Monday the 27 was when I last updated. I left the internet cafe and went to the map office, knowing they weren't gonna give me anything, just to check up and make sure the situation was as i understood it to be. i had been told that at this point do to my repeated assaults on the office and Carlos in Quito's talking to the director of the project that made the maps to begin with, we were gonna get all the maps we need. we just needed the current pres of the parrochia and the newly elected one to sign something saying that they wouldn't give the maps away to anybody else, strictly for the use of the parrochia (and since the parrochia is a counterpart in the project, us too). the presidents were unavailable at the time, so i just went to the office to better understand how it was all gonna go down. i get there and i go to the pendejo and i ask him, why did you give me the overviews and tell me they were detailed? why didn't you give me the detailed maps? I didn't give them to you, he says, because now you have to pay for them, the mayor has given us new instructions. what? putting aside the fact that the mayor had not given these new instructions at the time of the pendejo civilly disobeying my requests, the mayor shouldn't have changed his mind, he already signed a form saying to give us the maps for free. well, i spoke with the pendejo's boss, and it is true. apparently these maps are just too great to actually be put to use. they spent a lot of money making them, so now its very important that they keep them hidden from anybody who wants to do anything. they wanna charge a dollar a hectare, this would come out to well over 2 grand. so now we gotta wait for the new mayor to take his seat and ask him to help us out.
tuesday the 28th i thought about waking up early and going to the other side of the mountain for grafting class, but laziness got the best of me. i went down to the project office in the afternoon only to find my laziness overshadowed by that of the much better paid engineers who work there. Victor, my friend, the director of the project was playing rummy with his assistant engineer David who is also a nice guy i just don't know him as well, and the jelly prez. its lunch break, they tell me, 2pm. well, the government offices close 12 to 2:30, so i guess its ok. anyway, theres not a damn thing i can do about it. so i go to a nearby community to talk to the prez of the women's community bank about getting a grant or a loan to buy the trout ponds. she gives me some coffee and tortillas, and i get back to the project office about 2 hours later. and they're still playing rummy. the jelly prez is winning all their money. thats a lot of lunch, i say. to their credit, there is a power outage, so they can't do computer work. but that doesn't mean they couldn't be doing something a little more constructive to earn their salaries (2 to 3 times what i make). anyway, after 5, i figure office hours are over so i show the jelly prez how to play texas hold'em and i win 50 cents. they gave a lecture that night to a couple of farmers (they could have been publicizing it during the day and maybe more people would have come). i gave a part on agroforestry and wrote down some people who want to plant aliso. i feel like their presentation was overly technical and the people didn't get much out of it. they talked about ion exchange capacity, among other things. i left early to catch the last truck up to my community.
wednesday july 29th: pretty much the same story. except this time they were drinking too.
thursday july 30th: went to town. blew most of the day on facebook.
friday july 31st: taught my classes. the young adults have stopped coming. this, even when i ask them if they want class, and they say yes, so i open up the school, and they just keep playing soccer for an hour, so i leave. its really not as frustrating as it sounds, i spent the time watching music videos that the teacher put on the computer and printing lsat study materials.
saturday august 1st: at site they were celebrating the entrance of the newly elected people, but i came to ibarra to celebrate the leaving of my peacecorps friend here. should not have drunk so much.
sunday august 2nd: paying the price of drinking so much.
so that is the week in which i didn't really do much. hopefully there won't be more of the same. tomorrow i'm gonna go to an office here in ibarra to see about getting some trees to plant. also, a development bank to see about getting a loan for the trout ponds. anyway, since i didn't really do much this week, i've posted below one of my fellow volunteer's stories.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Why I don't think I'm gonna quit:
My friend sent out this story in an e-mail to our omnibus (training class). Its pretty wild, so I figured I'd post it. he's from Brooklyn, so read it with an accent. .
thursday, july 23rd, 700 am -- i woke up and saw, to my utter amazement, that the overnight high tide had taken an entire house off its stilts and dropped it IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BEACH, about 50 meters north of its original location. everyone in the community, of course, got a huge kick out of this: laughing, children playing on the now-vacant house, etc. however, they quickly realized that this is a bad omen, because in about 6 hours the tide would start coming back up again, possibly to destroy more houses. therefore, many people started evacuating their things from their houses and putting them on the road parallel to the beach. i realized that we had a potential "katrina-like" situation on our hands (imminent doom, etc.). i snapped some fotos and went to the municipio, where i had a meeting that afternoon.
