The Background

I have been reading the comments and realized that we have not given any background on our experience in Ecuador – in other words, the how and why we came to be living here for the year.

After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, our family lived in California for a couple of years, in Irvine near Disneyland. Both of us wanted to have an overseas experience for our family, and when Beau had the opportunity to transfer to Hong Kong with his job as a lawyer, we readily accepted. We lived and worked in HK for three and a half years. We lived in a very nice community of mostly expatriates like ourselves. Our girls attended a private international school in our community, and we generally had a very nice life. We had some wonderful experiences learning about HK and Chinese culture. We also traveled around the region to Thailand, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

When we were first married, we had decided to use the holiday season to give to a family that was in need. After arriving in HK, we really wanted to continue the tradition, but realized that, because of the great need that existed in some of the surrounding countries, we could probably do much more than just help one family. Some good friends of ours had started an organization called HelpOneFuture (http://www.helponefuture.org), which was dedicated to helping the educational opportunities of children in the Philippines.

After communicating our intentions to join a service project over Christmas vacation in the Philippines, we also realized that we had many friends who were excited to help us with this first project, and were overjoyed by the response and support from our friends. We worked with HelpOneFuture our first Christmas to organize a book drive in HK, and then take books and school supplies to under-privileged children in remote villages in the Philippines. This was an extremely rewarding experience for us as a family and changed the way we viewed ourselves and our ability to be of service to our fellow human beings. From then on we began looking in earnest for other opportunities to help different communities in and around HK. We became involved in helping the migrant Indonesian and Filipino communities in HK that were so often neglected and abused.

Beau was getting more burned out as the days passed and he wanted a more fulfilling life like how we felt when we were helping schools in the Philippines. Our family had been blessed to have a great job where we were able to save a little money, and so Beau began searching for an opportunity to volunteer for a year as a family. This was surprisingly challenging, as most of the organizations he contacted either did not want to care for an entire family or did not think that children would be able to live in the environments in which they worked. Eventually Beau connected with The Tandana Foundation (http://www.tandanafoundation.org/).

Anna Taft, the executive director of Tandana, agreed wholeheartedly with the vision of an entire family embarking on a year of service and agreed to accept Beau as a long-term volunteer intern with the foundation in Otavalo. Beau assists with medical volunteers that come work in the more remote communities around Otavalo that are less likely to get the medical attention they need because of distance and the maze-like medical system. Every 6 months medical professionals and additional volunteers spend two weeks visiting communities and providing medical and dental assistance. Beau will also help those who received medical attention to get necessary follow up treatment throughout the year.

In addition to the medical visits, Beau teaches a computer class at the local school where our children attend. There were about 25 computers donated by a group about a year ago for the school and they are trying to make the best use of them. Few of the school children have computers at home and are familiar with some games. Most kids are not familiar at all with computers. It is a challenge to teach such a variety of ages and levels of familiarity.

Tandana also provides a scholarship program to help students attend high school. High school is only available in Otavalo and many times students do not continue their education after primary school because it is too far away or they cannot afford it. With scholarships these students are able to continue their education. The family that we live with has a daughter (Monica) that is a scholarship student. She was offered a scholarship based on the family’s financial need and her academic achievement.

We live in a small community called San Jose de Quichinche, which is about a 10-15 minute bus ride outside Otavalo. We really wanted the opportunity to live with a local family while volunteering in Ecuador, but realized from the beginning that this would probably be a difficult thing to arrange for an entire family. To our excitement, the local Tandana folks were able to locate a family that agreed to host us during our time in Ecuador. 

We live with Carlos Lopez and Suzanna Perugachi (husband and wife always keep both their family names) and their family of five children (yes, that makes eight kids and four adults in one small house).  They belong to the indigenous group of people that have lived here for centuries.  They have given us half of their house to use. They have been very generous and are the kindest people. They are like family to us already. We do all we can to help with chores and cooking; there is a lot to do with all of the kids and animals to care for. We share all our meals and do most activities together. We learn a lot from our host family; they work very hard and love each other. The kids all love each other and have a ton of fun together (their Uno games sometimes get pretty intense!).

