Muy ocupada...mas o menos

I have to apologize for not writing in ages and ages. So much for keeping all my friends and family back home updated on my life here. In my defense the less I write the busier I am so things are going well.

Work is finally starting to pick up. I have two ecoclubs running at the grade school and the high school in town. Imagine a youth group that does a combination of outdoor trips and environmental volunteer projects. The kids are incredibly energetic and excited which is great.

Ecoclub kids on outings to hot springs and the river.




I also just got approving for funding for three school gardens to improve nutrition and teach some basic environmental education concepts like soil conservation and organic agriculture. This should be interesting considering the basil plant on my balcony lasted exactly two weeks. I was able to keep the rosemary plant alive for a month. We won't even begin to discuss the turkeys...

I am hoping to get a bigger project rolling soon as well. If all goes well I'll get a grant in the next few months to spearhead a sustainable cattle ranching project. As much as I am sure you all want to hear the fascinating details about higher protein grass species and nitrogen fixing trees I'll just summarize to say that hopefully with some simple changes to local cattle ranching practices we can seriously slow down deforestation rates in the region. Told you I would save the Amazon!

Other than work I've spent a lot of time the last few months hanging out with my new Peace Corps friends celebrating American holidays.

Happy Turkey Day!
Merry Christmas (jungle style)



And killing a ridiculous list of jungle creatures that seem to find their way into my apartment including approximately 5,672 moths, 46 grasshoppers, 15 beetles, 1 bat, 1 snake and an army of rats (still working on this one).

My bloodied floor in the aftermath of the snake battle. I won.

Bullfighting Ecuadorian Style

You know the classic image of a bullfight? Some Spanish man in tight sparkly leggings with a funny little hat that looks a bit like mickey mouse ears dancing artfully around an enraged bull waving a red cape. An Ecuadorian bull fight is absolutely nothing like that. It's way way better.

Instead of the one master of the bulls who has spent years training and studying the art of an ancient ritual you have a dozen regular working joes ready to face death against a bull pulled straight from someone's field and shoved into a makeshift ring surrounded by cheering fans.

These country farmers turned bullfighters boost their courage by drinking lots and lots of alcohol. Once they are too drunk to be afraid of the bull anymore they all pile into the ring and start taunting. There are no swords and no red capes just a crowd of drunken men trying every trick they can to irritate the bull into charging and then desperately trying not to get gored.

It is both incredibly dangerous and really really hilarious.

I had the chance to witness this spectacle on a recent trip to the northern sierra and it is officially my new favorite public sporting event.


This guy is trying really hard to get away.

Worth a thousand words

Just a short post with some photos.

I do a lot of baking in my new apartment. In part because I have so much free time and in part because a lot of delicious things that are easy to buy in the states like bagels or wheat bread are harder to find here. This is from the day I made cinnamon rolls for a river picnic.

Ecuadorians are in absolute awe of baked goods. Even something as simple as chocolate chip cookies amazes them and I've found that giving out baked goods to my neighbors and coworkers is a good way to be instantly liked.


My apartment has a small gap between one of the walls and the ceiling. It's nothing too noticeable and isn't really big enough for any creatures to get in except for moths. Every night dozens of moths flock to the glow of my living room light bulb. Usually I squish them without mercy but this one landed on my fridge and was so pretty I decided to spare it's life and take a photo instead.
A bird's eye view of my town.

Would you like a side of hypocrisy to go with that idealism?

As a natural resource conservation volunteer I have to deal with an extra challenge that doesn't quite apply to other Peace Corps volunteers. There is a certain element of irony (to put it nicely) in me as an American doing environmental conservation work in Ecuador. Essentially, I flew 3,000 miles from a country that has the world's highest rates of wasteful consumerism and environmental degradation to a place where most people don't own cars or washing machines to teach them about saving the environment.

I thought a lot about the ridiculousness of this situation before deciding to join the Peace Corps. I was worried that Ecuadorians would immediately see through my "do as I say and not as I do" message and not take me seriously. Luckily, this hasn't been the case. Most of the Ecuadorians I've worked with have been incredibly welcoming, eager to collaborate, and passionate about environmental issues. In fact as a whole Ecuadorians are far more cooperative and open to environmentalism than the Americans I talked to while working on global warming issues in Chicago.

However, yesterday giving a workshop on environmental education to teachers at a local high school I finally had my hypocritical skeleton pulled out of the closet. After the workshop finished I was talking to a science teacher about international environmental issues when he asked me, "Why hasn't the United States done anything to establish better control of the large industries that are causing global warming?" I explained that it was a very complicated political and economic issue and that while many Americans are in favor of more regulations other people don't believe that global warming is real or that it should be the American government's job to stop it. To which he logically replied, "Well then why aren't you in your own country changing their attitude about the environment?"

Yikes. That's a stumper. I told him that I fully intend to return to America after two years and do just that but for now I wanted to learn more about Ecuador and the environmental issues here. He seemed satisfied enough with my lame response. But I kept thinking about his question all day.

