The Fallacy of an Equality Compromise

I recently listened to an Iowa Public Radio session about the Houston, Texas "Bathroom Ordinance" that was recently voted down in city elections. The ordinance is a measure to ensure that no group can be discriminated against, and provides a direct route through city services to address complaints without involving lengthy trials. There are scores of other cities across the country that have laws like this and they suffer no ill effects.

The lynch pin on the Houston ordinance being voted down was that the law would entitle trans-gender individuals to use the bathroom, shower, or locker room facilities of the gender with which they identify, and not the gender that they were born with. An aggressive campaign against the ordinance insisted that this would open the door for male predators to pose as trans-women and enter women's bathrooms to assault women and girls despite a lack of evidence that this eventuality would occur..

There was a commentator in the IPR session that kept speaking about "common sense" solutions to this problem, something to assuage the LGBT community while not upending the status quo. He suggested we build additional, separate bathrooms for trans-individuals to circumvent male/female bathroom issues. He called it a common sense compromise to maintain equality.

That phrase sounded familiar to me, and I recollect that I heard it during the height of the campaign to bring about marriage equality. I heard many "common sense" compromises that involved a separate institution, like a civil union, for same-sex couples. A middle ground that opponents and supporters alike could stomach.

I want to address this. This fallacy of a middle ground on equality. Equality is a binary condition, meaning that one is either totally equal under the law with all other citizens or we are all unequal to varying degrees. There is no in middle ground. Forcing a trans-gender person to use a separate bathroom than the gender they identify with because they have a medical condition is inherently discriminatory.

To be more broad, anytime you create an institution or laws that prescribe behavior for a person or group of people that is determined by characteristics that they cannot control you are promoting inequality. It does not matter if it is under the guise of perceived safety, it does not matter if the majority of the country is opposed to it. The constitution guarantees all citizens be held equally under the law regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, etc.

We have fought over this basic fact for decades in this country. Whether it be women's suffrage, or the civil rights movement, marriage equality, and now trans-gender access to bathrooms, we have fought over who the freedoms and rights in this country apply to time and time again. Is it now time for us to realize that we should extend the rights to all citizens, regardless of any detemerining factors over which they have no control? If we are not all equal, we are unequal and that must not be tolerated. It is the duty of the government to extend the rights and freedoms of this country to all citizens regardless of popular opinion.

A War On Christians

In the United States of America there is no War against Christianity. However, if you google the phrase "War on Christianity" you will see hundreds of news articles saying the exact opposite. I would like to express my opinion that this country still strongly favors Christianity, and that losing some previously held privileges does not amount to discrimination.

First, let's start off with some background information. According to a 2014 study done by the Pew Research Center, 70.6% of people in the U.S. identified as christian. Of that 70.6%, 25% identified as evangelical protestant, 20.8% identified as catholic, and 14.7% identified as mainline protestant. The next largest group are classified as "nones" which include atheists, agnostics, and unaffiliated which comes in at 22%. So we see that in the U.S., Christians hold close to a 50% majority over the next largest "religious" group.

If it weren't enough to have a huge population majority, the constitutional protections for the freedom to practice your religion are iron clad in the Constitution. In fact, it is the first amendment to the constitution and is one of the founding values of this country. Why did the Pilgrims leave England? To avoid religious persecution.

So, why would a group that makes up an exceptionally large majority of our countries' population feel discriminated against?

At the very core of the issue is the perceived loss of rights, which are actually just privileges that were granted by denying basic equality to other demographics of the population.

One argument you see often in the news is that Christians are being discriminated against by being forced to performs services in connection with LGBTQ events like marriages, or for reproductive health issues like providing birth control to employees. Let us look at two fairly recent examples to examine whose rights are being violated by whom.

The two cases I would like to use are the LGBTQ Community v Kim Davis, and Hobby Lobby v Birth Control. In Kim Davis' case, the LGBTQ community in her county of Kentucky couldn't get a marriage license because Davis felt it would go against her religion to grant a marriage license to a same-sex couple. Here we see Davis expecting a privilege by denying basic equality to the LGBTQ community. In the case of Hobby Lobby, the Christian owners believed that providing birth control through health care plans to employees went against their beliefs, so they denied access to birth control to women employees to uphold their religious ideals.

Martin Luther King Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, said "An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself".

