So where in the world am I?

Here are some links to the neighborhood – one is the location of the community (where the school is) and the other is Mari & Pato’s house – the volunteer house is being built on the edge of the community.

community -0° 27' 7.68", -76° 16' 35.09"
google map link http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-0.45213333,-76.27641333&t=k&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=-0.234489,-76.353951&spn=0.205992,0.336113&z=12

mari and pato’s home -0.47795167,-76.33378833 google map link http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-0.47795167,-76.33378833&t=k&hl=en&ie=UTF8&z=10

I head back out from Coca today and thought I’d give some shots of my life there – the house, the washing machine and bath, the daily commute, and maybe I'll see some old friends.

Chocolate - it doesn't just go on trees...or?

Actually it kinda does. We spent a fun day harvesting cacao for Patricio's mom. Everyone comes together and helps out -- called a "minga". Picture an Amazonian easter egg hunt - where're you looking for bright red, orange, yellow mini-footballs hanging from trees no more than seven feet tall. Normal heat, humidity, bugs and bites apply - but it's quite nice and satisfying work. Twist and tug and you're done.

After the harvest is in, then it's seed extraction time. After being split open with a machete (of course), we pull all of the slimy seeds out of the pod into a bucket. You stick your hand in a slimy, sticky mess and you pull out all the seeds. That's sugar cane in my mouth, btw.

Choclate freaks jump ahead to the next section - you've been warned. The white gook is actually quite tasty. You can pop one iny our mouth and suck all the goo off the seed...and then...the seed goes back in the bucket with the rest of them.

Then it's off to be dried and ground. What a beginning.

p.s. local conversation has it that cacao is like...what word did they use? Viagra. Hey, I don't make the news, just report it.

Where are you on the Amazonian Continuum?

I've worked my way from 1-5 in a space of two weeks - not bad. Where are you?

Bugs:

1. Cricket...eeek!

2. Does it bite?

3. Spider guarding the path to the loo...No worries, I'll go tomorrow

4. It's so much better Not knowing what's out there (at night at least

5. Cockroach in a pocket in my bag, found when in my tent...whatever

Wardrobe:

1. Ah clean clothes

2. River washing...mostly clean

3. Nothing really smells in the jungle...right?

4. Wearing the wet washing straight off the line (it's going to get wet in a minute anyway)

5. Moldy...just on the side, it's cool

Bites:

1. Please don't bite me.

2. Please don't bite me hard.

3. Hope it doesn't scar.

4. Oh cool - look at this bite.

5. Hope those aren't maggots growing inside - me

Plantains/Bananas:

1. raw
2. fried

3. mashed

4. baked in a fire

5. boiled

Yes, We Have No Bananas

The food really can be amazing here – fresh fruit, chicken, yucca, fish, cacao, lemongrass tea, avocados – talk about only eating things grown within a few miles of home. The challenge (for me) is to take those items from their current state and make them into something edible. I’m categorically unqualified to prepare a live chicken or fish and most of the fruit I’ve never even seen before. Keep in mind that there is only a camp stove available, no refrigeration and water is at a premium. There is no corner store or market or anywhere other than your backyard to get most of what you need to eat.

Thank goodness for rice & bananas. Rice goes with everything and at every time. There are about a dozen different types of bananas – which can be prepared in a dozen ways. For the record, I need no more boiled green bananas…ever.

There are also a fair number of critters running around which can be bbq’d (again, not by me). Agoutis, peccaries, and several other names which I can’t remember – but they all are kinda rabbit, rodent, pig-like creatures which are downright tasty.

We felled a 40ish foot palm tree – to get at the heart. Check out the size of the heart of palm. Price is right too.

And what you’ve all been waiting for – weird stuff. I’ve eaten two bbq’d grubs – taste like bacon and chewed on a cooked chicken toe (see photo) – I don’t think I did it right – there is a technique for everything. I did turn down a raw, live grub opportunity (only thing I’ve declined). The video of the grubs squirming around is way more interesting than the still shot – but you get the idea. Btw, you can find them in rotting palm trees and they are also used for fish bait (versatile).

I admit my body craves chemicals from time to time and I add margarine to my rice. Mmm yummy.

No Worries, Maggie is watching the house

Can you train a chicken to scare away unwanted visitors? Yes, I mean Maggie the chicken is currently holding down the fort (#7 Jungle, Rio Napo). A series of events/circumstances/situations have landed me in Coca for a bit.

Maggie was invited to the BBQ party with three of her friends to send off the last of the Inglaterros. After a temporarily successful midnight escape (complete with crashing lightning, booming thunder and howling winds), the other 3 remained in detention while Maggie pulled a Houdini and escaped again in the morning. Several group attempts to lure her back, sometimes 5 vs 1 crashing through the jungle, and including me claiming she´d find a book store and a glass of wine were unsuccessful. Meanwhile a hastily and heartily launched campaign by D (Doris, Gran, Abuelita) of ¨Free Maggie¨and ¨Run Maggie Run¨ sealed the deal and resulted in Maggies invitation to (be) dinner being rescinded.

