NHESP 2009 Update 10

Buenas tardes a todos!

Tomorrow we’re leaving bright and early on our next expedition, so this will be all the news until our return in two weeks.

These last few days have been filled with different exciting events. We had a second informative geography lesson with Michael, talking about the mountain ranges in Ecuador, the different altitudes we were at when on our last expedition, different ways that mountains form and various types of rock. Michael has a lively way of teaching, and it was fun to have a class together.

The next day a lot of us were in the kitchen, cooking and cutting up vegetables and beef to go into the food dehydrator, when we were visited by a group of Outward Bound semester students with Michael. They were all Americans, with ages ranging from 18 to 29. It was really exciting because it was the first time we connected with other students around our ages. We had a very brief visit, sharing where we were from and how our semesters were going so far. We all wanted to spend more time with them, but knew how busy everyone was. Michael will be leaving in a couple of days to go up Antisana and Cotopaxi with the group before we go.

We finished the frame of the choza, YEAH!!! (the garden house that we’ve been working on for Palugo)! The rafters are all up, and everything is ready for tiling and making adobe walls. We’ll do that when we come back from the expedition. It’s still a feeling of accomplishment for everyone.

Our semester’s terrace is also coming along beautifully. We are going to have so many veggies for our graduation here in Ecuador. Potatoes, cabbage, corn, beans.

For the past week we’ve had two bins filled with a mixture of alpaca and wool, that we’ve been cleaning in preparation for making felted hats. We were hoping to get the hats done by the time we left for expedition, but it looks like that will also have to happen after we get back. The other day we had a felting class with Marcea, teaching us how to make our future hats.
Yesterday was a different and fun day. We all got our mountaineering little back packs and headed down to the main road to meet Thomas and Mathias with a truck, ready to take us rock climbing. The place where we went wasn’t too far away. The climbing faces were huge with routes made, some of them by Michael. Thomas and Mathias lead four different routes for us, all being close together. Almost everyone climbed and took turns belaying. The watermelon Mathias brought was refreshing and cooling for the hot sunny day. When we weren’t climbing, we were practicing tying knots, preparing for our skills test. Erica and Trina tried out leading on the faces. It was fun to take a break from being at Palugo. On our way back we went to a tree nursery where there were also trout ponds. We could choose any tree we wanted to plant back at Palugo. Trees like palm of the puma, elderberry, black walnut, papaya, guava, rosemary, and many others were chosen. On our way back to Palugo it started raining, a blessing for the locals because they have been in the longest drought they’ve had for a long time. We walked back up to Palugo in the rain and everyone with their trees in their arms. There was plenty of time once we got back to relax and write journal entries.

We were asked not to enter the Chozón, our common space, because Marcela and Damian were rehearsing their theatre performance. Marcea brought us fancy clothes to borrow for the night, because we were supposed to go to the performance in formal wear, and Marcea didn’t think quick dry pants and long underwear would cut it. The guys all got to wear colorful traditional ponchos, and the ladies wore skirts. Some of us even pulled out our jewelry that we bought in Shiwakucha. We all looked clean and sharp. Entering the Chozón, it was set up beautifully. Candles everywhere and tables with tablecloths. The name of the performance and dinner was called “Fine Dining”, “Feeny Deeny”. And the name really suited the set up. We were served delicious tuna on spinach leaves, mashed potatoes, lentils, and brownies with tea. Throughout the dinner Marcela and Damian entertained us with improvisation. Thomas’ parents also came, and a few other guests. It was good cheer and fun. Thank you Marcela and Damian!

So today we were left to organize and clean everything before leaving on expedition. There are still things to do, but everyone has been very productive with their time. Joey gave us a wonderful presentation on where we are going on our 17 days on expedition, Erica and Tupac wrote up a packing list for both group and personal gear, Hannah M has been working like crazy, organizing all the food for our expedition, Susanna sharpened and oiled all the tools for the choza and made some sheathes, Tobias got our water filters assembled, Geoff made some super good beef jerky, I dried a bunch of fruit and some vegetables and made a lots of granola, Joey figured out our routes and laminated our maps to take with us, Jackson made energy bars and cut a normal size shovel to a smaller more portable size, Trina made a bunch of tea mixes all for different purposes and organized the med kit, and Bryson organized camp gear. Everyone else helped a lot, and we all feel prepared to leave! A few of us still have to plant our baby trees and finish our journal entries, but otherwise, we’re all set! It’ll be a little more than two weeks before I write the next update. We’ll have hopefully climbed both Antisana and Cotopaxi. What stories we’ll have to share!

