CALUMA

Ecuador amazes me everyday. I fall more and more in love with the land and the people.

This past week I got to travel to the sub-tropic for a week to work and play. My past travel to the sub-tropic in Bolivar was always daily - get up and leave the sierra ridiculously early @ 5am, and return after the sun had set. This past week I went to Caluma with a promoter in my Foundation, Melina, stayed in her house, met her family and her friends, saw her life and where she works and plays.

Monday morning I caught the 5:30 bus to Caluma. The drive is amazing, within 2 hours of Guaranda, you start an amazing descent from 2700m to 260m. First off, it's terrifying. The bus driver whips around tight corners as you look off the edge into what appears to be an endless cliff. But, after the initial fear, it's one of my favorite drives - a cloud topped forest awaits your descent, the flowers, greenery, small sugar cane houses, horses and local people on the side of the road create a rich feeling of peace, tranquility and warmth. Of course, the bus is also heating up - and those 3 layers that were necessary in Guaranda are quickly removed.

Melina met me at the bus stop, and we jumped on another bus to get to her house about 30 minutes outside of town. She lives in a bono (government built) house with her sister and two daughters. Her mother and younger sister live in a sugar-cane house right next door. Their front yard is filled with flowers of every color and size - her mother is an obsessive gardener and plant collector. In the back-yard roam ducks, chickens, a roaster, their faithful dog Luis, and of course guinea pigs (well, the don't roam, they are in a cage).

The house is simple - originally built with only walls dividing the kitchen from two bedrooms. They have since added on two larger rooms (one with a bed, the other used for ... stuff). None of the rooms have doors - the two original rooms off of the kitchen have sheets, but the new, back rooms have nothing - only an open space for people to pass in and out. The bathroom is attached to the back of the house (also with a sheet-door), equipped with a small sink, a toilet and an open space for the shower-head (no mirror).

At her house, her sister cooked breakfast for me - a HUGE plate of fried fish and fried plantain. After, painfully, finishing off the last of the fried plantains, we set off to our first school.

Our mission for the week: to look for and evaluate children who were in the most need for school scholarships. My Foundation has a large fund for helping schools all over Bolivar - we currently work in 22 schools with over 1400 students. However a great base to start development work in the schools, most of the money and programs for students have little organization (lack of personal), creativity, and sustainability. Last year, the scholarship money was used to purchase candies for children during Christmas. This year, we're changing things. We've had our first "official meetings" for the Lorini Project (the project for working with schools and children in Bolivar, run by Promocion Humana); we're developing campo-days to do large projects with the schools (planting local trees and flowers, trash and compost, life-skills, and cooking/ nutrition); and we're looking for 30+ students to give scholarships to this school year. Right now, the sierra is on vacation, and the coastal schools (Caluma, the sub-tropic) is considered a coastal school, are in session. So, we're starting the scholarship program in the coastal schools.

Over our three days, we visited 5 schools and found 5 excellent students to receive the scholarships. We decided to start 10 in the sub-tropic and 10 in the sierra, see how they work for a month and then build on the program. During our school visits, we played games with the kids and colored butterflies.

The sub-tropic is amazing. People work hard, play hard. We spent the days in the campo, visiting schools, families and planting gardens. The afternoons included a swim in a local waterfall. Nighttime brought out the dancing shoes. Salsa. Merengue. Cha Cha. Mambo. Reggaeton. Whatever the dancer's heart desires. Melina's friends were friendly, outgoing, charming, and patient with my Spanish (I don't know if it's getting worse, or if they really do speak different in the sub-tropic, but the phrases and speaking speed threw me off all week). The bars we went to were open aired; equally filled with older men, young men and women and the occasional child.

Visiting the sub-tropic was AMAZING and, yet again, eye-opening to the diversity found in Ecuador (both people and geography). It showed me I need to work more and more on my Spanish -- however able to communicate with people, I'm still unable to relate to people on the verbal level I would like to. I'm sure that with a little more dancing and daring revueltas, I'll be able to mejorar mi español y comunicacion con los demás.

More photos up!!