Oriente, here we come

Busque en la paz, la tierra, el agua, la claridad para vivir
mientras la selva viene por ti a compartir

These are the closing lines in a song that we listened to in class today; our academic directors thought that a bunch of ecology students would appreciate the lyrics. The rough translations is:

Look for clarity to live in peace, in the earth and in the water
while the forest comes for you, to share.

Essentially what it means, or at least what I got out of it is to look for clarity in nature, in peace, in the earth because the forest is coming for you. You were born and made up of pieces of the earth, but someday, you are going to have to go back into those pieces and return to nature. That is why clarity and peace can be found in the water and in the earth, it is where we are from and where we are going, our past and our future, therefore it only makes sense that it is apart of our present.

Nothing new to report here. Two nights ago, my dad gave me a cup of coffee, as a non-coffee drinker I was not prepared for the night of sleeplessness that ensued. I have been recovering ever since. I think I am still healthy- which could change at any moment- there have been a high number of students who have gotten a stomach bacteria, parasite or amoeba, and one student who had two of the three. Only time will tell. Tomorrow we head up to another paramo, this one is even higher than the last about 4200 meters (14000 feet). It is expected to snow. Snow on the Equator still blows my mind.

Thermal Springs and Subthermal Weather.

We just returned from our Paramo excursion: I have scratched glasses, a gash on my foot-likely to scar-virtually no energy and some fabulous pictures. I couldn't be happier. Allow me to explain.

We left El Expermiento early, a little after 7am, drove two hours, virtually straight up to the northern Paramo of Quito (Paramo is a term that means high grassland, essentially) Our first stop was our highest, 14000 feet (that's about half way up Mount Everest, to put it in perspective and about 13100 feet higher than St. Paul), or about three miles above sea level. It was about 3 degrees Centigrade when we got off the bus and raining horizontally due to the extreme winds. It's incredible that anything can survive in that terrain, at night it drops below freezing on a consistent basis and during the day it can snow, sleet, rain, as well as damaging UV rays from the sun. Anyway, our first stop was freezing cold, muddy and there was a visiblity of no more than 50 feet. Visibilty was so low because we were literally inside of a cloud. After a short biology lesson on the kinds of plants and animals that can survive in these strange conditions we rode half an hour further north, to a lower, warmer, tamer part of the paramo. For those of you who have seen Lord of the Rings, Fangorn Forest, or possibly Dagooba from Star Wars, are the only ways I can describe this alien terrain. Trees are oddly tall and round for the altitude and therefore covered in moss and lichens. Every tree looks to be twice or three times a thick as it actually it due to the heavy coat of epiphites that surround it. Along, because the solid in this paramo was especially rich, the trees do not need deep tap roots, but due to the extreme wind, they are constantly being blown over. But they do not die, a new truck or branch simply starts to grow from the old tree, this process happens about every 10 years for every tree and the result is spectacular. A labyrinth of branches, roots, trucks and vines is formed and creates a real world Fangorn Forest. It is simply incredible, an atmosphere unlike anything I have ever seen before. After 20 minutes of climbing through this mess (you can walk directly on the branches of the fallen trees as kind of a Dr. Suess like maze of walking paths) at 14000 feet we were all exhausted and covered in mud. The moss is also misleading on what is solid ground and what is a net of moss over a hole filled with mud. Needless to say, we were filthy. We got back on our bus and started to head back to Quito, when Sylvia and Xavier told us that we were making another stop: The natural hot springs of Papallacto. These springs were formed due to the Naussea tectonic plate crashing into the South American plate and pushing red hot magma up along with mineral water from deep aquifers. When these reached the surface a volcano and the hot springs were formed simultaneously. What's even cooler, is that they have altered the flow of the springs in to a series of pools which get progressively cooler as they move down the volcano. Also due to glacial runoff an ice cold river runs literally less than a foot from the highest of these pools. After spending an hour or so in the springs, a few of us had the great idea to jump in the river (about 35 degrees F) and then into the springs (about 103 F). As we were running back from the river, fighting off the shock and blindness of the stinging cold I fell and I fell hard, scratching not only my foot, but also my glasses. I then crawled into the nearest spring and attempted to make a smooth recovery, but by then the damage to my body and dignity had been done. The water was just the right temperature, and just as we were getting uncomfortably warm, it started to sprinkle icy water, balancing our temperature perfectly.

