Donkey Drama

There I was nestled in the beautiful mountains of Vilcabamba. I would volunteer for a week at the local organic farm with no communication with the outside world!  My bus ride proved entertaining into Vilcabamba.  I met Alfredo, a local from Lojas whom I would have the pleasure of sharing cramped quarters for our 10 hour voyage to Vilcabamba.  It took us some time to start our ackward exchange of language.  Eventually we got into a flow and for some reason I was incredibly shy in our conversation and would go into fits of giggles when I couldn´t pronounce or figure out what he was trying to communicate with me.  I had an especially difficult task of trying to get him to understand that I wanted to know what the Spanish word for Easter.  Think about that for moment-- trying to convey Easter in another langauge-muy dificil!  All of the hand gestures that normally accompany me in these contexts would prove useless to me with Alfredo.  That coupled with the fact that I could not stop laughing hysterically really made our exchange interesting for me!  I did get out my notebook and tried to draw a picture of a church because I was committed to him understanding what I was tyring to convey.  My art work only confused him further!!  I did meet a local Vilcabamba hippie converted to an ex-pat from California on the bus earlier, and I pushed my way to the back of the bus to ask her what the translation is for Easter.  I repeated the words in my head till I got back to our seats and now we were finally on the same page!  Then I wound up introducing Alfredo to some of my favorite musicians via my i-pod.  It was truly challenging to choose which artists I would play for him
since I wanted this intercultural music exhcange to be good for him.  He requested Michael Jackson and I gladly obliged!  We were singing some old school Michael J into the night.  I can´t imagine what we sounded like together on the bus to the other passengers, but I imagine they were glad my battery was low and we weren´t able to sing for too long!  From Lojas I took another bus ride to Vilcabamba.  The scenery was some of the best I have seen in Ecuador thus far, but it is now a ex-pat, hippie town with mucho gringos.  There were gluten free cookies as far as the eye could see!  I was picked up by horse and donkey with Ive, the owner of the farm. If you want to meet a truly dedicated person then he is the person to meet.  He has been at Sacred Suenos for over 6 years creating a permaculture farm.  Not only did he want to create an agricultural system that creates sustainability by using the land and the natural resources for the farm he did so on bad soil!  He didn´t want to displace families from good land and he chose the arduous task of making his farm flourish from bad soil.  The farm is still not self sustaining even after all this time, but that hardly deters his passion or committment to this type of living. Fortunately though in the next few years he will have a self sustaining organic farm.  Having had the pleasure of working on the farm gave me a new perspective on many things.  Helping with planting vegtables to macheting the overgrown vegetation was truly inspiring.  I felt like a bad ass learning how to use a machete and make the trail more appeasing to the travelers that come up and down the trails.  Seeing how much time it takes from planting the food to harvesting really made me appreciate our meals each day.  Plants and animals were not in short supply at our location in the montañas.  Joe was another volunteer that I would spend a lot of time going on various treks and learn all about the farm from and he unfortunately has donkey drama.  Yes, donkey drama.  The first time Joe came to Sacred Suenos he had the bury a deceased donkey on his second day there! I can´t imagine arriving at these rustic chambers and enduring all of the elements on the farm and then on my second day helping bury a dead donkey.  He wouldn´t be able to walk down that specific trail because of the recent burrial!  Bonnie was the other donkey at the farm who was alive and well.  Bonnie is as challenging as you can a imagine a donkey to be for any person.  Ive is the only person that can get her to listen.  She has quite the trek with food and supplies up the narrow and often slippery trail to Sacred Suenos and is hesitant most of the time getting up the trail with her loads.  Joe of course, with his donkey drama, had issue with Bonnie listening to him.  There she would stand in stubborn and obstinate-will not moving.  Joe is a calm and tranquil hippie from England who didn´t deserve all this donkey drama!  Then to make donkey drama matters worse one evening Joe came up with Bonnie who had a tank of gas tied to her and down Bonnie goes!  She falls over and starts breathing heavy because apparently the rope was tied far too tight!  I am trying to hold up the tank of gas to relieve the pressure and Joe is instructing Fran to get a knife quickly. Fran goes into the kitchen to grab the knife and on her way out she picks up the puppy and starts petting it!  This really added to our donkey drama!  Joe is like what the f***!  Luckily, she snapped back into action and we got the gas tank off of Bonnie and all was well again. Phew!  Poor Joe is sweating and stressed out, but he stayed committed to making sure Bonnie is ok and tied her up in a nice spot for the rest of the evening.  Having the time to be in nature and cultivate the land with donkeys in tow is an experience I will not soon forget.  Sacred Suenos is a special place that gave me some time and space to connect to mother earth.  Next time I see a donkey it will remind me of my dear friend, Joe for whom my experience at Sacred Suenos would not have been the same without him.

