Feco Ni and Mairanita

Wednesday, 2. April 2008
“Feco Ni’
Today was an extremely productive day. Although it didn’t seem like it would be, as all of us except ‘papa’ José (he has adopted us now), were hanging over our caffeine dose to rise and shine. A beaming José who went running in the morning, had enough energy for the three of us.
We first made our way to meet Renan Tadeo, the president of the “Federació De Pueblos Negros Cuenca y Chota” (Feco ni) which is a federation for Afro-Ecuadorian farmers in the village of Chota and Cuenca. During the meeting he told us that the federation is trying to reunite the different villages in the area to improve the current situation in agriculture and incorporate new methods/crops. One of the successful initiatives was “Project Tuna” which isn’t the tuna the fish, but instead the fruit of the Cactus plant.
He also told us about the problems the villagers have faced which include drug addiction and alcoholism. Furthermore, he explained to us another initiative which has been put in place to support the development of the villagers. Feco Ni gives financial support to the families in the village depending on their situation the fund varies. It resembles the Credit Union system to a certain extend. When asked if his organisation is collaborating with the Fundaciones “FundeCruz” and “Tin Delgado” however, he seemed evasive. We wonder if there is more to that story.

Final thoughts:
Although Renan Tadeo gave us valuable information, there seems to exist a lack of “interest” in the collaboration with our organisations within the valle. Renan is a very intelligent man, however the question emerges if more can be done to improve the initiative in the valle and that not one company is taken over the valle but that the villages also have representative organisations that support the villagers thoughts and wishes. See Mission Frijoles.

“Marianita Chalá”

After our first meeting in the morning we moved on to meet Marianita Chala in Carpuela who is a teacher at Colegio de Tecnica. She also doubles up as a representative of “el grupo de jovenes” (Youth group) in Valle del Chota. This initiative is supported by NGO’s such as “Prodeci”. This group has been established by the catholic church with the following aims:

- To form leaders
- To reunion the communities
- Keep culture throughout the generations alive
- To form strong characters

She explained to us that each village in Valle del Chota has one group of teenagers, aged 15 to 18. These groups discuss amongst each other, topics including sexuality, criminality, drugs, etc. The problems these groups face is that the members often leave the Valle after their graduation from College to seek jobs in bigger towns like Iberra, Quito, etc. Also and interesting fact is that people who do stay back, tend to become policemen, and some even priests or nuns.
We then moved on to talk about the problems faced by the college. There are several colleges in the Valle included in Carpuela, Iberra, Pimampiro, St.Rafael. Marianita says that approximately 30 students (más o menos) come from Piquiucho. In general the number of students has increased over the last years, as the government supports the colleges with facilitating them with books and clothes. The number has steadily increased from 300 to 684 students with a strong tendency to increase. The students are in school half-day, commencing at 6.30am till 13.30. The subjects that is taught includes Arithmatic, Social/Natural Sciences, English, and Music and students can go into specialisations such as IT, Mechanical or Chemical subjects. Although the colleges have managed to receive financial support from the government the families of the students still need to pay a fee and a small fee to use the school bus which goes around the villages to collect the groups of students. Not every family can afford to pay for the fees, and therefore puts a road block (no pun intended) children’s education. Their only option then is to work on the farm or take up some small jobs in factories to support the household. What follows then is the usual path of vices….
Final Thoughts:
Everyone should have the right to receive and have access to education. Education is the way out… the way ahead even.

Sarah and Kartik

Piquiucho - Part dos

We went back the next day - it was a rainy Monday - dammit! As promised, we managed to get out of our little "Oasis" on time.