Being in the water is not easy on your body and after 2 hours of relaxing people got thirsty, so I walked around the outside of the pool with a gallon jug of water while my classmates and professors tilted their heads back like baby chicks while I poured. We were all enjoying our first real downtime as a group, when my professor Sylvia made an awkward, but hilarious, sex joke about how this place was an excellent romantic getaway, especially if you want to get someone acclimated to the altitude overnight, then she winked and swam away. All in all a great day.

I'm not sure what is in store for the next few days, but after Sunday, I will be out of contact until the following Monday. We leave for the Oriente (the Amazona) Monday at 4 in the morning. I will try to be in contact for the weekend, but who knows what will happen next.

One final note, in addition to learning Spanish, we are slowing picking up bits and pieces of Qui'chua, the language shared by many indigenous people throughout Latin America. My favorite so far is Pachamama- Mother Earth, (Pacha-Earth, Mama-Mother). The language is very difficult to understand/read/learn because it is a loose language (not sure if that is the correct term) but it has no pronouns, instead it combines words and always places the the verb as the last word of the phrase. And all I have to say about that is Ay'yaiyai. The influence of Quichua can make some Ecuadorians very difficult to understand. For example, the correct pronunciation of a double L in castellano is like that of a Y sound, so that 'llave' is pronounce Yaabay. But those who speak Quichua pronounce double L's like a CH sound so llave becomes Chabay. Its a little frustrating.

Also some cool Ecuadorian Spanish: Chebre-Awesome. Como amenicaste? Literally how did you dawn? Asked when you wake up. And finally Siga no mas! Which when translated doesn't make sense (GO, no more) but is used all the time, by everyone as a filler between sentences and as a way to say GO right ahead or continue.

Las palabras siguentes son para mi practica y mas o menos dicen las mismas cosas de arriba
(The following words are for my practice and are the same as above, more or less)

Bajamos El Expermiento a las seis de la manana y manejamos dos horas a fuera y arriba del Quito al Paramo se llama Papallacto. Nuestra primera destinacion fue a cuatro mil doscientos metros arriba del mar. No entiendo como es posible para algunos animales y plantar vivir en una clima como eso. En la manana usualmente hay hielo en el suelo, y cuanto la tarde viene, hay sol intenso, peligroso y dandioso. Despues de una clase sobre los animales silvestres y plantas adaptadas, fuimos a un lugar bastante bajo, caliente y menos viento. Para uds quien han visto El Senor de los Anillos, la unica manera que puedo discribir este lugar es como El Bosque Fangornado o posiblemento como Dagooba en las guerras de las estrellas. Bueno, habia ramas enredadas, arboles llenados con musgos, lichens, y otras epifites. Un arbol puede ver si fuera como un metro en diametro pero en realidad solo es una mitad del metro en diametro. Depues del nuestra visita al Bosque Fangornado, fuimos al los banos naturales calientes. Nos quedamos alli por tres horas antes de regresamos al Quito, pero no antes de me cai en las escalderas entre el rio frio y las picinas calientes. En conjunto, era un dia fantasico y muy divertido, tambien una pausa nesecitada en el medio de una semana llena y atrejada. Voy a tratar de commincarles hasta lunes, antes de bajamos al Oriente, pero mi internet es de poco confinaza. Bueno les quiero mucho, y les extrano mucho tambien. Chao y hasta luego.

