So. Day something or other of being in Ecuador.

God wanted all people to live happily hot showered. That has fortunately been my lot good number of times. I am performing my responsibilities as well.. lets be honest ‘errand boy’ which means lots of free time alone in cities. Puyo, Banos, Quito… at least I can work out in the hostal rooms, access internet and take a hot shower. The jungle is great.

But seriously. I love it out in ‘the bush’. The sound of all the crickets, birds, beetles, bats, monkeys… every thing chirping and making sound. When the sky is clear, which is almost never due to constant rain (hence the name “rain forrest”)… is so piercing. I’ve discovered stars and looked at formations I don’t believe I ever have seen before, or could have seen in the towering skylines of North American cities.

So I have my machete at MUSAP, the jungle base. The first night I brought it in it became very handy. I took the engineers, who I was sent to pick up, a tour of where the bathroom facilities are (note: they are still shitty outhouses). One of the ladies, Rebecca, went inside and was like “oh, there’s a little spider in here…” I, in all my arachnophobia, peeked in and was like. I don’t see any th… “hollyy get the hell out of there, that’s the biggest spider I’ve seen in Ecuador!” So Laura took my machete, womaned up because I was half frozen, and killed an 8 inch in diameter tarantula which looked up at her and wiggled its legs and said “please ma’am you wouldn’t kill me would you?”. Off to the banquet of the ants with you!

I am actually quite disheartened here. I enjoy the jungle in its antithesis of scrolling marquees and giant TV screens (though the Coca Cola signs at 40km on a road in the jungle certainly press upon me how corporations really do rule the world), but feel a lack of inclusion with this team. I am not going to be able to work on the documentary I want, but am instead relegated to promotional video propaganda boy. At least I am having fun working with the engineers and doing some construction, cement spackling on building the water tanks that we are doing for the Shuar communities.

We meet many interesting people. I was at the hospital late last night, we thought one of our crew might have malaria, turns out just an ear infection. We met a “medical missionary”, an American doctor that was full of good gentleness. I his own words “I’ve been living in Ecuador with my wife for 3 years, we make a lot less money and are a lot happier.”

We’ve also run into a few indigeous people who are interested in the project. Yesterday on a bus that was so packed it had 15 people riding on top (we were not among the top riders mom, chill out… though we were being smooshed inside) a man from CONFENAIE (an indigenous rights political organization) sent very bad vibes to both Karis (who I was accompanying with to the hospital with the student due to the pitch darkness of the situation) and I. He brought up a lot of ideas that I am vaguely or very familiar with: previous consent of drawing up accords with indigenous communities before going into them, about autonomy over natural resources, etc.. All important concepts. Yet one thing that has to be taken into account is that there are many indigenous groups, and all of them want to be the ones in which you have these agreements of previous consent, who watch out for certain communities. To put it simply… the groups are fractured and rarely work together. While there is something to say for political diversity and choices… when you take thousands of indigenous communities spread out all over vast and not well connected (by road or phone perhaps, but certainly by spirit and nature) and present one organization over the other to “watch over them” it is like fighting over a kind of sovereignty for these communities. At the same time, most communities do not simply have enough knowledge, resources or ability to serve to impose their own autonomy… it is such a struggle and battle first theoretically to define what is autonomy and second in the practice of all of these groups trying to define it and put their policies into place. The praxis of the two makes a foreigner like myself completely confused as to whom to trust, and the indigenous peoples are already mistrusting of us. This cause a delicate situation that makes me even more resolved that a bunch of gringo students don’t belong here in the capacity that we are.

Well, im off to find some food, give some loved ones a holla’ and back on a 2 hour bus to the roadside jungle ill climb up into and slide around for another week or so.

Here are some pix of the project some other people have taken. I really need to fix my blog so i can upload pictures n what not.. though i dont really have too many. im in a couple of them, on a long hike: http://picasaweb.google.com/DayVidR/EcuadorSummer2007Jackie

The last few days I have passed in Quito. I am feeling super homesick, missing the ones I love and love to be with.

Especially because after living in this city for like more than 6 months, its just kind of.. overbearing yet easily manageable. Being 2 miles high in the Andean mountains makes for pretty scenery – when I can actually look up. Most of the time im trying to avoid hitting other things/people or being hit by cars/bikes/people. The sidewalks are a skateboarders nightmare. The sun is harsh, and with the altitude, one tires quickly when walking.

The constant contradictions of Quito and Ecuador moreover no longer fascinate me as make me resilient in that I don’t belong here… but I belong working in the poor communities in my own countries. I very much hate gringo landia, the part of the city that I am in now… which is sort of midtown.

The landscape is a sprawling 25 mile city with the rich mansion gated communities in the far north, nice malls with every thing American and with plenty of little shops and pockets of poverty in the middle, and continuing to the old city center where from here on out it just gets worse and worse.

Though Gringolandia… with its overpriced shops, non stop nightclubs and drinking would at first seem like a great time. But all the shady people and shit going on (I went out for 30 mins tonight and was approached to buy a prostitute once and cocaine twice).. I have a feeling some of my frat brothers would call this “living the life” – because its all cheap too. Last night some drunkards crashed onto the sidewalk nearby and hit some people. Yeah, the life…

Though what does seem to fascinate me.. or at least give me a sense of time and passage as if when I left there was a pause and I am back and it is all the same. The same burger flippers at my favorite burger stand. The same dudes working the internet/telefone booth place I frequented, the same KFC Ecuadorian style all over… the same elder man selling Ecuadorian flags calling out “Eccc-uuaaa-dooor” in a trite, very unique sort of way.