We were told that it was the day that everyone in Piquiucho rested as everyone returned from work that kept them away from home for pretty much the entire week. Monday is the new Sunday for Piquiucho.
We first went to the clinic and interviewed the doctor who gave us some valuable information of the healthcare and hygiene situation in Piquiucho. We then went on to interview the directress of the "La Bomba-Club" (The traditional Afro-Ecuadorian dance) - who claimed not to be "just" a dance-teacher. The interview went on for longer than we expected.
We then went on to check out the water system. The water comes from the Andes down into the valley where it is collected, treated and send to the village through pipes. Overall, there is not much cause for complaint but the tanks could do with a bit of cleaning.
There were also conflicting opinions between the people we met about solutions to the current sewage system - which is the river running through the village. Then we had a couple of other interviews with the people in the village which we felt weren´t very productive. We might have been talking to the wrong people or looking in the wrong places. Let´s hope we have better luck on our next visit back.
At the end of day, we went back to Piquiucho for their Monday "get together" party (Monday is the new Sunday - remember) where there was cervezas, puntas, disco-lights and loud music. All in all it was a fun night socalising with the "jovenes" of Piquiucho except for the fact that it ended on a sour note. When we got back to our car, we realized that it had been broken into. Fortunately for us, we had not left anything valuable in there. However, we feel bad for José who has to get the window repaired. José has a suspect in mind but we couldn´t be sure.

Final thoughts:
Today wasn´t the most productive day but we hope the morrow will bring us happier times.

Hasta Luego!
Yours,
Kartik & Sarah

Super Bayron

Is it a bird...
Is it a plane...
NOOOOOOOOOO....it is SUPER BAYRON!!!!!!!!

We are talking about José´s cousin (one of the many thousands he has). He is an independent farmer in the Chota village. In one day he came up with a lot of interesting and important people who have given us information that we could use. But what we will take with us forever is that everytime we said - "¿Como estas Bayron?" He replied "Super bien!" and we christened him Super Bayron.

Ciao for now!
Kartik & Sarah

Sí

I was befriended by one of the locals in Ambuqui who fancied himself as a bit of a rough neck. Although he came up to me I just think he wanted a chat with the girls and was using me as a buffer.
Even a couple of "no hablo español" from my side the guy kept insisting on carrying out a conversation with me. It didn´t matter to him if I replied or not. It is amazing how much a "Sí" could take you in a conversation. I used it in different ways of course, from the simple "Sí" to "Sí?"..."Sí!"...."Sí!!!". I think he was a bit inebreiated, after insisting that I have a couple of "puntas" (the español gasoline) with him I was a bit tipsy too.
I think it was one of the best conversations I have ever had, although I didn´t say much and will incorporate active listening (Thanks Prof.Dobson) in my conversations in my language of preference as well....sí??

Kartik

Special Thanks

Before we carry on with our banter about Ecuadorian sojourn there are people we MUST thank for making this all possible:

Denis Taylor ACT Foundation - for contributing towards our flight expenses
Mark Sullivan & Co. from UBS - for introducing us to Ulises and everything else you have done
Paul & Rob (The Boys from Cass) - for pretty much everything, in particular their constant support
Ben Sawtell (Public Relations) - organising the flights and tolerating our demands
Alison McKenna (Wilsons Solicitors) - for giving us invaluable information and putting us in touch with great contacts

