And Then I Realized I was in Ecuador

I don’t think it really hit that I was in Ecuador until I was in a bus driving through the countryside on the way to Archidona, looking at towering mountains, huge trees and little huts. I have discovered that just a bus ride in Ecuador is an adventure: the bus is filled with loud Ecuadorian music, people are allowed to get on and off whenever attempting to sell you all sorts of food, you are supposed to hold on to your luggage, and on one of our trips, on the way up a curvy mountain, a truck ran into our bus and nearly flew off the road, only to have our bus take off two minutes later.

On Wednesday I went to Archidona to see my future home and meet with the team I will be working with. I think it is safe to say that I will certainly stick out in the small town I am living in; I may be the only American there! The town is beautiful, a small city in the middle of the rainforest with views of the mountains. My house is really nice as well, with the one setback being it lacks hot water. I am excited to get to Archidona (where I will be living) for good so that I can explore the town, find some favorite restaurants and stores, and meet some people.

I really jumped right into the action while in Archidona, as I met the team I will be working with, was dubbed ‘Laurita’, drank lots and lots of guayusa (that is the tea we are selling, and it is fabulous), learned all about planting techniques, and ate at a very authentic restaurant (a hut with a thatch roof, where you eat in the kitchen with flies, as one woman cooks and the other kills flies while you eat chicken that may as well still be alive). Suffice it to say, it was quite a welcome to the town.

On Thursday and Friday we (my boss and I) traveled to Puyo, another region the organization works in to meet the team there and to get an idea of what was going on. I met a lot of Quichua, the indigenous people we will be working with. I also got to go to a Quichua community for a meeting, and while I couldn’t understand most of it (it was in Kichwa) it was interesting to observe a way of life so very different from my own. I was lucky to dodge the drinking of Chicha, fermented corn and women’s spit (check it out here, under drinks: http://www.ecuadorexplorer.com/html/ecuador_food.html ). While I dodged the bullet for the time being, I feel me experiencing it is inevitable, as I have been invited to many communities to try it, and it is quite rude to turn it down. I have however, been told how to best battle getting sick from it, including lots of garlic and lime before drinking it.

Other notable moments from our short trip include experiencing a mini tremor, watching everyone’s expressions as the ground moved beneath our feet, being sung to in Kichwa, meeting with executive administrators of communities at the spur of the moment, finding a bus by walking into a “station” and having people yell at you about their destination cities, and trying my very best to flex my Spanish muscles.

This week it looks like I will be going back out to Archidona for Tuesday and Wednesday then to Puyo Thursday-Saturday, then back to Quito, and then to Archidona for good.