Ok, so i´m in Ibarra, the capital of the province of Imbabura. It is two hours from my site, which I thought was a lot until I heard how long it took other volunteers to get here for the 4th. I didn´t bring my notes. I took notes of what I did everyday for the last couple of weeks. Not having notes for the days before that doesn´t worry me because all the pc literature says most people don´t do anything particularly successful in the first month and a half at site other than try and integrate with the community. I´ll try and remember what it was I did the last 2.5 weeks without notes, then I´ll try and answer Stu´s Q´s regarding land management, then I'll see if I still feel like typing. . .

Sunday June 14th was the county election. Some evangelical from a town on the other side of the mountain won. But they have a sort of multi-party system, so there are 4 others in the cabinet. they all gave speeches, technically that took place next sunday, but i'm gonna type about it here. starting with the bottom cabinet member. he is the president of the jelly making community business that hasn´t functioned for something like a year. they´ve been working for five years, they´ve been paying dues, and they haven´t recieved a penny. not in dividends, not in wages. they´ve had equipment donated to them they have a place to work they are now even legally recognized, but they aren´t working. something about the water, or the certificate of health, or the bathroom, but these things hadn´t stopped them from working before. whatsmore, after all these years, they have a grand total of 93$ in the bank. the president and his wife go to the market to sell the goods and come back empty handed. some say they should check their pockets. . . but face to face he is a nice guy, and he gives decent speeches.

the next up cabinet member was the old prez of my community (not the 23 year old) and is now the sitting prez of the county until the new cabinet takes over in august. he´s cool. some people say he doens´t do much. he had to escort the community´s beauty queen for a week, so he gets made fun of for that. she´s pretty, pretty underage.

the next cabinet member up the totem pole is the rich guy who owns the greenhouses next to the highschool whose worker may or may not have dumped a load of rubble on the intake pipe to the highschool's trout pools, thus putting them out of service for something like 1 year and running. but they weren´t working before that either, so whatev. anyway, this guy is apparently a self made man. he was the first in the area to start growing the tree tomatoes that nearly everyone now relies upon. when he grew them there were no pests or blights to speak of, so he made a killing. now that everyone is in on it they have to throw down thousands of dollars a year on chemicals, and they don´t start producing for a year and a half, and the often don´t produce for more than 2 or 3 years, probably due to the cultivation practices. so now this guy grows tomatoes. and he is thinking about getting in on the jelly making operation by growing a fruit called chihualcan, which currently requires no chemicals. . .

the top cabinet member below the prez owns a truck and lives right next to the parroquial building. he is known as a blowhard. he claimed that if he didn´t win prez he would withdraw, but he is clearly not doing that. he stepped up to his speech late, walking slowly. he started talking about how great it would have been if he had won, and thanking the people for their 'infinite support.' and he ended with a few catch phrases from the president of ecuador, rafael correa. the crowd didn´t go wild.

the new evangelical prez seems like a really nice guy. he talked about working together and taking the cabinet to every community to talk about their needs instead of making community members coming to the cabinet. he also told people not to drink too much.

Monday June 15th i did my usual teaching gig. in two communities. turns out the teacher at one of them wrote a thesis on building a native and medicinal plant nursery for the county. this happens to be approximately what the project i am working with is doing. so i got a copy of her thesis and gave it to the project members.

Tuesday June 16th woke up early to help my host brothers try to fix some electrical problems at the one room school house next to our place. mission accomplished. then we went down to a project meeting with all the contributing partners in from quito. Carlos R, the guy who filled out the paperwork to get me there, Hugo C, the host brother, Sandro and Anita, Italians (Sandro is the boss), Victor the director of the project, and the Prez of the jelly operation. the director of the highschool couldn´t make it. I sat quietly until the end. Sandro called me out, and i made my comment, that the project should hire Carlos as the environmental consultant for which budget money is earmarked. Obviously, since carlos also filled out the paper work for the project, he will not only be the most informed on its purposes and procedures, but he will also have a personal interest in its success. carlos said he didn´t want to do it, and i looked dumb. also i made a grammar mistake and Anita laughed. damn italians. not really, anita is now working with us more and she´s cool. after the meeting we went to another community (Victor, Jelly Prez, myself, and a clown from the travelling circus) to eat some food they had prepared (we were invited). so this other community has two computers, and since the school will be closed, no one will be using them this summer, and the teacher there offered that we take them to one of the communities i teach at so we could use them for the summer. since all the PTA was at the party (it was the graduation celebration for a cooking class that the teacher had organized for interested community members) they voted on it. first proposal, voiced by the teacher was for the two computers to be taken to the community in between my community and theirs, so that we could unite our computers and have bigger computer classes with all the kids invited, and the communities band together to insure repairs if any computer is broken. voted down. second proposal, voiced by me was for one computer to be taken to my community, which is too far for them to want to walk to (which is why i am not walking to them every week). we will pay for repairs if there is an accident. voted yes. so they don´t want to send their computers to where their kids can use them, but they are fine sending one farther up to mountain to where only my community will use it. fine by me.

i walked home, and it was late.

