every where we stopped you could see kids with their World Vision hats, T-shirts and bags. Nevertheless the Kishwas were definitely running the show and abiding by their ancestral customs.

This consisted of stopping in front of different family houses who invited the gang to jam and dance on their porch. The dance has only one basic move: stumping ones feet in the ground, going in circle around the musicians who decide when we have to change the rotation. We usually got interrupted by the hosts who served us large quantities of food and chichi wherever we stopped: cuy, rice, mote, beans, frijol, chicken, potatoes, bull meat, etc. We ate so much that day it was ridiculous, I was impressed at the generosity of the hosts and the quality of the food. The chicha which is a drink of fermented corn was either disgusting or delicious depending on the house but I didn’t get sick from anything I ingested that day. It was pretty funny just to crash on random family porches up in the mountains around Otavalo to dance, eat, drink and move on to the next spot.

I’m glad I had a chance to witness and participate in a celebration of Inti Raymi. Last year I had to go to the Awá general assembly that is usually scheduled during those dates. The Awá don’t have such a celebration, in fact they have little rituals and these are mostly around their traditional medicine. This year’s general assembly was moved to July in order to accommodate the president’s travelling around the USA. This coming weekend is San Pedro, another sierra Kishwa tradition and I am heading to Tabacundo to check it out with my dear Ecua-family.

Work wise, I’ve been a little frustrated with the lack of communication with the Baboso teacher who once again cancelled the Friday class as he was attending a workshop. If I hadn’t bumped into the Baboso president that morning I would have hiked back and forth for nothing again. The FCAE office reeks of bad vibes and personal feuds which I am lucky enough to stay out of and remain neutral, at least on the surface. That’s not hypocrisy but professionalism. In the office it doesn’t matter who you like or not, you must treat everyone with the same respect and courtesy. The ones you have a beer with after work is up to you.

I just came back from a two day workshop about the education ministry’s reform. I was asked to be the secretary and take minutes which I am quite bad at as I write down every detail ending up with 25 pages of notes. There were about 40 of us there between teachers, students, parents and representatives from the ministry and other development NGOs. I felt the workshop was pretty productive and reached its objectives: getting the baseline data to write a proposal on how to implement the new education model in the Awá territory. I am part of the team who has to draft the proposal starting work next week and hopefully having the completed document ready to present to the upcoming general assembly. I had a few interventions during the workshop but my last one came out quite emotionally. In the final part when we were asking who should take part in the proposal writing team the discussion derived into money matters which really hot a chord in me. As I spoke some sense into them I couldn’t restrain my frustration and it came out a bit aggressively. It wasn’t my intention and I felt bad about it later: Ecuadorians and especially the Awá aren’t used to be spoken to like this. Nevertheless my point came across and we managed to wrap this thing up on time.

My situation in Lita perhaps also has something to do with my mood this week. Believe it or not I am still waiting for my bloody bed! It’s supposed to be ready and delivered today. Right. I’ll believe it when I see it. How absurd is it to get a bed with less than 10 months of service remaining. On a more pleasant note, I witnessed my first cock fight last weekend in Lita. It was way more exiting than I thought it would be. These animals are really well trained killing machines. Their trainer fixes a small needle like piece to their leg hoping they could get a victory blow to their opponent with a fierce jump in the throat. One combat lasted less than a minute thanks to this trick. It’s hilarious to see the men get so emotional during the fights shouting encouragements to their “boy”. It’s a huge deal in the Lita area. Men treat their roosted better than their wife and children. Some even feed them meat to make them tougher. So life goes on here in Lita but I can’t deny that a few days of vacations would be sweat, that won’t be until august though.

Shortly after the midservice conference I got a call from my program manager who wanted to arrange a visit to my site from the country director, the security officer and himself. I appreciated this opportunity to see where me and my other PCV buddy an hour away lived and get a glimpse of our everyday reality. Far from any horror stories one can read these days about the northern border. I saw it as a perfect time for a reality check for everyone concerned, especially for the Quito office staff. They arrived on Thursday, late in the morning, in Lita where they picked me up and we all headed to my neighbour’s site usually an hour away but with the fancy SUVs they came with, the ride was a little over half and hour long.

