Holly Volunteers in Ecuador

Guinea pigs for dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:49:00 +0000

As part of our interview, we thought it would be a good idea to ask Alejandro to draw a map of Pulingui San Pablo and its borders. Little did we know this would take up the next 30 minutes of our time.

It was really funny because the map wasn’t amazingly detailed yet he felt compelled to get suggestions from his daughter. After the map was done we felt as if we were intruding on their dinner time so we left without completing the assessments. To be honest, it was more because I couldn’t stand to breath the smoke any longer.

We had a fun surprise during an assessment today. Shaina and I were conducting assessments in Communidad Chimborazo and when we went into this man’s kitchen to take pictures we heard little tiny squeals.

I turned around to see a big box full of guinea pigs. There must have been 20 or more of them. In Ecuador a main source of meat is guinea pig so I wasn’t too freaked out about it, just another intense cultural moment.

Everyone is sick except me, yay! I think everyone with the exception of 2-3 of the 26 here have not gotten sick. We are not sure what it is but I hope I don’t get it.

Progress in Chimborazo

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:33:00 +0000

We had a meeting today about health assessments. We constructed a plan of attack. I am doing heath assessments with Shaina in Communidad Chimborazo and Iris and Julie are going to conduct their assessments in Pulingui San Pablo.

After making our plan of action, we had to help on the water tank. We had already poured the concrete pad and we had also put the rebar frame of the tank up. We are putting up chicken wire around the rebar frame today.

We have to put one layer of chicken wire on the inside and one on the outside so our big job today was to take tie wire and tie the two layers together.

It was really cold and the wind had to be blowing 30 to 40 mph all day and kicking up lots of dirt. It isn’t a glamorous job but someone has to do it.

That evening Shaina and I went to conduct an interview with one of the community leaders of Pulingui San Pablo, Alejandro. It was getting dark so we went to his kitchen to talk where his wife, daughter, and grandchildren were preparing dinner. They cook over an open flame and the room was complete filled with smoke. I could barely see because my eyes were watering really badly the whole time.

Being sensitive to other cultures

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:08:00 +0000

We talked with a man named Antonio Ati. His situation is complicated but I will try and explain. There are three distinct parts of Communidad Chimborazo: Cordiera de los Andes, Malancahwan, and Santa Marta.

Antonio Ati is the president of the Associacion Santa Marta. We found that there is apparently a rift between his family and about 7 other families within Santa Marta and the entire Communidad Chimborazo. Apparently, since these families do not work in Communidad Chimborazo, the community does not want to allow them access to the water system we are building.

This may sound harsh but let me explain. In Ecuador, there is something called the Minga and it has existed since before Inca rule. Minga is the gathering of community members to complete a task that benefits all of the community. It is considered each individual’s obligation to the community.To earn water rights and community voting rights, members must fulfill their obligations.

Antonio Ati, and the other families are not participating in the Minga to build the water system and therefore do not have the right to the water. Antonio Ati wants EWB to build an entirely different water system for them using their own water sources.

I had a long talk with Antonio Ati about the situation all afternoon and I told him it does not make sense from an engineering standpoint to make another water system when the one we are building can serve everyone. He told me that the reality of the situation is there is no other way than building an entirely different system. The community of Santa Marta has two water sources that are for their use only. Like in the United States, they have to use the water in order to keep the rights to it. Since the source for our system is not coming from their sources they would loose the rights to that water by using our system. Frustrated yet?

The situation was a big wake up call for me. I was not taught how to deal with a situation like this in school but these are the issues of the real world. This was the biggest reality check I have ever had. I mean, how do you deal with something like this short of trying to change their economic structure, which has been in place for hundreds of years?

I now truly understand why you have to be sensitive to others culture’s values. They are not the same as ours in the USA and solutions have to be made that best suit their culture and way of life.

Taking Health Assessments

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:08:00 +0000

Today was a big health assessment day. I hitched a ride down to Communidad Chimborazo so we could start some follow-up and baseline community member evaluations.

The first family we talked to was very welcoming. They invited us into their home and sat down and talked with us. They showed us their animals and their home.

There are a lot of broken water lines all around the village. This particular home had a water line spewing water right into the foundation of their house. I don’t know why they did not clamp it shut, but it didn’t seem to bother them.

Their kitchen walls were also black from smoke. They had a chimney but it wasn’t ventilated well enough. This was an obvious health hazard.

Our next assessment was with a women who spoke little Spanish. The native language of the Villagers is Quichua. Spanish is their second language. Our interview had to be translated from English to Spanish and then to Quichua and back. I am sure a lot of things got lost in translation but it was really awesome to hear them speak in their native tongue.

A funeral for a villager

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:07:00 +0000

After lunch I was told we were invited to a funeral of a villager from Communidad Chimborazo, so I went down in the truck to attend the reception with other students who were interested in going.

The reception was at a funeral home and there were probably over 100 people there. They were serving rice with chicken and vegtables to everyone and singing songs. After a while they brought the casket out and set it in the middle of the crowd. The Evangelical pastor gave a serman and some of the family members talked and some sang songs.

