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from one chapter to the next

By on August 12, 2012 in 2012, Duke, Ecuador

These past few months have certainly held life lessons for all of us,

and adjusting back to our former routines hasn’t been entirely easy.  After having been back in the States for a week or two, we can truly see how this experience has shaped our perceptions, our interactions, and our understandings of ourselves.  We can look at a broken shovel and see all of the lives that it has yet to live.  We can turn a plastic bag into a shoelace, turn a rock into a hammer, and turn a broken bottle into a watering can.  In many ways, we have also come to more personally learn our own faults and shortcomings and how to accept a helpful hand when needed.  And, perhaps most of all, we are constantly reminded of the relative extravagance of our lives.

     There were times that were frustrating.  We struggled with others, with our equipment, and with ourselves.  However, throughout it all, we remembered that we were struggling with, which made it all the more worth doing.  Now Puni Kotona and Santo Domingo are left with a greater appreciation and comprehension of computer skills and English that will aid them in their future studies, covered gardens that will harbor vitamin-rich vegetables to supplement their diets, chakras de guayusa that should help provide a sustainable supplemental income for the schools, nutrition booklets, compost, and a trash collection system.  The desire of the communities truly encouraged these projects, and their efforts will be what continue them. omings and how to accept a helpful hand when needed.  And, perhaps most of all, we are constantly reminded of the relative extravagance of our lives.

As Nelson Henderson once said, “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”  It is something to carry with us as we continue our own stories.  It was heartbreaking to leave the families we had spent two months of our lives coming to love, knowing that we might never see them again.  This experience has certainly impacted our lives as well as theirs, and both parties have learned a great deal.  Now, we must just decide which tree to plant tomorrow.

 

 

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Finishing Our First Greenhouse

By on July 14, 2012 in 2012, Ecuador, Summer Projects, UCLA

We’ve finished another successful week with the completion of our first greenhouse! All of the team members including myself are proud of our hard work. This week by far was our hardest yet, as bringing together all the elements necessary for the greenhouse required immense amounts of perseverance and perspiration in equal measure.

Working on the first greenhouse has been an amazing process. Though the bus ride is lengthy, once the team and I arrive at the project site, a school to the south of Quito in a rural community, the ride is instantly forgotten. The school is teeming with kids, with young life, with individuals whose futures will directly impact Ecuador as a whole in just a few short years. It’s great to think that our collective work, building a greenhouse for and with the people of this community, will help ensure an even grander host of opportunities for each and every child attending Escuela Bogota.

This week saw the installation of one of the most essential parts of the greenhouse: the plastic encasing! The plastic is what makes a greenhouse special; it filters out harmful rays from the sun, allowing the vegetation within to grow up strong and healthy. With careful and precise guidance from Luis, our wonderful leader for the project, we pulled and stretched the specially-made greenhouse plastic across every outside surface exposed to the sun. It’s hard to imagine, but I speak from experience that it is no easy task to stretch plastic until it is completely taut. And yet, with the cumulative effort of all our members, we managed to accomplish what at first seemed impossible. The end results are fabulous.

This week also saw the completion of six planter boxes started last week. These boxes, made out of sturdy plywood planks and posts, will be used as raised beds for planting vegetation within the greenhouses. Due to the tropical climate of Ecuador, vegetation can often rot or mold if planted close to the ground. Therefore, in order to sidestep this molding process, the team created sturdy legs for the planters to raise them from the ground. Though the greenhouse is a huge accomplishment in itself, the team and I are happy to see the initial steps of planting brought to fruition through the construction of the raised planter boxes. All the team members are proud to see every step of the project through to completion.

The small ceremony on our final day, Friday, was short and sweet. We had many helpers along the way: the school administrators provided snacks and milk, the local eatery fed us after long hours of work, and even the school’s children helped with smaller tasks along the way. Everyone came to see the greenhouse completed, and everyone was amazed at what could be accomplished in just two short weeks.