I had already been to el Cristal 3 times in the past and know many of the people there as they usually come down to Lita for the Sunday market. The PC staff met his host family and got a chance to see how they produce panela (raw sugar) with their trapiche (sugar cane processor). We saw the progress on the school garden he is working on and met the school teacher who solicited a PC volunteer in the first place. We then headed back to Lita for lunch and checked my house that met all the security requirements. Overall I felt satisfied from this first official visit from the PC director and security officer to my site despite the fact that I do not do much work in Lita itself. I certainly didn’t have much to show since none of the Awá artisans where around that day. We decided that we would arrange another meeting in Ibarra this time at the FCAE office for the PC staff to get a chance to meet and talk with my counterpart agency.

My program manager stuck around Thursday night so that he can hike with me to Baboso and get a chance to get a glimpse of an Awá community. I was scheduled to give a class at 8am so we left Lita at 6:30am, the other volunteer also came along. It’s a nice walk to Baboso and the weather was cooperating. When we got there workers were already busy building the new classroom and dormitory under the supervision of the community president. The teacher appeared and told me the bad news that the class had been cancelled because he was feeling ill, some kind of stomach problem. That was a real bummer, I had my first ever chemistry class prepared and was going to use the extra two gringos as props. Instead I showed them the two failed projects I had took part in with the community: the wood efficient stove and the school garden. My program manager gave me hope with the opportunity of getting a small grant to revitalize the school garden initiative and I will certainly give it another shot.

Earlier that week I went to the FCAE office for two days where I worked on the women leadership proposal for the UNIFEM fund. The profile had been accepted and the full scale proposal was due on the Thursday of the visit. I decided to dedicate Monday and Tuesday on it, submit my final draft and count on the social development coordinator to polish it off. I was glad to hear that minimal change had been made to my version and that the proposal had been submitted on time. It’s a great project that deals with social and cultural issues such as alcohol consumption by Awá men and the marginalization of Awá women in their own communities and families. Those are certainly delicate issues and I am wondering how it will be received by the upcoming general assembly.

As I am writing this Lita is celebrating the re-election of its president for the local junta parroquial. I don’t know the numbers or any details but I simply heard cars honking and people screaming: “Hugo! Hugo! Lita esta contigo!” Then there was a speech on the sports court in the center of the village where he officially thanked the Liteños and Liteñas who voted for him. Hugo is a man of few words, something I like about him, so once his short speech was done the music took over. For my part I went back home as I don’t want to be considered assimilated to any one political party. This is one of the many PC rules: we cannot take part in any political event. We are after all an apolitical organization and should not intervene in domestic political campaigns.

The group I came to Ecuador with, the notorious Omnibus 99, has passed its first year of service. Peace Corps organized a little get together to mark this event, known as the “midservice conference”, in the PC office in Quito. It was great to see everybody again, we are all scattered throughout the country and I only get to see a few on a regular basis, the group known as the “north squad”. Naturally the entire group with which I arrived here wasn’t complete as a few had to return home either for health & emotional reasons or simply because they figured out this PC thing was not for them. I see it as natural selection; the ones that stay are the most committed and serious about their work as PC volunteers. I must say I was impressed by all the amazing work all my buddies are doing in field, especially those who came with very limited Spanish and who know not only speak fluently but also have a bit of a local accent going. I was really proud of this gang of gringos going native. I feel like a fraud coming in the country already knowing the language, my efforts to integrate must have been a joke compared to most.

So we were all given 10 minutes to talk about our first year of service. Not enough time to really do justice to all the amazing projects we are all involved in but good enough to give us all an idea where we are at. I prepared a PowerPoint mostly to share pictures of where I live and the work I do with the Awá. I got caught up with time and had to speed through the last slides but I still got a chance to share my frustrations with the miscommunication with the PC office; a point that I also stressed in my work report I just submitted. I was surprised to be the only one to have observations about how the office is being managed; I thought perhaps that I was an isolated case. So many key emails such as the personalized work report format, a request for a needs assessment and details about the midservice presentations never got through to me. That’s quite amazing considering that other, much less important, emails do come through from the same source (ie. they do have my correct email address but continue keeping me out of the loop). I also mentioned the fact that we never received any feedback from our last work report which many of my peers seemed to appreciate. Nevertheless, no explanation of why this happened was provided.

