El Parque Histórico

The Parque Histórico is one of Guayaquil's main tourist attractions. It's a ways out of the city, actually, and therefore is one of those places most locals know about but have not visited. It's a combination zoo and historic center, with a restored 19th-century estate (main house, workers' house, and grounds) and weekly reenactments of life "back then." Think Colonial Williamsburg. Or my beloved Atlanta History Center, with the Swan House and the Tullie Smith House. Look 'em up.

Today some of the teenagers and I visited the park to celebrate the end of our vacation camp, and also to thank them for their hard work in planning and running the camp with me.

Note: Just because teenagers are responsible with younger children does not mean they will be responsible for themselves. Somehow we spent the first 2 hours of this field trip waiting on various people to get to various places and/or do various things. Finally, right around the time we should have been arriving at the park, we were on our way there. Sigh.

Here's some highlights of the trip...

On the boardwalk through the "forest zone" - the zoo part of the park.

Birds of a feather...

A type of green macaw (subspecies A. a. guayaquilensis) specific to western Ecuador.

A giant neurotic tapir.

Not sure what they were looking at.

In an old-timey cable car.

Seesaw >> subibaja (roughly translated, "rise-and-fall")

Bridge >> puente

Intrepid explorers in a grounded canoe.

Goat.

"Love life"

Lovin' life.

Almuerzo, How I Love Thee

Because it is such a large part of my life here, I'm surprised I haven't written more about the food I eat. I think it's safe to say that the majority of my colleagues and I were initially unimpressed by Ecuadorian cuisine. And it's true, most of the dishes here are prepared with copious amounts of oil and salt. And starch. In the mountains, potatoes are eaten with most meals, and here on the coast anyone will tell you that it's not a real meal if it doesn't have rice. We're talking rice or potatoes three meals a day, people. No joke.

Anyway, eventually we (I'm taking the liberty of speaking for my entire training group) came to know various Ecuadorian dishes, appreciate them, and find our favorites among them. One reason I love living in the coastal region is that there is a bigger variety of food here (fact), and it's yummier than in the Sierra (opinion).

A word on almuerzo: Almuerzo is lunch, the biggest meal of the day. Whether you go to a restaurant or cook at home, a typical almuerzo includes soup, a "segundo" - a plate with something starchy, something meaty, and some kind of salad usually slathered in mayonnaise (also, noodles sometimes count as salad) - and a cup of fresh juice. On occasion, dessert is included as well. In Guayaquil, an almuerzo costs between $1.50-$2, and they're usually cheaper outside the big city.

I plan to write a lot more about Ecuadorian food on this here blog; it's too tasty to pass up. And, to whet your appetite, here's some pictures of delicious almuerzos, all of which were immediately devoured by yours truly as soon as the camera went click.

Some kind of delicious soup. Cow stomach in peanut sauce with rice and avocado. Papaya juice.

Some other kind of delicious soup. Crab salad with rice. Mango juice.

Llapingachos: fried potato patties with peanut sauce. Sortof like potato latkes? Fried egg on rice. Served with tomato and sausage.

Roasted chicken with potato puree, rice and tomato.

Lentil soup.

Freshly squeezed orange juice.

SECO DE POLLO. Chicken stew. Ubiquitous. Real yum.

Broccoli soup with popcorn.

Thin sliced, pan seared beef with lentils. Orange juice, fresh; always fresh.

Patacones, double-fried green plantains; green plantain soup; shrimp ceviche.

...Wow, some of these pics are from a year or more ago, but just thinking back on how delicious the meals were makes me salivate. Would it be wrong to write a Pledge of Almuerzo? I pledge almuerzo / to the flag / of the happiness of my stomach...

Dave Eggers Has An Insight Into My Life

Since finally leaving her bed she has been doing the necessary things...and for each task she has had to walk from her hut to the hotel, has had to walk past the men sitting and standing along the steps into the lobby. Eight to ten of them, young men, sitting, waiting without speaking...When Rita walked past them she tried to smile faintly, without looking too friendly, or rich, or sexy, or happy, or vulnerable, or guilty, or proud, or contented, or healthy, or interested--she did not want them to think she was any of those things. She walked by almost cross-eyed with casual concentration.

"Cross-eyed with casual concentration"...this is how I felt walking through the streets of Guayaquil for a good six months upon arriving. Eventually, after spending a year and half somewhere, one begins to feel comfortable in one's own skin. But occasionally I still get this feeling, described in an excerpt from Dave Eggers' short story "Up The Mountain Coming Down Slowly," whose main character is a visitor in a foreign country. One of the appeals of Peace Corps, to me at least, was the two-year time commitment: longterm service requires deeper cultural integration, gaining the trust of a community, and ultimately makes for a more effective volunteer. There are still moments...mornings...entire days, however, when I feel like nothing else but an outsider. When I'm eating an empanada and am suddenly aware of people's eyes on me. When I'm walking down the street and realize my shoulders are tensed for no reason. This whole integration thing, it takes time. Like, a lifetime.

