Time and motion
Wind and sun and rain
Days connect like boxcars in a train
One year ago, I completed my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. To celebrate my one year anniversary, as well as to take care of some official business, I recently returned to my old site for one week.
When I arrived to Quito, I found that the national airline TAME had inadvertently canceled my flight to Southern Ecuador. So the next day, I had to get on a waiting list. Luckily, I was able to secure a flight; otherwise, I would have taken a 15-hour bus ride to the city of Loja.
The trip from Catamayo airport to Loja was harrowing, to say the least. The taxi driver was a total maniac. As we passed vehicles on blind curves at neck breaking speed, I told the driver several times to slow down. He paid no heed, and pressed the pedal to the metal, until all of a sudden………………he slammed on the brakes, tires screeching crazily, as we came within inches of crashing into the rear of one of those trucks labeled “FLAMMABLE”. I dug my fingernails into the dash board, screaming out loud, while the two passengers in the back seat, braced themselves, mouths agape.
After that incident, the driver agreed to take it easy, and stopped trying to pass up cars for the rest of the trip. When he dropped me off at the Loja bus station, I told him to drive more carefully so that his grandkids could continue to enjoy his presence. He just mumbled something as he snatched the $4.00 cab fare out of my hand.
Rumbo to the Amazonian capital Zamora on a bus. Having arrived there at 8 PM, it was already dark. In true Ecuadorian fashion, 10 minutes after arriving to Zamora, all the lights in the city went out; just another typical power outage. Enveloped in complete darkness, I decided to press further into the Amazonian interior, finally arriving to the town of Yantzaza, just 30 minutes away from my site. I stayed at the Hotel Yanku in Yantzaza for $6.00.
The first thing I noticed about Yantzaza is that there were cell phone companies scattered throughout the town of 6000 inhabitants. Cell phone service had finally arrived to the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The next morning I continued my journey to Chicaña, which is where I spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Upon arriving to my destination, I was greeted with two kinds of chicha: chonta chicha and yucca chicha. Chicha is a typical Amazonian drink made from the fruit of the Chonta tree or the manioc root, known as yucca. Both of these chichas would contribute to my subsequent case of diarrhea.
I stayed with a Shuar family, in a house with no electricity, no toilet, and a simple hose for running water. So rather then flip on a light switch at night, we got around with candles and flashlights. Rather than sitting on a nice comfortable toilet, I squatted and pooped into a creek (don’t drink the water!), and when I wanted to bathe, I filled up a plastic tub with water, and poured it over myself. Not the most comfortable, but definitely doable.
On Monday night, I attended the weekly Community Savings Bank meeting that I established as a Volunteer. The Bank was still thriving; so much so that some of the members had split off to form another Bank. In the village of San Vicente de Caney, which is where I also implemented projects, the Community Savings Bank I had established there, had also created another Bank. I was quite pleased that the results of my Peace Corps efforts had doubled in my absence.
I also went to Chicaña’s central plaza to inspect the trees I had planted there two years ago. My teak tree has grown to over 15 feet. And my two leucaenas are thriving at over 12 feet each. Not only had the trees grown, but in the year that I have been gone, the children had also grown! Many of the kids and young adults were hard to recognize because they had grown up so much.
Of course, not all of my projects survived my absence. Two tree nurseries I had built had been neglected into disrepair. And it looked like the clothing manufacturing project I had established with the women’s group had slowed down a bit.
While in Chicaña and San Vicente de Caney for five days, I visited with many of my friends. They were so pleased that the gringo hadn’t forgotten about them. I also shared a large bottle of tequila with them, which they quite enjoyed.
I had another run-in with an Ecuadorian bus driver. One day, on the way back from the dentist (where I got my teeth cleaned at the Guadalupe Mission Clinic for a whopping $4.00), the bus driver was speeding recklessly, swerving back and forth, and breaking too suddenly. Twice, we passengers asked the driver to slow down, but he paid us no heed. So, when the driver dropped me off at my destination in the village, I paid him no fare. He tried to challenge me, screeching that I had to pay my fare, but I defiantly told him that his service was dangerous and poor, and that I would tell his supervisor if he didn’t just move on. That shut him up, and with a grunt he drove off at his usual ridiculously high velocity.
I returned to Quito after having spent five days in Chicaña. I flew from Loja to the Ecuadorian capital in a tiny little turbo-prop airplane run by the new Ecuadorian airline SAEREO. The flight was only 1 hour, as opposed to 15 hours in a bus. Overall, it was a great trip and I look forward to returning again in the future.
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