And yet all I am is missing home, wanting to find a job, learn music, go dancing, feel the rays of my California and prepare myself for many other important things in life.

Atleast while I’m feeling like a tourist, I got some hella cool gifts for brothers, lovers, mamas and myself. I like the arts ad crafts market here in Quito.

As for the reason I am here: a project with the Shuar Health Project.. I feel alienated and out of the communication loop. We’ll see how the next 10 days go… tomorrow morning I take a 7-8 hour bus ride to Puyo and then to the MUSAP homebase in the middle of nowhere Amazonia… at least life there is more tranquil and I am surrounded by beauty in both sound and sight.

And one good bit of news: at least I don’t have diarrhea anymore. O_o

It all started when we, the group of 11 of us, arrived at Musap: kilometer 54 along the bumpy, dirty, quasi-road on the way from Puyo to Macas. These are two small warm and rainy jungle cities. Puyo comes from the quichua word ‘puya’ or rain. We went on a little trek to find the bathroom: two holes in the ground, surrounded by a shelter. Don’t miss when you squat. Don’t breathe too deeply. Do watch out for snakes. Do not fall backward.

Good idea: Bringing baby wipes along because there is no toilet paper.

Bad idea: Wiping yourself with a baby because there is no toilet paper.

And where did my particular baby wipes come from? Indeed, my mama!

Musap, the “observation station” that the Berkeley team I am with has its home base is just a house on a farm.. it is not so much a scientific station as it is a family’s attempt to create extra space and rent it out. The kids are pretty cute, and the bugs don’t bite too hard.

We went on a 5 hour hike through the bush… through a path down to a river basin that is a good 5kms down through red clay deep skin purifying mud and constant greenery, insects, humidity and of course giant spiders and their immaculate webs. As I have little time and the readers really have little interest in reading about my experiences climbing through the forrest, the highlights include: watching people fall their asses down in thick mud and waterfalls, scaring the shit out of the newbs with threats of piranhas and making a spear with my walking stick, which kept me from being one of the peeps falling down. And damn it feels to be so completely covered with dirt and water and not be able to take a warm hot shower and drink a nice cool beer, right? Heellll no.

So, since I need to come to Tena, another jungle city 50 kms away that took me 5 hours to get to and let me get in my “pushing truck stuck in the middle of the road rubble mud” skills to work. The added benefit: the family here is great and takes care of me. I had some catching up to do with them and we did so over a midnight dinner and some cerveza pilsners.

More beer notes: when Ecuadorians drink beer, they always order the big ass bottles and pour into small glasses. Its really deceptive how much you can drink in one setting. Luckily my companero, the son of the family, Maximito, who reminds me of dominic and my cousin Danny gave me some awesome news: hes getting married and has a baby on the way. And he has a sony Erickson EXACTLY like Emy and Cody’s. holly shit it is just providence that I must get this fone and change to Cingular.

Any how, went mountain biking and dove head first into a creek/pond because I lost my balance in carrying my bike across a beam that was about 4 inches long with the current pushing at my feet. but you all know you’d wanna mountain bike along jungle river paths, so its worth the scratches, bruises and painstaking time drying my passport, international medical card and money and other stuff I knew I shouldn’t have had with me (Dad, buy my travel insurance eh?). Don’t worry for interested parties: Mr. Bear and his headdress was not wetted at all.

I so miss bubble tea, a proper gym (theres here in Tena, Maximito and I went but it f*****up my gloves with all the rust)…. and um… my mom’s chit chatty voice.. and what else… looking for a job. Im so going to be broke when I come back.

Off to Quito at 6:30 in the morning to do some documentary planning and pick up some crew members from the aeropuerto.

I fell asleep last night to the third track of Incubus´ “morning view” album for reasons which should be obvious. I mean the track, not the falling asleep… though after 3 plane rides to Quito, Ecuaaaaaadooooorrrr…. a good 14 hour nap was indeed in order.

So I begin again, after a year of shunning this silly blogging space… to record some thoughts, share some memories, and declare my love for squishy little slugs that taste like buttery goodness when fried.

I will miss many of you back in mi patria, my homeland. You know who you are and if you don’t then you’ve got some good stuff in your pipe.

So I feel quite ungraduated from THE BEST MOTHA####IN University in the world, and strangely homeless. Yet my memory of Quito and its streets is impressive to me ::flexes geography brain:: and my little stuffed bear from a certain brownie extra terrestrial keeps me company along with my two knives i wear strapped and a pendent or two for safety.

I’m here to be a sort of transportation, communication and media person SLASH film a documentary (status: ahhhh shittteee).. as part of a team with the Cal Undergrad Public Health Coalition. We’re here to do water sanitation projects in various indigenous communities. For those who want more info: http://bigideas.berkeley.edu/node/44

On to more interesting things: beer.

I drank a couple cerveza nacional ‘Pilsner’s last night. I must say, I think $1 for 22fl oz is a good deal. Tao chicken, one of my KDR bros, would blow a gasket.. its like 44oz heaven for only $2. This beer, pilsner, goes best with anything other than by itself, even cigarrettes make a good companion to wash down the tasty tastelessness. Dude I already miss favorites like Spaten, Pyramids, Becks, and even a mouth full of PBR would bring a little glee.

