"Some need to pray to the sun at high noon.
Need to howl at the mid-winter moon.
Reborn and babtized in a moment of grace.
Just need a break from the head-long pace."
February is an important month for Ecuador. February is the month when the entire population celebrates Carnival. Carnival is an annual Catholic celebration that takes place all over South America, and is especially famous in Brazil.
This month, my village not only celebrates Carnival, but has also just finished three days of celebrations to commemorate its 23rd anniversary as a "township" (parroquia).
The festivities included the crowning of the 2004 Village Mestiza Queen, the Indigenous Shuar Queen, and the Indigenous Quichua Queen. The contest consisted of a swimsuit comptetition, traditional clothing competition, formal wear competition and interviews.
Other activities in the village celebrations included two huge village dances that were attended by people from other villages as well, a day-long agricultural and animal expo, sports competitions, a nocturnal parade, and a village procession & ceremony.
The ag/animal expo included competitions for the biggest papaya, most milk milked from a cow, heaviest fish, biggest cock (rooster, that is), most bananas on a banana vine, and more.
The prize money was pretty good, including up to $70 for 1st prize winners.
I recorded the events on tape and played them on my weekly radio show "La Hora Verde".
In other news, I recently gave a day-long Environmental Economics seminar at a university in the city of Loja. I presented the seminar in front of about 50 Environmental Studies college students. It was great fun, although I spent weeks preparing for the seminar beforehand.
In order to entertain myself on Monday nights, as well as provide an additional service to the commmunity, I have recently launched English classes. I have about 25 students of all ages. Even though I taught English for 18 months in Spain during the 20th century, I am not a fan of teaching English. But many people have asked me for my English services, so I´m offering classes once a week for an hour.
Finally, I wrote two environmental public service announcements, related to the importance of conserving the rainforest. Both announcements have hit the radio air waves and are regularly being played throughout the Ecuador's southeastern Amazon.
The rainy season is upon us once again. For many weeks, the weather was mostly hot and sunny, but now the clouds have returned, and the ground is wet again. This means three things:
1) The water supply will become very erratic, since every time it rains, the water tanks get blocked up and the water supply gets cut off.
2)All the villagers, including myself, will be muddy almost all the time.
3)Back to wearing rubber boots.
Have a hilarious day.
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