Where to poop, where not to poop

Yes, I was recently privy to this topic at jardin.  Working with 4-5 year old children in another country has introduced me to a new level of energy and equally exhaustion!  Walking into the classroom yesterday I entered a manic scene with the children learning how to use scissors.  There were newspapers everywhere!!  Newspaper clippings up high, clippings down low, clippings in shapes and sights never seen before!  Some of the students took to the lesson quite well and cut all the paper they could, whereas other students struggled.  I was immediately thrown into the day´s lesson and trust me it took all of my internal resources to help teach them how to properly hold scissors in their pint size hands.  It dawned at me that there was a place and time when I did not know how to use scissors and how awkward it is to develop those important motor skills.  When I say awkward I mean awkward.  It is facinating how children can miscontort their hands in such a way that does not even remotely lead to the task at hand.  Let alone having them open and close the scissor enough to cut the newspaper straight is really unrealistic!  I was working with these twin girls and they had a difficult time with my instruction to them.  If they weren´t spacing out then their hands would go limp or fingers would slide out and I only had so many hands to hold the newspaper and show them how to cut.  This process repeated several times and I got interrupted because Diego, my little precious nino, decided he preferred to have his scissors in his mouth!  AY!  Once I safely removed his scissors I had to continue with my other duties in the classroom.  I am not sure if the teacher is really behind with her work, but she gave me a lot of assignments to help her with the childrens´activities.  She kept shoving mucho cuadernos at me and pointed to the task at hand.  With one of the tasks I had to draw an infinite amount of straight lines that the children would later cut.  I started spacing out on the task after my 20th cuaderno because I was tired from the multiple assignments.  She caught me when my lines were crooked!!  She corrected me right away and I was slightly embarrased that she caught me.  But that´s what makes her a good kindergarden teacher she catches people in the important moments and lets the rest go.  I asked her if my work was better and she said, ¨Muy bien!¨ I felt like one of the kids with her praise! Her next activity had the children walking on lines that she drew on the floor.  The lines were straight, curved, and jagged.  She had them walking on the lines together as a class which turned out to look like a mini wrestling session because pushing and shoving occurred once they started bottle necking!  Trying to herd these cattle is a talent that I am still in the process of developing.  During the morning though I heard some of the children mentioning the word caca.  I have gotten better with my comprehension of the Spanish language, however it is bits and pieces.  The word caca is something that I can readily understand.  I was curious as to the rest of the conversation, but didn´t have enough comprehension or vocabulary to inquire more.  Those moments are challenging for me with my gaps in language because I am inept at my job because I can´t speak and instruct to the level that I need.  I had to let it go because there was nothing else I could really do about it.  Later on in the day the teacher got in front of the children and starts speaking.  One of the first phrases that I caught was, ¨No caca afuera.¨  No pooping outside!  She continued on with her instruction on where to poop, and more importantly where NOT to poop.  As I have mentioned I don´t know a lot of Spanish but what I did catch were the words: caca, sanitary, bad, good, toilet, & NO!  Norma continued with the rest of the day´s instruction like it was nothing and the children hopefully absorb her words.  When I got on the cambio that day I was truly exhausted.  I wound up going to bed last night at 8:30pm because they wore me out.  Before I went to sleep I sent out prayers that the ninos that I love and adore have a much better understanding of where to caca, and where not to caca!