First Free Weekend

Viva Quitena!
Yesterday, my spanish class went to the historic city center of Quito to learn more about Quito's history and see some its most important buildings. We first visited the Presidential Palace located in the west end of the plaza grande. The plaza itself is beautiful, and since the excess of rain we have been having, the sky is pollution free, giving us a view over all of Quito as well as a clear view to the 3 of the 5 surrounding volcanoes. The plaza is set up so that each side represents a different power. As I said the presidential palace occupies the west, the city hall(representing the power of the people) occupies the east, the cathedral of Quito is to the north (power of God) and the south is shared by the University of Quito (power of knowledge) and the bishops headquarters (power of the church). Anyways, the presidential palace interesting and we got a free photo of ourselves inside courtesy of Rafael Correa. The only bizarre part of the tour was that we were required to wear protective surgical masks because one of Correa's cabinet members recently died of swine flu, making it a bit harder to understand the tour guide. After we visited the University of Quito 10 de Augosto museum, commemorating the first cry of independence in 1809. Our tour guide spoke with a lisp so I didn't quite understand everything, however one fact I can share is after the initial cry for freedom in 1809, the heroes of the revolution were heavily repressed by the Spanish government. At their trial, one revolutionary was about to be executed, when the Spanish governor told him he could save his live by saying “Viva Espańa!” (long live Spain) instead he yelled “Viva Quiteńa!” (long live Quito) and was immediately decapitated.
Pepper Spray and Soccer Riots
Last night about 12 of the students went to a soccer game at the Estadio Olimpico to see Deportista Quito take on Liga Deportista de las Universidades. La Liga as they are known are comparable to the New York Yankees (last year they were the Latin American Champions). However the game was a 3-0 upset with D. Quito on top. However, the real entertainment came from outside of the field. If you thought Vikings fans were insane, then you should visit Quito. A friend and I accidentally entered the wrong side of the stadium and found ourselves in a sea of red and black (D. Quito colors), we turned on our heels before we were seriously injured. Once seated safely in La Liga section we breathed a sigh of relief. As the teams ran on to field, it felt as though we were marching to battle. Every one was on their feet and jumping in unison causing a resounding thud to echo across the field. Then the sky was filled with white and red streamers being thrown by fans onto the field to support their team. The track surrounding the soccer field was literally a mess of white and red ribbons. Then the fireworks started, some from the stadium and some from the hands of the fans. Then came the drums. Then came the chanting, the the singing. And the game hadn't even started. 30 minutes into the game the drums, chanting and singing hadn't stopped. Nor did it stop for half time, in fact people were still singing as we were leaving the field. It is unfortunate that La Liga lost, because as a tradition, after a victory, the team and all its fans (which is a considerable number) march together up the street to the university and everyone jumps in to the campus water works and celebrates. Maybe next time.
This section is called 'soccer riots' not because the two team's fans duked it out (this would be impossible because there are concrete and barbed wire fences separating each team's fans, as well as enough policemen to occupy St. Paul) the fighting irrupted between La Liga fans and the police force. Considering that the policia wear full riot gear and are accompanied by a full K-9 unit, it didn't end well for the drunken soccer fans. They will probably watching their next soccer match from the hospital ward through bandages around their face. All in all it was an experience, hopefully next match will mean a victory for La Liga and we can all go for a swim.
Ironically the pepper spray potion of this entry comes not from the soccer match but everyday life. Consistently for the last week there have been protests throughout the city on any number of things: the new water bill, the new media bill, the resent teacher strike. All of which end in tear gas and pepper spray. It is not uncommon to be riding the bus when all of a sudden it becomes hard to breathe and you eyes start to hurt. Fortunately I have yet to experience this, but chances are good it will happen in the future.
As for life at home, my family is finally started to accept me. My sister and I bonded over Michael Jackson and Reaggetone last night, she explained to me all of her boy problems for a good 3 hours (no exaggeration) while scrolling through all of her music. As for my brothers, I watched Transporter 3 with David until about 4 in the morning last night. And if you thought it was a bad movie in english, just wait until you see it dubbed in Spanish.
On a note for my mother/father/hannah/anyone who would like to talk to me, since I do not have internet or an international cell phone, communication is a bit difficult with the states, I have had to rely on internet cafes and cabinas for contact with the North. By the way, apparently in Quito it is acceptable to watch porn in internet cafes, as the man sitting next to me is currently doing. Anyway, if anyone would like me to call them send me an email or facebook. However if anyone wants to call me (I receive all calls for free) Skype will let you call computer to phone for a single fee most times to any phone in the world (usually the fee is under 20 cents, if not it cost around 3 cents a minute) My cellphone number is 593(I believe to be Quito's area code, could be mistaken)-098056546. I'm generally free from 3-6pm central time. Until next time, paz y amor. Keep up the emails, its great to hear from you all.