There was a 10km marathon down la calle Amazonas today. People were like panting and going full speed.. weak sauce? No. 2 miles of elevation makes it harder to breath. I’m just adjusting myself… it doesnt help with shitty smog. Though at least the place smells better than the Kappa Delta Rho kitchen (note to any bros reading this: please for god sakes through out that dead rat on the second floor).

more on beer, other intoxicants, black clouds (perhaps best listed as intoxicant), police officers with erectile dysfunction, papayas, mangos, and as always: latina heinas who ride in the back of ‘chivas’ (big party trucks).

Time to go pickup the pledges.. er… DeCal (read: observers who are liabilities) from the airport. Speaking of liabilities: Dad, buy my travel insurance BEFORE i get hit by a car. it will be more useful then.

Dilip!

I have been busy this past week, working on finding houses and places to see and jobs to apply for. I’ve had one interview already, which went well. The position would start in late May. What is it? My old job before I left. Well, not exactly but close enough… she will be getting back to people in the next few weeks, so I hope I get the job. I’ve sent my resume to a few other places, and have another interview next week.

House hunting has gone ok…. 10 places I’ve looked at so far, and think I struck gold last night. A good deal boarding at a frat house… on the surface it sounds a little risky, but the place was clean and prides itself on having the second highest GPA of all the fraternities. My room would be prorated during th summer, saving me $380 and I have a nice bay view and a deck to BBQ and relax…. hope I can get it.

Last night I went and saw a talk with Daniel Elsberg, famous for the “pentagon papers”, other speakers included former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan who was fired for ratting out the torture being supported by the CIA and MI6, and the former General who was in charge of the penatentaries in Iraq during Abu Grahib, who took the blame. The talk highlighted the human rights and war crimes violations the Bush administration has been going down since 9/11 with specific evidence in Uzbekistan and Iraq, and the U.S. with regards to the Patriot Act.

Other than that, I have just been readjusting, speaking spanish as much as I can when I come accross spanish speakers, hanging out with my buddy Sonny here and trying to not spend much money…. yesterday we both got free pizzas.

Yep, the life of a hungry all consuming university student resumes… Ecuador seems so far away, and I am finally starting to feel a sense of “normalcy” even though I don’t know if my mind and heart are quite in tune with this version of normal…

Tomorrow, Lan Anh comes home so that means im heading to sac tonight so I can pick her up tomorrow…. wooohooo!

Michael here.

Well, Lan Anh and I are back. She is, precisely, in Albuquerqie New Mexico, I am here in Berkeley, California. She is participating in the world youth JAM with “youth for environmental sustainability”. I am here in Berkeley feeling very unaccustomed… missing Lan Anh a lot… out of my place… as my place for the last few months was Ecuador and Cuba. The words on the wall seems alien but somehow I understand it all. I was quite busy the last few weeks in Ecuador… which is why I didnt update for the 20 days I did not. I suppose ill either update some thoughts, definately put pictures up… in the next few weeks.

Ill be here for a few days… going to stay with Sonny…. and try to read and write a lot in spanish.

Today I have 2 appointments. one with my PEIS major councelor… one to see an apartment. Ill also be working on my CV and resume to try to find a job… thinking of my dad, who is going to see my grandfather in North Carolina..

America feels too big, too fast right now… i got used to being surrounded by lations and now im giggling at seeing so many people who just look different to me. i guess i probably look like I fit in, but I dont feel like I do.

Michael here.

12 mosquito bites. And they bite hard here in the jungle. We have been here for a little over a week, and I have been keeping busy. Mostly just reading and working on the things I need to turn my time to when I go back to the U.S. in a 20 days. “El tiempo toca al fin” in english… the time is coming to an end here. It is hard to believe that 8 months have gone by. Including the time I was in Viet Nam, I’ve spent the last 9 months outside the U.S. I have felt homesick here and there, but I am glad to be here. I wouldn’t mind staying another month…. But duties call and I must answer.

Summer school for me it looks like. Plus I need a job. And a place to live in Berkeley. I need to beg one of the deans to stay another semester, or else either risk not graduating next spring or burning myself out with 22 units and a thesis (ANNNND A JOB) next fall. Well, trying not to let that put me too much in bad spirits. I’m happy continuing my studies of Spanish… and reading for pleasure. I am immersing myself into Ecuadorian politics through a book called “Un Pais Entrampado“ (An entrapped country) as well as going through Karl Polanyi’s Great Transformation again. And of course, I wouldn’t mind a few more adventures in Ecuador

So back to the mosquito bites. This past Sunday, Lan Anh and I went to another farm, more of a little cabin jungle resort than a farm though. We went with Bertha and Maximo, the owners of this place being friends of theirs.

In short, the experience has made me realize how I am such a “city boy”… the insects just bite so ferociously and I am always paranoid about the spiders… big and colorful some of them, but nonetheless give me fright. The forest seemed to both enclose around us and also at the same time felt quite open with the river sagacho flowing on the western face of the land we visited.

We ate heartily and healthy, a kind of chicken wrapped in a leaf that soaked up the natural flavor released by the leaf when cooking over the open fire… fried yucca… mini banana fried in flour called “niños envueltos” or “kids all wrapped up” as it sounds best, I feel, in English. Bertha taught Lan Anh how to swim a bit… it was great fun watching her kick and paddle in the current holding onto a rock. We plan to return to the farm next Sunday to learn how to make chocolate and coffee, which is one of the cultivations on the farm. This time I’m going to accept wearing some insect repellent…

The only other thing to report, though would be much better if I could get a picture of it, are the thunder and lightening storms that happen here a few times a week during the night. The day before last the shaking of the earth because of the thunder sounded like armaments being exploded over the town as if an invading force was bombarding its way through. Replete with windows shaking and the power going out after a boom that sent a shock of terror through my own spine. Never have felt frightened because of thunder and lightening here, but even the lightening is so powerful it lights up the entire sky and you can see it lance out as if a laser bolt aimed for you. Yeah, a picture would be much better.