After the reception everyone hopped into trucks to go to the church in a town 30 minutes away called San Juan. We were being driving by whom we thought to be Alfonzo, but after taking a closer look the truck was being driven by a 10-year-old! It was really funny but un-nerving! After about 5 mintues though Alfonzo took over and drove the rest of the way.

Once we arrive in San Juan, they paraded the casket through the streets and into the church. We were in the church for no less than 5 mintues and they took the casket back out and up to the graveyard on a hill close by. We went to the graveyard and listened to the pastor. The ceremony closely resembled that of a catholic funeral.

The commute back to the village was quite an adventure. After the funeral we could not find Alfonzo to give us a ride back so we took the bus. However, the bus was so full from all the people who attended the funeral the only room left was on the roof rack. So we all climbed on top of the bus and dodged power lines for the following 30-minute ride home.

Mixing cement, fallen alpaca

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:52:00 +0000

Today we poured the pad for the water tank. I think cement mixing was probably the hardest thing I have ever done.

We obviously don’t have access to a mechanical mixer so we did it all by hand. We had to haul 110 pound bags of cement and buckets for gravel, sand, and water. After the hauling came the mixing and after the mixing came the pouring. It only took about half of a day since we had the help of the villagers as well.

On our way back to our cabin from the tank we came upon a quite unusual scene. Two of the girls that were working in our group were huddled around a lifeless alpaca in the middle of the road.

The alpaca had fallen through its barbed wire fence and into the road. Its body was so contorted that it looked like it had broken its neck. The next thing we knew one of the children walking with us went up to the alpaca grabbed it by its neck and lifted it to its feet and walked it back into the fence.

I think it liked the attention and was playing dead so we would pet it, hahaha.

Shopping for meat

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:01:00 +0000

When we arrived in Riobamba, I went to the hardware store with Rolly to get fittings for the tank. Afterwards, Corrie, Benencio, and I went food shopping.

This was an interesting experience, especially shopping for meat. It is not all cut up and packaged nicely like we are used to in the states. I was trying to purchase some chicken from a butcher with a giant pig head staring me in the face….ew! I had to hand him the money through a curtain of meat while the blood drip down onto a newspaper in front of me. Talk about a cultural moment.

When we arrived back to the village it was late afternoon and I really wanted to go on a hike. Three of us girls went on a road that lead up through the hills. We watched the villagers work in the field and heard their sheep and alpaca.

As we were walking, a truck full of EWB students came down the road so we hopped on for a ride back to the lodge.

That night I permanently moved to our location at Pulingui San Pablo. We are staying in a nice cabin that was built by a Canadian. The best part about it was that we had hot showers! It felt amazing about 4 days without one.

Talking with Benecio

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:41:00 +0000

I went to Riobamba today with Rolly and Corrie to shop for materials and food. We gave a ride to a villager from Communidad Chimborazo named Benencio. I talked with him on the ride down into town and discovered that he is the president of what is called the Fundacion Condor Wasi.

This foundation is comprised of villagers who are helping about 8 small communities of indigenous people. They are receiving a grant from a German company to provide education, health assistance, sanitation, and water to these communities.

The foundation also seeks out organizations, like EWB, to come and help these small communities with their basic needs. I was able to talk with Benencio and get a full explanation about how the foundation operates and coordinators and organizations they work with. It was really awesome for me to be able to find all this out because it helps paint a bigger picture of the community.

Digging an area for the water tank

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:06:00 +0000

After breakfast, myself and a few others went to the other village, Pulingui San Pablo, to check things out. It took about 20 minutes in a truck to get there from Communidad Chimborazo.

I met the women that would be cooking for our group, Manuela, and another helper, Pascual. We went up to the water tank site to check everything out. There were about 30 villagers working on digging out a 21’ X 23’ area for the tank.

I was amazed at how hard working these people were. Most of the women were digging with their babies on their backs, incredible! There were also a lot more women than men because most of the men work in the city where they can earn more money.

For the majority of the day I cut rebar with a professor, Rolland (Rolly) Constable, for the tank pad. I also helped Manuela make a shopping list for our group which ended up being 50 plus items long! I definitely brushed up on my food vocabulary.

High elevation, cold weather, friendly talk

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:57:00 +0000

Our group was waiting for us in our dining around a fire, which was a nice welcome. The Communidad Chimborazo is somewhere around 12,000 feet in elevation and Pulingui San Pablo is even higher, meaning it is very cold.

We are staying in an eco-tourism lodge another group built for the village to promote tourism in the area. It was a lot nicer accommodations than I was expecting. We also have a brigade of cooks preparing our meals, the head cook is Asensio.

After dinner the engineers had a meeting with some of the villagers about the project. Apparently the villagers wanted an entirely different system than we had planed to build and the engineers had to start their planning over from scratch, 6 months of work out the window…ouch!

During the meeting Corrie and I decided to try and do our first health assessment. We chose one of the women cooks named Rosa, not Antonio’s wife. Our interviews ask very personal questions and it was very sad at times, especially talking about health issues.