Until then, we all wish you a very cozy and Happy Thanksgiving! You can think of us on Thanksgiving Day, when we’ll have descended from Antisana’s summit, and will be at our base camp, huddled into our tents. It’s all an adventure!

Peacefully and with gratitude,

Your scribe, Melodia, for the NHESP

Erica has a quote to add:

Amaranth

A favorite food throughout the Americas since ancient times, when the toasted and sweetened seeds were molded with honey into cakes offered to the Gods. Also known as “garden spinach,” it can be prepared in any way that one would spinach. The mature seeds make an excellent, protein-rich grain. A tablespoon of the fresh leaf juice is given three times daily for anemia, as the plant is rich in iron, calcium, and vitamins. The leaves and branches are boiled and cooled to use as a wash for wounds, sores, and rashes.

-Rosita Arvigo in Satsun.

Trina would like to wish her sister Siena a happy early birthday. Welcome to the year of fourteen. It’s a good one. Hopefully.

Trina also wishes a Happy Thanksgiving to the Powers clan.

Jackson would like to say Happy Thanksgiving to his family. They’re all wonderful and nurturing human beings. He thinks their loving is a miracle. Blessings on their souls. Especially Lulu.

Tobias would like to thank his parents for the supplements. He’s already feeling better.

NHESP 2009 Update 9

“You work that you may keep pace with the Earth

and the soul of the Earth.

For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons,

and to step out of life’s procession.”

-Kahlil Gibran

 

Greetings all readers!

 

Our first week here at Palugo flew by just as quickly as the long-tailed hummingbirds that we often see. We finally got back into our regular routines, even though the rhythm of expedition and the songs we learned in the jungle still echo in our hearts.

 

 One of the things we’ve really been enjoying is our kitchen and having easy access to a variety of foods. Erica made two amazing lasagnas, Trina whipped up an unforgettable banana cream pie, she and Joey made really tasty donuts, Geoff and Bryson served some rich brownies, Tupac made some traditional mashed potato onion pancakes stuffed with cheese. In addition he and I also made some French toast served with some of my yogurt, Tobias and Hannah M. baked a delectable coffee cake, and, well, the list goes on. So it’s been a week of celebrating food!

 

We also had our Noche Chozonera which went really well. The pizzas that we made were the best yet, and we used some of the fresh pesto that Marcea made. The number of guests was around 20, and we were the presenters of the night! We worked with Marcela and Damian before hand to fine tune our presentation using our puppets. The curtains were pulled and the audience could only see hands holding puppets. The presentation commenced with a lively introduction to Kroka, which was followed by new hands and puppets acting-out our experiences in New Hampshire. For this part of the performance, Tobias and Bryson went full out with their rapping and beat boxing. It was very amusing. Next came our time in Palugo before the expedition, with special effects like paper clouds, grass, a wooden spoon, knife, carrot and sun screen all being packed into a backpack. This was to express us getting prepared for and leaving on expedition. Then came the expedition part of the show. To demonstrate our time in San Clemente, Tupac, Roberto and I played and sang a song in Quichua that Tupac’s parents wrote. The expedition group also showed our puppets going from village to village, mountain to mountain. To end, a group gave a closing, saying what we’re up to now and where we’re going on our next expedition. We then watched a slideshow that Jackson put together, showing selected photos from our expedition. It was a very nice night.

 

Saturday was dedicated to academic work and having our parent calls! We were all so happy to talk with our parents, and walked back to the chozon with a bounce in our steps, but also shocked to realize how quickly the end of the semester is coming. Our daily work included, finishing main lesson pages, journal entries, sharpening knives and machetes, knitting or embroidering shirts. A very accomplishing day it was. In the evening we even learned how to make healing herbal salves from Marcea. Those of us who attended the class got to keep our very own 1 oz. containers of the salve. We used beeswax, lavender oil, sweet geranium oil, eucalyptus oil, calendula oil, olive oil, and plantain oil. Such lovely ingredients!