Finally got around to doing it this morning… there are some pretty inteesting pictures… so don’t watch while eating!

Here is a link….

(or if that doesnt work)

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jedimike/cherryonchocolate/finca/

lost of protesting. Lan Anh and I have missed most of it, because we have been wokring on her documentary. Right now, it is at about 70% compressing… we started it last night at 10pm. Cant wait to get a compressed final cut! We are both sleep deprived and tired of tooooo much pizza.

As well, I wrote an article (at Lan Anhs suggestion) about the events going on in Quito…. submitted it to a few newspapers and news sites

Here it is:

The Last Round for Ecuador

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jedimike/cherryonchocolate/?page_id=48

Going back to Quito tomorrow with Lan Anh. We will begin editing the documentary… which right now feels very daunting and hard to do, because we dont have a lot of time and still no actual layout for how Lan Anh wants it. lots of footage though, and some subtitles and technical problems solved..

This week has mostly been trying to live off of 50 cents for the first two days, spending our travel money on wednesday, hoping that I could withdraw $20 from the ATM here… which thanks to all the forces who make technology possible and kept the Ecuador banking system chugging along another day further… happened yesterday. Also, Lan Anh and I ate some good crabs that the hostel family invited us, and then drying some quite deliciou local chicken, salad and rice that completed the day of eating well.

I havn’t had time to put together the gallery about going to Maximo’s farm in the rain forest… but perhaps ill find time during this week, in between the insane workload and sleepless days that are indeed coming ahead. Last night was sleepless… was thinking too much.

Need to learn to be more patient. Calm. Thinking. Mature. Even as I type this, I shake my head and think “why have I said this so many times yet still come back to the same words?” I suppose molding the mind into a more refined work takes more time and energy. Now its easier to see my nakedness to life.

My mom has constantly had to put up with my know-it-all-ness. Yet one time being reminded, by my dad, sticke out in my mind. A while ago, years, when my dad and I were hiking through some montains, he kept telling me things, and I kept insisting.. “yeah, I know dad”. He calmly turned toward me, looking slightly annoyed but still patient (which is probably as hard for him sometimes as it is for me to be)… and said, “you know mike, you dont have to know every thing. its ok if you dont. just listen, you might hear something you dont.” And he has, always been right. As has my mom, who on my day of departure for Ecuador some august day in 2005, as I left her arms, said to me “Remember you don’t know every thing. And don’t trust any one.” Well those words still echo in my mind. Yet for some reason now when I am most clear about the fact that I am still quite young and unknowing, unwise, is when I wish for it most.

Enjoying the heat today. And this experience in Ecuador.

Live from a computer terminal by the edge of the Amazon Rain forest…. Michael.

March 3

Michael here.

First off, uploaded pictures regarding the protests and uproar in Tena a few weeks ago…. (see previous updates on Feb):

Tena, Ecuador protests in February

Carnival went on, and off… without much happening, except some people tossing water on Lan Anh and I while we were crossing the street. Our perceptions of carnival were a little different. Parades, masks, mischievousness opting for something hire than the goal of seeing wet white t-shirts. However, the importance of the festival and of many holidays I suppose, is not so much exactly what they are about but what they allow ordinary, often poor, Ecuadorians to enable themselves to change but for a few days the clock-work routine of life. Octavo Paz wrote about celebrations in Mexico;

“En ciertas fiestas desaperece la noción misma de orden. El caos regresa y reina la licencia. Todo se permite: Desaparecen las jerarquías habituales, las distinciones sociales, los sexos, las clases, los gremios. Los hombres se disfrazan de mujeres, los señores de esclavos, los pobres de ricos” (El libertino de la soledad, 1950).

(In certain celebrations, the same notion of order disappears. Chaos returns and licentiousness (excessiveness) reigns. Everything is permitted: habitual hierarchies disappear, social distinctions, the sexes, classes, memberships to organizations. Men disguise themselves as women, masters as slaves, poor as rich.)

My first thought when I saw this was to reject it out of hand. How can people subvert class, race, well hierarchies. They seem to be well defined, at least in the mentality, the inner pecking order that runs societies. Certainly bosses my get down and boggy at office parties. People might dress as men and women, but how does this something transcend these ever changing yet in day to day life seemingly concrete roles?

While I have to say I didn’t go to any of the actual “festival” events, though technically everyone is game, everyone is playing. I cannot recall or think of how gender roles were challenged during this festival in Tena, however a number of other things certainly were. For example, people were riding around on trucks, or just sitting from rooftops, wandering the streets with water dispensing capabilities, or with other objects or liquids to launch upon unsuspecting strangers or perhaps a well planned ambush on a till-death blood brother. Old women poking their heads out of windows, squirting away at little kids. People targeting foreigners, like myself, with pales of water. Alright, while this may not be the case, I venture that there is a stereotype, a personification that must hold some water that foreigners (gringos) have more money. Certainly many people live on a around $1 a day here. Yet unlike every day life, people don’t go around tossing water on gringos, who are clients to many businesses, yet during carnival, they become favored targets. As well, in “El Comerico”, in Quito, there was a small parade where many Quiteños dressed as indigenous people, dawning the garb and replete with spears. Whether these people were indigenous or not, whether they were more well-to-do or simply happened to have these uncommon items does not mater. The important part, to me, is that the parades participants were “putting the mask on” as indigenous people dressed long ago (with the exception of ceremonial wearing and some remaining tribes today, such as the Yanamoto indigenous is Venezuela-Brazil). That said, it is by far easy to say that indigenous people in Ecuador are certainly not in the upper-rungs of economic and social elitism and wealth. The personification of them, the taking on of their role, is one of these reigns of chaos, breakings of social norms.

