Hello Family and Friends,
I have just returned to the Santo Domingo area from Esmeraldas, a coastal city known for its unique Afro-Ecuadorian population and culture. I and seven other volunteer trainees were able to travel there this weekend because of some very good fortune; i.e., our names were pulled out of a hat. The rest of the volunteers stayed near Santo Domingo to visit another cultural destination, the Tsachilas, a small community of indigenous peoples who lived in this area before the Incas and the Spaniards came.
Our trip was fabulous. It started yesterday morning at 5:30am, when we woke up for the 3hr bus ride, and ended just a couple hours ago, when we arrived back in Santo Domingo. It was fabulous for both the culture and the adventure. After we made contact with a couple volunteers who worked in the city, the other trainees and I dove into what would become a string of fascinating activities.
First was our visit to an inner city Afro-Ecuadorian music and dance trouppe. They were just teenagers but they were really good. In fact some of them had been in the group for five years and they performed in the capital, Quito, semi-regularly. They performed two dances for us that were very African in movement and sound, with a rhythmic pulse and lively step. They were supposed to dance a third but the concrete pavement they were on was so hot that they couldnīt bear it any longer. Afterward we took turns playing on some of their instruments and then ate lunch with the dancers and musicians. Lunch was a traditional dish of fish and soup with the flavor of sweet coconut juice present throughout.
After lunch, we charged off to visit a volunteer site outside the city and directly on the coast. Our 30min trip to the site was a wild rollercoaster ride in the back of a big cattle truck. The steep and formidably tall hills on the coast seemed to plunge themselves into the Pacific Ocean and our driver was determined to weave his way through these obstacles with a reckless abandonment of safety. It was very fun. I even lost my hat somewhere along the ride.
We were amazed when we got to the beach site. Instead of finding a shabby town and dwelling, as one might expect to be the site of a PC volunteer, we found a minor utopia of ocean, culture and sun. Molly, the volunteer there, had a beautiful beach bungalow perched precariously on the side of a 150ft precipice. We had to balance on wooden planks to walk to her front door, which entered onto her deck and looked directly out onto the Pacific. It was amazing to behold that little apartment and its view. Itīs the type of place that you retire to without a care in the world.
We rested there for awhile, enjoying the first cool breeze that any of us had felt since our first three days in Conocoto in the Sierra. Three other volunteers who had sites in the Esmeraldas region were also there. They had come out to welcome the new recruits and even made banana bread for us. After hanging out for awhile, we went down the precipice (very steep, wonderfully dangerous) and swam for about an hour or so. Then we went to some pub on the very small main drag of the cliffside town and drank Pilsners and listened to Bob Marley. We watched the sunset come and go over the ocean. So wonderful it was.
Ok... I just noticed I have to run to catch my bus. Here is the hurried ending of our trip: From there the whole gang made the even more crazy, night-cattle-truck-ride back to the city, during which we took an unexpected 20min detour onto a gravel road through the mountains to avoid some toll or security checkpoint (from what I could tell). We all couldnīt help but think that things were about to take a turn for the worse (we didnīt really know our driver that well) but it all turned out OK. We got to the hotel, got washed and changed and then went out for pizza. We were going to hit a discoteque but we found ourselves too deleriously tired. So instead we went back to our hotel and crashed. This morning was less busy -quite lazy in fact- but still very fun. The only thing on our agenda was assisting in a bimonthly community beach clean-up. There must have been more than 200 people on the beach picking up trash. A great example of a important and practical PC-started activity. So there we were, a bunch of blancos in a sea of Afro-Ecuadorians, picking up litter for an hour or so. Simple, hot and a very interesting experience. After that it was a quick lunch, a walkaround and then the drowsy but satisfied bus trip home. Thatīs it and now I really gotta go.
Hope everyone is well!
Love,
John
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