I opine that Christianity in this country is both a numerical and a power majority that has until very recently held certain demographics to codes that it would itself not follow. Moreover, when those laws are thrown down and over turned, whether in court cases or by the elected legislature, it does not constitute discrimination against the majority, but a correction of the scales, bringing them back into the balance of equality.

In the same Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. King goes on to say "freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed." I do not believe that demanding equality is discrimination, and therefore this "War on Christianity" is but a facade for those not yet willing to give up their prejudices and accept that we should all be given equal rights under the law.

Why the U.S. Needs a Mulitparty Political System

The U.S. presidential election has historically been a battle between the two big parties leaving little room for a viable candidate from a third party. Consider the historical example of Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose party that cost liberals an election by siphoning votes away from their main candidate. This threat looms over the two party system, trapping us with a mind game. Do I vote for the candidate I truly think will be the best president? Or do I vote for the most viable candidate that I agree with more than I disagree?

Since the last presidential election, it has been almost a given that Hillary Clinton would run as the next democratic nominee. However, continued "rough patches" for her campaign have been making it increasingly unlikely that she can actually win the election. Her most potent opponent, Bernie Sanders, runs under the banner of socialism, which already scares a decent proportion of Americans away from voting for him.

On the republican side, Donald Trump continues to poll well above the other participants even though he comports himself with grace of a beached tuna. Then you have the run of the mill Tea Party candidates like Cruz and Rubio that are increasingly overshadowing the more moderate candidates like Kasich and Graham.

In the upcoming 2016 election, the two party system shows its ugly underbelly for us all to witness. At the moment there is but one viable candidate for the democratic nomination: Hillary Clinton. She has boatloads of cash, a long political history, and she is a fairly middle of the road democrat. However, scandals follow her like dementors. We're not entirely sure she is viable as a candidate any more, but because she has been the front runner for so long we don't really have a choice. Bernie has a lot of good ideas, but he is fairly extreme in the American political sphere. I think he would have a hard time getting moderates, especially those with conservative leanings, to vote for him.

The Republicans have a much more difficult decision to make if Trump continues to run high polling numbers. Trump in no way would make a good president and most of the true political candidates know this. However, Trump has insinuated that, were he not picked to be the GOP nominee, he would run as a third party candidate. Now, in a two party system that is a significant threat. Were Trump to run an independent campaign he could very well pull enough votes away from the GOP nominee to lose the race for conservatives and hand it to the liberals. Are the GOP party heads willing to take a risk like that?

Essentially, what the two-party system does is that it requires the American public to pick between the least offensive candidate. You may not like the candidate you vote for, but they're an awful lot better than the other guy. In a multi-party system there would be options for more candidates to have viable presidential runs, as well as necessitating compromise and deal-brokering to accomplish anything. We would turn a "winner take all" race into a power sharing system where more Americans are represented at any one time.

Congress would also benefit significantly from a multi-party system in the same way the presidential election would. One of the biggest issues in Congress right now is the massive amount of partisan bickering that occurs and routinely causes idiotic situations like the government shutdown. If there were even three parties in congress no single side could hold the government hostage, nor could they pass anything without the help of one of the other groups. This would necessitate cooperation instead of scorched-earth policies we see today. You would also get a wider spread of candidates into the house for greater representation and introduction of ideas.

In conclusion, I would hate to see an obviously poor candidate be a 50/50 chance away from the white house because polling numbers gave them the upper hand in a game of chicken between the two existing political parties.

Iranian Nuclear Deal

As it has been all over the news the past few days, many of you will know about the new anti-proliferation treaty between the U.S. and Iran. The treaty will reduce the crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for a reduction in centrifuges and access for international inspections, among other benefits. Proponents say it will increase Iran's breakout time, as well as provide a significant amount of international oversight on weapons manufacturing. Opponents say the treaty will open the door for Iran to sponsor terrorism and emerge as a threat in the Middle East.

The perceived threat here is that Iran is a known state sponsor of terrorism, including supporting groups like Hamas, Hezzbolah, and others. Iran also has a very aggressive regional policy in the Middle East including making threats against Israel. This aggressive policy has prompted a small arms race among the nations in the immediate area and there are worries a lack of economic sanctions would open up large amounts of money to be used by Iran to purchase arms.