"Why wasn't I fighting the battle for the environment in my own country?” The United States certainly has more power to address the biggest international environmental challenges than Ecuador does. On the one hand my decision to come to Ecuador was purely selfish. I wanted to travel, to see the incredible beauty of the Andes and the Amazon. Also, I must admit the work I get to do here is a lot more gratifying and interesting. In America I would be lost in the labyrinth of political tension, money, and public apathy that is environmental advocacy. I might feel eventually that I had contributed some small piece to the passing of a new progressive law but overall it’s a battle that requires huge efforts for very slow results. In Ecuador I get to see the tangible and immediate impact of my work. I can see how many schools implement new environmental education programs, how many farmers begin experimenting with organic agriculture, and how many acres of land are reforested because of my efforts. Too often environmental activism in America feels like just words here in Ecuador it’s all about action.

I also know that I will eventually be a much more effective environmentalist because of my time spent in Ecuador. I have seen first hand a different way of living that uses less resources and produces less waste and I will bring that back to America. The chance to see a different perspective on the world and its future has forever changed my outlook on what exactly I am fighting for as an environmentalist. When I go back to America and enter once again into that labyrinth of politics, money, and apathy I will know for certain that the world is a lot bigger than the Senator who doesn’t believe in global warming or the thousands of Americans who think the pollution of today can be dealt with by the generations of tomorrow. When that labyrinth seems impossible to untangle what I have learned in Ecuador will give me hope.

The Shuar

One of my favorite things about living in the jungle is the opportunity to experience the incredible variety of indigenous amazonian cultures. The largest indigenous group in my region of the country are the Shuar and the more I learn about their history and traditions the more fascinated I become with this unique people.

The Shuar are probably best known in the Western world for the practice of making tzantza or shrunken heads. The tzantza were once a sacred ritual used to preserve the heads of particularly fierce enemy warriors slain in battle. The Shuar believed that this process trapped the soul of the warrior for ritual use by the tzantza owner.

The Shuar were remarkably good at resisting foreign rule and it wasn't until the late 19th century that outsiders established strong trade relationships with the Shuar and the mid 20th century that missionaries finally brought the true invasion of the outside world. The foreigners were fascinated by the tzantza practice and offered huge economic incentives for what they assumed were morbid war trophies. As a result warfare between the Shuar and nearby indigenous groups increased dramatically as warriors sought new heads to be sold to Western museums and collectors.

However, the Shuar are far more complex than the fantastical stories of spear wielding head hunters that visiting traders returned home with. They have an ancient spiritual tradition closely tied to the natural world that they live in.

Today the Shuar people and other indigenous amazonian groups face a new and much more dangerous threat from the outside world. Their ancestral lands sit on top of vast deposits of priceless minerals and oil. Since the early 20th century the Shuar have struggled with the invasion of national and international forces seeking to exploit these valuable resources. It's a complicated struggle that I am still trying to understand it within the tangled context of local and international environmental politics but it is a fascinating drama to see played out first hand.

The future of the Shuar lands is uncertain. For now I feel very privileged to have the chance to better understand this culture that seems so far removed from the outside world and yet has been profoundly impacted by it.





















This little girl is wearing traditional Shuar dress.














Shuar crafts at a local artisan fair.
















Mukindi a traditional Shuar dish of grilled giant beetle larva. I tried eating one. It's not so bad (as long as you chase it with a beer).

Home Sweet Home

I am now officially the new renter of a lovely apartment in Ecuador. Peace Corps policy says that volunteers need to live with a host family for their first three months in sight. Add to that my two months of training and I have been living with host families for five months now. Don't get me wrong I think that the host family policy is fantastic. My host family in site has been incredibly kind and welcoming and living with them offered me a great opportunity to better understand Ecuadorian culture and traditions. However, after five months I am definitely ready to leave the nest. Just being able to sleep in late on the weekends and cook American food for myself will be great.

Also I have found an amazing apartment. It's close to my office, nice and spacious, with sliding glass doors and a balcony, and best of all you can pick fresh oranges from the tree that grows outside my living room window. I'll be moving in August and seeing as the apartment has absolutely no furniture not even a refrigerator or stove the next few weeks will be a veritable shopping spree.

As one of my wiser more veteran volunteer friends told me moving into your own place marks the next stage in Peace Corps service. It will certainly be more lonely and less exciting than the bustle of an Ecuadorian family. However, it also means that I'll have more freedom and that I'm putting down roots in Ecuador. This is my home now. Which is a good feeling to have after five months of floating in and out of other people's homes.

To use one of the few Spanish phrases that everyone seems to know "Mi casa es su casa." Seriously, I have tons of space so if anyone has the desire to come experience the jungle my door is always open and my orange tree has fruit all year long.


My new living room and doors to the balcony.













View from my new bedroom.












My orange tree!

Guess who's coming to dinner

I was sitting at the dinner table the other night when my host mother suddenly screeched and pointed at the wall behind me with a look of terror on her face. I turned my head to see a giant tarantula moseying her way up towards the ceiling. My host mother then told me that this particular type of tarantula can jump several meters and is venomous. At this point I felt it would be a good idea to escape to the other side of the room and hide in the corner behind the refrigerator.

My host dad, possibly the most fearless person I've ever met, took out a broom and killed the unfortunate intruder. He then brought out his reading glasses and a needle intent on spearing and preserving his slightly squished victim. My host mom however wasn't going to stand for a large hairy spider hanging on the wall in her kitchen and insisted he throw it out. Don't worry I made sure he put it in the organic bin.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of our dinner guest but for a little perspective hold out your hand with the fingers spread wide. Now imagine that hand covered in black fur and put fangs on it. That's more or less what the spider looked like.

Never a dull dinner in the Oriente.