Bua

We arrived in Bua, the small Tsachila village, a couple of days ago. The students seem to be integrating well with their host families, and we´ve been staying in the cultural center. Everyone in the community is bilingual Spanish-Safiki, so we´re all trying to get a few words of the local language, too. Yesterday was our first day of service work, 300 trees planted in one morning! I´m not sure the speed and enthusiasm will last four weeks, but we´ll see.

I found out about the Tasachila men´s dying their hair red (see pictures on the TBB website). This started as a shamen´s prescription to stop the Spanish diseases, such as smallpox. It seems to have worked! In any case, the practice was dying out, but has seen a revival as a result of the cultural center´s work the last four years.

The Tsachila

My co-worker Stephen has put up a flicker site with many pictures from orientation. He's much more artistic, so it's worth a look:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42829697@N06/

Yesterday I found out more about the Tsachila people. They were nomadic forest dwellers until the 1960's, when mestizo agriculturalists moved in and started clearing the forest. Most now engage in some sort of agriculture. It is a passive culture, usually moving away from conflict and adults traditionally spoke back to back. Their cosmology was centered on the human relationship to the forest, so there has been an extreme culture shock in the last fifty years with the introduction of agriculture and the building of a paved road.

The group leaders will be staying in the cultural center, whose mission is to preserve their culture. The students have home stays in the neighboring villages. We're re-foresting areas that have been degraded by agricultural practices in an attempt to try and rebuild some of their traditional culture. Having studyed a bit of botany the last two years, I'm excited to talk with people that understand trees in such a radically different way.

CR to Quito

We just wrapped up a very busy two week orientation for the students. Highlights included a rain forest hike that ended in jumping off a waterfall and into a pool, as well as surfing (I got up a couple of times), a mangrove kayak, and snorkeling. We also found time to teach a seminar series on development and a few team building activities.

We flew into Ecuador yesterday. We'll spend a few days in Quito, then go to the project site in Bua, which is on the Pacific coast. We'll be doing a re-forestation project for four weeks with the Tsa'chila people, an indigenous tribe. I'll be co-teaching a new seminar series on natural resources and the environment.

That's all for now!
John

Ready to go!

About two months ago I was offered a job with Thinking Beyond Borders (http://www.thinkingbeyondborders.org/) to lead a group of fifteen gap year students around the world, along with two other staff members. The students have all just graduated high school, and deferred college for a year to do something very different: travel, engage in public service, and learn about issues in development first hand. My role is to co-teach a seminar, advise and mentor, and help out our in-country partners.

In the last two months I've had to get extra pages for the passport, get multiple vacines and prescriptions (rabies was the worst), read everything assigned to the students, try to finish a seperate research project on wetlands ecology, put most of my stuff into storage, and selectively pack for ten months on the road. After two weeks of intensive staff training in Vermont, I've taken the Labor Day weekend off to see my family in DC. On September 9th, I will fly-first stop Costa Rica!