And of course, during celebrations, the food and drink flow. The hostel was filled, mostly by Ecuadorians, including 2 families. One of the families had prepared a meal of titanic proportions (so much so that the leftovers fed them for 2 more meals and allowed Lan Anh, me, and the hostel family to have some dibs as well).

The punch line to the title: Lan Anh and I went to a farm yesterday and saw a pig being slaughtered and gutted. Yay.

March 4

Today there were no lights in all of Tena. No using of the blender, and especially irritating when its about 38 degrees (about 100 F) and humid… no fan. The electricity was cut off from last night around 3am until… now. Heat really makes people annoyed, ready to strike at the slightest infraction. So then, most of the day was spent laying around, reading and trying to “cool off” which was impossible. Except of course, for one of the amazing things about living in the rain forest.. which of course, is that it has a lot of rain. When it is on the dawn of raining, the clouds darken slightly, perhaps a breeze picks up and it sprinkles for maybe a minute or two. Then as if someone had unleashed Hades and Poseidon to do battle above us, the rain crashes down in a torment that within 2 minutes the streets are flooding, within 5 minutes there are miniscule rivers forming in the gutter and it is impossible to walk without becoming both soaked and slipping all over. But oh my god does it feel absolutely wonderful after such dogged hellish heat. That’s my spin on the weather here, an almost every day pattern. Just felt it more today because of the lack of a cooling device.

Went to the farm organized by Maximo on Thursday. The location is about 20 minutes from Tena proper, inside the veins of the jungle. Lan Anh took beautiful pictures which I will try to upload in the coming days with further elaborations. My main reflection of the farm, was that it felt good to get out of the town, to a little more untamed nature. To see people, their living that is something raw.. and sobering about the realities of existence for many thousands of people. No access to clean, tap water. Chronically wretched looking domiciles. A deep sigh and a re-realization dawns on me as to why I am here in Latin America, why I pursue the studies that I do. Yet clearly while these images impact my sensibilities and emotions I can still come back to a reflection upon what I am doing here. For the most part, it has been to still stay kept up in books, in a room, in front of a computer.

Maximo Sr., as he was driving by these indigenous communities said that… the natives, they live in these conditions because they are lazy, like many other Ecuadorians. They don’t want to work.. they only want the government to build sports fields. According to him, “all they like is to drink, play and make babies.” I am not in accordance with this line of thinking, but I do believe that stereotypes sometimes hold water, though the reasons certain conditions may exist may be left out from the end results themselves. When I have time to create the photojournal of the day, I will elaborate more.

Michael here.

Just finished making jam, strawberry jam. Was pretty easy. Lan Anh’s idea, we looked up a recipe on the net and just did it. I like the local markets here.. it feels sort of comfortable to walk to small different places to get what we need… the central grocer, the produce market, the butcher, the pharmacy.. all in different places and within walking distance.

Also, to my content, the produce market women don’t try to cheat us like they do in Quito when we went… the grocer and the pharmacist have tried to sneak a few cents here and there from us, but because I am… lets say frugal, others might say cheap… I have caught it.

Note: pictures coming soon

Feb. 26, 11pm

I am convinced in the genius of Jack Johnson. His music is brilliant, surpasses the predictable poetry of most pop and alternative genres that are released here. On top of this his cords, his guitar skills are really quite “boastable”. Johnson’s uniqueness, to an untrained ear though an appreciative one like mine, is that of a rare band like Sublime. Not every song is a hit or one that strikes me well but the ones that do, put me into a tranquil reverie of thought. So that’s that about what I am thinking right now, while working on the final touches of my report with Accion Ecologica.

So what happened with the strike/road blocks here in the Napo province and the protesting and military lockdown in Tena? Well, as I hypothesized, every thing was more or less settled and back to “normal” by Friday evening, just in time for Carnaval to begin. I’ll touch on Carnaval in a moment. Briefly I want to try to regale the moment the chaos that ensued with the placing of Tena under military control.

The first thing to note, is that chaos… didn’t seem to happen. Well, not any more than already was. Thursday night a few hundred residents took back to the streets an hour before the 8pm curfew was to begin, with burning torches in their hand in a peaceful march expressing their rage against this measure by the Ecuadorian central government. At this rally, which I went along to again be an observer, with the owners of our hostel, among the fumes of burning gas and plastic and rags that triggered what might be described as mass nausea there was not a single police or military or authority. I asked the senora why this was so… that there are hundreds of angry people with torches and no police in sight. She said, “pues es mejor que no estan, te aseguro” (Its better they aren’t here, I assure you). Another shock of disbelief. In the U.S., the police come at least to make sure that if some loser starts to cause trouble, they can protect the crowd. However the sentiment here seems to be one of lack of confidence in the ability of the police to deal with things. I can’t say I blame them.

So after 8pm, when Lan Anh and I were in the hostel safe and sound expecting to see HUM-Vs and military columns marching by at any moment we were rather relieved to see not a single soldier. In fact, kids were still playing on the boardwalk in front of the hostel, teenagers still out cruising, the local “pincho” (shish-kabob) sellers still BBQing away. In summary then, no one respected or cared much about this whole military lockdown because they knew, just like almost every thing else in this country, “it aint gonna happen”. Just like the fact that the government isn’t going to give the province the money they were demanding. Just like how they never turned the lights and electricity off, though it certainly goes off enough by itself (power failures happen just about every 3 days, for a few hours or so).