The rest of the conference was filled with different sessions about a variety of topics & issues. A security report was naturally provided informing us that this year the “Tuesdays” are the days when we are most likely to get mugged! We were wondering with other volunteers if they actually take these stats seriously. If so, it explains quite a lot. Tech sessions on group participation, food security, value chain and other ongoing projects that could be of interest to us were given. I thought that the conference was great overall especially getting to see everyone and share experiences. I also got a chance to sell a few Awá crafts that always attract great interest as soon as I display different masks of animals and large wooden armadillo. They are quite stunning I must say, too bad they are so expensive! The Awá fix their price based on time spent on each piece. I let them know repeatedly that most tourists would be turned off by these prices but they insist on keeping them as they are.

Right before leaving for Quito, me and my PCV buddy gave third module of ecotourism English in Lita. We have a steady group of 12 students, most of them quite young. But everyone seems to enjoy the classes, which for me is essential. I am also giving environmental education classes at the school in Baboso thanks to the Awá teacher there who I befriended. He is giving me at least an hour each week with his students so that I can try out one of the activities in the Awá facilitator’s guide I am putting together. They are kind of my guinea pigs but I feel that we are all learning a lot from this experience. Like all Awá, the kids are very timid and were almost mute during the first class but now I feel that they are more relaxed around me as I don’t hesitate to make a fool of myself with strange faces and sounds.

Back in the office I was informed that the women leadership project profile had been approved and that we have until next Thursday to submit the full proposal. I helped put the profile together even though the program coordinator made several changes to the final draft, taking out the entire “strategic alliance” section. I am glad it came through and will be helping out putting the full proposal together. On a sadder note, my great Sicilian friend who has taken on the planning and monitoring piece of the Awá federation is reaching his limits and now tells me everyday that he wants to leave and that he looking for another job. They put a lot of pressure on him in the office and due to his lack of diplomacy he managed to put the entire administration staff against him. He claims that the accountant is running the show and is only looking out for himself. The accountant who has been working there for 4 years certainly has a lot of influence on Awá leaders and decision-makers, further isolating Mauro. I would be sad to see him leave; he is probably the best friend I have here. We have this European connection that bonds us naturally (that said I don’t necessarily get along with the german “volunteer” guy in the office that well). As for the FCAE, it would be thrown into an abysmal fall if he leaves suddenly as he plans, just to give them a lesson. Let’s just hope for the best.

We all know we got to earn it, the question is how. As a foreign volunteer the task is more delicate as you face many prejudice and disproportionate expectations. After a wee bit over a year living and working here in Ecuador I think I earned the respect of most people around me. That is my gringo friends of course but also my colleague at the FCAE and DEIBNAE, without forgetting my neighbours of Lita and Baboso. I had a recent experience however that brought me to question the sincerity of this respect from one of my colleagues from the Awá artisan group. We were scheduled to travel to Quito together to do some market research there. I hopped on a 6am bus giving her the bus company, bus number and departure time but she still managed to miss it, letting me face Quito hell by myself. She calls me up as I am riding on my own making me feel bad because she missed the bus (I should’ve called her as we passed by her you see despite the fact I had no idea where she was). She had the guts to add that she felt that my private life was affecting my work and that I shouldn’t forget my responsibilities. I was wondering at this point who was actually on the bus as planned out.

I did my thing in the capital, making contacts with the municipality to find out how to get a space for the Awá in the artisan fairs in the Parque Ejido and also showed some wood products to the luxurious Olga Fisch store who liked the carved animals quite a lot but disliked the masks for not being genuinely Awá. When I get back to the office, she’s there and I therefore debrief my little solo adventure of the morning. Not a “thanks” but a few criticisms on things I could’ve said. Things deeply rooted in Awá culture that I am supposed to know I guess. I felt very disappointed. Is it because they don’t pay us that we are so under-valued? I felt treated like her servant, I was disgusted. It’s more painful considering that I thought she was a reliable and respectful colleague with which I have been working since my inception with the FCAE. Some told me not to take it personal, that the evangelical, jehovah witness thing gets to her head sometimes, that despite being one of the smartest and most rational Awá leaders, she occasionally freaks out. So be it.

