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!