thursday, july 23rd, 200 pm -- i show the fotos of the displaced house to the mayor and various people in the municipio. he makes the point that, all of the houses in this area of risk in Don Juan are illegal and were never supposed to have been built. he has a point, and even my house on thea beach is illegal, but still... to my shock, noone seems to concerned or ready to be proactive. unfortunately, i had more meetings to attend at my foundation´s office that afternoon/evening, so i did not return to my community for round 2 of the potential destruction (late afternoon tide). i tried to brace myself for the scene that i knew awaited me that evening...
friday, july 24th, 1230 am -- i finally return to my community after a long day of meetings. my community is eerily dark and quiet. i walk the beach with my flashlight, and the destruction of the late afternoon tide was horrible. my flashlight revealed that about 5 or 6 more houses had been destroyed (completely gone, not dropped on the beach), others had been mashed up pretty badly with wood and sh*t everywhere, and a few had that cross-section look, where an entire side had been carved away revealing the interior, like a doll house. all the people in the affected area where sleeping in the street, with all their stuff in piles around them. indeed it was, essentially, a refugee scene. the tide was starting to come back up, so i set my cell phone alarm for 300am that morning so i could be prepared for the next high tide.
friday, july 24th, 300 am -- i wake up and the waves are just smashing the hell out of my community, including my front porch. i watched for hours and saw light posts fall on top of boats, while houses, walls and fences disappeared entirely. the waves started overtaking my front porch quite a bit, and i had to jump back to avoid beeing doused. one of the stilts that holds up my front porch was beginning to buckle; i began running an escape plan through my mind. i already had a couple of bags packed to flee, just in case. really crazy stuff. the type of natural phenomenon that you cant take your eyes off. i finally decide to tap a nap at 600 am for an hour, knowing that a clean-up / relief effort would be necessary in the morning.
friday, july 24th, 800 am -- i wake up again and walk the community. we almost lost the front porch, but thankfully it is still standing. we reinforce it with a few more stilts. i walk to the south... approximately 15 houses are now completely gone, destroyed by the worst high tide of this multi-day disaster. it looks like bombs struck the individual lots where there were once houses. piles of rubble everywhere and people wandering around in stunned, post-disaster daze. i survey the damage along the beachfront and it is heartbreaking. after about an hour of silence and trying to think, i simply get busy. gotta get busy to take my mind off things. i got to each little zone of rubble and ask the people if they need help. i immediately suggest that we need to clear out all of the largest, heaviest posts from the destroyed houses because when the tide returns, those things would slam against the surviving houses and rip them apart. i convince dozens of people to STOP BURNING THE TRASH! holy sh*t, why do they just start burning everything? i say to everyone in large groups, "hey, we have to work out here all day long cleaning up and helping people. do you really want to work over fires and smoke all day, breathing in this sh*t? i dont! so lets cut it out! besides, you are just burning light little pieces of palm and bamboo. those wont do anything! they will float harmlessly in the ocean. lets get these huge posts out of here before they mash up everything again!" they listen (mostly), and the fires stop. after a few hours, some people start making lists of the families who dont have houses. this way, when the relief resources come, we will know who needs what.