At the FCAE monthly planning meeting I felt the same sense of oblivion. Not a single thing I did, project I worked on seemed to be taken into account by the coordinators. Environmental education, women and youth projects and Awá crafts seem to be the last ring of the ladder. How could it compete with never-ending meetings among Awá leaders that hardly ever lead to anything concrete except perhaps scheduling another one of them meetings, as long as food is served of course. I am certainly the quiet type only opening my mouth when asked to or when I hold critical information that could help out. Awá meetings is a space for them to figure out what they want to do, I have no decision-making power and I am radically against the paternalistic attitude of other foreign volunteers working there.

The FCAE sent all their troops to the community of La Union to sort out the mining company problem. They walked all the way to the entrance of the territory, talked and turned around, back to the city. The fellows from the ministry of environment came along but forgot to bring their rubber boots and couldn’t take the ocean of mud anymore. Another useless attempt? Perhaps, but at least this time they tried, falling short only an hour from the centre of the community.

On a more positive note, my PC buddy and I started giving ecotourism English classes in Lita. We give two hour classes every Sunday and already completed 2 out the 8 modules planned out. The attendance is good, around 20 students as we were hoping for and the crowd is mostly composed of young students. I also just came back from a environmental education class I gave at the Baboso school this morning. It’s the first one I do with the kids and as all Awá children facing a gringo for the first time, they were very quiet for most of the class, almost mute. I had a drawing activity planned out, anticipating that the discussion piece would be brief. I am highly appreciative of the Baboso teacher to give me this space. We agreed with the class that I would come do one environmental education activity every week from now on. This is critical for me to test the activities I have been working on these past four months and validate them with Awá teachers. This is what I moved to Lita for, work directly with the communities, avoiding office nonsense.

I’ve been really busy ever since I’ve been back from my surreal trip to Cuenca’s campo side. I hit my first full year mark working with the FCAE and I went through a personal evaluation. To be honest I wish I had achieved more or at least more visible outcomes. Some projects didn’t turn out quite the way I hoped for such as the Baboso school garden. The very heavy rains that took away the bridge during winter also did its deed on the garden sight and there is not much left to show for. Actually the entire site of the education center of Baboso is being discussed as some experts claim it to be unsafe and suggest the site be moved to a more remote and stable area. Fair enough, in the meantime I have all the tools and will to get this project going but no designated space for it. Some things, if not most, seem out of our control.

On a more positive note I must say that my relationship with the Awá education direction that went through many downs and a few ups seems to be breaking through. I gave a very important (for me…) presentation about the advances of my work on the environmental education modules I have been assigned to work on since my first day on the job. I really didn’t get much support from anybody and was overwhelmed by the implications of this project: environmental education tailored for the Awá, a civilization Ihadn’t heard about before coming to Ecuador. Needless to say I immediately put this project on a shelf and decided to get a grip about what the Awá are all about. I visited their territory on every occasion that presented itself, I moved to Lita to be closer to them and mingle with local teachers and artisans. This helped me a lot and about 4 months ago, through the MIES Esmeraldas project, I started working on the environmental education project again.

I presented to the DEIBNAE what I have so far: a resource book for Awá teachers composed of 9 chapters with 50 activities, 16 of them in the making. It is 81 pages long so far and I am expecting to finish the draft before the next general assembly. They all seemed to like the presentation and thanked me for my work. We put together an action plan to involved them more at this point to make sure the content of the book respects the cultural sensitivity of the Awá and is relevant for them. I felt relieved from reaction, my next year here will be much more productive if only they open that vital space for me and accept my work.

Prior to this meeting I was invited by my buddy volunteer only 1 hour away from me to co-facilitate the GANE small business workshop to his comunity bank socios. My friend Monica also came along as she works in micro-finance and had been wanting to see the game in action for some time. The participants really liked it. We had to facilitate module 1 in only an hour and a half, one team went bankrupt, another barely made it over red line meanwhile one team made it over $1000.  Very intersting results where they learned about the dangers of selling on credit, that was the main learning point as we didn’t have much time to debrief. It was fun to get the other PC volunteer and Monica involed, playing different roles at different times. I think it helped the participants distinguish between the different pieces of the game in a more obvious way than by having one facilitator playing all the roles. Besides it made the game much funer adding this variety of personalities to the mix. In my books, this was my best GANE session in Ecuador so far and I certainly hope that they’ll invite me for round two on a future occasion.

