Quebrada Arroyo
Hey there,
I'm back. Maybe you wondered where I was. Maybe you didn't. Too bad, you get to read all the gory details whether you like it or not.
Intro
Well, I last wrote six/seven weeks ago, we had just arrived from Guayabo on our way to Quebrada Arroyo. We had a fantastic time. Even though I am still tired and a bit overwhelmed by the pile of emails, things to do, and work I am about to start, I still can't help but be happy and excited with how everything went. Our community was great, our group was great, my group leader partner was great, even the weather seemed great by the end, I was so happy with how things were going. Not even getting my daypack stolen could put a damper on things. Maybe starting work full-time on Thursday (15th) will do the trick... :)
I am still struggling to summarise the past 6-7 weeks into something coherent and sharable. I haven't even fully processed everything myself yet, I don't think.
Request
Actually, since my daypack was stolen, I have a request - can you please send me your postal address, phone number, birthday, etc. I lost my address book that had a lot of that vital information. I also lost my camera, undeveloped film, walkman, notebooks on various project happenings, a 20 page letter I had written to a friend, evaluation forms for our participants (that we had to re-write last weekend), some clothes, some gifts I received from the community and most painfully, my journals - the one from Nicaragua and the one from here. The journals are irreplaceable. The rest of the stuff I can do without, but the journals... My group was so supportive though when it happened and gave me a new journal and entries they copied from their journals to put in mine... So, I have 13 new, fantastic friends. Maybe that is a good way to summarise the last ten weeks.
Arrival
Well, we left the Reto house early to catch our 8am bus to Quepos. We hiked over to Coca-Cola with our backpacks and daypacks - Coca-Cola is renowned for its lack of security and thefts (foreshadowing?). We piled up our bags in a huge pile and many people went off to the washroom and/or to buy snacks. The bus suddenly started loading and most of us loaded bags with 1 or 2 of us watching the pile. In spite of this, one of the women in our group had her daypack stolen, probably right at this time. It was terrible (as I now realise from first-hand experience).
She lost her camera, glasses, rubber boots, toiletries, some of our group money and hers and more. We weren't even sure while we were still in San Jose, because we thought that _maybe_ someone had loaded it under the bus by accident, but when we got to Quepos, we knew for sure. She was very upset and I didn't know what to do to comfort her. In the end, we went shopping. We bought her new boots and toiletries - then she felt a little better.
We arrived in Quepos to that disaster and to find no one to meet us, at least not right away. Later, we found out that Julian, from MAG - a government agency, was having some last minute trouble organising our transport. By the time, we got back from shopping, Julian was there.
Julian was a government official, and had previously agreed to help our group with transport (to get in, out, bringing us fresh vegetables and in emergencies). But, he was much more than that in the end, he became our good friend. He went out of his way to help us, several times he took people in to see the doctor (including me) and brought us back at 10:30,11pm at night - meaning he didn't get home until past 12. This is significant, given that our usual bedtime was between 7 and 8pm. He sacrificed a lot of time that he would normally have spent with his family to help us. We are/were very grateful.
Back in Quepos, we piled all the packs into MAG's truck and 4 people squeezed into the double cab. The rest of us jumped into a mini-bus they had rented. We then proceeded on what was normally a one to one and a half hour trip. In this case, we stopped in Londres with the mini-bus as it could go no further on a road that was only passable by 4x4 vehicle. Londres was generally considered to be sort of the last stop of "civilisation" (for lack of a better word) on the way to Quebrada Arroyo. It was the last town with phones and electricity. We were on our way to a different sort of life.
From Londres, another MAG truck came with Asdrubal driving. Asdrubal also worked with us a lot - he was born in Quebrada Arroyo and was really interested in seeing the project move forward. The rest of us had to fit in the other truck, mostly in the cab. The interesting part of this was that Asdrubal did not have a license to drive, although he claimed that he could drive just fine. Mark and I worried about this, but we didn't seem to have another option to get there, so we decided that one of us should ride in the cab with Asdrubal, worrying the whole way. It was fine, of course, and Julian took the truck with the people riding in the back, so the danger was minimised.
Quebrada Arroyo
As we got close, our arrival was delayed by a CAT working on the road. The community had rented it for a few days to fix up the road, putting in drainage pipes and digging ditches. So, as we waited, we chatted to some of the community members there who were just finishing up for the day and I mentioned that we would like to set up a meeting with the community soon to introduce the group and what we are all about to the community and to have them introduce themselves and the project to us. Miguel, the community leader, suggested that we meet at three. (It was then 1 or 2pm). I, rather foolishly, agreed. I had no idea that they would want to meet so fast. So much for settling in... :) After telling the group, I realised what I had done, so renogotiated for 4pm, I think, so we had a bit more time.
So, we rushed home and got some sleeping areas setup and changed clothes and ran down to the community's school, which was where all of the community events took place (except church). It was late in the day, so we all gathered outside under the overhang in front of the school. It was a bit dark and stuffy in the school at that time of day. The community members all sat on one side and we on the other. It felt a bit odd, and everyone was just trying to scope out the other side - "what are they like?", "will they like us?", "will we like them?", etc.
Mark and I presented about YCI and then the community association talked a bit about the project and what they expected from us - English classes, sharing of culture. We set up another meeting for later to define and schedule all of the activities we wanted to do.
We went home for dinner and a full schedule of activities that we needed to accomplish before we went to work on Monday. We went through our evacuation plan, safety plan, getting settled, etc. etc.