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have connected with the local church community and have enjoyed the friends and assistance that have been available to us. Although the language is different, we have felt the same familiar Christ-like love and family that we have always enjoyed everywhere we have lived. Although our host family does not attend the same church as we do, they are wonderful people and we all work together to be more Christ-like and help others. We take turns praying at mealtime, and love learning from each other and enjoying each other’s company.

As a family our goal is to learn Spanish, learn about the culture of Ecuador and Otavalo, find service opportunities and strengthen our family bonds. Quichinche is a nice quiet place where most people know each other. It is fun to walk the kids to and from school and greet everyone on the way with “buenos dias”, and “buenas tardes.”  We ride the bus often to Otavalo to attend Spanish classes, buy groceries, have our excess laundry washed (we always seem to fall behind with the laundry because the kids are always getting dirty, and we aren’t yet as fast and efficient as Suzanna), and attend church meetings.

The indigenous people of Otavalo produce large quantities of textile goods. There are many different handycraft items for sale in the Otavalo market. Tourists come to Otavalo every weekend to shop at the market and see some of the sights. There are several volcanoes and lakes in the area. Otavalo is at a very high elevation which is why it is so cold, and very close to the equator which is why the weather does not change too much (at least seasonally speaking – but it will be cold and rainy and then blazing hot in the same day).

I hope this answers some questions. I very much enjoy reading the comments that are left on the blog. Please leave more comments. I am interested to know what everyone thinks about our experiences and if you have questions – we’ll try to be better at responding to questions. We are very grateful for the love and support that friends and family have offered. Please keep in touch!

Agua Blanca

While in Puerto Lopez, we heard about an indigenous community not far away called Agua Blanca. Apparently they found some human remains 30 years or so ago and did a proper archeological dig. They found a thriving community that used a now dried up river to sail downstream to the sea to fish and engage in commerce. They had a tour that we went on and saw some cool stuff.

Below are some burial urns. Their burial traditions were quite interesting. First, they would bury the deceased person behind the house for a year or so, or until all of the quickly deteriorating body parts were gone. They would they excavate the remains, and place one person´s body with a couple of other bodies in one of the urns you can see below. Not sure if this was just space saving techniques, or if the urns were particularly difficult to produce, or what. In the museum, they had one of the urns with some human bones. They also had a plastic bucket with a human skull sitting in it off to the side. Awesome.


















Here is one of the coolest cacti I have ever seen. It has a normal tree trunk on the bottom and then full blown cactus arms protruding from the trunk. Probably one of those cold desert nights when the cactus was getting lonely and the diciduous tree didn´t look so bad after all...




















Here is a pretty neat looking termite nest. Termites are like bees in that they have a queen who breeds like crazy and a bunch of workers who do the rest. This nest is made of a ton of bark, dirt, leaves, etc. The termites eat away little rivulets up and down the trees where they are scavenging for material. They also only work at night, so we didn´t see any.


















Here was the highlight of Agua Blanca. It is a sulphur spring that apparently originates deep within some nearby volcano. Too bad the water doesn´t retain the heat, because it was pretty chilly. This is where the community obtains water for their crops (citrus crops and bananas grow well with sulfuric water), and for washing their clothes. They pipe it down from here to where most of the community lives. Although the water looks blueish green now, we were told that when the water and underlying mud are agitated the water turns white, hence the name.

The pool is cylindrical and was about 12 ft deep in the middle (yes, I touched bottom). The mud on the bottom is supposed to have curative or medicinal properties, if you rub in on your skin. Bentz proved otherwise. On the way home it was getting late and he fell asleep. We bathed the girls, but just left Bentz until morning. We travelled back to Otavalo a couple of days later and noticed that he was getting a rash. The day after we got home, it was pretty bad, and he had red sploches all over his body. He also couldn´t walk very well due to ¨scrotal bruising¨, but we´ll get into that in the next post. Anyway, it was great that the doctors had arrived for the health care trip, and Dr. Jim assured us that there was nothing life threatening wrong with Bentz, just a case of the hives. I guess we should bathe him next time we go swimming in a sulfur pool.