 

Sunday was exciting because we had our second cooking lesson with Adela, Thomas’s mother. After lunch, she came with her two sisters Irene and Veronica. We learned how to make Colada Morada, a thick purple healing drink made with juices and a bunch of special herbs. We then made Huahuas de Pan, which were sweet breads that we baked with walnuts, chocolate, coffee, cinnamon and brown sugar. It was a fun process and such a treat to eat them for dinner.  We learned to make these particular foods because they are made during this time of year in celebration of the Day of the Dead.

 

During breakfast on Monday morning, Hannah C’s 19^th birthday, Thomas and Marcea told us that half of the group were going to go on individual vision quests for the day and night. The other half would leave the next morning. All we had for the vision quest was warm clothing, knives, water bottles and rain jackets. That’s it! So Marcea and Lily took us to individual spots around the farm and dropped us off. We were told to just stay in one spot, create a circle and not move. It was a time to be introspective and self reflective. We didn’t have any food for the rest of the day, so it was also time to fast and cleanse our bodies. The next morning, after a freezing night without our sleeping bags, just us, the earth, the hum of sleeping hummingbirds, the shining stars and the far off barking of dogs, Marcea and Ross came around to each of our spots and told us we were going to go for another day and night. They brought fresh water with them to refill our water bottles and a banana. I’m telling you, a banana never tasted so sweet and rich before. It was amazing. Marcea asked if we would need anything else for the upcoming night, and I believe that most of us requested another pair of socks and our puff jackets. These items really helped to maintain us for the next night. Many of us slept a lot better. That evening though, the sky darkened rapidly with heavy thunderous clouds, and sure enough, it started raining. So we had to individually gather grass or whatever we could find to make shelters. Luckily the rain only fell for around a half an hour, so we didn’t get too soaked. It was a good experience though!

It is interesting how being out in nature with very little protection and so vulnerable to the elements, makes one appreciate things on a scale much larger than usual, for instance, food or the sun. For me personally, I felt the sun was the element most important for my comfort level. I would wake up at various moments through the night hoping to see the sun rising to save me from being cold. Then in the morning, when the sky was changing color, the clouds were being illuminated and the dewy grass was sparkling, I felt like it was worth a whole night of being super cold. It was like a meditation.

This morning Marcea picked up those of us who were in the first group, and we headed back to the chozon for a delightful light breakfast made for us by Ross. It felt wonderful and a little odd to have food in our bellies again, it was great to be back. We met with Thomas and Ross, cleaned up, did laundry and read a reading that Thomas gave us to ponder over. Then after lunch, we worked on the garden house, squaring, making rafters and notching. We also received a lot of mail! So thank you to all our friends and family for sending us so many nice letters and little gifts.

 

I don’t feel like I have much more to say. We had a hardy delicious beef veggie stew for dinner, and then people stayed in the kitchen preparing various foods. Geoff is working on beef jerky for the next expedition and I made some yogurt with Naty. Hannah M. got started on her meal planning for the expedition, and Bryson started cooking up some English muffins. Francisco, Thomas’s dad delivered our sleeping bags, all clean and with an intense perfume smell. It reminds me of a perfume shop. I wonder what kind of dreams we’ll have tonight!

 

Well, my fellow readers, what more can I say? Tomorrow the other half of our group will arrive from their vision quest, and we’ll have a hardy breakfast waiting for them. We’ll then do some work on the garden house, and will get started on felting hats or making drums. Thus, our week will continue until we leave on next Wednesday for our next expedition!

 

   Thank you for all your support and encouragement,

Wishes of warmth, peace and humbleness,

Melodia

 

Jackson would like to wish his little sister Zoe a happy 34^th birthday. He would like to acknowledge how fast she’s growing up and how every time he blinks his eyes she seems older. He thinks that this is truly a miracle.

