Tomorrow´s Good Friday and the last day of the tech trip - we,ve seen alot and learned alot. There have been a few minor eruptions of vulcan Tungurahua which dusted Riobamba with ash and sent many of the locals searching for dust masks. We´visited some incredible farms and met whole village fulls of great people - especially in San Bernardo which is as close to paradise as I´ll ever get. We´ve learned some of the troubles of the marketing system here, and we´ve also learned of the endless capabilities and potentials of the land and the people. From researchers in Riobamba experimenting with beneficial soil bacterias and fungi to the hillside farmer creating a microclimate at 10000 feet to grow tropical fruits and vegetables it´s been an inspirational and rewarding 10 days.
I´m posting more photos to Flickr.com, and hope to add more about the trip in the next couple of days. Ciao.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Photos finally
Most of my photos I will post at www.flickr.com. You will find a search window; click on people; enter rdlurie, and you should find my photos. There's also a link to Tia's photos in Chile. Also, my email address is rdlurie@yahoo.com, if another way of communicating is desired. My address in Ecuador, via the Peace Corps, is Roger D. Lurie (PCT) Cuerpo de Paz - Casilla 17-08-8624, Quito, Ecuador, South America. Letters, news clippings from Ohio, photos, etc, all are welcome. On Wednesday we leave for a 10 day technical trip through the Sierras - should be interesting. Swearing in as an official volunteer is April 20 - right around the corner.
Ciao
Ciao
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Domingo 25 de Marzo
A surprise opportunity to use the internet. My host family here in Ibarra (also my counterparts) are in church today so I have the whole morning free to wander aound town. My promise for photos will have to wait a little longer.
The past week has been full of incredible experiences and meetings with dozens of new people. In less than one month, after swearing in in Quito, I will be returning here to Ibarra and El Milagro to begin the next two years of my life. At times this all seems surreal! At El Milagro I will be living and working on a small farm - about 6 acres - which currently raises chickens, quail, and cuyes (guinea pigs) (not for pets), alfalfa, and many varieties of vegetables. My main occupation in the coming 2 years will be to help the farm make a transition to organics, and to provide outreach to some of the other communities we (UCAN) will be working with. UCAN if I have not mentioned it before, is my counterpart organization. Largely funded by a Canadian cooperative, UCAN works with Peace Corps and other aid agencies to bring new techniques and sustainable technologies to various populations in the Imbabura and Carchi provinces here in Ecuador. Much of their work is in the Chota Valley, north of Ibarra, populated largely by AfroEcuatorianos who grow sugar cane and tomatoes. Also served are mestizo and indigenous populations.
In yesterdays post I mentioned Nick Zetts in Cahuasqi - his town is predominantly mestizo and he is working with a farmer who wants to move towards organic production. One of the concepts Peace Corps drives home is that we volunteers are to serve as ëxtensionist multipliers¨ - meaning that, with hard work and luck we assist one person or group who then assists another, etc.
There are challenges here which simply do not exist in the U:S: The market for fresh vegetables is inundated, prices are incredibly low - for instance, in the grocery last week I bought a beautiful head of broccoli for .13 cents! Imagine what the grower received once that .13 cents has filtered through the chain of middlemen! A possible solution to low prices is to assist farms and families in the development of value added crops and products - por ejemplo to use milk for cheese or yogurt production, rather than selling it as a raw product. After seveal months, or even a year, on site a volunteer can attempt to procure grant money to help start up such small businesses.
Another major problem here concerning organics is the lack of a winter! No freezing temps to kill off insect pests and other bad stuff (technical term). Even for those of us lucky enough to come here with some degree of technical knowledge this problem alone is daunting. For any readers interested in such stuff (Brian S.) I will try to keep you posted on developments.
It´s a beautiful day today, bright hot sunshine - Volcan Imbabura hovers over the city and i should get back out to continue my wanderings before a one PM lunch with my hosts. Later today my site visit ends and I return by bus to La Esperanza and my Ecuatoriano family.