Whale watching

Well, we made it find down to Puerto Lopez. We were hoping for warm, sunny weather, but we got overcast and drizzling the whole time. Puerto Lopez was a pretty typical small, coastal village. It was quite muddy everywhere, and somehow the mud looked exactly like the dog poop, and everything blending into a nice sticky goo. Since we were looking for hot weather, we only brought flipflops. You get the picture.

Anyway, we found out that Puerto Lopez happened to be the spot where humpback whales come every year to show off and mate. In July and August, their antics are fantastic, with the huge animals breeching clear out of the water in an attemp to lure the lucky ladies in audience. We just caught the end of the season, and went out in search of whales. Here is the guide person that took us out on the boat. He wasn't the captain or the designated whale watcher, but more of a coordinator/tour guide. And he had dreds.

Here we are on the boat. It had a couple of engines, which according to the guidebooks is a good sign that the probability of making it back to shore is good in case one engine dies. Apparently this is a problem of sorts. On board were our family, a bunch of Germans and some Ecuadorians. I would guess that about half of the group got seasick, and at least 3-4 vomited overboard. I was quite proud of the kids. Not only did they not get sick, but when the ocean was the choppiest and less-hearty folk were leaning overboard, our kids were squealing with delight and having fun toppling over one another everytime the boat hit a big wave.
Here is one picture of a humpback. We have a couple other decent pictures. Most of them are the whales blowing out air and then diving back down. They can hold their breath for around 30 minutes. Supposedly there is around 400 or so whales that come up to the Ecuador coast every year. We also say some pretty cool tail flips as they were diving down, but don't think we caught any on camera.
Here are the kids up on the front of the boat, on the prowl for ballenas (whales). They had a great time. Also in moments like these I am happy that the tour operators don't have liability on the front of their minds like they do in the states, and let the kids clamber all over the boat and just plain have fun. On that note, we are also having a ton of fun riding in the back of pickup trucks too (knock on wood, please don't let anyone fall out).

Bus Ride to Vacation Paradise

As I mentioned in the last posting, we were all needing a little break. After much deliberation, we decided to go to the coast. We wanted a clean room and a pool for the kids. We knew the first bus ride would be around 10 hours and the second around 2. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of the first bus, but it was pretty nice. We all had our own seats, and they reclined. We left at around 9:30pm, after waiting for what was supposed to be an 8:30 departure. Everybody slept decent. Well, at least the kids.

We arrived in the town of Manta on the coast around 9 or so in the morning, so it was more like an 11.5 hour ride. Then we found the bus from Manta to Puerto Lopez. Let's just say this bus had a little more character. The best thing about the bus was that, in order to put it into reverse, the doorman/money collector guy had to open a little metal hatch in front of where Audrey was sitting and fiddle with the transmission a bit. Then he would yell back at the driver to get going. Pretty hilarious, and we tried to take a picture, but were off on timing.

Here is the front of the bus, with the driver on the nice converted lawn chair. There are also a couple of seats up with the driver, where Jorie chose to sit. She was supposed to watch the road so as to not get sick, but she read a book the whole 3.5 hours it took to get there. Audrey sat behind the driver and rotated around on various seats. Bentz did likewise, with a break every 15 minutes to inform us that he was starving and wanted more crackers or a piece of bread.  

For some reason I can't get the text in between the pictures, so you'll have to scroll down. The next picture is a nice portrait shot of the bus. Also a shot of Amy and Audrey, and then the front of the bus. The trip was semi-uneventful, with the bus stopping every 10 minutes or so the whole 3.5 hours to pick up random people waiting on the side of the road.

Jorie read the whole way, above the blaring salsa music and the conversation that the bus driver was having with his buddies, at high decibel, who were sitting on the other side of Jorie from the bus driver. She was contentedly oblivious.