and most of all....Ulises & Maria De La Cruz

Chota

Tuesday

Today the intention was to visit several organisations in the village Chota. We were told that there is a foundation there that works for the advancement of agriculture, a group that is working with agriculture too, led by cousin Byron, and the group that works for the advancement of beans. So off we went, to meet with Byron first, because we made an actual appointment with him. Our super guide José keep telling us not to worry about appointments, because people are always around in this area. Unfortunately, the people we want to speak to all seem to be away at the moment we want to visit them, so the plans keep changing. Luckily we have left a couple of days for back-up, because we suspected this might happen in a country like this J.
Back to Byron. Turns out he is an individual farmer, not attached to any association. Nonetheless, he has a lot of knowledge of the area and always attends the meetings the local government holds for the area on topics such as agriculture and tourism. So he was able to tell us all about what crops farmers use around here, how things have changed over time and what kinds of initiatives there are regarding development of agriculture.
One development that sounded interesting is the opening of a factory for the extraction of oil from avocados. This means that the demand for avocados will go up in the area, and people will have a chance at a more steady income. This is not always the case now. For example, sugarcane used to be the common crop in this area but as it’s price went down, people switched to other crops, such as beans and vegetables (peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc.). Switching can be costly, because some crops take years to become profitable. The avocado, for example, takes 6 to 7 years.
Another development that could be interesting, is the use of sugarcane for bio-ethanol. Apparently, a company from Brazil came to the region suggesting this. Nothing has been set up so far, because they need permission from the government and as this will compete with the oil industry it will not be easy. I’m very curious who will win this lobby; the rising BRIC countries against the old institutionalised powers!
At the foundation for agriculture the people we wanted to talk to were just heading off, so we immediately set an appointment for tomorrow morning just to be sure. The bean group only have an office in Chota, but work in the village Tumbatú (also hometown of our guide José) so we will have to catch them there. As this left the rest of the day open, we decided to go and have a look at the village Pimampiru, because this serves as an example of how a village around here can develop.
Pimampiru is a lot bigger than Piquiucho and very organised. It looks like and has the size of a small town, including the big plaza in the centre and a permanently constructed market place. This is also where one of the secondary schools in the valley is. Most kids in the valley go to secondary school, except the girls that get married at an early age. Unfortunately this still happens a lot.
Girls aged 12 or 13 get married and taken out of school into the homes. Even though they have the same rights as men regarding division of heritage, the wives still have to do what the husband tells them to. Before, the men used to do all the work, but today the women are maybe working even more. Most of them are merchants; from Tuesday to Thursday they are out buying fruits and vegetables from wholesalers in the region and from Friday to Sunday they travel to other region to sell it at a higher price. This means that only Mondays all women are at home. The rest of the time the oldest child has to take care of the household.
After tasting some local delicacies, such as baked potato with an unidentifiable grease sauce and cheese covered corn on the cob, we headed off to Pichuiucho once again. There we were meeting the representative of the local farmer’s association. Luckily, he was actually there J. What we didn’t know however, is that this legally recognised group (as the representative told us proudly) only organises non-agricultural stuff. They organise community work on cleaning the river branch, for example, and games of football. Nonetheless, it was interesting to hear what he felt the village needed next.
We have been asking the same question to several villagers, to get a feeling of what people around here want, how they see the development of their village, and to find out whether they have any initiatives of their own. They always start by thanking Ulises for what he has done, that the village would have never come this far without him (looking at the other villages in the valley, Pichuiucho is definitely the least developed, even though there is a disco!).
Then the shortcomings of the present system are pointed out. A local man we talked to yesterday pointed out how the houses have roofs that leak and that some people have to sleep with rats. The farmer today explained that the irrigation system is fed by mountain water, which has a lot of sand in it, which damages the land. Previously the would use river water, which has fertile sediment in it, even though they had to irrigate by hand.
When asked what would be the next step, the woman leading the dance group talked about further education, also for girls and adults like her, who had never had the chance to learn. When I asked the farmer today about adult education, he just answered ‘what would I be doing in school at my age?’. For him the way ahead was to hook the irrigation system up to the river to improve agriculture. The other local man just wanted new houses and a proper road leading up to the football stadium.
It’s great to hear all these different views and opinions, it really tells you that everyone has different needs. The conclusion I make of that is that there is not just one project that would suit all. One project could not lift the village into further development on it’s own either. But priorities need to be defined, and it’s not always easy to see how this can be done.
One criteria I use is to ask ‘what is possible?’. Look at what is there and what can be done from there. Furthermore, the right people need to be there to make the project work.
One thing that is on the foundation’s list is a school for adults. There are plans to construct a building for it in the future. But since an adult school has classes in the afternoon / evening only, and a primary school only has classes in the morning, the two could be easily combined in the existing primary school. So the possibility is already there, now we just need to find out whether the people to organise it are too. The staff for the primary school ate provided by the government, but according to José, they do not have a program for adult education. Therefore, this project would have to find other funding and the right staff. Let’s see if we can work that out.
On our way back from Piquiucho we stopped at a place where they make and sell artisans and handicraft. There was not a lot of stuff, but the little that was there was very nice. We went there to see whether there are products here possible tourists would like. Being sort of tourists ourselves, we proved to ourselves that tourists would indeed like this stuff, because we all bought several things! So if tourism should grow in this region, that is definitely something to exploit!
Many thoughts and ideas are formed during these days and we will write more about them every day, but for now I will leave it at this, because I’m afraid that if I make it any longer, nobody will read it anymore!