Volcan Misti

There are moments in our lives that truly define us.  Straight to our core inside.  Reaching the summit of Volcan Misti at 19,110 ft was one of them for me.  So often in my life and in the western culture I am forced to disconnect to that inner solace in order to survive.  Coming to South America all I can do is surrender to what is around me because I am a guest.  Along with that comes the realization of all the things that live inside me that keep me bound in my life.  Comfort, fear, resistence, and negative perceptions keep me in patterns that bear no fruit.  I was immediately confronted by my inner demons the first few weeks in Ecuador.  I had no where else to go but inward to address what was happening externally.  I decided to just honor myself and my path along with the mistakes that I was making too.  Most of the time my growth comes from mistakes and my ideal world would look like me learning from my  mistakes and not repeating them!  As the A.A. expression goes, "progress not perfection."  This is really good advice for this Virgo woman who often demands perfection from myself and is unruly when I do not meet my own expectations.  South America is teaching me how to be more tranquilo especially to myself.  Since most of the time I cannot change or control the external environment learning to be tranquil and just relax is the only thing you can do.  Being aggitated is just wasted energy and since my time is limited I value every second that I have in South America.  Now, let me describe my epic climb this past weekend!  The truth is I wasn´t even planning on doing a hike this weekend.  Let alone the one I would accomplish. Let me take you back....Thursday afternoon  I had gone to several tourist agencies to see if they offered a day hike.  None of them had any one day treks only a day touring on big ass double decker bus snapping pictures.  If anyone knows me remotely at all they would surely know that having me sit still on a tourist bus for an entire day would cause the earth to rotate slightly off of its axis!!  Sitting for me is like a death sentence, being on another corny tour is an even bigger death sentence, and I would prefer to watch paint dry rather than that.  The other tourist agency offered a downhill mountain biking trip.  Only they didn´t have any pictures of the area or written description.  When I asked for a pamplet he starting writing a description of the tour on a small piece of scratch paper.  The price included a bike, helmet, and a guide, but nothing else.  I gave the executive order for that one and vetoed it right away!  Then I had to abort that mission and try and set up my class to work with a silversmith.  I couldn´t find the shop and I did get aggitated because I knew I was in the general vicinity and could not find it.  Then I walked by the Andina agency and the sign for Volcan Misti caught my eye.  I went in to inquire more about the trek.  It was going to be a two day trek.  First day we backpack in with our gear for 4 hours and then set up at base camp for the night.  The second day we wake up at 1am and head for the summit.  The first day´s trek was particualary grueling for me because I had not backpacked with that much gear for such a steep and high altitude climb.  I was climbing with 5 other men and they had no problem schleping their gear up the mountain.  I had to prove that I was a tough chicka and could hold my own!  Eventually the weight got the better of me and I asked my guide to carry one of my 2.5 liter of water.  In total I had in my pack 5 liters of water, fleece, jacket, food, and supplies.  It weighed somewhere around 20 pounds and while I am tough I had to give up some weight to continue the trek.  After we landed at base camp we had dinner in the early afternoon and headed to bed shortly thereafter.  I was able to see one of the most beautiful sunsets since we were so high up and I snapped pictures like the tourista that I am!  We could visually see the peak from base camp and that was comforting because I thought if I can at least see the peak then it is more probable to summit. Often in Colorado you think you see the peak and then you come upon a ridge that is 6 weeks away from the actual peak itself.  It is mentally very defeating in difficult terrain and conditions.  None of us slept much that night and we got a brief nap before we rose for the morning.  Now, willingly getting up in the middle of the night to summit a 19,110 ft volcanoe takes a certain kind of well...crazy!  Just consider there were people around the globe comfortably sleeping in their warm beds and there I am the only female trekking in the middle of the night to this massive volcanoe.  Yep-loca.  That was my first early morning hike and it was challenging because your steps are loose and shaky with the limited vision and terrain.  We were all really deperate for the breaks that the guides controlled for us.  Luckily, one of them brought cocoa tea which helps with altitude sickness and energy and would divey out sips to us on our breaks.  It was like Thanksgiving dinner!  The weather got really cold towards the top and most of us could not feel our hands and feet and felt like we were starting the first stages of frost bite.  Wanting the sun in that moment was like a person who hasn´t had water in three days trapped on a deserted island with hot sun.  I had gotten so cold that I was shivering and then altitude sickness kicked in and the trek became especially challenging and thoughts of a warmer descent raced around in my brain.  After a couple of throw up sessions and one irritated guide I continued on. I continued on in that moment because I had to catch up with my guide and tell him I wanted to descend!  Once I reached him he pointed over to the cross which I could visually see and said, "Shannon, that´s the summit, vamos."  Then right there in that moment I am shivering, puking, my head is exploding I wanted that peak more than anything.  Now that I saw it I HAD to have it.  I warmed up and said let´s go.  Off we went and I was the third person to summit in the group.  I layed down in complete exhausion when I got to the top.  A few more throw up sessions and then I took pictures of some of the most spectacular terrain and headed down.  I spent all of ten minutes at the top because I was cold and sick and while many may not understand why I would willingly put myself through such challenging obstacles are not connected to their passions.  This is one of my passion pushing myself through all of the obstacles and being successful and reaching the top.  I am hooked, sprung, addicted, infatuated, and in love with pushing myself beyond any and all limitations that I have inside of my mind and body and climbing these brilliant peaks offers that outlet.  I realize that life is short and I had to go through so many obstacle to create my life here in South America and there are ALWAYS circumstances that keep up blocked from our goals and dreams.  I just have a manic perserverance that will not quit, and thus I have arrived to one of the best days and times of my life.  So I invite you to come and join me in all of the adventures.