 

Marcea would like to send all her love to a dear friend who has embarked on a journey. Please take care Dan and know I will always love you and forever miss you.

 

I would like to wish my sweet Oma a very happy birthday. Know that I’m thinking about you and look forward to giving you a big hug when I return. Also a very happy birthday to Lili! Lots of hugs.

NHESP 2009 Update 8

Hello Everyone! Happy Halloween and Dia de los Muertos!

We are back at Palugo! It feels so great to be here after our month long expedition. Everyone is organizing group gear and their belongings. We are resting and staying at Palugo for two weeks before we go off on our second and last expedition.

We have had quite an adventure since I last wrote. Getting on the Jatunyacu River was exciting. Unfortunately, Bryson wasn’t feeling well enough to come on the first stretch with us, his stomach was bothering him. Hannah C. and Naty didn’t join us either as they didn’t feel

comfortable with the rapids. The three went and stayed at a hostel with Lily and met us two days later. For the river portion, we were joined by Nadino, a 19 year old indigenous young man from Shiwacocha, the village we were heading to. Nadino was an intern in last year’s Ecuador semester, and has participated in previous semesters with his brothers. He has very long silky black hair and an intricately painted face. It was a great joy to have him with us. In terms of river vessels, we brought a zodiac raft, a kata-raft and three kayaks, which were brought in the event of a needed rescue and were used by the Dammer brothers and their cousin Sebastian.

The first day of travel was tough for a few of us because our stomachs were feeling awful. Let me just say that the motion of the rapids didn’t help. Thank God we felt better the following day. It was a long, very sunny and fun day on the river, filled with paddling, mud baths and swimming. The Rio Jatunyacu is joined by the Rio Anzu creating the Rio Napo, one of the leading tributaries to the great Amazon.

That afternoon, when we reached out camp site, we were greeted by Lily, Bryson, Naty and Hannah C. What a gorgeous campsite we had, a vast rocky beach, green mossy vines hanging over our tents and kitchen area, majestic clouds in the distance and the sparkling Rio Napo. Mathias, Sebastian, Michael, Nadino, Lily and Ross cooked us all a very delicious dinner of rice, beans, plantains and guacamole. So special!

The following day we simply crossed the river, pulled out the rafts and deflated them. We sent unneeded belongings with Mathias, Michael and Sebastian who were returning to Palugo. While we were getting everything together, 11 monkeys passed us by! I guess they were taking their morning stroll in the town. It was quite a scene. Soon we headed off for a 30 minute ride in the back of two trucks to the start of our trek to Shiwacocha. It was a hot and very humid trek. Luckily we didn’t have to carry all of our tents or pots, so all the backpacks were fairly light, except two packs that were loaded with the kataraft. Within three hours through the green jungle we arrived to Shiwacocha, a village community on the Rio Arajuno, consisting of a few thatched roof houses in the midst of the jungle. We resided in the chozon of Nadino’s family, under mosquito nets for four nights. It was such a wonderful visit.

Isolina, Nadino’s mother was very inspiring as she works with medicinal herbs, practices midwifery, does lots of crafts, works in the garden and is the mother of 10 children. She and her husband, Samuel, were engaged when she was 13 through an arranged marriage and they are both healers. With our cuts that were bothering us, Isolina took us to a Sangre de Drago tree, where she cut slits into with her machete and extracted a few drops of the precious and healing liquid onto a banana leaf. Her husband Samuel travels sometimes by plane to small communities where he is needed.

After our arrival, we shared lunch with Isolina, her mother, Mercedes, and Nadino. To cool off we went for a dip in the river with Nadino. He took a few of us with their dugout canoe that must have been 30 feet long. It is moved with two long bamboo poles. When we came to rapids we had to get out of the canoe and walk it up. It was lots of fun. For dinner that night we ate fish from the river, broth, sweet corn and yucca. We also drank chicha, a fermented drink made from yucca.