I’m excited about still having one more year ahead of me with plenty of ideas and dreams in my head to make a positive difference for the Awá and Ecuadorians in general. The challenge will be to pace myself and set realistic goals.  But above all, I must try to have as much fun as I can trying my best.

What I love about this Peace Corps experience is that there is absolutely no routine. These past two weeks certainly have been all but ordinary. I started off heading to the Peace Corps training place next to Tabacundo to co-facilitate the GANE business workshop. The new omnibus is the same size as mine used to be with 43 of them so we had to split the group in two, me taking half and a co-trainer takeing care of the other. We briefed them on the rules and objectives of modules 1 and 2 and debriefed in plenary. We only had two hours for this workshop so we just accelerated the process skipping two weeks of the business cycle in both modules. It was meant to be a training-of-trainer type workshop but the limited time did not allow us to give justice to the game. I hope that some of these new volunteers got something out of it but given the very busy day they were having (value chain, community bank and their language test in addition to GANE), I wonder if they’ll remember anything at all.

Anyways this gave me the opportunity to hang out with my dear Ecua-family in Puruhuantag on Edwin & Magaly’s farm. It stayed four full days with them and felt the same love and attention as they always gave me. They’re going through difficult times right now, barely making ends meet despite their relentless work. That said, they never lack food and I found all the family in perfect health. Money matters didn’t seem to stress them out that much, they’ve already been through so much. The Sunday I left for Quito with the rest of the new omnibus who were wrapping up their training and getting ready for swear-in. We were in stand-fast due to the elections and theoretically not allowed to travel but they gave me a special permission to head down to Cuenca. I am thankful that the PC office knows how to be flexible sometimes.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) funded my trip to participate in an environmental education workshop based on the Enseñanza de Ecología en el Patio de a Escuela (EEPE) methodology that uses the scientific approach of indagation. There was an EEPE conference the previous week I couldn’t atted becase of my commitment with the PC trainees. The second week was to be a practical or applied workshop. To be honest I realy didn’t know what I was getting myself into and got my flight info less that 12 hours before take off and absolutely no info about the workshop. The WCS training coordinator picked me up at the airport and took me to the hotel everyone was staying at. It turned out that we weren’t staying in Cuenca and that the workshop would take place in a small rural community called San Geraldo about an hour outside Cuenca, next to Girón.

I met the group of facilitators as we packed ourselves in two vehicles. In mine I met one of the Ecuadorian coordinator (they were three in total) who worked for a Canadian mining company called IMGOLD. I realy didn’t know what to feel about that. Mining companies are equal to evil where I work with the Awá especially in the Esmeraldas province. The coordinator brought her brilliant 11 year old girl along, there was an Argentinian and Cuban profesor as well in the ride. They all gave me a good impression right from the start. Bright young people with an amazing energy. The rest of the group consited of a Bolivian and a Brazilian guy (we were 3 males for 10 women, a golden ratio), a Venezuelan, Chilean, another Argentinian and three other Ecuadorians. I felt I was heading to an alternative Summit of the Americas. They all knew each other through the EEPE network for some years now and certaily loved to party. Most of them were university professor in Biology and seemed to welcome the having an ecological economist from France/USA join the team.

We worked late the first night preparing the guided indagations for the next day. I participated and helped as well as I could with my limited knowledge of the methodology (I only had one EEPE workshop back in December). There were about 40 participants, all campezinos with a small group of local teachers. The team of facilitators composed of so much knowledge and exprience with EEPE did an amazing jb facilitating the sessions explaining the indagation cycles and making the workshop 100% participative. They all intervened punctually, nobody trying to get more attention and run the show. Their humility earned them the love and respect from the community. We all created an increcdible bonding during the three day training among facilitators and with the community.