After so much hard work, the team has been happy to take a small weekend stay in Mindo, otherwise known as the Cloud Forest. Ecuador is an extremely diverse nation with many climates, flora, and fauna. Mindo has shown us yet another habitat housed within the country, another facet of Ecuador’s diverse personality. With great excitement, the team looks forward to next week’s project, another greenhouse. Though it will be a farther journey, as it is to be built even farther south of Quito than Escuela Bogota, we now know what it takes to successfully build a greenhouse from beginning to end. With that knowledge, we proceed forward with the utmost confidence in our abilities to collectively achieve our goals.

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A Successful First Week of Building

By on July 3, 2012 in 2012, Ecuador, UCLA

One week of work is under our belts! Last Monday, we set out on a one-hour long bus ride to the southern part of Quito where the site of our first project is.  We are building this greenhouse on the roof of an elementary school so that the children learn about sustainable farming practices and healthy eating while having the ability to produce their own crops year round.

Luis, the agricultural engineer from ConQuito, taught us the basics of the tools we would be using and then we got to work building the framework of the greenhouse.  The older children from the school came to help us as well, and this allowed them to be a part of the building process and also gave us the chance to practice our Spanish.  Although chiseling the beams into the right shape and hammering in the wooden poles straight was sometimes difficult or tiring, everyone definitely had a lot of fun and easily got into the groove of our workdays.

In addition to the greenhouse, we had several small side projects.  The school asked us to paint a mural on a wall in the main courtyard that was educational and incorporated themes from the greenhouse.  We had a blast coming up with ideas and having the kids help us, and the picture shows the final product.  We also weeded a small plot of land in the nearby kindergarten so that we can plant a garden for them.  We have not begun planting yet, but we will this week.  While we were cleaning out this land, teachers from the kindergarten asked several of us to help teach English to the students.  Amanda, Sarah, and Diva were each given about 30 kids to attempt to control and educate, and that was definitely quite the experience.  Hopefully they retained some of our lessons.

Luis also took us to another one of his greenhouse sites and we helped with this project as well.  This greenhouse was located behind the Contemporary Art Museum our job was to wrap each metal pole with plastic to protect it.  An amazing feature of this greenhouse is that it was constructed entirely out of recycled materials.

At the end of this working week, we had finished the basic framework of the greenhouse.  All that is left is the roof, crossbeams, and plastic coverings.  While Amanda, Sarah, and Kristi were painting the mural, Dan, Steven, and Diva were building the planter boxes so we will also need to transfer the plants into those.  We can all agree that this first week has been a great success, working efficiently on our projects while making friends with the local community.

With the weekend came time to explore Quito! On Saturday, we went to Papallacta, a small village in the Andes where there are natural hot springs.  Soaking in the water and relaxing our sore bodies while looking at the beautiful mountains was the perfect way to unwind after this first week of work.  On Sunday, we went to Yanacocha and enjoyed an amazing ten mile hike where we saw different kinds of hummingbirds and butterflies.  Because we were so high up in elevation, we were literally above clouds and the view was breathtaking.

This coming week, Steven will be going back home so we will finish the greenhouse and garden at the school on Thursday and then go back the the one at the museum on Friday.  We have some special guests from Sacramento coming to visit the site on Tuesday and one of them is a journalist who will write a story on our work here.  We can’t wait for another week of work and to finish this greenhouse!

 

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Progress in Puni

By on July 1, 2012 in 2012, Duke, Ecuador, Summer Projects

 

Ally tuta! I cannot believe this will be our last post before our internship comes to an end. After traveling on the weekends to Tena or another destination, returning to Puni Kotona is like returning home. The kids in the community have become our good friends, the teachers have become our colleagues, and our homestay hosts have become family. It will be difficult saying goodbye. 


In the past two weeks, we have made great strides in our projects in the community. As of yesterday, the chakra de guayusa is complete. Students, teachers, and community members helped prepare the land earlier in the week by clearing the vegetation in the area. Yesterday, by using surrounding resources such as sticks and branches, the padres de la familia measured out a grid for the guayusa saplings. About four hours later, all three hundred saplings were planted, and everyone who contributed headed back across the river, with machetes in hand. In about six months to a year, the guayusa leaves will be harvested and sold back to Runa.

Last week, Kaley and I led a community clean-up, as well as a short presentation on the importance of proper trash disposal. Littering is a huge problem in Puni Kotona, so we hope this event, as well as a proposed schedule for regular clean-ups, controls the garbage issue. 