Wednesday June 17th. hm. kinda forgot. . . no, i rembmer, i went back to the comunity with the computers to talk with the teacher about a project she was working on to get the students to grow fruit trees. gave a few tips on gardening (first time, most of the farmers have way more experience), and helped the teacher and her students prepare a garden of their own. got a ride back with some cattle dealers from the next county over. knew one of them cause my host family sold him a cow to help pay off their truck. they took me to San M. a town by the river near the parroquia. They bought a couple beers and we shot the shit for a bit until two women approached me. asked if i was the one who gave english and computer classes, and if i would do them the favor of giving some classes in their community. so far, every single community i´ve been to has asked me this. i am a 40 minute walk from the closest community (ok, well i can get to the parrrochia in 20 minutes running down the mountain, but it is a hard hike back up), and that teaching crap is not my primary assignment, and i really don´t like doing it, and i definitely don´t feel like scheduling yet another hour each way hike every week, so no, i won´t teach classes to your kids, and honestly, your kids are probably grateful for that.

but these were no two ordinary women, these were the president and the treasurer of the San M women´s community bank, the most successful community bank in the area, the community bank that had won prizes for being well organized, that had grown their meagure start up capital to a total of $60k, in a region in which the average yearly income is well under $2k. they weren´t taking no for an answer, so i said fine, i´ll make a page with all the basics and i´ll print a bunch of copies and you can give them out to the kids. towards the end of summer vacation, i´ll come every day for a week, but if those kids don´t know the stuff on the review pages by heart, they ain´t steppin foot in the classroom, and i ain´t coming back.

ok. on a more business note, they used most of their capital to buy land here in Ibarra, the prez thinks it is a good idea to start a satellite community bank here. really? i think in that case it would no longer be a community bank. and when you consider the travelling costs and such, it really doens´t seem like a good idea. she goes on to say that her group is so well organized, if she said 'lets all jump off that cliff!' they´d do it. no questions asked. uhm. ma'am, there is a word for that, and it is 'groupthink', and i'm not sure if i can translate that into spanish, but it is not a good thing.

so now that they´ve squandered all their hard earned capital on what i consider to be not such a good idea, they are looking for ways to raise money. the prez thinks she can get a loan and grow some tree tomatoes, but i´ve been crunching the numbers on that, and i´m not so sure. her other idea was to talk with the owners of some dry trout pools in their community to see if they could get them up and running again. she was shot down, and i´m not surprised. i asked around about this lady (gossip is a hallmark of peaceful communities, not to say that my communities are particularly peaceful, but to say that i´ve got nothing against putting my ear to the grape vine. . . and shaking) (www.peacefulsocieties.org) she asked the municipality for help getting a computer for her bank. he bank, ofcourse, would be willing to put up a part of the total. a small part. $50. so it seems that she drives a hard bargain, and so i am not surprised that she was shot down about the pools. I came to ibarra today in part to talk to the owners of the pools (happens to be the Catholic Diocese) and there is a slight possibility that we can work something out. got another meeting on friday.

thursday june 18th thursday thursday thursday. .. oh yea, i was supposed to help one of the community buds hoe some potatoes. you gotta hoe up the weeds, and throw the dirt on top of the potatoe plants. hard work. i was invited mostly for shits and giggles. on my part i think it is a good practice to give a bit of free labor in return for an interview. (did i mention i have to do 50 interviews by september. to date i have 17) fortunately, none of the other peons (their terminology) showed up, so instead we prepared for the guy´s parent's golden anniversary celebration by slaughtering 2 pigs and painting a wall. you gotta hold the pigs down while stabbing a knife into their heart. then you bring a hose and a blow torch and you singe the hair without burning the skin. then you shave them, with knives, then straight edge razors. then you cut em open without spilling the guts on the meat. then you let them hang for a bit while we eat dinner. then you lay em out and hit em with an axe for a while and rub garlic and herbs all over. then you shove em in the oven over night and your ready to go.