Bentz was having a little bowel problem still and he notified us in his usual manner. Let me step back a bit. One Sunday in church, as the first meeting was coming to a close, Bentz stood up and announced, "There's something squishy in my pants." Of course, we all that was hilarious, and it became the "Phrase of the Day."

Back to the bus. Bentz announced the squishy-ness was coming soon, so we yelled at the driver to stop the bus. Bentz and I dismounted, and I held him over the side of the road and aimed his behind away from the
bus. Good fun.

Bathing; Working; Needing a break from sickness and dirt

Although we had installed a small gas powered hot water heater for showering, Audrey was little sick and didn't want to go outside to shower. Also the water pressure gets pretty low on Saturday afternoon with everybody doing laundry and cleaning. So Audrey decided she wanted to take a bath in the room. Although I thought it wasn't going to be fun, Amy, being the nice mom that she is, obliged her. We kept having to go and heat up more water because it wasn't quite warm enough, and after sitting in the bucket for 30 minutes or so, I think the novelty wore off. Bentz decided he needed to do it to. Tons of fun. 







So here are both Bentz and Audrey taking baths in their room. If Audrey doesn't make it as a cement mixer quality control professional, I think she should be a contortionist. Here she manages to fit as much of her body under the water as is humanly possible. I feel kind of bad for Bentz, because we tired of heating up water after the 5th pan or so. He got a shallower bath. Jorie thought about it for a minute, but then realized that she was really just too big now to fit enough of her body under the warm water.

 




























It is now the season for planting corn. Many of the families here rotate two crops, peas and corn. There are also potatoes, but I haven't yet learned when those fit in. As far as I can tell, they plant the corn, and when it is ready to harvest (or maybe sooner), they plant pea plants near the corn stalks, so the peas can climb the stalks. This is the field behind our house. First we clean it by cutting down all the old plants. Then we till it but hoeing up the old dirt and mixing in the old plants and whatever the pigs have left. Once all the soil has been turned over, rows are hoed and then corn planted. Although we kept telling Carlos we wanted to help, he usually ended up rising at 5am or so on Saturday to get most of it done before we woke up and before the sun got too hot. This was last Saturday.


Jorie was a good worker, and stayed at it for an hour or so. Bentz tried hard to get dirty, and was quite successful. He also chased the chickens around and found some huge looking caterpillars to feed them.

So as of last weekend, we had been in Ecuador for 4 weeks. I (Beau) was very impressed and proud of our family for the fantastic transition that we were all making. Realize, mind you, that in Hong Kong we had a maid and the kids were attending a first rate international school. In little time at all, they had transitioned into a rural and quite poor environment, into a school where they understood very little. Amy and I were now washing our clothes outside on a cement slab and hanging the wet clothes out to dry and hoping for sunshine so we would have something clean to wear.  Our little home was quite cold in the nighttime. A dirt yard, cinderblock walls and cement floor and a rough wood pole and old tile roof meant that dirt was ever-present. If we had just washed and dried a towel or some clothes and they happened to fall off the bed onto the floor, they would be dirty again. There was just no way of getting all of the dirt out of the house. The bottoms of our socks where always dirty unless we kept shoes on at all times. You get the picture.

To add to the dirt, our bodies were also transitioning to a different climate, different food, different water, etc, etc. Everyone in the family had by now gone through a bit of stomach problems, except for me (Beau) (knock on wood). Jorie was the first, probably because she had been buying food outside of the school gates. She had been complaining of stomach aches, and we though she might need to vomit soon. One night, Amy woke me up, saying that it sounded like Jorie needed to throw up. I got out of bed and went over to her bed and, in leaning over to touch her head, inadvertently stuck my hand into a pool of vomit. I couldn't see anything, and Jorie was still asleep. Yes, one of her talents is vomiting while remaining fast asleep. Anyway, you can picture trying to clean up the vomit with some sanitary napkins and taking Jorie outside in the cold to shower her off and wash the stuff out of her hair. After cleaning Jorie up and climbing into bed with her to warm her up, I realized that I probably smelled like vomit, and didn't want Amy to get sick, so I went and took a shower as well.