A long time coming

OK, sorry about cutting any readers short last time, my internet time had run out.
While in the Intag we participated in what is known as a Minga- a local gathering of workers to help a common friend finish a project that would take one person months and finish it in a manner of days, for us that meant building a bridge across a small river on a small preserve near La Florida. They were building the bridge in a effort to combat the mining companies by finding another source of income: ecotourism. Ecotourism is currently the only strategy these people have against the mining companies and with this bridge, the preserve will be more accessible. What the construction entailed was moving rocks from the river into piles 9 meters by 9 meters so that concrete could be poured over to form the bases for a suspension bridge. With 40+ people working for 4 hours, we were able to finish over half of the rock moving (9x9 meters is a lot) and the other SIT group should finish where we left of in a next weekend. After the bridge was finished we packed up and bused back to Quito.
The second major occurrence in the last week was my rural homestay. Rural in the full meaning of the word. Last Tuesday morning, we were greeted by a group of women who were also attempting to combat the evil that is the mining industry by selling handmade woven products such as bags and belts, etc. After a brief presentation we were introduced to our new mothers and said goodbye to the comforts of La Florida and our US companions. Actually my mother and my sister came to pick me up. My mother's name was Piedad and my sister was Karina. We then rode on horseback up and down the mountains, crossed 2 rivers (without bridges) and made one final ascent to our home. The campesinos of the Intag say that although the are not rich with money, they are rich in family, friends and beauty- the view from my home was a testament to that claim. While the actual building had minimal electricity and no running water, the view was incredible. We were on a plateau overlooking valleys on all sides which each had their own river running through. With non existent pollution and zero light pollution, as well as the altitude, the stars were brighter that I have ever seen. The building itself was 5 small rooms without solid walls or windows:4 bedrooms and a kitchen. In addition to my mom and sister, I had a dad Ricardo and two brothers Santiago and Edison.
Our mornings were spend in the fields picking and shelling beans, our afternoons consisted of soccer (games that lasted for 3 hours each) and our evenings were cut short- everyone was on the schedule of the sun, which sets at about 7- by 8 everyone was asleep. This wasn't a problem for me because the soccer matches at extreme altitude wore me down quickly) The boys would wake up at 4:30 am (no typo here) to catch truck to ride into the nearest town to go to school for a few hours a day before joining the rest of the family in the fields. The rest of us generally woke up at 7 to start work
As I said, while these people had no money, they were rich in friends and family. It seemed that everyone was in some way related or at least acted as though they were. But what was most humbling about my homestay was the overwhelming generosity of my family. They had NOTHING and yet they shared what ever food and space they had with me to the point of them sharing sleeping quarters so that I could have the best bed and giving me second helping at dinner while they ate half a plate. AND, on the first day my mother saw me awkwardly carrying my Nalgene water bottle to the field, so that night she made me a sling to hold my bottle while I walked. My family was incredible and I will never forget them or their generosity.
Which brings me almost up to date.
A quick note here on my Ecuadorian Family: I have a mom, a dad, a sister, two brothers and 3 dogs. We live in a nice flat in the center of Quito. My brother are 25 and 27 and named Paul and David. My sister is named Sofia and is 17. My dad and mom are both in their 60's and are named Camilo and Miriam. Miriam is a hairdresser and Camilo is an accountant. They are some of the most generous and caring people I have ever met. Ever morning when I wake up there is a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a mug of steaming hot lemon tea. My mother rode the bus with me the first two days of class to make sure I could get there and back and every night she helps me with my spanish ( I read an article from a local newspaper and underline the words I don't recognize, she then explains them in spanish until I get the gist of the word. After she is done I record the new words for everyday in a notebook, so far (in three days) I have expanded my vocabulary by 138 words). My mother is also deeply thoughtful and talked to me for 3 hours one night about how she dreams of looking down from heaven many years from now and seeing all of America- North, Central and South, united under one flag, one purpose, one country. She dreams of a day when we won't need to be divided across borders and when we will all be bilingual and destroy the language barrier. She dreams of one day when there will be peace and stability throughout the Americas and we can all just live together, it might sound naive or optimistic, but I think she has got life figured out, we all do really want the same thing: peace, unity and solidarity. Anyways, if my mom represents the heart and soul of my new family, then my dad is the humor. Everything he says is a joke and my fellow students say that he reminds them of a cartoon character. He is doing all he can to make me a full ecuadoriano and un-gringo me. He tells me to pretend that I don't speak english when one of my classmates is talking to me and that I only understand spanish. As for my brothers, they really don't want anything to do with me or the family. They're nice, but I think being in their 20's makes them less inclined to be at home often. My sister is very nice and is always on the phone, but helps me around the neighborhood and is a chatterbox.