The Kichwa / Peace Corps Sustainable House Project, Redux

Many of you contributed to the Kichwa / Peace Corps Sustainable House Project we started raising money for at the end of last year. In fact, one of my Christmas presents was the final donation to complete our funding goal. In February, work on the house began in earnest, and this month saw its completion. Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to bus up and lend a hand, but the good news is that the house is there and open to any travelers who are inclined to make the village of Tingo a stop on their itinerary. Don't be fooled; its tiny size belies the gigantic welcome you would receive if you ended up visiting.

Here's a rundown of the project's progress over the past couple of months.

***Note: This text is lifted from our project's wrap-up report on the Global Giving website. I ain't no plagiarizer.***

(Rebar corners)

(Foundation)

In March we completed the Tingo Sustainable House Project. The community provided labor and land, and several Peace Corps Ecuador Volunteers assisted with construction, which began in February. The completed house includes an East-facing solar bottle wall...

(Bottle wall)

...composting toilet, rain catchment system, clean wood-burning stove, and natural straw-ventilation for the roof.

(Installing straw roof)

(Roof plastic and beams)

(Roof sheeting)

We also experimented with an alternative, naturally insulated form for the concrete floor.

(Floor and foundation)

(Floor poured)

Perforated brick partition walls separate interior spaces but allow maximum sunlight to filter through the house, which is organized into an entrance hall, kitchen and bedroom, with an attached bathroom.

(Brickwork)

We hope that this simple but considered program will shape how new homes are built in the area; typically, local houses lack even basic space-planning.

Extra bricks, unused in the building construction, will be donated to the community for clean stoves in existing houses.

(PCV Ronald and a ton of bricks)

We hope that the low cost of several building elements included in the house (straw insulation, wood stoves, insulated concrete floors) will encourage residents to copy those techniques in future construction. It is probably unlikely that other elements of the house – bottle walls, brick masonry – will be replicated elsewhere, however, and our final price tag of $2900 slightly exceeds our original budget and average costs for local homes.

(Plastering)

(PCVs Mike, Isa, and Angela on site)

We hope the finished building will promote the nascent community tourism initiative developed by indigenous residents in the area, and provide temporary housing for volunteers working in Tingo.

(Front door)

(Exterior)

(Interior straw roof)

(Interior entrance)

(Interior entrance and wall. The pipe sticking out of the wall is where the sink will go.)

(Interior window view)
(Admit it, you would love to have a view like that)
(Well you can)
(Just come to Tingo)

(Kitchen looking into bedroom)

(Interior bedroom wall, and clean stove is on the left. The bedroom is already equipped with a bunk bed, and in the photo men are putting in a desk, afixed to the wall in the corner.)

(View of the completed house. The blue tank outside is already full with rain water and hooked up to the house.)

Next week the villagers will put on the final touches: another coat of paint, cleaning the floor, and generally tidying the place up. And the house design and project budget will be printed as a poster, to be hung outside--the idea being that anyone in town can check out how and where to buy materials for a stove, roof, rain catchment, etc. for their own house.

***THANKS to all who contributed. You guys made this project possible!***

Pequeños Exploradores Creativos

Thrice a week for the past two months, a handful of my teenagers and I have led a day camp for children - the "creative little explorers" - during school vacation. Activities have included math, spelling, and grammar review; nature class; and arts & crafts, among other things ("other things" being activities in which I deemed it unsafe to bring out my camera for fear of it being knocked out the window or otherwise destroyed by the kids' overwhelming enthusiasm, as when we played Four Square and Pictionary).

Reading and spelling practice, combined with coloring.

Recycling plastic bottles to plant herbs.

One week, we did Lectura en Acción (Reading in Action), an activity credited to my friend Claire.

The idea is that you read a story to the group, then improvise props and costumes and assign roles, and then re-read the story as the kids act it out.

See if you can tell what story we did:

At one point the wolf jumped the gun and started tearing down the second little pig's house without having the decency to threaten him beforehand:



Continuing with this theater theme, we have spent the past few weeks preparing a "títeres show" - a puppet show, that is - to celebrate the end of our course. The celebration is tomorrow (YIKES), and some special guests will be present. For now, here's a sneak peek at the process of building the set:

(My brother, Gringo Sam, was visiting for part of the project.)

(He taught the kids to juggle with limes.)

(The story we will present involves a beanstalk.)

Stay tuned for more tomorrow. Please pray that the set holds up...that the sock puppets don't lose googly eyes in the middle of the show like they did today during rehearsal...and that the curtain doesn't fall down. Thanks.