The more we think we know about
The greater the unknown
We suspend our disbelief
And we are not alone...
One of the biggest conflicts I had with coming down here was the fact that I would be leaving behing friends and family for a long time.
But now that I´ve been down here for a while, throwing myself into projects, I´m realizing that this will probably be the only time in my life that I´ll be able to "forget" about my own concerns, and really give something back to the world while growning professionally and personally. I don´t think I´d be able to learn so much in such a short time if I were working in the states right now. I see this is as a short-term sacrifice for the long-term reward of new skills and abilities. Sure, a lot of it is idealistic, but a big part of it is learning how to be a self-starter, take charge of projects, lead people and be as creative as possible with scarce resources. I am my own boss here. No one tells me what to do. I am responsible for making the day move and motivating people to better their lives here. And it gets really frustrating at times.
For example, today I traveled three hours for an appointment with the manager of the municipal tree nursery. I called her last Friday to arrange the meeting and told her I would be traveling from far away to meet with her. We agreed to meet at the nursery at 8AM. The only way I could make it by that time was waking up at 5AM this morning. To make matters more challenging, last week we had massive rain storms for 5 days straight. The road leading out of my village was completely washed out, and now there is a river in its place. None of the buses can cross the river to make it to my village. So in order to take a bus out of the village, everybody has to walk 30 minutes, and then cross the new river (thus getting wet and muddy) to meet the buses on the other side of the river. Anyway, when I got to the nursery, the manager hadn´t arrived yet. I waited 90 minutes for her, and then gave up and left.
Another example of how frustrating things can get here: Currently I am leading a feasibility study for a local organization that wants to open up a small market in the village. We have been meeting 4 nights a week for the last two weeks to work on the study, but without fail, everybody always arrives about 30 minutes late. So I have to sit there and wait for everyone. I´m learning to be more patient with such an experience.
For the last week, everybody here has been celebrating some Catholic holiday called Corpus Christi. I went to one of the celebrations in a nearby Saraguro indian village one night. One of the activities consisted of a bunch of indian men dressed up as cows, with flames shooting out of the heads. They were all drunk and dancing around wildly while the crowd cheered them on. A "cowboy" corraled the cows down the street. Later that evening, there was a little show, which consisted of a bunch of indians dressed up in typical outfits whereupon they put on a series of dances. Half way through the dances, the electricity in the village went out (the electricity goes out about three days a week, and the water supply dries up about 4 times a week), thus prematurely ending the festivities. An hour later a woman was bitten by a snake and had to be rushed to a hospital 45 minutes away. That´s life in the jungle.
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