Alimentacion

This week I started the alimentacion project.  I am the coordinator with this project for the children of San Isidro.  My project entails supplying nutritional foods to the children.  I have to plan food for the week, shop, organize, prepare, and deliver the food.  As I was walking up what felt like one of the biggest hills in the free world with all of the food yesterday; I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude.  I looked around this very poor and rural town with the sun beaming all around me and the peace and quiet of the morning and couldn´t help but be grateful that I was getting to be a part of this project.  I was also really grateful to get the experience of working a project like this since this is what I aim to do in my career.  Since these families and children have no other opportunities for success like we do in the states it humbles me to know that even though life is unfair for them in terms of opportunities at least I can do something in a day that helps them.  The sadness that comes with realizing that I have it really good in comparison to them is something I cannot dwell upon, rather I see them as these incredible people that still have happiness.  They are an example that happiness is not from possessions because they have none.  No televisions, Wii´s, bicycles, computers, games, running water, electricity.  Yet, they manage to make the best of what they have and live their lives in a good way.  I expect this community to have bitterness or anger kind of like the people I experience on the east coast. But no, they smile, love their children, and work hard each and every day.  I am blessed to have the time with these communities even though my time is short.  It will be hard challenging adjusting back to my Western life knowing what it is like for the people and children of San Isidro.  While I am powerless to change these circumstances on a macro scale all I can do is give my heart and service for every moment possible and hope they know on some level how amazing they truly are.