Now, while all of these are legitimate grievances against Iran here is my take on the situation: would we rather barely contain nuclear proliferation through economic sanctions and threats of violence or attempt to mend relations with Iran so that they don't want to attack us?

"Sam, don't be naive, Iran will just hide their weapons when there are inspections. They want to attack the U.S. and our allies"

The treaty isn't about giving Iran a free ticket to run wild after the sanctions lift either. There will be rigorous inspections by international watchdogs to make sure that Iran is cooperating, as well as the fact that Iran will have to get rid of a good portion of both its enriched uranium and the centrifuges used to create it.

"But Sam, Iran has said Israel should be 'wiped off the map' and they called the U.S. 'The Great Satan'. They hate us!"

You know what makes people hate you a lot less? Not threatening to blow their country up when they want to advance their energy program. Maybe we could even be helpful and help the build non-nuclear power plants so they don't even have an excuse for nuclear research. It'd also be hard to blame the U.S. for causing all the economic hardships in the country when we no longer block all imports and exports.

"But we need to protect Israel from attack! They're our allies!"

First off, Netanyahu is a fear monger. Second off, Israel has done enough sketchy things in the last twenty years that I think we should seriously re-evaluate our big brother policy (Israel has committed possible crimes against humanity), and third off Israel can handle itself. The last time Middle Eastern countries attacked them Israel beat five countries at once in six days. They also happen to have a nuclear bomb, so if you want another deterrent to attacking Israel, there you go.

Iran isn't without some serious flaws (they deny the holocaust, among other things) but I would much rather have open, mostly-honest interaction with the international community than sticking them with a bunch of sanctions and just holding our breath till they come up with a way to blow it back in our faces. But hey, why foster positive relationships when we spend 600 billion dollars on the military every year and need an excuse to drop some freedom on someone?

Shuar Mythology

One afternoon after Cesar and I had finished eating lunch, he brought out a series of hand drawn pictures of various monsters from Shuar mythology and explained them to me a little bit.

The Iwia is essentially a crazy cannibal that lives in the jungle. Cesar said they have a smell that can knock a man out and they hunt children for the most part. The Ecuadorian government has an elite jungle unit called "iwia" made up of Shuar soldiers. They draw their name from this monster and from what Cesar told me they are an especially deadly bunch, with both Shuar traditional warfare and modern tactics. This statement holds more weight when you know that the Shuar have never been conquered. Neither the Inca nor the Spanish conquistadors were able to  defeat the Shuar in the jungle. When the Spanish made their first forays into Shuar territory, they broke through several skirmishes and made camp on a river. The Shuar then went upstream and put a poisonous plant into the water which drifted downstream and killed many of the Spaniards. The next day the Spaniards left and never returned. Jungle warfare is often abrupt, brutal, and deadly for those not raised in the jungle.

The Jurijri is a human like monster that lives at the behest of forest spirits. The first encounter with the Shuar occurred with two brothers and their wives one day as they were out hunting. The brothers were excellent hunters and had amassed a bountiful harvest during the day. They created a fire to cook with and soon set to the task of cooking the various different animals they had killed. One of the wives went to go collect firewood for the fire, and while she was out in the forest a spirit appeared in front of her. It asked her why her party had killed so many of it's brethren. Angered, the spirit said that it would send soldiers to kill them at midnight unless they hid themselves in a tree surrounded by fire. The wife ran back to camp and warned her company about what she had witnessed. Neither the two brothers nor the other wife believed her and continued cooking their feast. The wife prepared a tree as an escape, then rejoined the others to eat and sleep. At midnight the wife was awoken by a furious rainstorm. Lightning and thunder ripped through the sky and the wife knew that the spirit had come to seek vengeance. She woke her companions then ran to the tree she had prepared. Once in the tree she couldn't see through the dark and the rain, but none of her companions joined her in the haven. When morning broke, the woman got down from the tree and inspected the camp. Their shelter had been ripped open and there were footsteps leaving camp. She followed the tracks and eventually came across a cave. She peeked into the cave and saw a group of people sitting around a fire eating her companions.
Horrified, she ran back to her village and told the town what she saw. No one in the town believed her, and they blamed her for killing her husband and his brother. However, they needed proof so they traveled to the cave to verify what happened. When the group arrived at the cave they saw the remains of the feast and the group of people asleep. Angered, they went back to the village, armed themselves, returned, and killed all the people in the cave as revenge. When they checked the dead bodies they found that the Jurijri had another mouth behind their hair on the back of their head that they used to eat the Shuar. As the Shuar were about to leave, a small girl walked into the clearing. She didn't speak, so the Shuar assumed she was some escaped pray of the dead Jurijri. They took her back to their camp and gave her food to eat. The girl wouldn't eat in front of them, but when they turned their backs the food would disappear almost immediately. After a few weeks in the village, the Shuar left the girl in charge of a young child while the mother went to look for food. When the mother returned the child was gone. Suspicious, the Shuar checked the girl and found blood on her hands so they killed her. Behind her hair was a mouth. She was another Jurijri. After that Jurijri commonly live in remote caves and eat Shuar who come across them in the jungle.

