Watch! As Matteus Explores The World

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Soccer- On the side lines

Soccer games were also a source of income, with all sorts of drinks and food sold along the sidelines. My favourite was the fried dough bread with sugar. In fact, it was no different from a beaver tail! Cultural peculiarities will never cease to amaze me.

Shandia- Action Shot II

Out of several action shots I attempted only these two came out any good. If only I'd had a zoom lens and a tripod. I felt, however, that that would have been too invasive. In one case a girl was taking a penalty shot and she asked me to not shoot. I gladly obliged.
The girl above is attacking the goal with her usual tenacity.

Shandia- Action Shot

Shandia- Soccer Team II

Mujeres Shandia A. During my time there they were unbeatable and frequently ran up the score against their opponents.

Shandia- Soccer Team

Another weekly community event was the soccer team that was part of the local league. Shandia played against teams from Centro Talag, Bajo Talag, Santa Rosa, Ila Yacu, Serena, 10 de Agosto, and a few others. The winner of the league would then go on to play in the provincial capital of Tena. These games were taken quite seriously and were a lot of fun to watch. The family I stayed with (Cerda Andi) was particularly active in the soccer league. The father, mother, five kids, and daughter in law all played on the top teams. Their second youngest son was on the elementary school team and his little brother was following close behind. I'm sure their youngest daughter will also be a great player some day.

Shandia-Ecuavolley

A popular sport when soccer wasn't in season was ecuavolley, a variant on volleyball. It is played with three people on each side, a soccer ball instead of volleyball, and slightly smaller and higher net. The biggest rule change is that lifting is allowed, even encouraged, given the weight of the ball. Games were played for money with many people gathered to watch.

Shandia- Cocoa Drying

A major part of Shandia's economy was the selling of cocoa seeds to the local cooperative, Kallari.
Once collected from nearby farms they were fermented for 3-4 days and then laid to dry on this drying rack. The smell of the beans wafting through the village was irresistible.

Shandia-A River II

Same shot from a bridge further back

Shandia-A River

A nearby river. In order to get the water looking like that I set the camera up on a rock and set the exposure for 2 seconds.

Shandia-Community Telephone

In Shandia there is one community phone installed in 2003 when President Gilmar Guittierez (from the area) was briefly in power. Calls can be received from anywhere and you can phone out with a calling card. Because the phone is communal, answering it is a very public event. When the phone rings there is often a rush to answer it and the "winner" then gets to go yelling the name of the person who has received the call. On some occasions when I expected a call I had to out sprint people to get there first.

Shandia-Community Centre

Stairs leading up to the community centre

Shandia-Community Centre

Centro Comunitario Jaime Elliot. Built back in the 1950s it was at one point the school but now has not been used for some time. There exist some ideas to renovate it and perhaps make it into a museum or tourist destination.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

La Iglesia

Monday, July 16, 2007

Shandia-My House

The following photos are all from the time I spent in Shandia, a small town in the Ecuadorian Amazon. There is so much to say but I'll try to be as to the point as possible.

What better place to start than the house I lived in?

This house was originally built for a Peace Corps volunteer who was supposed to be in Shandia for two years. I say supposed to because she left after about six months. Some time later people in Shandia were still talking about her. The plus side was that there was now a house I could stay in.

The house was made completely of wood with wire meshing on all the windows. The roof was very high and made of a large leaf from a local plant(para toquilia). Approximately 20,000 leaves were used in the construction of the roof.

On the front of the house on the right you can see some political propaganda from the PSP (Partido Social Patriotica). In front of the house are the compost I built and the little garden I started with help from the kids. On the far left you can see the black plastic that formed the wall of my bathroom.

Two by a Waterfall

Beautiful

Roof of Boat

On this small 12 person boat we traveled down the river from Tena to Coca. The highlight was our stop in Santa Maria(one of about two million in Ecuador alone) where we went on a jungle night hike!

Mural at Mitad del Mundo

One of several murals from the middle of earth monument near Pomasqui. We "accidentally" wandered by the gate not realizing that we should have paid to get in. By the time the guard chased us down most of our group had already made it up to monument and was on their way out.

Looking Up

Looking up into the canopy of the forest you realize how small you are

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Pasochoa Hydro Electric Dam

On the mountain of Pasochoa near Sangolqui there is one of Ecuador's few hydro-electric power stations. This form of power has great potential in Ecuador but is vastly underutilized. Think of all the river mountains not to mention the ones in the Amazon...

Sangolqui-Jennifer Around Town III

TADAH!

Sangolqui-Jennifer Around Town II

A random castle along a side road

Sangolqui-Jennifer Around Town

I really wonder what it would have been like to see this tree before it was cut down. As it was it made a great place for a picture of Jennifer.

Sangolqui-The Compost

The newest edition to the school, a compost bin! This would later get some siding and a second one built behind it. Most of the compost came from home but student's snacks and our nightime potlucks helped out too. This was the perfect addition to the garden built beside it.

Sangolqui- The School II

This building at the back is apparently a new edition to the school since it was bought about 10 years ago. Most of our classes were held in this part of the school.

Sangolqui- The School

The "school" Trent ran was actually a house. It had several large rooms though and the large lawn space made it a good place to be.

Sangolqui-Survive the Shower

The view from Jennifer's room

And be sure not to touch this

Imagine showering with this over your head(at Jennifer's house)

Sangolqui-The Dog

The family dog "Dana" on the front lawn

Sangolqui-My House

In Sangolqui we stayed with host families for the first four months of the exchange. I had a small bedroom with the Orozco-Penafiel family in this house. The house was a short bike ride from the school and also close enough that I could carry our compost to the school. Unfortunately the house did not have much of a yard for that sort of thing.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Fence

Close up of a fence on a bridge in Laticunga

In the window

Cotopaxi Train

A few kilometres from the park entrance is a train that you can take into Quito from the Cotopaxi National Park. We arrived late and unfortunately couldn't get a seat on top. We were so tired that it hardly mattered to us. The train actually stopped to pick people up along the way, while also passing very close to people's back yards. About 3/4 of the way we had to stop because the track was broken(typical Ecuador). Instead we got crammed into a hot bus for the rest of the trip.

Jenn on Cotopaxi with a sweater I bought her. We hiked in with all our stuff and were lucky enough to catch a free ride with a guide who was entering the park. He let us out at this small lake and we camped next to it for the next couple days. Except for one noisy Ecuadorian group and the occasional vehicle passing by we were by ourselves. Well except for the cows which were grazing around our tent during the night!? We had amazing campfire food and hiked around the nearby hills(see flower pictures later on). On the way out we just started walking and eventually someone stopped and picked us up.