Quemar el Viejo

There’s no more internet in Lita since January 1st until they contract a new service provider which can take a couple months. Until then I won’t be able to update this blog as regularly as I used to.

I spent new year’s eve in Tabacundo with Erwin’s family where we followed the local tradition of burning a human sized doll packed with wood chunks and fire-crackers. It represents the year 2008 about to pass away. We wrote and read its testimony with wishes for all those present and then we lit it up. It symbolizes the buring of all the negative stuff that happened to us that year that we want to forget to start off fresh. I had a cold and did not drink to much, nobody got drunk actually which was nice to see. The next day I felt much better and helped out on the farm harvesting potatoes. Erwin had to go buy a bunch of stuff at the wholesale market in Ibarra so I came along to help out. My time on the farm did me a lot of good and helped me get a bit of perspective. Erwin is quite controversial on several issues for instance he claims that there is no such thing as indigenous people in Ecuador, they’re all mestizos! I kind of see where he comes from since they are all abandoning their customs and imitating the mestizos in pretty much every aspects from clothing, religion and aspirations. The Awá for instance all wear western type clothes and many where baseball caps. I have yet to see their traditional outfit. They also, especially the youth, speak predominantly Spanish and buy rice from the nearby towns, food that their ancestors never ate. Erwin’s position really comes from a personal experience of being discriminated against for not being “indigenous enough”, to get a loan out of a cooperative for instance. Working with an indigenous group myself, I do recognize clear differences between the Awá and the mestizos. A guy from Quito would not survive more than a week in the Awá territory in the middle of theirnative cloud forest. The meztiso would have cleared the land a long time ago, turning it into pastures.

He also has a very drastic opinion about how to control world population. 2 kids per family maximum, then both parents should be sterilized. He added that they should cut off the balls of anybody who has more than 5 kids just to piss off his neighbour who has about eight of them. I do agree that many indigenous nationalities who call themselves ecologists while having a bunch of babies is quite a joke. Humans and uncontrolled population specifically is the most severe environmental hazard the world is facing today.

We officially started working again on the 5th but I stayed in Lita for a few more says before the monthly planning meeting in Ibarra. We have an entire new system now where we plan in thematic teams based on each of the ongoing projects. We are experimenting this for the first time this month and I am pretty hopeful it will yield some interesting results. I have quite a lot to do and am doing my best to refocus so that I can deliver good quality work. We had a great workshop about the new mining law that the Ecuadorian government is trying to pass swiftly that would allow large scale mining to take place in the country which obviously outrages indigenous groups. Ecuador is an oil country and doesn’t have much experience in mining but Correa sees the industry as an obligatory cash cow to fund his social program and fulfill his promises. Indigenous communities are already blocking roads down south and there is a national strike scheduled on the 20th. It’s only a matter of time until they block the Ibarra – San Lorenzo road that I use to go to Lita. I also have an environmental education workshop planned in the Awa community of Guadualito on the day of the strike so I’m a bit worried about the turn out. Let’s just hope for the best.