 The chikiaku iwianch is a rather strange monster. Cesar said that it only materializes on the night of the full moon and stands with its arms out and looks up at the moon. It is said that those that can run between its legs get special powers, however the chikiaku will try and scoop you up with its arms and eat you if you try. What makes it more scary is that it's about 3m tall.

Cesar referred to this one only as "diablo" the Spanish word for devil. He told me that this diablo has been seen on multiple occasions in recent years. One year at the Macas foundation festival a child saw a man dancing in the middle of a crowd, however, his feet were the wrong way. He brought this fact to the attention of the mother. When the mother looked the man had disappeared. Cesar also said he had seen the tracks of this monster. It lives deep in the jungle away from civilization. It prefers swampy terrain, which is where Cesar saw the foot prints. He told me if you see the monsters footprints you have to walk in the direction they face in order to get away from it. If you go the opposite direction you'll eventually find the monster. I am under the impression it eats people because Cesar said that if you encounter it you are supposed to give it your shirt with a knot in it. It will try and put the shirt on and this will give you time to escape.

The ujea is a weird mix between a bear and a human. Apparently the Shuar used to hunt these. As you can see in the picture the stench was enough to knock a grown man unconscious. These aren't dangerous to humans as they eat the nectar of flowers.

This last one is a particularly brutal form of iwianch. This one has lost its arm in an accident or a fight. It thinks if it can find its old arm it can put it back and be whole again. To this end it goes around ripping off arms of Shuar to see if they fit on its body. Cesar told me that for a while there were organ harvesters that killed several children in a different area and this type of iwianch was blamed. When the Shuar caught the group of people that were actually committing the crimes they thought they were this monster and killed them all. I think the moral of this story is to never wrong a Shuar because the retribution is usually swift and very lethal.

My Final Days in Ecuador

First, I would like to say that I have made it home safe and sound! I left Quito at 11:30pm on July 1st and arrived in Minnesota at 12:30pm on July 2nd. Despite my flights going off without a hitch, my route from Macas to Quito was fraught with a few more difficulties. Due to some recent legislation by President Correa, the Shuar Community near Macas decided to host a series of protests to attempt to boot Correa from power. These protests took the form of "paros" or road closings where protesters don't let anyone through until they get what they want. Since myself and another volunteer had flights looming in the near future, we decided it would be best to leave a few days early from Selvavida to give us time to negotiate any roadblocks. We also took the night bus to Quito because even protesters have to sleep at some point. I didn't sleep on the bus so I arrived in Quito on four hours of sleep from the day before.

In Quito I visited some of more common tourist attractions. My first day I walked around the old historic city center, visited a few of the churches, and got to see the VP of Ecuador give his weekly address to the citizens. I also visited El Panecillo, which is a large statue of a virgin looking over Quito from "Cerro Gordo" a 200m high hill in the Quito valley. On my second day I visited the "Mitad del Mundo" or the center of the world. It's where the Equator bisects through Ecuador. We also hike up to an old volcanic crater which had some pretty amazing views. On my last day I visited some of the museums in Quito and ate my last lunch in the city.

National Theatre in Quito

La Ronda, a street famous for food and handicrafts

Presidential Palace

View overlooking Quito from El Panecillo

One half to the north, the other to the south

Thinking like a globie at El Crater

In my final week Cesar decided that I should learn to be a little bit more of a jungle man so in the afternoons after teaching at the school we took tours of medicinal plants near the project, learned how to set traps for birds and animals, and of course learned some traditional Shuar face painting.We used a seed pod which was filled with the orange paint-like substance to create the designs. Cesar also told me a little bit about the mythology of the Shuar. I might do another blog post just about those stories later.

