I am still working at the water company and have gotten quite a few projects done. I finished the proposal for the water bypass for Buenos Aires, it will cost around $15,000 so I doubt that they will be doing anything anytime soon. I finished the design and report for the community in the jungle and will be headed out there again within this next month to oversee some of the construction/changes that I suggested. I also fixed the chlorine system/dosage for the water of Cumanda, so now they are delivering chlorinated water 24 hours a day…I now technically drink potable water! I helped a small community above where I live start to chlorinate their water as well, so they will be receiving potable water soon too. I am currently working on an addition to the sewage system in Cumanda where a small neighborhood is not connected yet. I don`t like working with the sewage plans much, though, because all the pipes eventually lead straight to the river without any sort of treatment and no plans to start treating the water anytime in the future (This is the same river where I used to swim about 5 km downriver in Buenos Aires). Also we are currently going out to elementary schools in the community to show a video that the water company put together to teach the kids about water conservation and the water treatment process. We have visited five different schools and talked to over 300 kids. We even took a small group up to the water plant to show them firsthand how the water is treated. I think in the next couple of weeks we are going to meet with the presidents of each neighborhood in Cumanda to give the same presentation.
I also have become quite involved in a restaurant in Cumanda that just opened a couple months ago where my two close friends work. I started visiting to just hang out and then became more and more involved and now am basically their secretary helping them with the money matters. I go in the afternoons when I have nothing else to do and then end up staying until they close at night. I help serve food, make salads and juices, and balance the money, it’s pretty fun and I am meeting all kinds of people that come and eat. Most are normal, but there are also a lot of strange people with all kinds of strange beliefs. For example, there are two men, whom are vegetarians that come to eat. They will only eat with plastic spoons and disposable cups. Apparently they believe in witchcraft and spells. They think that people put spells on the utensils, cups, plates, etc. To avoid any spells, they have to wash their mouths out before and after eating, they take the cups with them to burn after the meal, and one will take a spoon with him and the other breaks his in half and leaves it on the plate. It`s kind of creepy. Ecuadorians in general have a lot of random beliefs. You can`t sweep the restaurant floor at night, only in the morning to sweep out the bad energy. There are also all kinds of vendors that come to sell different liquid concoctions that will bring more customers and drive out bad energy (and people actually buy these liquids). And they are really into incense for the energy as well. I guess there are three different scents of incense that help a business. All kinds of hocus pocus.
Anyways, in addition to helping with random things around the restaurant, I am helping them keep their money straight and teaching them to write down all their inputs and outputs and all that jazz. Currently the just sell the standard almuerzo (lunch: soup, rice with some sort of meat, little salad or cooked beans, and juice), tortillas, and milkshakes. In about a week though, they will start selling pizza. We wrote up a business type plan (nothing too intense, they wanted to have pizza and I said ok but let’s see if it will be profitable first), and I helped design a logo, and made business cards and menus. It is amazing how easy it is to do things here. If someone wants to open a restaurant, they just rent the space. If someone wants to make pizza, they just buy the oven. And that´s that.
One older man comes into the restaurant every night to eat soup. He finishes one bowl, says there is a hole in the bowl and then asks for another. He normally eats four bowls of soup every night. He is quite friendly, has lots of stories to tell, and works on a palm oil plantation. He invited us out to the farm last weekend. We went out early to milk the cows from the dairy where he helps maintain the pastures, and then we went to his palm oil plantation. It was pretty cool. The palm trees are huge and as you walk through the perfectly spaced forest of palm trees you seem tiny. The oil comes from a seed about the size of a walnut (a relatively flat walnut) that is red in color. The smash the seeds and the oils pour out. We walked through the forest, found his trusted donkey (which I rode for a while), and went out to see his rice. When we arrived, his cows, which had gotten loose, were munching away on his prize winning rice. I played cowboy and wrangled up all the cows and put them in their pen. After, we collected all kinds of fruits for juices in the restaurant and other random goodies from the farm. It was nice to be back in the campo.
Random Thoughts:
- My cat started acting sluggish and his tail got swollen and he wouldn´t let me touch it. I took him to the vet and turns out he had a pretty nasty wound under all the fur. The vet thinks that another cat bit him and then the bite got infected. The vet drugged him and then pumped him full of antibiotics. He has recovered but now has a three inch chunk of tail with no fur. Poor guy.
- I ate some bad street tortillas a couple weeks ago and vomited every single thing in my stomach (I think some stomach lining might have come up too), and then had diarrhea for about a week after. And with only six months left in PC, I finally joined the PCV club (PCVs will understand).
- I still go to Buenos Aires three times a week for recycling and English classes. Not too many kids come anymore though and it is getting more and more difficult.
- My hamster gave birth to six gummy bear looking babies. One died the first night but the other five made it through and are now full grown and in various homes. I`ll post some pictures soon, they are pretty crazy looking when they are tiny and bald.
- A few weekends ago I planted a garden with the restaurant folks to grow vegetables for the restaurant. We planted all kinds of things, from veggies to fruits. Everything but the zucchini is sprouting.
- I bring home bones and random meat scraps from the restaurant for my cat to eat. One day I forgot and when my cat realized I had nothing for him, he jumped out the window (I leave it open for him to get in and out when he wants), he came back about ten minutes later with a dead rat. He walked over to his food bowl, plopped it down, and then proceeded to eat his meal.