Initially she taunted us, but then became a reassuring red twitch in the shadows at the edge of the jungle. When the helpful neighbor kids tried to out-perform the adults and chased her down the river bank we were sure she´d gone for a swim and dinner with an anaconda or one of those fish that come up on the river bank and drags children into the water.
As the sun broke through the jungle canopy the next morning guess who I saw? After we all expressed in words, I won´t type here, our amazement I think our respect for Maggie went up a notch.
Schedules here are flexible (more on that in a future post) - and it turned out I went from a house of 9 to 6 and then there was 1(me) and it was nice to have some company and see Maggie during the day chillin´ in the yard. I only see Frank at night. (Frank is my tent praying mantis).

Note: Various teenagers and kids hang out, help and sleep at the house to help the jungle inept, infermed Gringa Maggie. Maggie El Pollo as we know can take care of herself.

Final notes: I´m a partial chicken plucker (one of the unfortunate, yet yummy), and yes, each day has a more amazing and more beautiful and more creepy insect, butterfly and spider -- but you expect them in the jungle - not a chicken that´s named after you.

Hope to add photos and more posts in the coming days.

Back to Basics

Special Wedding Stories will need to wait a bit /I'm going to go back to basics with life here.

1. H2O- Irony is living in a rain forest and water being a scarce resource. Water needs to be carried up a 15ft+ river bank or across a log bridge plus a 5-10 min walk to get to the house to be boiled and sterilized. Since I physically can't do either - it makes me think about every drop I use.
2. Cleaning - As much as possible given the water situation above. Immediately after eating all plates are taken and washed. Late afternoon river dip is a daily rite. Plan it right and you can get a good wash of the clothes you have on today - while wearing them. Fish nibble on you wether you're in the little river (draining from the jungle) or the Napo - although they don't like soap - so my legs and feet are well soaped. Butterflies, however, do like soap - so a poor rinse job is witnessed by all on the clothesline. Dilemma: wash with back to the river (more comfortable) or face the river to see approaching anaconda. Seriously.
3. Meterology Report - We can have consecutive days of heavy overcast where it's quite comfortable and cool - but then clothes don't dry / other times torrential downpour - still no dry clothes and then times of frying heat where you don't really want to move - and even still the sweat pours off my body. Picked cacao the other day (future story) and we thought we had it all figured out why they don't take a break during the heat of the day -- there's only 12 hours of light daily and a lot needs to get done. We checked our theory and received the answer "No, it's because the snakes don't like the heat as much." It instantly felt cooler.
4. Internet - 1 option for me is the lodge, which I should be able to get to once every two weeks /although the internet there is often down. The other option is to go to Coca (where I am currently). Picture this, really try to imagine, waiting on the side of a road/river for 30+ minutes because you're not sure when your ride going to go past and there are only about two times a week where it's a possibility AND it's a special favor. Then hop in and ride for 2.5 hours or more with you head out the window driving about 30mph maybe? Pretty fast, but you can blink and keep your eyes open a lot of the time. Then walk to an internet cafe, where they have a grenade keyboard (you type and then need to wait--wait for it-- while the letters appear on the screen) and any click is a one minute commitment and may crash the machine. Now do it all in reverse. Can you imagine driving to Tahoe from SF for 5 min on the internet? With your head out the window. With waiting for over an hour on this side - you need to be at the docks early. Because if they leave you, you are...left. It's quite special treatment that I get to go to town twice in one week. Last Friday's excursion was 8.5 hours with 7 minutes of equivalent US internet time (20 min on Ecuadorian machines & connectivity).
5. Real Life: Playing barefoot in her yard the neighbor girl (8ish) skewered her foot with a large diamter (pencil) barbed fishing spear. Running to other houses (each property is 250 meters across and 2.5 km inland from the river) and flagging down canoes got her to the medical center within an hour or so. I was first on the scene after hearing about it and could do no more than clean the ants off of her with an antiseptic wipe and have her lean against me on the ground. I almost passed out myself. About two hours after that a flustered man came running up and eventually we worked out that he needed candles (our best bi-lingual was out for that moment). He kept saying "hija" and "muerte" which was all rather confusing because we didn't think the girl with the spear in her foot would die. We just knew something was off. Later we learned that his three month old daughter died across the river. They bury the body immediately, light candles all night long, and stay up for 24 hours.

I hope I get more time to write about the wedding, cacao, food, drinking, bugs, teaching and the community meetings. I will try to upload a photo in a bit.

Most everything here has a level of intensity that is truly foreign.

Stay Tuned

Here are some coming attractions:
- Mmm, Larvae - seconds please
- Traditional wedding day excitement, you know, fruit juice in the gas cans - typical stuff
- Day after the wedding - a few Pilsners and dancing at 9:30am...on a Wednesday...hey, I´m trying to make a good impression here

Must run back to the jungle - wedding week wrapping up - now ´normal´life begins - internet too slow for more right now. Will write more later and post photos

Bitten but happy -
Mags

Photo: Wedding garb - real ocelot top