Traditional Shuar designs for celebrations or war

We found a termite ball, Cesar for scale.

The termites were really cool because you can rub them on your skin and they release an oi that acts as a mosquito repellent. In fact, some mosquito repellents today are derived from chemicals in termite oil.

 On my last Friday before leaving, the students held a "despedida" for me and we took a bunch of pictures. Here are a few:

8th and 9th grade

They killed a small snake and wanted to show it off (It is poisonous so they killed it for safety)

8th, 9th, and 10th grade with the professor and school director

Here's a little wildlife tour from the jungle:

The tarantula was hunting cockroaches in the roof (about the size of your hand)

Found this big guy on the path to the road

Poisonous scorpion on the stairwell wall in my room

Butterflies were the one family of nice insect

This guy was about 3 inches long and above my clothing

A little coral snake on the path to the bathroom

Here are some examples of the food I ate while in Ecuador:

Fresh fruit salad with hand squeezed fruit juice

Arroz con pollo y legumbres (Chicken and rice with vegetables)

Fried Yuca, Rice, and Lomo, or beef with a bottle of Ecuadorian beer

Carne asada, yuca frita y salsa de cebollas (roast meat, fried yuca, and onion salsa)

I'm glad to be back in the U.S.  Happy 4th of July everyone!

Teaching English and Digging Canals

I`m in Macas again this weekend after spending 2 weeks at Selvavida. I`m getting more and more used to the jungle, and after the first 70 mosquito bites (42 of which were concentrated on my right hand), my body is slowly learning to tolerate them as well. For this post I´m going to talk a little bit about what I have been working on for the last two weeks concerning my actual internship, as well as what I did last weekend.

After Julien left (he was the French volunteer at Selvavida when I arrived) Cesar asked me if I wanted to volunteer at the school in Tunantz, a village about 20 minutes away by bus from Selvavida, as an English teacher for grades 8 to 10. I accepted and have been teaching the students there for two weeks now. Classes run from 9 to noon most days so my mornings are spent in Tunantz. The prior knowledge of English is very minimal, consisting of a few memorized phrases like "good morning" and "good afternoon" etc., however there is very little knowledge about how the language works, or even how to spell in English. I have decided to try and rectify the situation as best I can during my time here with a lesson in phonetics, to try and get the students to learn how to sound out words so they can spell more proficiently, as well as verb conjugations in the present tenses so they can begin adapting themselves to the language, rather than using memorized phrases. I think the most frustrating aspect is the lack of retention between classes. I can spend 30 minutes going over 3 or 4 very similar verbs, and next class period the students won`t even recall the meaning of said verbs, let alone the conjugations. There are a few students who seem to be able to pick up what I teach fairly quickly, but the rest are a significant challenge. Even though I can tell there is interest in learning English (they constantly ask me to translate phrases from the bible or books for them) there is very little learning occurring at the school. I have two weeks left of teaching and I am going to try my best that they remember at least a few new things from my time with them. What they need though is a full time teacher with adequate materials and time to devote to working on pronunciation, spelling, and grammar, rather than rote memorization of useful phrases.

With teaching occupying my mornings, Cesar and I work for 2 to 3 hours in the afternoon on various projects at Selvavida. Recently Cesar has been hit with a bit of bad luck regarding various business ventures and computer errors resulting in him not having access to his bank accounts until the 23 of June. With this setback, we haven`t been able to by the tanks required to build the grey water filters I came here to make, so we have improvised a little. Cesar is in the process of constructing a meeting house in the manner of a traditional Shuar building. One of the issues he was facing was the the ground underneath the hut is very waterlogged. My first project has been to construct a series of drainage canals to dry out the soil, as well as an erosion reduction measure to ensure the extra water flowing over the ground doesn`t cause more erosion than already exists on the property. It`s not what I planned on doing, but I´m feeling more or less satisfied with what I have accomplished so far. Cesar has also asked me to compile some plans for a future, larger filtration system that he wants to build when he has sufficient money and volunteers to finish it. In this way I feel like I am at least using my knowledge to benefit Cesar, even if I can`t be around for the actual construction.

