First of all, I apologize on the lack of updates. Things have been busy and I've been feeling lazy when I get home from class. But here is an update of how my 2nd technical trip went:
4.9.11 Tech Trip #2: Bahia, Manabi, Ecuador
I just got back last night from being in Crucita and Bahia, Ecuador this past week for our second tech trip. Bahia is on the west coast of Ecuador and is a very small beach town. It is gorgeous there!!! I got to see some beautiful sunsets in the evenings. I also took over 130 pictures throughout the week, most of the being of the sunsets…. Haha, oops. But we did do lots of work while we were there so let me tell you all about it:
One of the beautiful pics of the sunset I took!
Monday 4.4.11
Monday we visited my friend Bevons site to do some work with his counterpart. When we arrived there he introduced himself and then they gave us all a pre-mature coconut to drink called a pipa in Spanish. Inside was coconut flavored water, it was delicious, but there was a TON of water in them, they were huge. As we got done drinking them the Ecuadorians would cut open the coconut so we could eat the thin layer of coconut that was inside. I didn’t eat all of it because I was so full from the coco water, but it was pretty tasty. And to be honest I didn’t even finish my water so they didn’t cut mine open, but I did try some bites of coco from other peoples.
After we drank the coconuts we had a “minga” to clean up the beach. A minga is when the community comes together to do an activity. We filled a truck full of trash in less than an hour. Craziness. After that we worked in a mangrove. Don’t know what a mangrove is? Well, here is a picture. I’m feeling way to lazy to explain it right now. I’m currently writing this to procrastinate from preparing for a presentation I have to give tomorrow. Blahhh… Anyhoo, so in this mangrove we cut some branches with machetes to create a space so they can build a wooden path through the mangrove. There wasn’t any water in the mangrove so we were walking through with rubber boots and were sinking up to our knees in thighs in mud as we walked through it. Pretty cool. I saw HUNDREDS of crabs, it was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I don’t have pics of being inside the mangrove because I was too afraid I might ruin my camera. Pretty awesome first day on tech trip.
Truck full of trash
Ricky giving a thumbs up on a job well done!
Tuesday 4.5.11
Tuesday we traveled to Bahia in the morning. We taught in a school for a couple hours. Each group taught a class of elementary kids and high school students. My groups topic was water conservation. We first did the apple demonstration showing how much water on the Earth is actually potable. Which is barely anything, honestly. Then we broke up into groups and had them come up with ways they can conserve water in the house and ways to NOT contaminate the fresh water that we do have available to us. Then we had each group present on what they came up with. Pretty successful! Until…. We got to the elementary students ages 9-12ish. We did the same thing with them except the presentation part was a little bit of a disaster.
Wednesday.. okay the days are starting to blur together so I’m just going to recap what we did. We walked with a guide through a dry forest, which was pretty cool. We did another beach cleanup one day and got to play in the ocean afterwards.
Group pic in front of the HUGE tree in the "Bosque Seco"
All Thursday morning we went to another one of my friends sites and worked with his counterpart and organization. We went to Isla Corazón (Heart Island in English) And yes, the island is shaped like a heart, pretty cool. Isla Corazón is actually a protected mangrove. We took a boat tour around the whole island. There were TONSSSSS of birds that were in the trees of the island because they were in migration, pretty awesome sight to see. After the boat tour we took a tour inside the mangrove. They built a wooden walkway through the mangrove, which was convenient and none of us were covered in mud this time. Haha. We then had an awesome lunch of fish! Yummay! When we were done eating we helped finish painting a mural they had started on one of the building walls. Turns out I can paint a little… paint by numbers that is! Haha. The professional drew the outline of the birds, and we painted them in and added some shading. I, surprisingly, did pretty well!
Birds EVERYWHERE!!!
Beautiful bird I painted!
Well that pretty much sums up my trip! It was really fun! Worked, played on the beach, and ate great food. Doesn’t get much better than that!
For all the pics of my trip click on the link below!
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Birthday card Count: 25+!!!!! Also, 3 of my packages have arrived and I will have them on Monday!!!! Just have to pay $15 to receive them! Haha, RIP.OFF! Oh well, so worth it though!
Also, I swear –in as a Volunteer on Wednesday the 20th… that’s in 4 days….I cannot believe the time has come. I’ve only been waiting for this for TWO years!!! I won’t be called a Trainee anymore!! Hoory! Where did 3 months of training go? I feel like I just got here. I’m a little nervous to move to my new site and start my work, but can’t wait to get started and actually figure out what work I want/am going to do!
Tomorrow is Dia de Familias (Family Appreciation Day!) Should be fun. We are cooking 40 of our 80 chickens to feed everyone and have lots of games planned for the little ones!
Heather
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