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