One theme of working in the jungle is that no matter what you are doing, everything is more difficult. Whether it be walking, digging, cutting, building, there is always some aspect of this place that makes tasks range from difficult to downright horrible. This "property" of the jungle makes getting anything significant done take about twice as long as it should. It`s frustrating, but there`s nothing I can do to change it so I have mostly accepted it.

So that`s what I have been up to during my "working time" here. This past weekend I didn`t have to work so Cesar and I did some recreational activities. We hiked about an hour through the jungle to get to a waterfall that I can only describe as a paradise. The water was clear and cold, spilling down the trunk of a massive tree caught in the trough of the falls.

Part of the way to the waterfall.

The waterfall itself.

With no anacondas to worry about Cesar and I disrobed and went swimming for a bit. During our swim, we decided to climb higher, to the next set of falls which were equally impressive. On our way back from the falls Cesar pointed out a snake curled up on a log, he warned me that the triangular head signifies a deadly snake. We got close to take a picture anyway.

It`s a snake.

Cesar also had to make a phone call, which means trekking to the top of the mountain that guards the Macuma River Valley. There are several look outs from the mountain and you can look out to the east until the curvature of the earth hides the horizon. Rio Macuma eventually makes its way to the Amazon River to the east. The sense of unending forest for hundreds of miles before me gave me a very ethereal feeling. It was, at the same time, awe inspiring as well as moderately frightening to think about the ancient things that stalk between those towering trees.

The Rio Makuma can be seen meandering its way to the Amazon Basin

Before I left my mother suggested I start a list of the animals I have seen and I think I will present the beginning of that list here.
I have seen:

Tracks of an ocealot (Is that babou?!)
Tracks of wild pigs
Toucans
Amazonian Parrots
Several species of snake
Glasswing butterflies, one of the trillion species here, but my personal favorite.
Scorpions
Tarantulas
Cockroaches the size of mice (they live in the leaves of the roof)
Armadillo ( I have eaten it, too)
This is just a summarization of the more notable things I have seen. The biodiversity of the forest is amazing, and I am constantly in awe of the immense range of flora and fauna I encounter on a regular basis.

To finish, I´m now mostly acclimatized to the jungle, I`m finding my "niche", so to speak, and am having a great time.

My First 10 Days in Ecuador

I decided to travel to Macas this weekend to see a little bit of the country as well as to write a little bit about what I have done so far.

I arrived in Quito late on May 20th.By the time I got to the hostel it was about 1am because the Quito airport is about an hour outside the city itself. My hostel was located in the colonial section of Quito and was really nice and clean.I went to sleep almost immediately after arriving at the hostel.

I woke up early the next day because I had to plan out how to get to the bus station to travel to Macas. I wasn´t expecting it, but one of the ladies working reception made me a fresh fruit bowl for breakfast and a glass of fresh squeezed juice which was absolutely delicious. At around 8am I took a cab to the bus station which is on the very south end of Quito. This was my first experience with Ecuadorian drivers on a busy road and let me tell you: they are insane drivers. My cabbie was passing buses on the shoulder at 100km per hour on a two lane mountain road. They have no regard for lane markers either or oncoming traffic. He passed a car with another oncoming car just barely missing us on the shoulder. The best part was as this event was occurring, the cabbie and I were casually talking about how much he enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of Quito. We made it to the bus station in one piece and I found my bus company quite easily. It took about seven and a half hours to reach Macas but I didn´t mind because we were driving through some absolutely beautiful landscapes. The bus driver also drove like a crazy person but it was mitigated somewhat by the mountain roads so the ride wasn´t too bad. I met Cesar at the bus station in Macas and we had dinner before taking a cab to Selvavida. This ride was more uncomfortable because the cabbie drove through rural dirt roads at 80km per hour and swerved every ten seconds to miss potholes. We finally made it to Selvavida at 7pm, about an hour after sunset, and walked the last 15 minutes through the jungle in the dark to the project.

My breakfast in Quito

My room in Selvavida

The house that I live in

The fire pit as well as the common house behind it

The view from my front porch looking at Rio Macuma

The project itself is constructed using traditional Shuar techniques for building in the Jungle. Cesar and his wife, Lucy, are both ethnic Shuar and are very active in the surrounding community. Cesar seems to know everyone he comes across and always speaks the them in the Shuar indigenous language.


