Chicken Foot Soup and Guayusa

I officially “moved in” to my new home in Archidona on Thursday, October 22. I use “moved in” loosely as to date the only furniture in the home is my mattress on the ground and a large plastic table that is currently used as the office table. I am hoping to get all of my furniture and (cross your fingers as I have been waiting over a week) a fridge soon.

I jumped right into the action on Thursday and got a tour with a number of técnicos (there are 8 técnicos or technical coordinators in my province, and theyare each assigned a sector and then work within that sector providing technical assistance to local communities) of viveros (nurseries) throughout the province. The interesting thing about Guayusa is that it does not have seeds. In order to grow more, you simply take a cutting and place it in the ground in a shady area. The técnicos have found that Guayusa is most successful when plantings are taken and then placed ina nursery like this:

I was given a tour of numerous viveros throughout the province, and what I found really cool is that because our budget is pretty tight right now, people have been super innovative. Instead of using the expensive tools, wood and cloth used to provide shade, communities are using the materials they have on hand. At this point, I suppose I should give some background on what we do for every vivero. Guayusa needs shade, so first four supports and numerous crossbeams are needed to construct some sort of shade-bearing materials. We also create plant beds to elevate the Guayusa. For the supports and cross beams, bamboo is used, palm leaves are used to provide shade, vines are used to hold the bamboo beams in place, and old fallen trees are used to create the plant beds. It was interesting to see what communities are doing, as well as to see different communities.

After the tours of the viveros we picked up our moto bikes, and Thursday night my boss and I had dinner at a great pizzeria in Tena run by a German guy (first we were stopped at a police checkpoint and held for several minutes because our license plate was faded and my boss didn’t have his license, luckily we were let go). After our meal, we were given free shots. I’ve decided that I am going to make Pizzeria Vagabondo my new regular place, even if it does require a 30 minute bus ride to get there. We rounded out our Thursday night sleeping on the bare floor of my new home, as we did not have any mattresses (thanks to the cops that held us up meaning we arrived at stores after closing time).

Friday was a big day, and it started with us picking up a técnico, Pedro, at 6:30 am. to head to one of his communities. It was an hour-long truck ride on dirt roads littered with massive boulders, up and down hills and over rickety bridges. I am surprised our old, beat up truck made it, but an hour later we were pulling into a community very deep in the jungle. This is by far my favorite community, as the women were the most outgoing indigenous women I met and the men made me feel comfortable. The plant beds were already established in this community, so we started pulling weeds from the beds, and soon various community members were producing their plant cuttings to plant. A pot of Guayusa tea and two mugs were passed around and after a speech by the community president, he began planting his cuttings, dunking them first in an organic fertilizer and then placing them in the divots someone had already created.

Each community member did this, and eventually we ran out of cuttings, so I went with my boss, the técnico and two community members to an old woman’s house who has a bunch of Guayusa trees to take some more cuttings. This woman took to calling me Guayusa Warmy, which means Guayusa Woman in Kichwa. She kept trying to convince me to enter the Guayusa Pageant in November (there is a big Guayusa festival coming up in November), despite the fact that a white girl from the U.S. can’t enter. After taking lots and lots of cuttings, we hung around the woman’s house while the group drank Chicha (I declined) and then we headed back to the vivero to continue planting. By the time we got back, attention was starting to wane and beer and Chicha was being consumed in copious amounts, I luckily was able to turn the Chicha down rather discreetly with a slight nod of the head. I worked hard with the woman calling me Guayusa Warmy, the president, and a few others to finish planting the cuttings, sweating profusely under the strong Ecuadorian sun. Once all the cuttings were planted, chipati leaves (a kind of palm leaves) were stuck into the ground to provide shade:

I was hoping we would be able to take off before lunch began as I have learned never to look forward to a meal in Ecuador. Instead, my boss, the técnico, the community president, and the coordinator of the project in the community and I were seated at the lone table and chicken foot soup was placed in front of us. You read that right: chicken foot soup. Luckily, my boss turned to me and said, “Chicken feet, definitely not my favorite”, and he didn’t eat the foot either. What I found so very ironic was that as I was eating this soup, a chicken was pecking at my foot (chickens are EVERYWHERE here). I thought I could handle the soup, but then a whole chicken carcass was placed in front of me, with some singed feathers still on it. I tried to eat what I could, but I truthfully couldn’t eat very much. I was hoping no one would call me out on it, but they did. I used the same excuse I have used since I arrived: “I am never really that hungry, I can’t eat this much food”, which is true, they eat massive amounts of food. Throughout the meal more Chicha was passed around, and my glass was filled with Guayusa tea time after time. At the end of the meal we were given a special treat: coca cola. I had been drinking so much water, Guayusa, and now coke that by the end of the afternoon I thought I was going to explode. I asked a woman if there was a bathroom nearby, and she laughed and said “Si, en el campo”, meaning, “Yeah, in the forest”. I decided to hold off as I thought we would be passing through a town soon, and because we were soon saying goodbye to community members and loading up the truck to head out.

Community members ended up piling into the back of the truck, and we were on our way, taking different routes to drop members off in their respective communities. As we were driving in the rickety truck on the bumpy roads, I started to reconsider my decision to not use “el campo”. To make matters worse, we didn’t return the way we had gone, and we did not pass through the community I was banking on finding a bathroom in. I turned to my boss and said “Next town we pass through, can we stop so I can find a bathroom?” 45 minutes later, we made it into a town, and to my embarrassment my boss asked Pedro, the técnico, if he knew of a bathroom in the area I could use. Pedro got out with me, and we went to the Police Station, but no one was there. Pedro then took me across the street, knocked on the door of an old woman’s home, and asked her if I could use the bathroom. So there I was, in this random woman’s home, with my coworker making conversation with this woman. It was a slightly mortifying experience and from now on, I will always choose “El campo”. Shortly after this incident, my boss pulled over to the side of a huge bridge so that he could jump from the bridge into one of the Amazon’s tributaries.

Finally, we were back in Tena, but our marathon day was not over, we had to buy stuff for the house. Pedro accompanied me throughout Tena as I bargained over the price of sheets, stovetops, large water bottle holders, etc. I was extremely grateful for his help, and really enjoyed his company. The day came to a close as the power throughout the town went out, giving me the perfect excuse to go to bed at 9:00 pm.

And, proof that I am alive and part Guayusa Warmy: