GROW Initiative, on the move with projects underway

So almost three months after entering our first county in South America (Ecuador) we are still here. We have always said that moving slowly and working with the local people to improve their lives are the best parts of our traveling and our experiences here have proven that once again. Working through our non profit GROW we have been busy doing small projects from the mountains of Riobamba to the coast in Tabuga. This has taken many different shapes and forms throughout Central America and it is no different in Ecuador. In Riobamba we were helping with environmental education seminars at a university and an Earth Day of sorts with the participation of some 22 different primary schools in which we did out part by giving out trees for a reforestation initiative. In Tabuga we put on many different hats- from helping a new organic farm start up, contributing ideas, our machete skills, etc. to working on an Environmental Education Corner for a library being built, to chopping away to clear an area for a garden as a part of a “Happy Heart” nutrition program, to working with Bosque Seco Lalo Loor on their environmental education initiatives. Although we were able to contribute and had a great time in Tabuga, there were already a lot of other really great and motivated volunteers, mostly PCVs and RPCVs, doing good for the community and so we decided to move on. It was time to do another big GROW project somewhere that was not receiving much help, and that is what brought us to the community of Los Naranjos. It’s a Tsa’chila community, one of the indigenous groups of Ecuador. Of the eight Tsa’chila communities around Santo Domingo, Los Naranjos is the smallest and often most forgotten when it comes to outside aid. But with the help of a Peace Corps Volunteer named Clay who was working in the community until about a month ago, the community has the start of a burgeoning cultural tourism project. Unfortunately there are still some major hurdles to overcome before the program really gets going which is where GROW comes in.

The main part of the project is constructing a dry composting pit latrine. We’ve had lots of experience in using this type of baño, read a lot about them, seen plans, talked them up, but this is our first time building a complete one ourselves. And by ourselves, I mean the community is putting in the lion’s share of the work and we’re just there to prod it all along, teach where we can, bite our tongues where we can’t and buy the materials so they are the true owners of the project. It’s been great, and by this time next week we hope to be depositing our runny bellies (yep, still got that) where it will break down into sweet beautiful earth in about a year. (anyone who thinks that’s gross, travel with us for a couple of weeks and you will be throwing that flush toilet of yours out the window and installing one of these bad boys in you back yard for sure) To break out our more artistic, hippy back to nature side we are attempting to make a cool open-air shower, and bamboo hand washing station that will benefit their tourism project while educating the community on better more environmentally friendly bathroom alternative. We are also working with the community on turning the completely non-functional bathrooms of the school into something they can use as well as fixing the bathrooms and sinks in the medical center while teaching them how to do it themselves in the future if things break or go bad again (who ever thought all those years at Ga. Tech and William and Mary would lead us to becoming plumbers). Hopefully the sustainability aspects of this project will really pan out, and in any case the compost of the toilet will be the gift that keeps on giving, as long as people continue to use the shittero (I think that is Spanish).

Besides all that, living with the community has been great, especially for our football skills (no, we’re not throwing a pig skin around down here, football is with your foot, aka soccer which we play almost every night), and expanded our culinary habits into eating really gross bugs. You know, the kind who's maggots are about 2.5 inches long, the larvae look like they’re from Mars and you think the adult beetles might be able to snap your finger off if given the chance. When you squeeze the insides out they’re kinda buttery (Yum!), would not recommend it. And if muddling through conversations in Spanish were not enough for us, here their first language is Tsa’fiki, though our brains are rather full and I think all I’ve learned is how to say hello, thank you and delicious (had to complement the bugs after all).