Today we finished a three day lecture series from my new friend Mary Ellen Fieweger, the ecoterrorist I mentioned before. She is in her late 60's and lives in the heart of the Intag Cloud Forest most of the year, occasionally visiting Quito to give lectures. Anyways, she is one of the most fascinating people I have ever met. She is incredibly intelligent and twice as passionate. She gave us a history of Ecuador lecture series of the course of 8 hours in three days. That might sound like a lot but, for me it wasn't enough. She is perhaps the first person to give me a history lesson from a non-US background and essentially every negative event that has occurred in Ecuador or even South America has been the direct result of the United States government or a United States Corporation. It is truly shocking the things she had to say: She told us of policies from G.W Bush, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan, JFK and Truman that have all in some way taken advantage of, or manipulated Ecuador or it's neighbors Peru and Columbia in a way which benefited the US first and the people of South America second. I don't mean to sound un-American or bash any politician other than George Bush II, but the United States has done some despicable things. Clinton's Plan Columbia is the reason Columbia remains a haven for groups like FARC and why the drug problem remains in the United States and Europe, not in Columbia. Under Reagan, the deregulation of just about everything, as well as the U.S.'s absolute influence in both the World Bank and IMF, lead to unpayable interest rates after the Ecuadorian Oil industry collapsed in 1982 (a collapse caused by the United States bribing Saudi Arabia out of an OPEC established export amount with arms, causing all other members in OPEC to begin exporting as they pleased, causing the price of oil to drop like a rock causing 60% of Ecuador's economy to essentially be erased causing shortage of payments on United States loans). Even Obama renewed the Cuban Embargo for another year (which exists not because Cuba is a communist threat to capitalism, but because in 1960 Fidel Castro payed 100's of U.S. Sugar companies what they had claimed was the value of their plantations was for cuban taxes and made them leave the country, saying that it was cuban sugar and the profits should go to the cuban people). My point is that the United States has a self serving history of exploitation and manipulation especially in Latin America.
One of the only things Mary Ellen was proud of the United States was Jimmy Carter's handling of the Panama Canal. When Carter gave the canal(which was owned by the United States for 99 years) back to the Panamanian government, he was ridiculed by conservatives into the stone age. How dare he give them OUR canal?
Mary Ellen ended her less than positive speech on an optimistic and inspirational note. Quoting both Susan George, author of Another World Is Possible If... as well as Thomas Jefferson and a few people between, I'll give you the short and long:
It is easy to get down over all of the problems in the world, the corruption, the inequality, the lies and the overwhelming suffering of a large percentage of the world, but we mustn't give up. The worst thing we can do is run to our rooms and cry and feel sorry for ourselves and the world and everything that will never change. If that is you then go, go to you basement, lock yourself up and cry. That's fine, go cry but get out of our way, we have work to do. Because there is always work to be done. And it is always being done, everywhere. The more you look, the easier it becomes to see good people working for great causes. People saying no, it's not about me, it's about something bigger, something more lasting, something more important than any one of us. The people of this Earth are generally goodhearted souls often in unfortunate circumstances. (The minimum wage for a worker in Ecuador is 220 USD a month, the average cost of food for a family of 4 is 550 USD, no wonder crime is a problem).
I don't know if it is the fact that I am south of the equator, but the United States is beginning to look more and more upside down everyday. Thomas Jefferson once said that people have not only the right, but the duty to overthrow a corrupt government, so do we have the obligation to work for real change until someday we can live in the world my host mother dreams of.
And now to bring it back down...
I tried a drink my mother made me, it was a combination of rice, milk and raisins. It was about as good as it sounds. Right now, I'm in my living room, not wanting to leave because my dad is whistling while playing the guitar. I'll try to keep this updates about me and not boring politics, it's just that it's fresh in my mind and really makes me mad. Mother: I am healthy (no stomach parasites...yet) and getting enough sleep and protein, so no worries. Chébre y adios. Los extrańo mucho.