Before leaving:
-there are many internet cafes all over the place. Some have 2 computers, some have 20 or more. Most are pretty slow. Costs range from .50 centavos por ahora to :90 centavos. (Ecuador uses U.S. currency)
-I have finally figured out the difference between papelerias and panaderias. The first sells paper and such, the other sells bread and cookies, which I prefer. Also discovered that licorerias do not sell licorice - they sell liquor.
-Day one in Quito 6 or 7 weeks ago I tested as a mid novice in my Spanish. Last week in my 2nd test I reached the level of low intermediate - thus a ¨jump¨ of 2 levels - bottom line is that my spanish still sucks, but not as much. PC ¨requires¨us to reach a level of mid intermediate - so I have to improve at least one more level before swearing in on April 20
- some days I wonder what the hell I was thinking when I signed up for this - but most days I can´t believe how lucky I am.
ciao
The past week has been full of incredible experiences and meetings with dozens of new people. In less than one month, after swearing in in Quito, I will be returning here to Ibarra and El Milagro to begin the next two years of my life. At times this all seems surreal! At El Milagro I will be living and working on a small farm - about 6 acres - which currently raises chickens, quail, and cuyes (guinea pigs) (not for pets), alfalfa, and many varieties of vegetables. My main occupation in the coming 2 years will be to help the farm make a transition to organics, and to provide outreach to some of the other communities we (UCAN) will be working with. UCAN if I have not mentioned it before, is my counterpart organization. Largely funded by a Canadian cooperative, UCAN works with Peace Corps and other aid agencies to bring new techniques and sustainable technologies to various populations in the Imbabura and Carchi provinces here in Ecuador. Much of their work is in the Chota Valley, north of Ibarra, populated largely by AfroEcuatorianos who grow sugar cane and tomatoes. Also served are mestizo and indigenous populations.
In yesterdays post I mentioned Nick Zetts in Cahuasqi - his town is predominantly mestizo and he is working with a farmer who wants to move towards organic production. One of the concepts Peace Corps drives home is that we volunteers are to serve as ëxtensionist multipliers¨ - meaning that, with hard work and luck we assist one person or group who then assists another, etc.
There are challenges here which simply do not exist in the U:S: The market for fresh vegetables is inundated, prices are incredibly low - for instance, in the grocery last week I bought a beautiful head of broccoli for .13 cents! Imagine what the grower received once that .13 cents has filtered through the chain of middlemen! A possible solution to low prices is to assist farms and families in the development of value added crops and products - por ejemplo to use milk for cheese or yogurt production, rather than selling it as a raw product. After seveal months, or even a year, on site a volunteer can attempt to procure grant money to help start up such small businesses.
Another major problem here concerning organics is the lack of a winter! No freezing temps to kill off insect pests and other bad stuff (technical term). Even for those of us lucky enough to come here with some degree of technical knowledge this problem alone is daunting. For any readers interested in such stuff (Brian S.) I will try to keep you posted on developments.
It´s a beautiful day today, bright hot sunshine - Volcan Imbabura hovers over the city and i should get back out to continue my wanderings before a one PM lunch with my hosts. Later today my site visit ends and I return by bus to La Esperanza and my Ecuatoriano family.
Before leaving:
-there are many internet cafes all over the place. Some have 2 computers, some have 20 or more. Most are pretty slow. Costs range from .50 centavos por ahora to :90 centavos. (Ecuador uses U.S. currency)
-I have finally figured out the difference between papelerias and panaderias. The first sells paper and such, the other sells bread and cookies, which I prefer. Also discovered that licorerias do not sell licorice - they sell liquor.
-Day one in Quito 6 or 7 weeks ago I tested as a mid novice in my Spanish. Last week in my 2nd test I reached the level of low intermediate - thus a ¨jump¨ of 2 levels - bottom line is that my spanish still sucks, but not as much. PC ¨requires¨us to reach a level of mid intermediate - so I have to improve at least one more level before swearing in on April 20
- some days I wonder what the hell I was thinking when I signed up for this - but most days I can´t believe how lucky I am.
ciao
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Sabado 24 de marzo
muy frustrado!!! I just spent forty minutes posting and then all the computers turned off!!!" Someone tripped over a plug %&%#¬!!!