We all slept in a house rented by the mining company and I ened up in the party room with the Brazilian guy, the crazy Cuban girl and two of the local Ecuadorian coordinators. The first night we only had about 3 hours of sleep as they kept on messing around and I got absorbed into the passion of “Surubão”. How can one explain this very Brazilian term or concept? What they usually do is gather around one person jumping around and squeesing him/her screaming “Surubão! Surubão! Surubão!” in unision. Add to that the “Sandwich” squeek and the “Fece” trick of grabbing ones butt. All very childish it seems, they are incredible bonding games. The Braziian tried to explain the Surubão concept in plenary saying that there is no equivalent word in Spanish but that it can described as “communal love” completely unselfish and egoless. This is the best word to describe my experience with these amazing individuals.

The last night we headed back to Cuenca where we had a birthday party waiting for us. There were only about six people when we got there so we quickly filled in the dance floor and controled the music and vibe of the place. We danced like crazy until 4am. We were starving as nobody ate before going there but we got fed around 1:30am which gave us a new life and we partied on. The ratio was incredibly advantageous for males so I literally rested bout 10 minutes during the 6 hours on site. The Cuban girl is histerical and can move her butt at 200 km/hr. I learned so much that week, not just the wonderfull EEPE methodology that will help me in my work with the Awá and beyond but most of all the incredible generosity, intelligence and love I felt flowing with this group of Latin Americans. Like one of the Argentinian women told me at the end: “there is n way you’re going back to France after that”. To visit my family of course I will, but to live I doubt it.

This year’s semana santa was anything but ordinary. Sure I spent the earlier part of the week hanging out in Lita reading and trying to get those environmental ed modules going with not much success. A small group of volunteers were planning a trip down to Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas to spend the easter weekend there as the indigenous group, Tsachila, celebrate their new year that saturday. I was reluctant at first, more or less enjoying quiet Lita especially since both water and electricity are miraculously back.  After a few calls with my fellow volunteers, I decided to tag along on the trip. It turned out to be a brilliant decision as this break from the Lita routine was exactly what I needed to refocus. We were six volunteers to go to the party including two who actually live and work with the Tsachila and sent the invite in the first place. Santo Domingo is an 8 hour bus ride from Lita so two  days were spent on the road, but never being alone made the trip go smoothly.

The Tsachilas are similar to the Awá in the sense that they are also traditionally hunter and gatherers and live in the forest. They speak their own language, Tsafiki, which apparently has common roots with Awapit. Both indigenous groups also suffer from outside invasions and pressures that is hindering their cultural strength and unity. However they have quite different features and customs. The Tsachilas traditionally paint their hair with achiote, a red natural dye, and also paint their body using the fruit from a local tree. The elders still wear their traditional clothes with are colorful skirts both for men and women. As Santo Domingo expanded, now the fourth largest city in Ecuador, it encroached on the Tsachilas ancestral territory and led to massive deforestation of the area. As one of the volunteers woring with them said: “it’s a dying culture”. I feel the same way about the Awá who are turning more and more as mestizo campesinos rather than the forest people they have always been because of the introduction of cattle.

We spent a night in one of the volunteer’s house. It was a traditional Tsachila house made of local wood and hatched roof. I was impressed by the how all the construction around it were all traditionally built without any zinc roofing that is now predominant in Awá territory. The Tsachila also play the marimba just like the Awá and have chamans do curations using medicinal plants. We were supposed to wake up at 4am for a morning bath (before the toad wakes up) and cleansing but the father of the family we were with was not a chaman so it was a regular soap bath which I prefered to dodge for a few more hours of sleep. The family of the other volunteer in Tsachila land has a real chaman which performed a herb purification for the folks who slept there. The next day we headed to the Kasama party, the Tsachila new year.

It was a big field party with a big stage for all the speeches and performances, the food huts serving traditional dishes and bush meat, and the artisan stands. It was a great day and we all had awesome time. The two local volunteers were painted entirely as the tradition mandates. I just asked for a small line on my forearm because I didn’t feel comfortable overdoing it which I kind of regret now. It’s like having a temporary tattoo, it only lasts for about ten days. I ate guanta which they also hunt in Awá land and their mushed dried plantain that I found tasteless, I much prefer the chiro. The main attractions apart from the sexy Tsachila women in their traditional mini-skirts and not-so traditional high-heels was the election of the new queen and an arm-wrestling battle. The elders were also passing along chicha using one glass for the hundereds of people there which I managed to dodge. Only the elders were dressed and painted traditionally and you could see from the crowd that the traditions are being dilluted by the omnipresent mestizo culture. At night we went out and partied a bit in Santo Domingo and I headed back north on sunday with my buddy from Crystal.