Too much to say

Ok, in the last week and a half there have been 3 major happenings, I don´t know how much time I have so I´ll try to hit all of them.

First- El Bosque Nublado- The Cloud Forest. We drove 5 hours by bus to a remote area in Northwest Ecuador known as the Intag. Just the ride in was an experience, we have to first ascend the mountains surrounding Quito to get to the mountains surrounding the Intag. 50 kilometers as the raven flies takes about 5 hours as the bus weaves up and down switchbacks. We arrived at La Florida Reservation and were greeted by Carlos Zorrilla, a locally well known activist against foreign mining companies. He explained his fight against some of the most terrible people I have ever heard of- the ceos of two mining companies send in mercenaries dressed in Ecuadorian Military uniforms to break up the local protests in a small town called Junin. Before confrontation was over, the paramilitary sprayed the protesters with tear gas and opened fired on several leaders (no one was killed, but several were in unstable conditions afterwards). The most incredible part of the story happened after the confrontation. During the night 130 unarmed citizens of Junin made a civilian arrest of 60 fully armed men and drove them from the city. Carlos, as well as several others from Junin filled the largest lawsuit against not only the companies, but also the Canadian Stock exchange(exploitation of third world companies is especially easy for companies in the CSE), ever in history. The case remains unsettled. Anyways, this is a biology trip, so we started learning some field methods and techniques- DBH, Quadrats\transects, mist netting, botany and conservation methods to name a few.

In a very similar manner as our Quito drop off, we also had a cloud forest drop off in which we we lead into the woods by a guide, told where to sit and how to get back, then were instructed to use our recently acquired methods to identify our surrounding and be back for lunch three hours later. Speaking of lunch, all of our food was grown within the reserves limits in a sustainable way without the use of non native plants or pestisides. Carlos organized his farm in a way that each plant helped sustain other. I won´t go into detail but for example: the only family of plants that can fix nitrogen directly from the air and doesn´t need the use of mircorhiozae ( a bacterica in all other plant roots which coexists to draw nitrogen from the soil) is the legume family (or the bean family) Carlos had planted legumes in rows so that every fall, when the leaves fall, nitrogen is put into the soil, within these rows, other plants would grow off of the nitrogen rich soil year after year, without the use of fertilizer. It was quite brilliant. Anyways, we stayed in cabins without electricity or running water(more sustainable) -the whole reserve was self sustaining: everything was recycled or reused.

I´m low on time, more to come....

Above the Clouds and Terrorists

NOTE: Mom, you might not want to read this one...

Yesterday we woke up early and hopped on a 2 hour bus ride out of Quito into the Andes. For those of you who don't don't know, the Andes form a ladder of mountain ranges, two long, north-south spines and several rungs of mountains in between, Quito lays in between two of these rungs and is therefore surrounded on all sides by the mountains. Our bus drove up hill along a road that had little room for error- 500 foot drop off on one side and the Andes on the other. We we arrived, we hiked up another 500 feet or so, leaving us at about 11000 feet. We explored Yanacocha, a natural preserve for rare plants and birds. We had an incredible view of Quito and its neighboring volcanos. As we ascended the clouds from the West blew in and before long visiblity was down to less than fifty feet. We meet our spanish professors and our spanish classes. 1 prof, 5 students. We all slept on the way home and had a low key, homework night.

