Por el Amor de Dios!

This is a phrase that I have repeated several times over the last few days as I contemplated my lack of internet access. I went to Alausi to clear out my inbox Thursday, and tried going to Chunchi on Saturday to do it again because the internet here in Pistishi-Tolte would not cooperate with my computer. The internet in Chunchi (the whole town) was down. Finally, Daniel, the inginiero agronomo, returned today and got me arranged in the municipal network. Here's a sort of double entry I composed while I was waiting. There may be a few pictures, too.

Yesterday, Angus and I made the 6 hout bus trip from Quito  to Pistishi. It turns out that this area is better know to bus drivers as Tolte, one of four villages within Pistishi. Only a few families live in the other three villages, though, so Tolta assumes greater importance. We arrived at night, which made me a bit nervous, because Angus had to sort of intuit the right moment to ask the driver to stop the bus. For future reference, it is shortly after the slightly terrifying drop off the right side of the bus just past Alausi.

We were lucky to get a ride from the Pan American highway into Tolte. It’s not a long walk, maybe 15 minutes, but Angus insisted on carrying my bag, which reached even my sense of shame. I’m not sure what’s in it that makes it so heavy, but it weighs a ton. We were dropped off in the plaza, where the school, the library, the computer room, the municipal offices, and the church are all conveniently clustered together. I met Ruth and Francisco in the office. They both work for the junta comunitaria. Just outside the offices I met Hilda and Carlos, who are just starting college. This is a big step for them and for Pistishi. AVANTI has given them a stipend to do positive work for the community which will help to fund their studies. Part of what they will do is to help me to positive work for the community. For the first time in my life, I have something like a staff. I guess I’d better find some supervisory skills.

We went from the plaza to the house I’ll be living in. It is quite grand, with several floors, electricity, and running water. For the time being, there is no internet service here, and I will have to connect through the municipalidad. But rumor has it that the government will be completing installation of a wireless hotspot that will cover Tolte in the next week or so. Now that’s rural development.

To return to my living situation, I will be sharing the house with Daniel, and agronomist, and Narcisa and Jose, a married couple who look after the house, which everyone refers to as “Narcisa’s house.”. Narcisa works for the touristic railroad that runs up Nariz del Diablo, reputed to be “the 2^nd most popular tourist attraction in Ecuador,” while Jose works for the junta directive. Daniel will be here until December—will find out how much permaculture he can stand between now and then. I’m particularly obsessing about the chicken tractor, as pest problems seem to be a focal issue for farmers here. So far this morning I have heard chickens, sheep, cows, pigs, and a donkey. Plenty of tractor potential, I’m sure.

The photos, if I can run all the connections right, were taken from my bedroom window. Not the topography of Long Island, I can assure you.

Well, now it’s Saturday afternoon and I still have not been able to post this. The internet went down In Pistishi the day after I arrived, and I haven’t been able to get on it since. Today I went to the nearest larger town, Chunchi, to go to an internet booth there, and there is not internet in Chunchi, either. When the internet goes down in Ecuador, it’s like a setting sun. Much access is promised in the near future, but the present is discouraging.

Meanwhile, I did my first two days of teaching—the first as myself, “profe de ingles,” the second as a substitute for Sinia, the grades 1,2,3,4 teacher, who went to Riobamba to request another teacher. Enrollment went from 48 last year to 65 this year, while the number of teachers seems to have gone from three to two (not counting me, of course—I’m the profe de ingles, not a teacher. The first day was fine, more or less. I taught grades 4-7, and the only one that presented a real problem was grade 4. That should have warned me about the next day. Village school students will be amused to learn that 30 little children paid me absolutely no respect or attention of any kind, and quite literally ran wild for 5 hours. By hour four, I had simply decided that all I could do was keep them in the classroom, which I could only accomplish by holding the door closed. Needless to say, I couldn’t really teach from there, but a couple of persistent first graders did get some use out of the day. Even kinaesthetic learning has its limits, I guess, if everything one says seems optional. One of the children clued me in that Sonia writes notes home to parents if there is misbehavior. Her class is still sort of chaotic, but nothing as bad as mine. All I can say is, I hope she got the third teacher and never misses another class.

But other things are going well. I played a child’s guitar yesterday during computer room hours (no, there is no internet access in the room yet, but we’re supposed to get wirless any day now) and made a good impression. I was invited to play with a couple of guys who have the equivalent of a garage band—except it’s not a garage, it’s a small building made of mud bricks. Very atmospheric. I had serious trouble with the rhythms, but seemed to be okay on when to change chords, once I got some help as to what the chords were. Al would have done better. Looks like I’ll have plenty of opportunity to solo in the Aeolian mode.

And today I’ll have a chance to see Manuel make mud bricks. I didn’t see this kind of construction during the Peace Corps years—I’m not sure it’s done in Costa Rica. The newer houses here, the ones built with remittance money, are made of brick, cinder block, and reinforced concrete. But the permaculture influence persists—maybe there are a bunch of permies back in the States who will pay good money for a mud hut, and I’ll be there to supply it, out of the appropriate, locally available materials, of course. On the other hand, the amount of firewood they were cutting when I passed by this morning looked sort of intimidating. I might need a partner.

Oh, I also took a hike with Angus down to the Nariz del Diablo touristic train station. That was way back on Wednesday. It really is quite picturesque, in a mountain extravaganza sort of way. Maybe by the time I get to post this I’ll have a nice picture of Nariz del Diablo to include. From the proper angle, it looks like an elephant. I’ll see if I can get that one for you.

Anyway, this week’s call for advice is, believe it or not, CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT! How am I going to get the fourth graders to behave? I suppose I can threaten o keep them out of the computer room, but not all of them use it. Maybe just the fear of being denied something will get to them. But I’d welcome a more positive solution.

This first picture is a view from the Quito bus station, Quitumbe. The second is a view from my bedroom window. Think about it.

I hope you all will see this someday very soon..