 Because of the help of our host-fathers, we now have a beautiful roof for the school garden. We are eagerly waiting for the seeds in the seed beds, which include watermelon, cucumber, and  various flowers and medicinal plants, to germinate so that we can get the garden in full swing before we leave.

We are now in the process of handing our projects off to people in Puni Kotona that we think will successfully carry on the initiatives. For example, my host-mother, Nancy, has agreed to spreading the word about the compost pile next to the school garden. She will also ensure that the materials in the pile (which will mostly consist of yucca and platano peels) are turned once a week. 

Kaley and I have loved watching people in the community grow and learn from our projects, whether it be mastering numbers in English or asking questions about how humans impact the environment. 

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, hasta luego! 
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From the City of Angels to the Center of the World..

By on June 23, 2012 in 2012, Ecuador, UCLA

After dozens of finals, one graduation, two flights, and a layover six of us found ourselves in Quito, Ecuador’s charming capital named for its location at 00°.00’.00’’ and otherwise known as the middle of the world. As we staggered through customs visions blurred by exhaustion and disorientation none of us could be exactly sure of what lie ahead of us but one thing was for sure, that by this point it was pure adrenaline which  kept us pushing one foot in front of another, adrenaline and the excitement of beginning our project. We were greeted at the airport by Alicia, Coordinator of Triple Salto-the NGO our Nourish chapter has been working with and also our host for the next five and a half weeks. As we settled into our home away from home we began planning the building of two greenhouses in Quito, one would be situated on the roof of a school another to be located in a neighborhood in southern Quito. We began working with ConQuito a government municipality allied with Triple Salto. Our partnerships with ConQuito and Triple Salto would help us build greenhouses for organic farming in urban areas of thecity. The two communities we are working with will utilize the two greenhouses to nourish themselves and sell the excess for a profit thereby our project will combat the high levels of malnutrition amongst young children and pregnant mothers while providing entrepreneurship opportunities. An agricultural engineer named Luis provided our team with a crash-course of greenhouse building and we set off to purchase material to begin building the following week. To fill our time until building starts and to give our bodies the chance to acclimate to the climate and high altitude we have been taking advantage of all that Quito’s culture and landscape has to offer! The following pictures document our adventures in the city of Quito!

The team on top of the statue of El Virgen on Panecillo Hill, a 30m high statue that stands on El Panecillo hill overlooking the Old City. It depicts the Virgin Mary with silvery wings standing on an orb with a serpent curled around her feet and chained to her arm.

 

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Love

By on June 18, 2012 in 2012, Duke, Ecuador

Staring at this screen for the first time in two weeks, I was trying to think about how I could possibly decide what to write about from the plethora of experiences that have occurred thus far when it hit me: the capacity to love here.  To borrow the words of Henri Nouwen, “Often we talk about love as if it is a feeling.  But if we wait for a feeling of love before loving, we may never learn to love well. . . When we “do”  love, even if others aren’t able to respond with love, we will discover that our feelings catch up with our acts.”  Such has been the reception of us here.  Working in a community that has never had volunteers before has certainly exposed us to a genuineness of love, and that within itself has mad our experience greater than anything that we could have imagined.  My host mom calls me “ushi,” which means daughter in Kichwa, the children are always making sure that we don’t fall, and I could not tell you the number of times each day that we’re asked about how we’re doing.

We’ve made lots of progress in our English and computer classes.  It’s inspiring to see the kids’ desire to learn and willingness to help with the other projects.  We’ve started using a double digging technique for the school garden, have begun a composting project that will incorporate kitchen waste from the school’s breakfast program, and have made progress on the school chakra, planting guayusa, yucca, plantains, guineo, and pineapple.  We also had a painting day for the students to decorate rocks to surround the garden.  The girls working in the other community are excited to direct a school play as well!

We are all looking forward to what the next month will bring and are sad to know that our stay is already halfway over.  It’s amazing to see just how the time has flown (not to be cliché).  We hope that we can truly take advantage of the time that  we have left to continue building our relationships with the families in the communities and mirror the love that has been afforded to us.  Emily and I will be without Internet for another two weeks, but we’re looking forward to where these projects will be at that point.  Chao chao, amigos.  Que todo vaya bien.

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