Ecuador!

ok... so I'm just copying and posting this from my other blog (the one for my church and family). So if things aren't applicable... don't worry about it. I'm just doing this so you guys have an idea of what I'm doing in Ecuador.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been in the office for a while and haven't done anything thats really that interesting... well... for others. I've had a good time doing stuff, but its been mostly stuff like webdesign, video editing, and other misc. tasks. I'll be posting some of the stuff I've been working on. Actually I have a video up on youtube.com of one of the general presentations I'm working on. Its a video slide show that generally states what the ministry of Clean Water Projects does.

About three weeks ago I went to a community called Lirio San Gonzalo with a work team from Alaska. We were there to construct a spring capture high above the community. They were already using the spring for irrigation and a little bit for drinking water. The spring had softened and cut out a small piece of the hillside. There were plants growing in it... and the water they were getting wasn't protected from contamination in any way. Our department designed a system used to capture the water from the spring with minimal contamination. Its a process of layering semi-permeable geo-textile's to filter out particles, pvc pipes to gather the water, three types of rocks and gravel to give it support, then a non-permeable plastic sheet to keep it safe, then encase it all in concrete to protect it.

I learned a lot about the whole process and whats its like to be on a team. The whole community set aside every morning to work on this project. There were about 40-50 community members working each morning, 7 work team members, and 6 of us from the department. There are two guys from the department who are native Quichuan, and work for HCJB clean water projects as 'technicos,' or technicians. They are described as the best two guys in the country at spring captures. Martin accurately described it as 'an art that few people have mastered.' A lot of their success comes from being able to speak to the Quichuans in Quichua, directing 40-50 people to work together, and bring everyone together to an extremely efficient and effective building team. They cleaned out the spring, dug it back to a clear source, built up a foundations, and captured the spring. It was fun to watch it being executed. It was fun getting in there, getting muddy, tossing rocks, passing cement buckets, pouring cement, catching cement buckets, and just being covered in lots of cement. I had a good cross cultural experience.

I was approached by two guys who wanted to go to the United States. One was 23 and had a wife, the other was 29 and had a wife and two children. They spoke very plainly, saying they couldn't find good work here, and wanted to work in the United States. I asked the same question probably 3 different times, in different ways, why they wanted to go to the states. They didn't seem to know a whole lot about what they wanted. They also kept asking me if I could take them on the plane with me. I told them it wasn't that simple, that they need passports and work visa's and lots of stuff you needed to apply for. I didn't want to discourage them, even though I think that any problem they are trying to solve isn't going to get solved by moving to the states to work. I gave them my number, and contact information if they ever found their way to the states. Watching them hang out with all their friends, laughing, having a good time building this spring capture made me think what their life would look like if they DID actually make it to the states some how. The close community they had their is non-existent in 90% of the country, the strong social fabric they had would be torn apart if they were to ever return with loads of american money. They wouldn't fit back into that society very well. They would have to break up the family to leave, and I'm sure kids would grow up with out their farther for years and years. I talked to Ceasar Cortez, an Ecuadorian engineer/pastor who was that head of this work team about the situation today because they called me asking for information on passports. They thought I could get them passports, and Ceasar explained that it would be impossible for them to obtain a work visa for the states even if they did get a passport. That made me think... I can go to almost any country I feel like going to (hypothetically - I don't really have any money). If this guy spent his whole life trying to get to the united states... he MIGHT make it. How much privilege I have to be able to do the things I do. Even being a poor missionary should be considered a financial privilege. Looking back at these two guys, I believe they had the resources and opportunity around them to improve their situation. Because of the Ecuadorian social structure and years of oppression, it would be a hard uphill struggle, and I guess thats what we're there for, to alleviate some of the uphill battle and to encourage and empower them, but they are they're own agents of change, we are merely the facilitators.

The team got a nice feast at the end of the week. A whole Cui! In Otovalo those go for $15, so this was a major luxury. I eat about 3/4 of it... which is really quite a bit of food. I think what we were served could have filled me up at 3 different meals.

Ok, so what else have I been up to. I took a lovely trip to downtown this past weekend with Ali and Phil, and Ali's family. I should probably explain that Ali is a Calvin grad who I've gotten to know, whose actually really good friends with Erin Holwerda, and Phil is a co-worker of mine who just got his masters in mechanical engineering at Michigan tech. We saw a couple cathedrals. The one thats picture is really neat because they basically have put stairs and ladders to let you access every little nook and cranny of the whole building. The top had some really amazing views of Quito.

Quito has a lot of cool cultural events that I realized I have been missing out on. Its such a cultural center for Ecuador, and I haven't taken advantage of living here. I've gotten out a bit into the the surrounding area, and down to the coast, and tried to do something cultural every weekend, so I don't feel to bad.

This is me Dangling my feet off a ledge on the roof top of the Cathedral. You can see it just below the cross in the first image.

I've also become pretty good friends with two guys who I live with. One is an American student named Brandon, studying at University of San Fransisco Quito (San Fransisco is the patron saint of Quito and a University here, not a town in CA), and the other is the son of the host family. His name is Diego, and is studying political science. We have good arguments about politics. Brandon grew up as a poorer African American, so I value his opinion on a lot of things because of how different it is than mine. Diego grew up the son of an Agnostic Latin American professor, so his views are rather different than most Americans. Its all been wonderful.