After a day in Selvavida, Cesar decided to take myself and Julien, a french volunteer, to a very remote Shuar village for a cultural presentation. We had to take a bus to the rural outpost on the edge of the unbroken forest, then walk for three hours into the heart of the jungle. All of the jungle around Macas is primary forest, meaning that it has never been logged or significantly changed from human activity. It is some of the most dense, damp, muddy, difficult terrain that I have ever come across. Our "hike" consisted of us trudging through mud that was at least 3 inches deep separated by sporadic swamps about a foot and a half deep of murky water. We also had to cross a river, which was a challenge because it had been raining for some time before we got to it. The water was very deep and moving very quickly, so Cesar told us to take off our clothes except our underwear and boots, put them in our bags, and hold them over our heads to cross the river. Once we made it across we kept walking, so I ended up hiking for about two hours through the jungle in my underwear. I also had to meet most of the village that way, as by the time we reached the community I was covered in mud and needed to bathe before dressing again. We happened to be visiting the community on the day that they were celebrating "Dia de los Madres" or Mother´s day. They invited us inside and Cesar had to convince them that we were not surveyors for a petroleum company for them to let us stay. Once they were convinced we only wanted to visit, they gave us armadillo soup and boiled unripe bananas, a very traditional Shuar meal. Armadillo tastes a lot like pork I discovered.

The next day we hiked back to Selvavida and I have to say those two days were probably one of the most tiring things I have ever done, but it was worth it to have seen the Shuar culture and to have been welcomed by them to participate in their festival. We got back to Selvavida at 4pm, ate dinner, and went to sleep.

After that I have been mostly helping out Cesar with tasks around the project and planning my own work that I will begin in June. On Monday I will also begin teaching three classes of English at the local school in the mornings. One of the lessons that I have learned so far is that everything is more difficult in the jungle. No matter what you are doing, there is always some factor about being in the forest that makes it harder.

On May 25th the local school had a foundation festival celebrating the construction of the school. We attended and it was quite interesting. They had an art presentation done by the students that consisted of music, poetry, and dance, as well as a two soccer games.

School children dancing in ethnic dress at the foundation festival.

This past week in Macas has also been the canonization festival, with last night being the final night. Julien and I walked around the city and got a taste of the festival.There were several stages for singers as well as food vendors and beer. It was really cool to see everyone out and about with a very fun atmosphere.

Macs Cathedral lit up at night.

 

Inside the cathedral

The plaza in front of the cathedral.

This morning I took a taxi to the top of the mountain overlooking Macas and took this photo:

 My Spanish is also improving very quickly. I can usually understand about 90% of what people are saying, with the exception of when the speak Shuar, and then I can´t understand at all.

All in all I´m having a good time so far, and I´m excited to begin working at the school as well as to dive into my water filtration project once we get the materials. It´s a very different world down here, but it´s also very beautiful and vibrant. I´m excited I still have more than a month to spend here.

My Next Adventure

I would like to give an update on my next adventure which I will be undertaking this summer. From May 20th to July 1st I will be working in and around Macas, Ecuador as part of a required international internship for my Global Resource Systems degree. When I return home I hope to do some landscaping work in Minnesota before I return to Ames for my final year of college.

Ecuador is located on the Northwest coast of South America between Peru and Colombia right on the Ecuator. Ecuador is one hour ahead of CST, and the average temperatures where I will be staying range from 50-60 degrees F due to altitude and the mountains. It rains 21-23 days per month in Macas with an average daily precipitation of 1/3 of an inch.

I will be working in a small native village about 1 hours drive away from the city of Macas. It is located on the Amazonian side of the Andes mountains along the Upano River and has a population of 19,000 people and has the nickname "Emerald of the East". To get to Macas I will fly into Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and take a bus across the Andes. The bus ride will be about 10 hours.

The village I will be working with is inhabited by a group of Shuar, who are one of the indigenous groups in the Andean region. I will be working on a project to improve water quality and sanitation in the village. Where I will be living there is no running water, no electricity, and the closest cellphone tower is a 45 minute hike up a mountain. The site is run by the Yanapuma Foundation and focuses on improving the two native villages in the vicinity with ecologically friendly, sustainable resources.

English is not very prevalent in rural Ecuador so I will be speaking mostly Spanish, and hopefully I can learn a little bit of the native language as well.

The hut in which I will be staying

Macas as seen from the mountains