The next morning we separated into two groups. One went to gather palm leaves to work on repairing the thatched roof, and the other went to harvest yucca with Isolina. Yucca is a very special plant. We used machetes to weed around the yucca plants, then took the leaves off and piled the branches in a separate place. We cut down the plants and focused on pulling up the roots and harvesting the yucca tubers and peeling off their two outer layers. When we got back to the house, we boiled the peeled yuccas until they were soft enough to start smashing in a giant bowl that could sit seven or eight people around. Isolina, Hannah, Erica and I cleaned our mouths and then started chewing the yucca and spitting it back into the bowl. After each of us had chewed around 10 bites, we mushed up all the remaining clumps and then put everything in a bucket to ferment and turn into chicha.

The next day we made beautiful crafts. In the morning we walked to Nadino’s uncle’s house where the children climbed up their pilche trees and threw pilches (they look like gourds) down to each of us. While some of the group went back to the house to carve out their pilches, the rest of us went to gather vines for making baskets. What a beautiful walk- especially barefoot. Two of the villagers took out their axes and started cutting down a huge tree as the vines themselves were too high to reach. Because of its huge roots, the falling tree ended up taking down a whole other tree with it! We gathered the roots and headed back. Walking back, we passed four or five children who took a bunch of grapes out from the baskets on their heads and handed them to me. It was sweet.

Weaving our baskets we got a lot of help from the villagers. It was amazing how fast they were and how they never got overwhelmed with all the pieces to weave. The baskets all turned out beautifully. Before dinner Isolina found a deadly poisonous lizard that ended up being killed by a broom. It had impressive green and black stripes on the tale and was about 8 inches long.

The next day was Halloween and Lily’s birthday, we built the balsa wood raft and assembled the kata-raft. Those who worked on the balsa raft went to harvest the trees and then floated down the river on the logs. A long solo time in the afternoon allowed for reflection before we made jewelry with Isolina. She had feathers, shells and beautiful red seeds with black diamond shapes. It was quite a special opportunity to learn the local crafts from Isolina.

Finally the real celebration of Lily’s birthday began. A few other members of the community joined us and wanted to put on a show. Since they don't celebrate birthdays they wanted to show us what a traditional marriage ceremony and celebration might look like. Thomas and Marcea played Lily’s (the bride) parents, and Isolina and Samuel Nadino’s (the groom) parents. There was a lot of singing, dancing and drumming. They even brought a generator to bring more light into the room and to set up the radio. What a birthday Lily had! And what a special last night we had in Shiwachocha.

Waking up at four we headed down to the beach with Nadino’s family and a few other families. Everyone told us to return and they were so warm and kind. Personally, it was hard to leave, but I grew excited about the possibility of returning. And then we were off! The balsa raft had some troubles in the beginning. We had to stop on a rocky beach and search the jungle for more vines and palms to add more lynching. It also helped that fewer people went on it after the reparations. It was such a gorgeous day to paddle and the river was perfect to swim.

When we arrived to our destination, we disassembled the kata-raft, and left the balsa raft for a traveler who might be in need of one. As we left on the long motor canoe, I noticed two young boys getting onto our balsa raft and starting to take it down the river. This was a perfect ending to our adventure. And with that we headed home to Palugo.

Yesterday was dedicated to organizing and readjusting. We got to sleep in, shared a wholesome delicious brunch together and laughed a lot. The energy was light and it felt really good to be back. Last night, since it was Dia de los Muertos, Lily suggested that we each share a story or thought about someone in our lives who had died. It felt good to share stories with each other and to remember those loved ones.

Today we are working in the garden, weeding potatoes, working on the garden shed that we’re building for Palugo. Geoff, Hannah M. and Jackson are building stairs on the side of the hill, and I’m here in the chozon finishing up this update!

One of the songs we’ve been singing a lot is El Camaleon (the Chameleon). So I’ll write down the lyrics for you.

El camaleon, cambia de colores

Asi segun la estacion

El arco iris tambien, cambia de colores

Asi según las estacion

Sea verde, sea rojo, sea amarillo

Cualquer color puede ser, menos el gris

Por que grises seran los dias en que de vi

Cuando te perdi, mi amor

Badabam bam bam bam bam x6

Geoff would like to wish his mom Mary a very Happy Birthday and hopes that she’s well.

Humble wishes of happiness, peace, warmth and bliss,

For the NHESP, this is your Scribe, Melodia