There are a lot of volcanoes surrounding this region and the volcano Tamaragua is still active and spews ash everywhere killing crops and causing major respiratory problems in the villagers.
After finishing our health assessment we sat around the fire with about 8 villagers and talked until about 10 or 11.

One of the villagers, Alfonzo, is a teacher in a near by village called Gaunquis and this is where we will be doing our water system project next year. Alfonzo is a really great guy and has been advocating for us to come to Gaunquis since our first year in Communidad Chimborazo. I am really excited for the project.

Beginning the health surveys

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:43:00 +0000

My job as one of the translators of the group is to do health surveys in and around the communities we are working with in order to better understand the lives of the villagers. A group of us in the EWB health survey group made up 5 different surveys to give while we were in Ecuador including: doctors, teachers, follow up-community leaders, baseline community leaders, follow-up community members, and baseline community members.

We made follow-up surveys because we had conducted surveys in certain areas last year. We also put in a water system in a small area of Communidad Chimborazo and we want to see if the water system had improved the health of those receiving this water. The interviews will be conducted by having an interviewer who asks the questions in English and then a translator, like myself, translates the questions and the responses back to English so the interviewer can record the answers.

After lunch the first thing I wanted to do, while in Riobamba, was to conduct doctor interviewers in hospitals the community members visit. I talked with Rosa Inga about what I wanted to do and she gave me the names of some hospitals to visit. I went around with my interviewer Corrie McCarthy all afternoon but were unable to meet any doctors. So, we decided to catch a bus to the village.

The Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:30:00 +0000

4:30 – time to wake up
6:00 - arrive at airport
8:00 – board plane for Orlando
1:30 – arrive in Orlando
3:30 – board plane for Panama City
6:00 – arrive Panama City
7:00 – board plane for Quito
9:00 – arrive Quito!

We arrived, all 13 of us! I am traveling with 12 other members of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) which includes our advisors, Dr. Don May and Dr. Laurie Williams. We spent our first night in a hostel in the La Mariscal barrio of Quito, very touristy. Some of us students went out to explore the neighborhood and called it an early night at 12:30AM.

Our professor Don wanted to get on the road to the village, a 4 to 5 hour trip, at 6:00AM. We had to wake up the lady that runs the hostel to prepare some breakfast and we were out the door by 6:15AM. We boarded a bus, all 13 of us with all of our gear, very comical, and ended up at the regional bus station. We were rushed to a booth by a boy speaking really fast Spanish to buy our bus tickets to Riobamba, about 3 to 4 hours south of Quito.

We arrived in Riobamba about 11:00 and met up with another EWB student who had been in South America all summer. We also met with our main contact for our project Antonio Inga and his wife Rosa. Antonio and Rosa live in Comunidad Chimborazo where we are doing one of our water system projects this year. They also happen to be our contacts for the other community we are doing a project in, Pulingui San Pablo. We left our bags in Antonio’s truck and went to lunch (soup, rice, beans, meat, and juice all for $1.50!).

My personal items travel list for Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:16:00 +0000

Here's what I am packing for my trip to Ecuador.
1. Camera
2. Passport
3. Copy of passport.
4. Copy of your credit card with the international number to call if lost
5. Anti-malarial medication
6. A few small band aids and antiseptic
7. Pants (2pr)
8. 1-pr. shorts
9. long sleeve shirt(2)
10. short sleeve shirt (3)
11. non-cotton socks (4pr)
12. Hiking shoes
13. Raincoat, fleece
14. lightweight warm gloves
15. stocking hat (1)
16. nice shirts (3)
17. skirt (1)
18. Money belt
19. Ear plugs and eye covers
20. Headlamp
21. Day pack
22. Trial mix
23. Protein bars
24. Apples
25. Multi-vitamins
26. Water bottle
27. Insect repellent (Sawyer’ Premium, controlled release lotion if you plan on traveling to the coast)
28. Purell alcohol based gel hand cleanser or hand wipes
29. Pepto Bismol tablets
30. Tylenol or Ibuprofen
31. Probiotics
32. Sunscreen

Can you think of anything else I may need?

Preparing for Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Clarkson) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:46:00 +0000

My name is Holly Alexander and I am currently a senior at Fort Lewis College studying Accounting, International Business, and Spanish.

In just three short weeks I will be leaving on a trip with a campus organization called Engineers Without Borders to Ecuador. The main focus of our group is to build water systems and sanitation systems for remote villages in developing countries.

Our main focus with our projects is on sustainability. We make sure the technologies we are using are culturally appropriate and we make sure to use materials that are from the local area.

I am fluent in Spanish and I will be conducting health assessments of the villagers in the town of Pulingui San Pablo and Chimborazo. I am excited to apply the Spanish I learned while studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is a great opportunity that I am so thankful to have here at Fort Lewis.

I beleive that this experience will be invaluable in my Spanish studies. I am nervous, to a certain extent, because I really don't know what to expect but, on the other hand, I am very excited to meet and speak with the villagers and get a new perspective on life. I have found that so much clarity comes from experiencing other cultures.

The main thing I hope to gain from this experience is an understanding of the importance of helping people in need while providing culturally appropriate solutions.