This short trip reinvigorated me and I feel much more focued and concentrated on my work. I need to submit the Awá environmental education modules by the end of June so I am feeling the heat. I also have a zillion other small projects scheduled at the same time so I really need to manage my time carefully. The Wildlife Conservation Society is paying for me to go to a 5 day environmental ed workshop in Cuenca at the end of the month and I also have to give a small business workshop to the new PC trainees before that. Next month, the volunteer in el Crystal and I are starting english classes here in Lita, 8 modules of ecotourism english classes. That should be fun. I’m especially excited about doing some real work in Lita because many people see me here without really knowing what I’m up to. The Awá absorb almost all my time.

Right before shutting down the office for Semana Santa, the Awá Federation organized a three day workshop on a beautiful beach in Manabi. They hired a bus for the entire journey so that all the administrative staff, promoters and técnicos and dirigentes as well as their gringo cooperante can come along. The rationale for this trip was to boost the morale of the troops. We had our regular monthly plannification meeting the first day which literaly lasted all day long, ending with a small group of us putting together a project prosposal until 11pm. The second day was supposed to be more relaxing with a motivation workshop in the morning and the afternoon for leisure.

They contracted a profesor from the nearby city of Manta who showed us her curriculum demonstrating her expertise in the subject. It turned out to be a pretty disapointing event as her lecture (a powerpoint presentation with the cheesiest videos ever made) was tailored for a corporate audience. Certainly not for a social organization like the FCAE even less appropriate for the Awá nationality. This triggered some concern from a few participants including the president but the WCS respresentative who came along saved the profesor telling the audience that all these communication tips she was giving us was food for thought and that a deeper analisis of the communication crisis within the Federation required another, separate workshop. This allowed the profesor to wrap up what she had prepared, or more recycled to be exact. There were a few interesting dinamicas which I will certainly use in the future but I must say that I doubt that the FCAE staff got much out of it.

The last day on the beach was somewhat free. The organizers (the administrative staff, led by the accountant) took us to another beach, Crucitas, an hour away. It wasn’t as clean nor flat as the beach in the small fishermen pueblo of San Jacinto so we didn’t even stay a full hour there. We returned to San Jacinto, packed our stuff, had lunch and loaded on the bus once again to check out the famous coastal city of Manta. This is where the US has a military base, supposedly to monitor drug trafficking on the Colombian border. The US troops are scheduled to leave in November this year under Corea’s orders. Manta is also the fish factory town where they can sardines and tuna, needless to say, it reeks.

Anyways we get there and the FCAE accoutant asks the driver to take us to this market the admin staff want to check out. We end up at the bloody bus terminal next to the most ghetto market ever. Obviously the Awá were not interested at all in this technical stop and a bunch of us hired a pick up truck to show us around the harbor and the downtown parks. It took us another 12 hours of bus to get back to Ibarra, I almost froze myself to death getting back to the sierra after those hot beach days. Few of us actually had a chance toi enjoy the beach at all. I went jogging and swimming in the morning before breakfast knowing that our agenda was full once we started working. The italian fellow, Mauro, barely got a feel for it at all as he was leading the proposal writing process, stuck in front of his laptop on a beautiful beach. I wouldn’t call that motivation!

Technically I’m on vacation now since the shop is closed for the week. I don’t have any plans though and will probably hang around Lita get some work done. The water situation is still unstable, it keeps coming and going and the quality is well below any health standards. I was supposed to have dinner with the PC director and a bunch of volunteers in Imbabura yesterday but the secretary called me at noon the day of the meeting to let us know it was canceled. I didn’t say anything and remained cordial but I can’t hide that I am increasingly frustrated by the disorganization in this office. Our mid-service reunion is scheduled on the first days of June, I hope to be able to address a few of my concerns there.