The last couple weeks have been pretty busy here but at the end of the month I always have a hard time figuring out what I’ve done as I write my monthly work report. They are small things that when put together perhaps turn into something significant enough to justify my being here. A good friend of mine told me tht I was too conformist, not positioning myself to get higher responsibilities assigned. This got me to meditate a bit: I haven’t come to a conclusion quite yet but I think it’s part of my philosophy. I am not here to impose anything and if people turn me down like the Awá education directors, I won’t insist in working with them. On the contrary I am content to suround myself with well meaning people who are willing to work hard to make a positive impact on their communities. So here I am heling the Awá youth leader learn how to use excel making graphs and simple functions, helping the women leader put a project proposal together, help the Awá natural resource coordinator make powerpoint presentation, etc. I work in the shadows, take no credit whatsoever and accept it.
Is that conforming to too little? Some would agree, but like I said before I am determined not to impose and fall into the paternalistic development approach so many of us get stuck into. The FCAE organized a very successful summit in my hometown, Lita. I had the pleasur to take care of logistics securing food, accomodation and welcoming the first arrivals. I was so assigned to design informative brochures on three key operating projects MIES Carchi, MIES Esmeraldas and the new Conservation International project. The presidents of the 22 Awá centers or communities were invited so we expected about 30 participants, the room in the Junta Parroquial was filled with 50 of us: many wives and babies came along as well as other community leaders besides the presidents such as teachers and health promoters. The brochures were handed out at the end not to distract them during the many presentations. The main objective of this summit was to bring the communities closer to what is going on in the office in Ibarra. It was about time they took action on this issue a
s the participation during workshops in the communities has become lower and lower these days.
It lasted two full days and I filmed most of the talks and presentations as an experimental project. First they presentated the ongoing projects, their progress and difficulties. Then they talked about teritorial issues leading to the formation of a comission that is to enter the problematic center of La Unión. 7 families already sold 50 hectares to an ilegal mining company raising a very serious alarm: it is indeed illegal to sell ancestrial indigenous land according to the new constitution. The second day was spent listening to students in seek of scholrships requesting permission to enter the teritory to do their studies: some biological, others socio-economical. This led to a rather long argument. There is strong resistance from the Awá to open their teritory for any kind of investigations since a bunch of gringosfrom the NY botanical garden and national cancer research center came in the 80′s and retived thousands of sample of plants, amphibians and other indigigenous knowledge which they brought back in search of a patent. If a miracle drug is found, the Awá won’t receive a penny from it. Another western plunder you might call it.
Overall the meeting went very well and the participants were pretty satisfied with it. One of the most significant outcome is the agreement from all Awá leaders to participate in the Awá Governmental Counsel meeting that takes plce every two months in Ibarra. This will definitely help bridge te gap between the office and the communities. They will be more directly involved in the proposal writing and decision making process. I think it’s a brilliant and much needed move.
The previous week I adventured myself across the improvised wire bridge over Mira river to visit Baboso. I went their with folks from the WFP (world food program) and IOM (international orgnization of migration) who are helping fund the building of a new two-story classroom. They were pissed off when nobody was expecting them in Baboso and criticized (rightfully so) the internal miscomunication at the Federation. I wasn’t involved in the coordination process and certainly wish I had been. There is still a lot to do on that front. baboso teacher, Manuel, a good friend of mine and possibly the most rational and visionary Awá I know worked hard to get a new bridge over Mira. He succeeded in getting the material and organizing a minga (community work) but the new bridge had a very short life. The night of friday to saturday another torrential rain fell on us and the raised river once again did its deed and took it away. This time it’s worst: the Ampara Su students and teachers are stuck onthe other side. Manuel is back at it pulling the necessary strings to get back together. That’s the attitude real leaders are made of.