friday, july 24th, 400 pm -- emergency meeting at the municipio. apparently the mayor is now willing to listen. great. before i leave, i tell dozens of people in the community to get their things ready to evacuate. trucks will be coming, so pack up your stuff and be ready to move when we get back. some blank stares and nods, and then i am off. we show fotos, discuss potential plans for this evening (tide coming back up to high in about another 2 hours!), etc. we suggest moving the people to higher, safer ground (school, church, empty lots, etc.). friday, july 24th, 700 pm -- we return to the community to see that NOONE HAS MOVED AN INCH! in the usa, when a disaster strikes, what do we do? we evacuate, right? not here. people keep saying that they would rather live in the street than evacuate to the school or church. why? because the school/church/empty lots are in don juan CENTRAL, and the people of BELLA VISTA don juan dont like the people of don juan central, so they refuse to go there, even in a crisis. unbelievable. all this while the tide is coming again. the press has arrived. i am pretty sure i was on the news. then the resources start coming in thanks to the municipio: mattresses, water bottles, pillows, sheets, towels, food rations, etc. the pista, the location where we would distribute the resources, is a f*ckin zoo of people who refuse to cooperate. i ask the police to help get some people out of there, the people who were not affected, so we can work. not happening. good job cops. there are kids playing indoor while we are trying to dish out rations. people are coming up to me asking for free sh*t when they live outside of the affectd zone. eventually, the system of handing out rations becomes corrupted, and people who LOST NOTHING SO FAR ARE RUNNING AWAY WITH MATTRESSES, WATER, SHEETS, you name it. that group of bandits includes my host family. when i see the mess that has become of this aid attempt, i kicked over a couple of plastic chairs, threw a few more out of the way, and yelled out something like "there is corruption here! people are taking things when they still have everything!" i storm out of there, refusing to calm down. this goes on well into the night.
well, perhaps i will write round 2 later, because now i have to go to yet another meeting with the mayor. there is so much more to tell. some final last thoughts to close out round 1 --
*people in don juan are beginning to invade private property to solve their housing problem
*i have had women yelling in my face about everything, when they still have a home and suffered nothing*miduvi is here and in the early stages of building new homes
*lets just say that my CAT tools community map will change DRAMATICALLY
*all of my projects post-CAT tools have been shelved, as you can imagine
*i didnt tell peace corps anything until 2 days ago, because i didnt want to get yanked from my site
alright, so bottom line - if any of yous quit after hearing what i have been through, i will shove my size 44 Venus sneakers so far up your culo that you will floss your teeth with the shoe laces, you got me?! yeah. seriously though, i am fine. its been tough, but we will make it. much like joyce, i just dont want to hear anymore omnibus 101 quitting stories, because if i can make it through this, we can all make it through everything. diga?
thursday, july 23rd, 700 am -- i woke up and saw, to my utter amazement, that the overnight high tide had taken an entire house off its stilts and dropped it IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BEACH, about 50 meters north of its original location. everyone in the community, of course, got a huge kick out of this: laughing, children playing on the now-vacant house, etc. however, they quickly realized that this is a bad omen, because in about 6 hours the tide would start coming back up again, possibly to destroy more houses. therefore, many people started evacuating their things from their houses and putting them on the road parallel to the beach. i realized that we had a potential "katrina-like" situation on our hands (imminent doom, etc.). i snapped some fotos and went to the municipio, where i had a meeting that afternoon.
thursday, july 23rd, 200 pm -- i show the fotos of the displaced house to the mayor and various people in the municipio. he makes the point that, all of the houses in this area of risk in Don Juan are illegal and were never supposed to have been built. he has a point, and even my house on thea beach is illegal, but still... to my shock, noone seems to concerned or ready to be proactive. unfortunately, i had more meetings to attend at my foundation´s office that afternoon/evening, so i did not return to my community for round 2 of the potential destruction (late afternoon tide). i tried to brace myself for the scene that i knew awaited me that evening...
friday, july 24th, 1230 am -- i finally return to my community after a long day of meetings. my community is eerily dark and quiet. i walk the beach with my flashlight, and the destruction of the late afternoon tide was horrible. my flashlight revealed that about 5 or 6 more houses had been destroyed (completely gone, not dropped on the beach), others had been mashed up pretty badly with wood and sh*t everywhere, and a few had that cross-section look, where an entire side had been carved away revealing the interior, like a doll house. all the people in the affected area where sleeping in the street, with all their stuff in piles around them. indeed it was, essentially, a refugee scene. the tide was starting to come back up, so i set my cell phone alarm for 300am that morning so i could be prepared for the next high tide.
friday, july 24th, 300 am -- i wake up and the waves are just smashing the hell out of my community, including my front porch. i watched for hours and saw light posts fall on top of boats, while houses, walls and fences disappeared entirely. the waves started overtaking my front porch quite a bit, and i had to jump back to avoid beeing doused. one of the stilts that holds up my front porch was beginning to buckle; i began running an escape plan through my mind. i already had a couple of bags packed to flee, just in case. really crazy stuff. the type of natural phenomenon that you cant take your eyes off. i finally decide to tap a nap at 600 am for an hour, knowing that a clean-up / relief effort would be necessary in the morning.
