We´re in Baños again... which could only mean one thing: out of the jungle. This time, our Amazon trip brought us north up the Rio Napo (one of the major tributaries leading to the Amazon River) to a small community called Mondaña, where we spent two weeks volunteering with the Yachana Foundation. An organization dedicated to preserving its 3,600 acre reserve, teaching local kids important sustainable agricultural and tourism skills, and providing healthcare to the community, Yachana was a perfect place to offer our hands. Much had changed since Claire´s last visit as a tourist in January, 2004: the Yachana Technical High School, built 2 1/2 years ago, now hosts 160 students who have been elected as leaders of their small communities to attend the school and return home with many new and valuable skills -- skills directly applicable to their way of life.
But some things remained the same. Delfin and Juan, the two guides with more information than an Amazonian encyclopedia, still lead groups of tourists young and old (mostly old) through dense rain forests, on bird-watching expeditions, grub-munching (yes, actual grubs) cooking classes, and on river floats. We spent the first few days getting adjusted by joining in on the fun with a group of 15 honorary grandparents from the midwest on their tours. We were also fortunate enough to join Tom, the reserve´s conservation manager, on a 4-hr trek through some of the area´s only remaining primary rain forest. The reserve hosts the highest diversity of plant species, remaining undisturbed during years of detremental agriculture, and which results in a dense and towering upper canopy... and plenty of fist-sized creepy crawlers! (It´s amazing how accustomed you become to the constant barrage of mosquitos, flying cockroaches, bullet ants and bizarre spiders.)The ¨fun¨came to an abrupt stop and the ¨real work¨ began when we transitioned to spending our days at the colegio (high school) with 15 to 23-year-old students. We expected to help out by teaching english but were surprised to find that need was already met by five fantastic english teachers, each of which was committed for long periods of time (anywhere from 10 weeks to 2 years or indefinitely!) and also specialized in teaching their own brand of ecology or sustainability. At a loss for how we could contribute to these efforts of volunteers from around the globe, we were reassured that our presence with the students was invaluable; simply offering the students a different perspective than they knew from their reality of growing up in rural Amazon was a tremendous offering.
By the end of the two weeks one could hear the guitar riffs of Bob Marley and Ben Harper echoing from various corners of the colegio; we taught them song lyrics during two of their english class periods to live guitar, and many others took interest in learning such different music styles during their free time, watching Ryan intently as he strummed to a skank beat. Our other contributions included creating innovative silkscreen designs for the new Yachana t-shirts and introducing recycled paper-making techniques that Claire gleaned from her years in mom Daisy´s at-home workroom.
Elvis, a student in quinto curso (junior year) said it best: ¨Nunca me olvidare como me ensañaste atonar la guitarra, Ryan.¨(I´ll never forget how you taught me to tune my guitar, Ryan.) The ¨king´s¨ guitar had remained out of tune in anticipation of a tuner arriving from Quito in a month or two. Robert, a Mondaña Community local and a natural-born leader, was by far the most motivated student. He took Claire´s brief mention of paper recycling and ran with it, constructing and collecting the necessary equipment (a screen with wooden borders, a ¨sponge¨ made out of a foam mattress, the one functioning blender in the community, which happened to be his mom´s, and even his own t-shirt to dry the paper on) in one afternoon!
We left by canoe as the sun rose, returning once again to ¨civiliation¨. Among all of these jungle memories we forgot to mention our amazing week in Quito and Otavalo for Claire´s 23rd, which was spent with great new friends (Raul from Mexico and Phillip from Germany, aka ¨German Deacon¨ (note the photo in album); our pals Flannery, Abbey and Stewey who we met in Quilatoa, and who hooked us up with English teaching materials for Rio Verde -- THANKS GUYS!!! -- ; and simpatica Gaby, our friend Jesse´s Quiteña gal from his year abroad).
For photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/clapoma/OtavaloQuitoAndAmazonVolunteeringWYachana
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