Today however, and this is where mother should stop reading, we met several of the people we will be working with in the coming weeks. First, we learned that we will be working with an ecoterrorist. Her name is Mary Ellen and the president of Ecuador -Rafael Correa- has referred to her and her group as terrorists. This requires a bit of explaination. Primero, the politics of Ecuador is in terrible disarray. There have been 3 civilian coups in the last 15 years. The current president is a nationalist and a populist, neither of which aren't bad, in fact, he has built hosiptals and homes and hopes to erase foreign debt. All good things right? Wrong, Correa is attempting to centralize and control all media, trying to remove autonomy from all universities and is undermining the country's newest constitution (this is their 20th). Ecuador recently passed a new constitution which is the first in the world to have an article which states that the environment and natural resources have rights that must be respected. Anyway, Correa has recently allowed more companies to open new strip mining projects. Mining in Ecuador has is the single greatest cause of deforestation(Ecuador has the highest percentage of deforestation out of any country in the world), loss in biodiversity, pollution to the air, water and soil, and displacement and exploitation of indigenous peoples. Recently Texco-Cheveron left 280 toxic waste pits, uncontained and unregulated in the Intag cloud forest. The people of the intag have one of the highest rates of cancer anywhere in South America. Anyways back to my terrorist friend, Mary Ellen, she lives in the Intag and recently has been very vocal and lead several demonstrations against Correa's regime. Correa, who addresses Ecuador every Saturday morning, has called those who oppose his regime in the Intag are terrorist and shouldn't be negogiated with. The corruption and exploitation under Correa is disgusting. And this type of treatment towards both indigenous people and environmentalists exists all over Quito, especially in the rose industry (the U.S. should boycott roses from Ecuador). But there is hope, all of my professors and advisors and many people who guest lecture are fighting and fighting hard. These people continue to impress me with there optimism and heart. Ecuador can look doomed politically, environmentally, economically and socially, but these people will stop at nothing to correct what is wrong about this great country.

In the days of Spanish colonialism, Quito was know as la ciudad de la luz- the city of light- because it fostered the leaders of a country wide revolution in on december 6, 1809. As we approach the bicentenial of one revolution, these people believe it is time for another.

On a less inspiring note: real classes start tomorrow and our Excursion to the Intag Cloud Forest begins Saturday morning. If anyone would like to contact me, my email is geldermt@carleton.edu

The Gang Gives Back

I've made up my mind, I love it here. I love the people, the profs, the program and the ideals. Here's what happened today: we were given all of our assignments. We only have a few but they are all several weeks long. For starters we have to write a grant proposal, which we then summit to local agencies. Various grant requests come from rural organic farms, women;s justice programs, reforestation and conservation programs. We have the potential to make a difference. There are so many little problems that could be resolved so easily if there was only alittle more funding. That's where we come in. One of the programs biggest goals is to give back to the community in Ecuador for giving us an incredible semester.
Along the same lines, our second long term project is a sustainably project. We were divided into groups and given a list of potential ways to lower this program's carbon footprint both here in ecuador at the experiemento (our classroom and headquarters) and for SIT in general. Different groups include: an energy audit group, a composting and recycling group (there is no recycling in Quito), a rooftop garden team, a gray water return (recycling water to water plants and use in toliets) and an environment education group. There are also two people working with our academic directors (Sylvia y Xavier) to decrease the carbon footprint and find ways to give back to our local communities on a much broader scale. Our program leads SIT in its 70+ programs as being the most environmentally responsible. For example, tomorrow we are planting trees in a reforestation area to helo offset the fuel we used in our flight here. We will be doing similar projects throughout the team to make ourselves carbon neutral. Anyways, we also have two sustainablity coordinators, who oversee the projects, work on a comprehensive plan, help out where needed, find contacts and pass the unfinished projects onto next semesters students. (not to brag, but I'm a coordinator)
In addition to this two programs we have two more sciencey projects: A field investigation project and our independant study project. More on these later...
Finally we all took salsa lessons today, I was terrible. Tomorrow we are off to Bosque Andino Preserve.
Miss you all.
On an unrelated note, my name down here has officially been changed to Theodoro or Teo for short. My professor thought that Teddy and Theodore would be too difficult for Ecuadorian to say.
But seriously, I miss you all
Teo