friday, july 24th, 800 am -- i wake up again and walk the community. we almost lost the front porch, but thankfully it is still standing. we reinforce it with a few more stilts. i walk to the south... approximately 15 houses are now completely gone, destroyed by the worst high tide of this multi-day disaster. it looks like bombs struck the individual lots where there were once houses. piles of rubble everywhere and people wandering around in stunned, post-disaster daze. i survey the damage along the beachfront and it is heartbreaking. after about an hour of silence and trying to think, i simply get busy. gotta get busy to take my mind off things. i got to each little zone of rubble and ask the people if they need help. i immediately suggest that we need to clear out all of the largest, heaviest posts from the destroyed houses because when the tide returns, those things would slam against the surviving houses and rip them apart. i convince dozens of people to STOP BURNING THE TRASH! holy sh*t, why do they just start burning everything? i say to everyone in large groups, "hey, we have to work out here all day long cleaning up and helping people. do you really want to work over fires and smoke all day, breathing in this sh*t? i dont! so lets cut it out! besides, you are just burning light little pieces of palm and bamboo. those wont do anything! they will float harmlessly in the ocean. lets get these huge posts out of here before they mash up everything again!" they listen (mostly), and the fires stop. after a few hours, some people start making lists of the families who dont have houses. this way, when the relief resources come, we will know who needs what.
friday, july 24th, 400 pm -- emergency meeting at the municipio. apparently the mayor is now willing to listen. great. before i leave, i tell dozens of people in the community to get their things ready to evacuate. trucks will be coming, so pack up your stuff and be ready to move when we get back. some blank stares and nods, and then i am off. we show fotos, discuss potential plans for this evening (tide coming back up to high in about another 2 hours!), etc. we suggest moving the people to higher, safer ground (school, church, empty lots, etc.). friday, july 24th, 700 pm -- we return to the community to see that NOONE HAS MOVED AN INCH! in the usa, when a disaster strikes, what do we do? we evacuate, right? not here. people keep saying that they would rather live in the street than evacuate to the school or church. why? because the school/church/empty lots are in don juan CENTRAL, and the people of BELLA VISTA don juan dont like the people of don juan central, so they refuse to go there, even in a crisis. unbelievable. all this while the tide is coming again. the press has arrived. i am pretty sure i was on the news. then the resources start coming in thanks to the municipio: mattresses, water bottles, pillows, sheets, towels, food rations, etc. the pista, the location where we would distribute the resources, is a f*ckin zoo of people who refuse to cooperate. i ask the police to help get some people out of there, the people who were not affected, so we can work. not happening. good job cops. there are kids playing indoor while we are trying to dish out rations. people are coming up to me asking for free sh*t when they live outside of the affectd zone. eventually, the system of handing out rations becomes corrupted, and people who LOST NOTHING SO FAR ARE RUNNING AWAY WITH MATTRESSES, WATER, SHEETS, you name it. that group of bandits includes my host family. when i see the mess that has become of this aid attempt, i kicked over a couple of plastic chairs, threw a few more out of the way, and yelled out something like "there is corruption here! people are taking things when they still have everything!" i storm out of there, refusing to calm down. this goes on well into the night.
well, perhaps i will write round 2 later, because now i have to go to yet another meeting with the mayor. there is so much more to tell. some final last thoughts to close out round 1 --
*people in don juan are beginning to invade private property to solve their housing problem
*i have had women yelling in my face about everything, when they still have a home and suffered nothing*miduvi is here and in the early stages of building new homes
*lets just say that my CAT tools community map will change DRAMATICALLY
*all of my projects post-CAT tools have been shelved, as you can imagine
*i didnt tell peace corps anything until 2 days ago, because i didnt want to get yanked from my site
alright, so bottom line - if any of yous quit after hearing what i have been through, i will shove my size 44 Venus sneakers so far up your culo that you will floss your teeth with the shoe laces, you got me?! yeah. seriously though, i am fine. its been tough, but we will make it. much like joyce, i just dont want to hear anymore omnibus 101 quitting stories, because if i can make it through this, we can all make it through everything. diga?
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