friday june 19th teaching gig every monday and friday. i got picked up from the second community by the family and friends, all piled in the pickup truck, and we went straight to the graduation party on the other side of the mountain. danced some. drank some. ate a lot. they open up the party serving way more food than anyone can handle. actually, i think one dude may have eaten everything. first theres the soup with a fourth of a chicken in it, then the plate of rice and guinea pig and chicken and pork, and ofcourse the chicha. i like the chicha. anyway, they hung up to go bags for everyone. so on the dance floor, there´s this one girl giving me the eye. she´s pretty cute. they put on this Moscow Moscow song from the Soviet era. remixed. the kids go wild. and this girl is bouncing up and down with no bra on. but she looks like she might be a bit young, so i do my due diligence and ask the guy she was dancing with. 13. no, i mean that girl you were dancing with earlier. i only danced with one girl, he says, she´s 13. oh, no, i got the wrong guy, sorry, i was confused. so i point her out. 13. 13. whoa. thats why i do my due diligence.

saturday june 20th todays the golden anniversary party. i skip mass. take a practice LSAT instead. do well. go to the party. i have to bend over to fit in the dance floor. people laugh. i am self conscious. but the host if very welcoming, shows me a seat. his sister arranges a dance partner for me just outside. then the pretty girl comes. no, not the 13 year old, you creep ball. another chick from San M. she gave me the eye at a party several weeks ago, but before i could come up with a witty, or atleast coherent line, she was dancing with some older dude. and before i could step in on the dance floor, she goes home in his truck. damn. makes sense, though, there aren´t many my age without kids, so ofcourse they are taken. no, actually, my host at this party informs me that the aforementioned older guy was her dad, and this girl is like 19 or 20, so i should ask her to dance. so i do. we even find a spot in the corner where a fortunate architectural irregularity allows me to stand more or less straight. and she likes to practice her english. she is actually pretty good. so we dance and we talk and she tells me about her older brother who is 18. geawdamit.

there is something called the Protect Act, a very decent and needed piece of legislation which allows expats to be charged with statutory rape for sex acts performed overseas. technically, even going on a date with a 17 year old here could get me thrown in prison back in the states. and dates are legally defined, but i haven´t read over it that deeply, just let me make clear that

sunday june 21st was not a date. i went with the local guys to San M for the soccer game. spoke with the prez lady of the bank, and a welder about fixing the door to the school of my community. (did i mention this: the PTA raised a good deal of money this year, like $500, and they don´t want to save it for when their kids are no longer at the school, so they have a meeting. they spend hours counting up the money and tabulating the expenses and the profits from their various activities. this could be done in about 10 minutes with an Excel spreadsheet. anyway, the figure they have $500 bucks to blow, and so they start voting on where they want to go for vacation. they don´t vote on whether to go on vacation or not, they vote on where to go. so we are going to the beach. i am invited because i helped at the fundraiser dance. and the door to the school is broken. its been broken all year, not to mention the electricity problems. i mention this at the meeting. we all have a good laugh. and we are going to the beach.) so anyway, i am trying to coordinate with this welder dude. he still hasn´t come. but i´m trying.

monday june 22nd i must have taught. don´t quite remember much. probably generally uneventful. may have worked in the garden or something.

tuesday june 23rd i had made arrangements with a guy from down in the parroquia to go to a grafting class on the other side of the valley. every tuesday for the next 2 months an ag engineer is gonna come teach useful skills, so i might as well take advantage. 6:45 am, he tells me. the class starts at 9, but it takes a while to get there and he doesn´t like being late. now this is ecuador. and anywhere in latin america is known for tardiness. so when i am held up by a late breakfast, i figure it´ll be fine, i run down the mountain in 20min, my fastest time to date, and i am there by 6:50. dude is gone. no problem, one of the guys on the bench by the road tells me. a truck is coming soon, he went walking, we will catch up. hang out and chit chat. so i do. with him and several other important members of the community, and i´m pretty sure i got some good info, but i´m not sure i remember exactly what it was. anyway the truck comes. a big covered one and we hop in the back, the gate is locked, and it is on its way. but it is going to wrong way. so i pound on the wall and he lets me out and i curse and they laugh and i start walking. i get to the Y in the road where the pick ups are supposed to pass going up to the community where the class is supposed to take place. i know this is the right Y, because it is the first Y i pass and everyone has told me that the first Y i pass is the right Y. it is now 8:30, i had walked for about an hour to get to the Y from when i hopped off the truck, and i was tired so i took a nap. i was later told that i scared the bjeezies out of some lady who was walking by. but no pick ups passed. until 9:30 when one came by but it wasn´t going up it was going back to the parrochia, but it had the italian Anita in it, so i joined her. it later turned out that i was not in fact at the correct Y. perhaps you infered this from the stress i put on my knowing that it was the correct Y. anyway, so Anita is gonna be working with the jelly operation now, which is good, because as i have aluded, it is a sketchy operation. she is looking for victor, but he isn´t in the office, but i´m sure he is in town because their was no lock on his door this morning which means he must have been sleeping inside.

