Come one, come all!

6.05


...who would have though that sheeps, lambs, goats, and pigs ride for free on the top of the bus!?

Every thursday about 45 minutes down the mountain from my community we have one, or the, biggest market in all of province Chimborazo. From everywhere around the area of Guamote, people gather to sell anything from animals to hardware supplies, kitchen supplies, shoes, sombreros, ponchos, furniture, grains, plant chemicals, hot food, veggies, and fruits. Not to mention your local home brew liquor, pajaro azul. It even comes with your own personal used water bottle to take it home in! So pretty much, everyone who is anyone goes down there to buy, converse, bargain, or to get out of the community. On the way there and on the way back, the buses are usually packed over its capacity which means for me, I´m stuck with a bent neck for the ride while everyone laughs or either some nice neighborhood friend gives me their seet and we all laugh anyway because we all know why they gave it up. Going to the market has become a postivie aspect to my integration process because I am starting to recognize people more easily and I feel more apart of the community.
Another postive aspect is because I´ve befriended people at the only hostel-hotel spot available in Guamote for tourists. It also happens to be one of the coolest and coziest hotels Ive seen yet. It is called Inti-Sisa and it is a Belgian cooperative/non-profit type that originiated as an educational center for the children of Guamote, as my sector of the province is one of the poorest of all, but it now serves multiple purposes. The woman who started Inti-Sisa, in kichwa meaning Sun-Flower, was from Belgian adn has an office that runs today and constantly connects the hotel/educational center with European tourists! So it acts as an educational site with a pre-kinder, monday through friday set up, a site for visitors or passerbyers to by artisans that a group of women make at the center, and they also make chocolate and offer Eco-friendly tourists expeditions. The center also boasts of a very quaint guest rooms and a huge loft upstairs that will fit about 10 more. It has a really awesome atmosphere, with interent, foreigners to stare at, and ¨volunteers¨ (who are sent from Europe every year) to talk to about the latest Ecua-travelling sites!
I have been trying to network wtih them because another goal of their is to promote environmental education in the neighboring shcools. They therefore have started a children´s recycling program in hopes of recycling the tons of waste that is usually dumped back into the soil or even into the river after Thursday markets. Unfortunately, Ecuadore has one of THE WORST recycling, or if even non-existent, programs. So, plastic bottles and tuna cans, which are in high numbers in the Sierra, are usually dumped along with every other possible nastiness you can think of. When the school year starts up again after summer break, which is just about to begin, hopefully my community will be apart of the program assoicated with Inti-Sisa with my help....
The problem is... according to my very disheartened counterpart, is that the people in our community lack hope, desire, motivation. I am pretty sure he has given up on them and before finding a new job- as he is one of the very few people in the communtiy who actually has a stable incoem working as the director of the German org. that sponsors our food, provides funds for buildings, salaries etc- he is curious to see what difference I can make in the community, as I am his last hope. With that said, I have been trying to bounce off my ideas to the women who I cook with in the mornings at the school, which is about three times a week. A few of them I have gotten to know and from those handful of women, I am lucky to say that they all seem to be very motivated and want to organize and mobilize ideas. Which m akes me stoked because I feel like I have a lot of ideas!
For example, some of you may already know that I have been leading carrot cake workshops. Yes, carrot cake! I know... not so much agriculture in its work but when closely looked at, it totally is! The idea is that, if I can organize the womens group together and THEY WANT to start a small business, we could sell carrot cake at the local thursday market. Carrot cake was one of the very first things I did in attempts to integrate with my work buddy and it has take off like crazy. People are amazed to find that the number one food source that they feed to their cuyes can be transformed into a delicious treat. Not too expensive and not too fatty. The ingredients come from the land and I have had people from all different ages and regions of the community asking me how to make it or to show them how. It has almost become annyoing! I have done so many, which is another reason why the next workshop will be apple pie! :)
So again, the idea is to get a kitchen certified to bake and sell goods from, organize the mothers to have and generate self-empowerment, female solidarity, and economic independence which for these women will surely have more implications than I could ever understand. The agricultural part is to also get our carrots certified organic, which we would obviously grow our own. However, this is just an idea, and I am aware of that. Once gain, the fate of this project is rested in the women´s group and in their hearts. I am going to pitch it to them at the end of this month of beginning of next, I´ll have to make a snazzy and catchy presentation! Wish me luck!