Bye for now!
Danielle

Danielle´s arrival

Friday the 28th at 9.05 pm I finally landed in Quito. After a long wait between gum chewing Americans at the customs, Kartik and Sarah were already waiting for me at the exit. With them was José Luis Pavón, the brother in law of Ulises, a really funny, always smiling guy, who is our baby-sit for the time we’re here. He literally has to follow our every move and take us anywhere we ask him to. Poor guy!!
That night we spent in Quito, going for dinner and a dance, and slowly getting a glimpse of Ecuadorian culture. Or cultures, rather, because out here there are three different kinds of people; Indigenous. Black and Mestizo’s; the descendants of the Spanish. It will come as no surprise that the Mestizo’s run the country and the Black population is the poorest. Therefore, you can imagine that helping the Black villages of the Chota valley is much needed.
Saturday morning we drove off to the Chota valley, while passing all sorts of interesting places along the way. A viewing point over a beautiful lake, rose plantations, little villages, an indigenous market in Otowalo (where we immediately adapted to the local way of dressing by buying hats and shawls), a leather producing village and a sports clothing producing village. All these productive villages are indigenous villages, very much worth a visit to get some ideas.
We had lunch at a food market in Ibarra which served t us by the oldest lady we’d ever seen. Sitting on a wooden bench between the locals we felt we were really getting into that Ecuadorian groove! We drove on to our destination: Oasis Hosteleria! The lovely hotel we are spending our days and taking trips to the villages in the valley from. With swimming pool and slides, this hotel is a local attraction for Ecuadorian tourists. Unfortunately the weather is not hot enough to give us an excuse to lounge at the pool. All the better for our productivity level…
After settling into our rooms we immediately wanted to go explore the valley. Our guide / driver José is from one of the villages here himself, and as a result he knows almost all of the people we encounter, and half of them are relatives of his. The perfect person to have with you when you need to meet the right people! Obviously, he knew exactly which village to go to that evening, because there was a village festival going on in Ambuqui. A castle full of fireworks that go off under the guidance of the fanfare music was a new kind of celebration to us, but to the villagers we as foreigners were even more special! I lost count of how many new friends we made that night!
Even though this village is mostly inhabited by Mestizo’s, a lot of people from the region attend these festivals, so we were introduced to a lot of interesting people and made a couple of plans for the rest of the week. For example, we met José’s cousin Bayron, who is in a committee for the advancement of agriculture ánd in a committee for tourism. In Piquiucho most of the inhabitants are struggling farmers who can use some help to secure a steady income. So hopefully we can get some ideas on how to crack that nut this Tuesday when we visit Bayron.
Other people and organisations we found out are active here are the foundation of Augustín Delgado, another football player from the region, which is concerned with sports, and a committee that tries to increase the export of beans nationally and internationally. For political reasons the government imports beans from other countries, even though there are enough beans being produced locally. The result is that the bean price goes down. This group is trying to change that, but how we will be told next Tuesday too. Furthermore, there is another foundation for agriculture and there are women’s dancing groups.
So that first night we got a pretty good idea of which initiatives are present around here. Most of them are located in the village of Chota, the first village in the valley coming from Quito. As we were told, most people in the valley live of their lands and have little education. They do not produce a lot of artisans or handicrafts like the indigenous people. Health care is minimal and water supply is reserved only for the lucky villages. In other words, a lot has to be done still!!