2nd try!
Last Sunday a hopped on an Ibarra bound bus and made the relatively short trip in 1.5 hours. Many of my friends in omnibus 97 had to leave for their site visits Saturday night - overnight trips lasting well into the next day, some as long as 20 hours. True, Ecuador is a small country - also true is the lack of many good roads. Even where the roads are paved and solid it is always slow going.
I arrived in Ibarra and met my PC contact, Nick Zetts, a volunteer from Virginia who´s been here about a year. While waiting for the next bus up to his town of Cahuasqi we drank (cold!) pilseners and played video soccer. Eventually we caught the bus and with some other friends of Nick´s we set off for the 2 hour trip. Cahuasqi is west and North of Ibarra, and we slowly made our way up and up and up, passing through charming pueblos wearing fresh and bright coats of paint- greens and yellows and blues. Most towns had beautiful central plazas fronted by handsome iglesias - being sunday afternoon the towns were full of locals chatting, working, and playing. As we got farther from Ibarra, and higher in the mountains, the roads became narrow and crumbly - occassionally traffic would have to back up to allow others to pass.
Cahuasqi comes into vies - it is appropriately called the island in the sky - a peaceful farming community lying in a fertile valley - encircled by some of the most rugged mountains I have ever seen.
We leave the bus - the air is hot and thin, our elevation is close to 10000 feet, I believe. A brief stop for some local hellados - ice cream made in heavy copper pots with local fruits and no cream- it´s fantastic. We make our way to nick´s casa - he and friends have planned a pizza party for tonight so we boil tomatos, make crusts from scratch, and fire up the clay horno (oven). Feeding it kindling and wood the hoirno soon reaches 600 degrees or so, the pizzas cook in 3 or 4 minutes, and they are fantastic. We eat and drink cerveza well into the night.
Well that´s the condensed version of my original - sorry about that. More later, and I promise NEXT post will contain photos!
2nd try!
Last Sunday a hopped on an Ibarra bound bus and made the relatively short trip in 1.5 hours. Many of my friends in omnibus 97 had to leave for their site visits Saturday night - overnight trips lasting well into the next day, some as long as 20 hours. True, Ecuador is a small country - also true is the lack of many good roads. Even where the roads are paved and solid it is always slow going.
I arrived in Ibarra and met my PC contact, Nick Zetts, a volunteer from Virginia who´s been here about a year. While waiting for the next bus up to his town of Cahuasqi we drank (cold!) pilseners and played video soccer. Eventually we caught the bus and with some other friends of Nick´s we set off for the 2 hour trip. Cahuasqi is west and North of Ibarra, and we slowly made our way up and up and up, passing through charming pueblos wearing fresh and bright coats of paint- greens and yellows and blues. Most towns had beautiful central plazas fronted by handsome iglesias - being sunday afternoon the towns were full of locals chatting, working, and playing. As we got farther from Ibarra, and higher in the mountains, the roads became narrow and crumbly - occassionally traffic would have to back up to allow others to pass.
Cahuasqi comes into vies - it is appropriately called the island in the sky - a peaceful farming community lying in a fertile valley - encircled by some of the most rugged mountains I have ever seen.
We leave the bus - the air is hot and thin, our elevation is close to 10000 feet, I believe. A brief stop for some local hellados - ice cream made in heavy copper pots with local fruits and no cream- it´s fantastic. We make our way to nick´s casa - he and friends have planned a pizza party for tonight so we boil tomatos, make crusts from scratch, and fire up the clay horno (oven). Feeding it kindling and wood the hoirno soon reaches 600 degrees or so, the pizzas cook in 3 or 4 minutes, and they are fantastic. We eat and drink cerveza well into the night.
Well that´s the condensed version of my original - sorry about that. More later, and I promise NEXT post will contain photos!
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