Ecuador

From January 7-January 17^th I was in Ecuador with this wonderful group of women. I feel like there is soooo much to say about it and in the midst of packing for Uganda and trying to get ready for this next adventure, I’m afraid I won’t be able to adequately describe it… but, nonetheless, here is my attempt!

We lived at this beautiful hacienda that is home to the NGO we were working with, FBU. (You can read more about it here: http://www.fbu.com.ec/fbu_ecuador.htm) Our day began each morning when we heard the breakfast bell ringing from downstairs (though breakfast was at a set time, it was really “when the bell rings” which was refreshing and set a different pace). We’d all make our way downstairs and sit at the enormous table that fit all 18 of us and was decorated with colorful fresh flowers from the garden, with the sun shining in through the window that filled the whole wall. My favorite parts of breakfast each day were the warm milk from the cows that had been milked that morning (into which we added coco powder or coffee powder, so good!) and the scrambled eggs. I don’t usually have strong feelings about scrambled eggs, but these seemed to taste so different than any other scrambled eggs I’d ever had! I wish I had asked how they made them, because the scrambled eggs I made when I got home just did not measure up. Pretty much all of the food we ate there was from the farm/garden and it felt so cleansing to know exactly where the food I was eating had come from, and to be eating all fresh, organic foods. It made me much more aware of what I was putting into my body, and it felt good to be eating good things!

This is Ana and I with two of the women who run the movement for Women's Reproductive and Sexual Rights in Ecuador

Each day was completely different and completely wonderful. Though we were doing different things each day, there was a nice routine to it, and I really enjoyed that time was more based on what we had just done or what we were about to do, and less based on the timing of a mechanized clock. Most days we had breakfast, let the food settle and got ourselves together, did something in the morning, had lunch in the early afternoon (around 2:30ish), did something in the afternoon, had dinner (around 7:30ish), had a group discussion, did some sort of other activity (like have a bonfire, have a dance party with the Ecuadorian high school students we were staying with, etc.) and then hung out in our rooms together. During the day we spoke with amazing people who are all working to improve the situation in their communities in some way. Some of them were running women’s rights type organizations and some were running other community based organizations and were the first women to have the position they held. Some of them were focused on other issues in the community, like promoting eco-agriculture, helping to teach the local community organic farming practices, or were teachers in the local school. Each person had so much information and perspective to share with us, and I felt myself really engaging in each conversation in a way that I’m not sure I always do in a classroom in school. It felt so real and invigorating to be learning about the issues from the people who are taking them head on, instead of through some random website or an outdated book. It was both exciting and upsetting, because though we were learning the ways in which these people are dedicating their effort, their time and their spirit to try to improve people’s lives in their communities, some of the obstacles they are fighting against are so large and powerful- the government, oil companies, foreign rose plantation owners… the list goes on. It’s so frustrating that they have to tackle these enormous powers over things that they shouldn’t have to be fighting for in the first place (like the right to prevent one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world from being turned into an oil mine) but it is inspiring to hear from the people who are up for the challenge and who are putting all their love and effort into what they believe in.

I recently saw this in an article (you can read the rest of the article here: http://www.utne.com/Spirituality/The-Art-of-a-Lively-Conversation.aspx) and it made me think of how we often do not really open up to people and share what we are really thinking about and feeling, but those inhibitions seemed to melt away while we were in Ecuador, creating a space for real, honest dialogue. “Finding oneself in a good conversation is rather like stumbling on a beautiful square in a foreign city at night—and then never knowing how to get back there in daytime. Why do conversations go wrong? Shyness has a lot to answer for. We get scared of opening our souls because we falsely exaggerate the difference between ourselves and others. We imagine that others don’t share in our vulnerabilities or interests. We display only our strengths—and hence become boring, for it is in the revelation of our weaknesses, in the display of our mortality in all its dimensions, that people grow sympathetic….We should be braver. An evening comes alive when we meet people who express our very own thoughts, but with a clarity and psychological accuracy we could not match. They know us better than we know ourselves. What was shy and confused within us is unapologetically and cogently phrased in them, our pleasure at the meeting indicating that we have found a piece of ourselves, a sentence or two built of the very substance of which our own minds are made. The dinner party companion has located words to depict a situation we thought ourselves alone in feeling, and for a few moments, we are like two lovers on an early dinner date thrilled to discover how much they share (and so unable to do more than graze at the food in front of them).” Both the formal group discussions that we had each night, and the individual conversations that they sparked at meals, while lying in the sun, or in our rooms before bed, were so unlike conversations that a group of people who previously barely knew each other would have- at the risk of sounding corny, I’m going to go ahead and say it was pretty magical. During this short amount of time, I felt like we created one of the strongest communities I have ever been a part of because of our willingness to give of ourselves to each other by sharing our pasts, thoughts, ideas, inconsistencies and vulnerabilities. By sharing these parts of ourselves that are not on the surface during our day-to-day lives, we were able to immediately shed the superficial layers and quickly move to more meaningful relationships. Because we then had a strong basis to move from, our discussions were more nuanced, our questions dug deeper and our answers were more honest. I wish that this form of relationship-building was more commonly practiced in our day to day lives, but in the fast-paced world that we live in (well at least at Columbia) I think its hard for people to find time to just sit and talk, and enjoy each other’s presence. Though it sometimes may really be a lack of time, I think it really is a mindset issue; we can make the time if we make it a priority. And I’m definitely not advocating dropping the other things we do to just sit around and talk all the time, but I do think that we get so wrapped up in our responsibilities and to-do lists, that we forget how important it is to value and nurture our relationships. I hope to keep this in mind as I head to a new place where I know absolutely no one, and as I eventually return to reconnect with all of the wonderful people in my life in the US.

Just to quickly some up some of the other stuff we did… we learned how to milk a cow (and got unlucky in our timing, I guess the cow decided to leave us with something to remember her by and relieved herself while we were crowded around her- cow poop splashes all around!), painted a mural in the local school, taught an English lesson at this school (i.e. taught them the song “head, shoulders, knees and toes” and then played a bunch of fun games) learned about indigenous beliefs, had some pretty intense games of Uno, Twister and Apples to Apples, played soccer with the Ecuadorian high school students, watered plants as part of a reforestation project, worked on the farm, petted a two-day old calf (sooo cute!!), straddled the Equator, climbed a volcano, swam in natural hot springs surrounded on all sides by mountains (I apparently almost kicked our tour guide in the face during my brief synchro demonstration…oops!), sat around a roaring bonfire, tried many different fruits for the first time, saw the most incredible starry sky (Ecuador is the only place you can see both northern and southern constellations), and played dress-up with some pretty adorable children! It was so nice to not worry about time, to be free from technology, and to just enjoy each other’s company in such a beautiful place!