Maximo, the husband of the Senora of the case (yeah I can’t remember her name), said that the “militarization” was mostly just a threat, a sort of vocal suppression to exert the superiority of the federal government in putting the other ones in their place. It was mostly against protestors in Baeza, a city 2 hours away, that was protesting and had some people trying to sabotage the oil pipeline and processing plant there.
And Maximo Jr., the next day, told me this whole strike business, while not so frequent, is really just another in many, and that most of the people were probably protesting simply as something to do. He gave me an example of when students where protesting having their student cards not usable for bus faire. Tena is so small, most people don’t take many buses around the city, yet students still decided to occupy one of the bridges to block passage in protest. He told me most of this protesting and violence that happens, he feels, is due to some deep frustration, but most of the people just go to protest for the sake of doing it. A little anarchy, rebellion.

People who were on the streets protesting after the central government responded by arresting about 4 mayors of different cantons/cities and the prefecta, and declared the military control, seemed to be protesting this measure, completely loosing site of the strike and original protests. They were calling for their leaders to be released from jail. It seems (perhaps like a lot of places) they are either calling for them to be in jail, or out.

A change of topic…

Friday night Lan At lost quite a bit of sleep, not because of this batty situation going on in town, but because of… well, a bat (har har). About 3am, Lan Anh yelled “turn on the lights” and I rushed out of my bed, flicked on the lights in time to see a bat (in Spanish, “murciélago”, in Kichwa “Tu ta pisch ka”) flying itself into our curtain. It climbed around the other side and came out again and flew above our fleeing heads as we stumbled out the door. We waited. And waited. And became highly annoyed. I was completely not going to enter a room with an Amazonian bat not knowing its species or if it has rabies, etc.. (you’ve heard of vampire bats? Guess where they live? Yep, here.). Well, being in my skimies didn’t make me feel any more confident either. So Lan Anh, being the braver of the two, peeked her head into the room, with a towel draped around it… and there was nothing. I finally came in and we began our search of the room, a little frightened and jumpy, with sheets wrapped around us and flashlights at the ready. Luckily it flew out the window… and we went back to sleep, though with the lights on. Well an hour or so later I turned off the lights and a few seconds later.. yep, we heard some scratching. Back to the lights, and there that huge 1 foot standing with a longer wingspan bat is climbing up from behind the nightstand, the only place we could not check very well. More waiting. But it decided, thankfully, to hop out of the door, right in front of us and flew off, probably more scared than us, in the other direction. What ugly things bats are, but interesting nonetheless.

This experience put me thinking about one a few weeks ago in Quito. I’ll premise it.

Q: What do a completely drunken wasted student and a fruit bat have in common? A: They both kept me from sleeping.

Yeah, long story short a drunk guy passed out on my window (its at ground level) at Marisol’s house in Quito and was spitting and snoring for 4 hours completely unmovable by the security guard.

So now we don’t sleep with the window open.

One super good note. While we are living off of about $20 a week, that is, living like the poor kids we are, we were still able to buy a chicken and Lan Anh made a delicious honey garlic marinade, cleaned and cut the chicken…. Oh the feeling of living in a rural town (only local markets, no super markets for a hundred miles). So at least we are eating pretty well.

Saturday, yesterday, began Carnival. A Latin American set of festivities, celebrated differently in all the countries it is celebrated, but with one general rule: try to get women soaking wet.

I went out dancing yesterday, with some friends of Maximo and his sister. It was.. as it always is. A sociological experiment. I must say, Latinas are attractive, but all of this makeup and superficiality just brings down any level of attraction by several points. Well I had a few beers, danced a bit, chatted… and ultimately got water thrown on me half the time I was in the discoteca (Dance hall). Today, as Lan Anh made our shopping rounds a truck full of maricones hijos de putas (not going to translate) through a bucket of water on us. As we have found out, this carnival… another 3 day break from work after a week long strike… is more proof of the insanely stupid traditions that I feel go on here. Not that there aren’t enough in the U.S. mind you. So they don’t have adequate healthcare or transportation but everyone is running around spraying every one with water guns and throwing concoctions of crap onto people and trying to get girls in bikinis wet. Yeah, I am really going to have to have my patience until Carnival ends on Wednesday.

The Latin American experience for me has been thus far.. well if any thing, an important one, one of having to have much patience. While I admit still, I loose this patience quite a bit, to be here, to see the craziness and the differences, to b learning Spanish has all been well worth it. Things like this carnival make me wonder about the stereotype that many people, many Ecuadorians, have told me that hey are lazy and will do any thing to avoid work. Certainly these holidays and strikes where every thing shuts down (except for the capitalists of course) have done nothing but reinforce this stereotype. Another thing that seems crazy is the violence that has been quite a part of Latin America’s past. We watched a movie a few days ago, a Chilean film, called “Machuca”. I am not going to summarize it, but only say that it was very good though quite sad and the last scenes of the film depicted the first days and weeks of the Pinochet dictatorship and militarization of the country. To imagine the thousands of desaparecidos (missing/kidnapped) from this era but to know it still exists in Colombia, indeed there are Colombian immigrants every where in Ecuador… just makes me feel a sense of dread. A terrible, unavoidable shiver.

