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.