Then Amy got sick, but took care of herself well enough to not vomit. Audrey threw up a couple of times, once in the bathroom (nice) and once in Bentz's bed, where she was resting. Bentz didn't throw up. All of us, at once time or another (or more accurately, multiple times), have had bouts of diarrhea. For the most part, I attribute this sickness to just getting used to the new environment and food and climate.  Hopefully our bodies get used to all of this and we build up some immunities.

So, after that long explanation, you can tell that we were looking for a break from the dirt and sickness. At first, we thought we would head to Quito for a weekend in a nice-ish hotel. But after looking at the prices and what the hotels had to offer, it didn't seem worth it. We wanted a hotel with a pool for the kids to play in. After looking at a variety of different options, we thought we would head to the coast. We looked into the travel costs and times, and found out that we could take a bus to a cool little coastal town named Puerto Lopez. We were told it would be about 10 hours to the coast and then another 2 hours up the coast to Puerto Lopez.      

Home Improvement Redux

 

Sorry the photos didn't work. Hopefully now they do. I'll just copy the text I had before. 

So we decided that, although living in drafty rough cinderblock was fun and all, a little home improvement would be nice. We asked Carlos and Suzanna if it would be ok if we helped them out with a little project or two. The first thing to do would be to cover the cinder blocks with cement.

Perhaps a little explanation is in order. From our trip with Elnora to her house in the Philippines, we learned that construction and improvement of cement homes in countries like Ecuador often progess in the following manner: (1) after a family has lived in a thatch house (or with their parents) long enough to save some money, a rough cinderblock house is put together. This basically consists of cinderblocks with some cement mud in between, a rough cement floor (think barn floor) and a roof made of log poles and either tin or clay tiles; (2) after again saving some hard earned money, the family can afford to cover the cinderblocks with cement, giving a slightly more "finished" feel; (3) more saving, and then there is enough money to smooth the cement covering the cinderblocks and paint. This last step is awesome. When we stayed with Elnora, we had the chance to help her paint the downstairs of her house, and what a difference it made.

So the Lopez Perugachi family is in the second stage, and we get to help them put the cement onto the cinderblocks. We are excited for a more finished look, and also hope that the cement can keep out the drafts. We are also helping to put up plastic covering (basically really thick garbage bag type material) onto the ceiling to hopefully keep in some of the heat and keep the dirt, dust and spiders from coming down from the clay tiles. The tiles are not exactly affixed to the roof, but just laying down on the log poles. If there is a heavy rain, there are some places that water comes in through the roof, and also a fine misty spray comes floating down onto our faces while laying in bed.

Here is Carlos' friend (I forgot his name), who we have hired to slop the mud onto the walls. He is mixing the water with dirt and cement. Audrey apparently thinks she is in charge of quality control.

 

 

 

 

Here the mud is flung onto the wall and smoothed. You'll notice a piece of tin that is covering the other side of the little window in the wall between the kids bedroom (where he is working now) and our bedroom. This is to catch the stray mud that flies off the mudflinging instrument. We thought we were going to catch everything, but apparently there are some holes in the wall, and the wall doesn't quite reach the ceiling. When we went into the next room, we saw that our water bottles and some clothes had a fresh coat of stray cement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Jorie on the other side of the wall. Also note the sophisticated door covering and our cool, Hong Kong purchased luggage piece. Earlier in the day I did some quick work with Tandanda, moving the stored medicine and miscellany into a new storage closet. We found their small library and Jorie (who had been starved from English language books for 4 weeks, sat in this chair the whole day and nearly devoured a book. Not a children's book either. 

Here is Carlos, up on his newly built scaffolding, getting ready to cement this wall. Although we hired one of his friends who does this for a living (called a "maestro"), Carlos insists on helping once he gets home from work. He then stays at it long after the friend has left, making sure everything is perfect. Needless to say, he is a worker. And with a great attitude to boot.