anyway, we find him driving back from the highschool. we hop in. pick up a measuring tape, and head to the water intake for the nursery we are constructing for the Project. the welder dude is helping construct it. we moved a big rock. apparently they don´t grunt or groan when putting in a lot of effort to move stuff. i do. know that i think about it, i´m not sure why. just seemed like the right noise to make. anyway, i´m pretty sure the welder dude said i sounded like a hog. having recently helped slaughter two hogs, i can say that infact they do make grunting noises. no one ever said such a thing back in the states. i'm pretty sure most people i've worked with grunt when they move heavy stuff. anyway, i think i´m gonna see if i can stop grunting and just exhale. should be easy. but then again so should whistling and i've yet to accomplish that.

so then we ate lunch, served by the lovely, and yet probably underage beauty pageant queen of the county, the daughter of the shifty welder dude who says he will buy then won´t come fix the school door. then we measured the way from the intake to the nursery. 3400 feet. then we lunched on pork rinds and cola (there is no restaurant in the county) then we went to the jelly operation meeting.

i could say a lot about it, but i won´t. i´ll say that i didn´t say anything till the end, when i asked the simple question of when they planned on getting back to work. several members had expressed eagerness to get the production going again, even before the Project donates more improved equipment. they even seem willing to pay dues to buy the materials. so i got the prez to agree to bring a budget for said materials to the next meeting. walking back up the mountain with one of the members, i was filled in on some of the sketchiness of this operation. well, if you are unhappy with the leadership, why don´t you elect new officers? apparently they had held their elections when they were in the process of getting legalized, and the government bureaucrat had said that they needed to keep the same prez. and the term is two years. so he has another year and a half. well, i said, i've worked with democratic type groups before, and usually there is a way to throw out an officer, if you have a problem. but apparently, the prez keeps a tight grip on the statutes. thats not right. . .

wednesday june 24th i´m pretty sure i slept in. oh yea, the night before there was supposed to be a meeting, the prez of the community had told me he would make it happen. but he didn´t. he says he was sick. others said different. i don´t really care at this point. i was gonna show a movie. actually, this is what i had done on monday in the community 40 minutes away where i also teach. i showed a movie on the cultivation of quinoa and chocho. chocho is a bean. fixes nitrogen in the soil, so thats good, and it is very high in protein. so that is also good. and it can be grown pretty well chemical free, so all together thats great. quinoa also has high protien, but it takes a lot of micronutrients from the soil. it puts them in the product, so it is very nutritious, and can also be grown easily with few chemicals, but you gotta let the soil rest a bit afterwards, which is a good time to grow chocho. anyway, i had gotten this video from a guy in the . . . ok the government organization is a bit hard to translate, but in the bigger than a county smaller than a province capital an hour away from my community. call it the municipality. the guy, another carlos, edits video and happens to be the cousin of both my host father and the county prez. annywaaaaaay to get back to the day i´m at, i went down the mountian to talk to the jelly prez about those statutes. i opened slow. talked about other stuff. when we got around to business, i waited to let him ask me what i thought of the meeting. i gave a few tips on how i think meetings should be run based on my co-op experience. he busted out with the documents. handled them a bit. pointed out some rules which i happen to think are dumb, but i didn´t say so. talked about the unruly members. eventually i got around to slowly reaching across the table to thumb through the statutes, while he vented about how they always argue and stuff. i asked if he had any financial records for the organization. he has kept very thorough records of all the times he has spent money out of pocket, so mybe he will get reimbursed for that, otherwise, nothing. i told him, as a friend, i said, not having financial records makes you look like a thief. you should have them, and you should have them up to date, because that will protect you from allegations. he nodded. also, your treasurer doesn´t seem to be doing much. he is treasurer because he lives close, so he can sign things easily. well, maybe you should take one of those members who argues a lot and make them treasurer (sure its an election, but you know what i mean). that will shut them up. he seemed to agree with that too. now, i said, i´m gonna go make some copies of these statutes. oh, great, yeah we´ve been meaning to get to that, but we haven´t had the money. so i make a copy for the members in my community, and i head back up the mountain. that night several community members watch the quinoa and chocho video. i´ve arranged for an ag. engineer featured in the video to come to the communities i work with and give extension service.

thursday june 25th ehh. . . .i´m pretty sure i went to the municipal town and i should have blogged then. as it is, i don´t have time to finish blogging and get up to date right now. but i´ll get on it. i promise.

stu, the grass grows tall, but the cows cut it low. shrubs do not seem to be a problem for trees. the problem is the cows. aliso. . . i can get the scientific name up on the next blog post. thanks for your interest. there are a lot of acacia species that do well in reforesting andes pastureland, but i´m not sure they do well in this particular cut of the andes. humid montane forest. thats like the ecotype or something, but it the microclimes vary even within the individual communities. ok. i gotta run. chao