Homebody
On the first Monday, I was homebody. In Guyana, we called this officer of the day. This means the people (two) who stay home and cook for everyone and clean the house etc. We usually ate breakfast at 4:45am so we could leave for work at 5:30 and start at 6am. As homebody, one would usually get up at 3:45 or 4 to cook oatmeal or pancakes. (Once, I even got up at 3am to make gallo pinto! - only once though :) After sending everyone off, we would often clean the bathroom, kitchen - mopping, taking out the compost, etc. Lunch was at 11am so we often started cooking early. We had to take it to them so we usually left at 10:30 or 10:45am to bring it down.
Our House
Our house belonged to a family that had moved to Quepos in search of other work. This was common here, and was the motivation for the eco-tourism project - to provide local jobs to keep people from moving away - a last attempt in some ways, to keep the Quebrada Arroyo from becoming a ghosttown like others near there.
Our house was a bit small, but we somehow all fit in. There was a kitchen, bathroom (toilet, that was constantly backing up, and a shower), laundry sink outside and 4 bedrooms (plus our porch). I and two others slept in hammocks on the porch. I had had my heart on sleeping in the hammock, to sort of relive those good times we had in Guyana. Others were spread throughout the house. We had a common room, where we often squeezed in for our meetings and meals.
We often had visitors, of the animal kind - scorpions, accompanied by screams and expletives, lizards, ants, cockroaches, horses, cows, spiders and finally, our bat. In the night, for several weeks, we were visited by a bat. Everyone who had to make a nocturnal bathroom trip experienced it. (When I was sick, I also experienced it firsthand) The bat seemed to swoop down, attacking whoever was in the kitchen (the route to the bathroom). It was odd, because most bats are only interested in fruits and/or insects. Either it was a vampire bat, or we all smelled like rotten, moving fruit. :) In any case, no one was bitten.
Work
That first day, I took the lunch to our group. We were working on the road - about 30 minute walk from our house. It was hard work. We carried big rocks and sacks of gravel and sand to fill in the ruts in the road. Some people also dug ditches. The place where we were getting the gravel and rocks collapsed twice, almost burying some community members. They laughed, but our group was very nervous.
When I worked on the road the next day, I started an Olympics event - 100m dash with a full sack, against the kids/teenagers that worked with us. I (Canada) won many times, but I was soooo tired the next day. Crazy. Many young women worked with us, which was great to see. They gave the whole group an energy that was incredible. The community once said of our group that we were adults with the hearts of children, but I often thought that we got some of our spark of fun from these young people that worked with us.
Fortunately, we only had to work on the road for 3 days (plus one more day later on). Most of our work involved creating trails for the eco-tourism project. Using shovels, picks, machetes and working with 15-20 community members, we dug 6km of trails in 6 weeks. Then we hauled gravel to surface, planted clippings and posts at the trail edge for 3 km of trail. Originally, the plan called for us to do 2km of trail. We were very pleased with what we had all accomplished together.
Vacation
For two weeks, we worked hard. After two weeks, Mark and I were due for our 2 day vacation. In the week leading up to the vacation, Mark and I did mid-point evaluations with each of our 12 participants. We did it on the weekend and after work each day. By the end of it, I was really exhausted, and didn't even realise it. My poor group had to suffer through my grouchiness and unsupportable moods for more than a week. The vacation was much needed, although I should have realised how run down I was getting and taken a day off of work or something. (Something Mark and I got better at later on)
For my vacation, I visited my friend Paul, also an ex-YCI group leader, currently working for Netcorps in San Isidro. I probably wouldn't have gone if I had realised that the bus ride was 4 hours (and that the bus would break down on the way, costing us an extra 1.5 hours) - I had thought it would be about 2 hours (it's about 80km away). Also, I tried to call Paul, but never got through, but decided to go anyway - living life on the edge. :)
When I arrived, I called Paul and he was about to go out to dinner/beers with some of his participants, so I joined them. It was a real shocker to be in such a luxourious (and expensive) bar with all these ex-pats and rich ticos. Eventually, we went home and chatted for a bit before he crashed. I was tired too, but I was too excited to see 2 recent Globe and Mails and a MacLeans magazine - I read the latest Globe (about Pierre Trudeau) from cover to cover. Slept in - gloriously to about 7 or 8am. Paul and I went shopping and bought potatoes etc to make a delicious omelette and hash browns. I was in heaven. (Although, french toast would have been better, of course :) We never had eggs on project...
Paul and I chatted at length about both of our situations and the troubles we were having - it was so good to chat to someone outside of the situation. That, more than anything, is what rejuvenated me to return back to project - a lot saner, happier and ready for anything.
Community
What was the community like? At first, we were a bit worried - the people seemed very religious - they didn't drink, didn't play soccer, didn't sing songs, didn't swim in the swimming hole. All things that we liked to do. Then we discovered that there was a difference between the two religious groups in the community. The Evangelicals were very strict and the Catholics were not. The community president was a Catholic, Miguel. He continually invited us to play soccer (a very rough sport, especially when people take it so seriously...) and later invited us to drink Chichi, a homebrewed corn alcohol. I tried it, probably breaking several YCI policies, and it wasn't bad.
By the end of our time there though, things had changed. Even the evangelical priest played soccer and baseball with us on the last day and people were singing as they worked, etc. It seemed we had gained the community's trust and they trusted us - but more than that, Julian told us that he noticed that the community had relearned how to have fun. That was gratifying, and hopefully not a bad thing. No one there seems to think so, so we left with that happiness in our hearts.
The end, for now
There are more stories to tell, such as the black pig story, the big crying sessions we had, some of the tough times, the community assembly, running out of gas for the stove, running out of oats and rice, leaving the group, the community, telling more about my group and how great they all are, maybe even more stories from Guayabo, and my new, current work, but I have been working on this for many hours and I think I'd better send it. (and I'm just plain tired :) Hope you are all well, I'll try to write more next week, but please write and let me know how you are doing...
Abrazos (hugs), missing you all,
Rob