I suppose that’s all for now. Just hope we can get through this carnival without being drenched with any thing… or at least any thing more than water, as people told us sometimes they throw blackened oil and pig feed and who knows what else on people, and foreigners are especially high-end targets. Shit.

Feb. 22, 2006

Tena, Ecuador. The scene of a sizable protest today, the citizens taking to the streets against…. well I’m not exactly sure what they were marching about. What is clear, is that as of tonight, there will be complete marshal law, military lock down, of Tena and the other cities of this province.

I’ll try to relate as well as I can, what has been going on.

This last Thursday, on Feb. 16 Lan Anh went to a meeting of the municipality with her office, the Casa de la Mujer. She went their with her supervisor, to meet with other members of Tena’s department of “Human Development”. After she finished this meeting, she went with her supervisor and low and behold, ended up meeting the mayor of Tena, “Ing. Washington Varela”. The meeting they went to, was a provincial meeting, where the “Prefecta de la Provincia de Napo” (The “Governor” of the province/state of Napo) was presiding. Tena is the seat of government power for the Napo province. The meeting apparently was held to address several grievances that people, including many leaders of indigenous communities, were proclaiming. Lack of transportation, inadequate healthcare, those who live deeper within Napo, that is to say in the jungle or further away from Tena, are disassociated and forgotten.

Fast forward through the weekend, and Monday Lan Anh went to her office to be informed that the mayor had planned a city wide protest and that the province of Napo, other communities would also be protesting. What they were protesting against, we were not certain. Meanwhile, the Señora of the hostel informed us, and the 14 gringos who were staying the weekend here in Tena, that there was a “paro”, a strike or road block, of all of the transportation in and out of the Napo province and between cities and communities as well. OK, I thought, it’s Ecuador… this thing seems to happen like fog on the Bay: Often and sudden though always with an air of suspicion first. However what seemed really strange, was that the government was organizing this protest.

So, since Lan Anh decided not to join her companions on the government organized protest, we searched for an indigenous leader whom we were hoping to film for the documentary. Her name is Serafina Cerda, and she was one of the leaders of the local foundation of Indigenous Peoples. I bare the risk of over-generalizing with this following summary. Well, here goes. We came to her lovely house in a rural community about 20 minutes outside of Tena. She is a creator of traditional pottery, ceramics, jewelry and traditional dress. Her husband is a teacher, both of them are active in many projects ostensibly to raise the standards of living for indigenous people in Napo. Their house was quite well furnished, and when we filmed her yesterday, Tuesday… the perception I felt is that she was “performing” for the film… she wore traditional dress, beads, etc…in contrast to every day clothing, insisted on sitting on this leopard stool and holding this arcane pottery with hieroglyphics… she was presenting, one might venture to say, a stereotypical image of how “indigenous people” live. Well, while she had many good points during the interview, for the most part she repeated and rambled a lot. Moreover, at the end of all of this she and her brother essentially, in so many words, asked Lan Anh and I to pay them for the filming… “this is beneficial to you, perhaps you can help us with something beneficial to us.” We left, walking (due to the transportation strike there are no buses or taxis), feeling disappointed. I felt angry, actually. Deceived. As if we are just some gringos here to see more Indians dancing and all that and hey, don’t forget, you have to pay for the show. Again, perhaps I’ve gone to far. She, and especially her husband, were very nice people, and her husband came along the way when we were walking and gave us a ride.

Back to the rest of Monday.

The mayor-sponsored protest, which we caught part of (Tena is so small, there is really only one street suitable for a large body of people to walk), continued to the Napo government building. We watched footage on the T.V. of people storming in past the police, knocking the riot police over actually, and into a meeting hall where the prefect was held up. Outside, the mayor is calling for her (the prefecta) resignation and decrying the national government for not sending the promised money to repair the highways and roads of the province. What I am confused about is if the mayor was organizing the strike and the roadblocks or if this was a more organically planned event by another group.

Onward to Tuesday. We were filming for quite of the day, and kept out of the news. It turns out however, that the protests in the province turned violent, and 2 youth were shot and critically wounded, and another is in the hospital with his leg burned off because he was hit with a Molotov cocktail. Meanwhile, the national military has started to enter the province, including Tena, and we saw a truckload of military personnel riding into town yesterday. As well, baffling as hell to me, the military police have arrested and incarcerated both the Governor/prefecta and the mayor. It appears that the main quarrel was between the mayor, who wanted to have the strike before the festival that is supposed to take place this weekend, and the prefecta who wanted it after. The national military decided to arrest them because they could not find the culprits of the violence, so their logic is… arrest the government. Indeed?

This is the news we learned this morning as we watched the television with the family that manages the hostel. Meanwhile, President Alfredo Palacio has declared the province in a state of emergency (well he did order the governor under arrest, so technically no one is in charge). As well, the military has forbade any public gathering of people, any opening of governmental offices (meaning more “vacation” time for Lan Anh), or marches, etc..

So what do the people decide to do this morning at 10AM? To hold a city wide march against the national government. Moreover, the theme for the protest, or rather the glitter on the garb, are signs proclaiming “Somos Primativos” (We are primitives)… I asked Maximo Jr., the son of the family who is my age, the meaning of these signs. Apparently one of the editorials in the national daily “El Comercio” called the people of Napo “Primitive” so the people, as the Quiteños did last year, reclaimed the word. So this march not only is about provincial sovereignty, or getting funds promised from the national government, in a way it is also a backlash against haughty rhetoric, the feeling of being offended at being called backwards.

Lan Anh and I attended the protest in order to accompany the family, and to take pictures and of course to sniff around for whose curiosity could not be piqued in this type of mysterious turbulence that has sprung up?

The people streamed through the streets, waving Ecuadorian flags, chanting and yelling, wearing signs and waving others. They crossed the bridge and went to the airport, which other had set ablaze with burning tires and laid large stones on the runway, so that the military planes cannot land. Why do they not want the military planes to land? Well, because the President, the generals, have decided that as of tonight there is a curfew where no people can leave their homes or wander the streets on pain of arrest or being fired upon. Moreover, the military has said they are going to cut electricity and communications, which means that perhaps this will be my last message for a few days. We will make sure to respect the curfew, though hopefully nothing more heats up.

My analysis, and it is amateur and without experience surely, is that this will not last long. The military will suppress it, the will let the mayor and the prefecta out of prison by Friday, and the festival, which will bring tourists and business, will open on schedule by Saturday. The province will not get the money it is seeking, but they can always say “they tried” and things will go back to “normal”, if one can call the wheeling and dealing of this place normal. Well, every place has its norms and strikes and road barricades and unrest over promises long forgotten, seem to me at least to be one of those norms.

If I get a chance later, I will upload the photos Lan Anh took of the protest.

That’s all for now.

Michael here.

I am writing from the jungle “city” of Tena, Ecuador: population around 15,000. The first five days here in the fluctuating 85-100 degree Fahrenheit heat have been rough, as I have had some type of harsh cold that has given me a fever every night, except for the last. I can’t breath very deeply and I have a pretty irksome cough and the “sniffles”. The hostel Lan Anh and I are staying at “La Brisa del Rio” (The breee of the river) is all in all nice. The owners are very amiable and even gave me 2 or 3 different natural remedies that helped soothe my throat and bring down the fever. Lan Anh of course put up with my grumbling and complaining and pushed me out of my delirium and delirium laziness. And what may have finally done the trick the night before last and through the day is that I took the Ecuadorian version of “Nyquil” which really knocked me out, dried me up and took the fever down.

Any how, I am sure that this cold thing has 2 different culprits culminating together. Last week, when Lan Anh was in Tena, I worked to complete my report with Accion Ecologica, and two, it was my last week of teaching English classes and Andrew - my obtuse English boss- gave me 2 exams in the same week, no, in 2 days, to give to my classes. Of course these needed to be graded along with doing their final grades so all in all in combination with working on the what has turned out to be 35 page report for Accion, I slept shy of 20 hours for the whole week. I did still manage to cook and eat pretty well, except for one day… but all of this mixed with a 6 hours bus ride that takes you 150km from the cool Andean mountains to the edge of the Amazon rain forrest where it is sweltering… well my immune system was bound to suffer.

I suppose the fact that I haven’t written for over a month and a half, it is enough of an excuse to say that working 10-12 (or more) hours per day was the reason. That said, since my main job here in Tena is to work on the DOCUMENTARY that Lan Anh and I are working on, as well as cook for her and practice my spanish, I should also have a bit more time to write my thoughts every few days.

About the Documentary… well its her project and idea I am just excited and lending what help I can. The focus is on women, specifically the maltreated and abuse of women in Ecuador not only through the family, but its links with the work women must do as well. The focus on abuse will be her placement here in Tena, “La Casa de la Mujer” (The woman’s house), and we have already done some interviewing in Quito, some background shooting, though we will still do a bit more there… and today Lan Anh is doing some filming of the office. We have a lot to do in just 3 weeks here, and then its back to Quito to edit the movie which will be a full time job, because it will probably be a 30-40 minute documentary, and then we also need to create a 5-10 minute short “sponor” film for her office. The cool thing is that she has so far, not just for the documentary but for her other ideas for la casa, such as to create a resource library for women to use, help to get medicine, to setup a pamphlet space that is easily accessible.

Lan Anh has been telling me some of the stories, the happenings at la casa de la mujer, and some and a lot of it, well how women are being treated, while not surprising because it is the unfortunate way that women are treated too often in other places, still is disturbing. Today I read one of the testimony case reports… What a world we live in. I feel blank as if some realities are heavy enough to close ones mind for a time, and stupefied as if there are words I should have but just cannot reach. Though it makes me evermore glad that we are working on this documentary, that Lan Anh is doing very important work.

Yesterday I resumed studying spanish. My goal is to study two hours per day, some days literature, some days grammar, some just vocabulary. While far from fluent, I feel myself getting closer and pretty much can self correct mistakes, or know when I am making a mistake with a preposition in a wrong place here or there. While some of the tenses I still don’t use as often as I should, I know by nature of the fact that I have been dreaming in Spanish, if not fluent at least fluid, almost ever day. My goal here in Tena is to work on 10 new words ever day… or if not entirely new words, uses of particular verbs or words, etc… To help me with this, I have a book of compiled literature pieces that I used in one of my Berkeley Spanish classes (but didnt utilize as much as I should have), as well as a book of “cuetos magicos” (magic short stories) that Marisol (Lan Anh’s former spanish teacher) gave me. We stayed with her, a lovely woman full of giggles and spanish corrections, when we came back from Cuba. I departed from her house to Tena, leaving some of my stuff behind which is thankfully ok with her.

As for pleasure reading… I am half way through Joseph Conrad’s “Nostromo”, supposedly his most famous. I’m also in the middle, intermittently Lan Anh is reading it also, of a book on Liberation Theology. And lastly, which I’ll continue after the Conrad novel, I am re-reading, for inspiration or perhaps just to understand it better, Karl Polanyi’s “The Great Transformation”.

I suppose that is all I have to write for now…