Jardin

I am comfortably settling into my new volunteer work in Arequipa.  I am working with a volunteer organization, Intiwawa, which does projects for children in rural communities.  This entails many ambitious projects to help these specific communities.  San Isidro is a brick mining community that we volunteer with the local kindergarden teacher.  I was able to work with these cute little tots this week.  I absolutely loved it and I can honestly report that children are globally and universally wild!  These ninos took their opportunity to get up on the chairs and crawl around on the desk as soon as the teacher left the room.  They have a keen understanding of how much they can get away with since our Spanish is limited.  I felt honored to be able to join in on their daily activities.  The teacher starts the class with the Lord´s prayer and hearing their tiny little voices since this ancient song was beautiful.  They followed that with other children´s songs where the kids got to tap the tables and clap their hands.  We spent part of the morning doing an arts and craft project about Red Riding Hood.  They had to first draw their interpretation of Red Riding Hood and I do not know what it is about giving a child a red crayon but they really let out all their emotions and feelings!  If I did some pschoanalysis on some of their drawings I might say that it is possible some of the children have some repressed anger!  Nevertheless, getting to see their interpretations via the drawings was spectacular.  From there they had to use red paper and make small red balls which they glued to a cape.  Now if anyone has witnessed, youtubed, or imagined what children are like with say glue or glitter you can then imagine the sudden rush of stress on my end!  Those are objects that somehow wind up everywhere and anywhere on a children.  In their hair, mouth, nose, shoes, and in the classroom for eternity!  I helped facilitate giving out small portions of glue and the children worked diligently to put their small red balls on their capes.  However, one of the girls didn´t make enough red balls for the project and she looked up at me with these sad eyes realizing her mistake.  I knew that there wasn´t any more red paper available so I took a quick scan of the classroom and saw one of the children had left their red balls unattended. I took my opportunity to take some of them and gave it to the girl to resolve the problem.  Unfortunately, the other child discovered the situation and I luckily had some leftover stolen red balls and all was well once again. Under normal circumstances I would never condone stealing, but in the case of children my philosphy to solve problems is BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!  It is a simple philosophy, yes, but  it has been quite effective!  After our art project the teacher hung the children´s work on the board and went through and asked the group if each picture was bonito or feo?  The children responded bonito and the teacher gave a happy praise and stamp for each one of the completed pictures.  The children loved the praises from the teacher and I really liked the positive reinforcement.  After art came snack time then outside play.  These children have very little toys and have painted cans that they stack together to make creations.  Of course having boys in the classroom this turned into throwing the cans, kicking the cans, and knocking over the cans.  Having the most experience with children I had to step up and correct their behavior, however my Spanish vocabulary came out in one simple syllable word.  Put.  Yes, put.  Try to control those monkeys with one syllable words and see if you don´t feel like a champ that day!  While I have worked with children for many years this was new ground for me on many levels.  My heart really goes out to these children knowing the poverty that they come from and lack of opportunities they will have because of their situations.  Their parents spend up to fifteen hours a day laying close to 500 bricks to support their families.  Not many options for these communities to go off to universities and make a better life.  These people really touch my heart because even with all of their adversity they are still happy.  The children smile and play and at the end of the day that is what is most important.

Lake Titicaca

This weekend´s adventure entailed two of the volunteers and I setting off for Lake Titicaca.  Lake Titicaca is 3200 square miles and 1000 feet in depth lake to give you an idea about the vastness of this special and unique place.  It is so large that it has small islands which indigenous families live on and where we got to spend the evening.  It took us three hours by boat to arrive on the main island and we got situated with our host families upon our arrival.  The families set the foundation for the islands and their homes with totora leaves and makes boats, houses, and beds from them too.  The leaves are needle-like and a deep olive and green color and on average 3-4 meters in height.  It looked like a really large green onion to me.  I was fascinated to watch and learn about the process from which these communities live and thrive.  From there we settled into our rooms for the evening and met up later for a late afternoon hike.  This was spectacluar getting to see the island from above and all the surroundings.  I had a hard time believing I was on a lake that contained islands.  It was massive!  However, one of the greatest aspects of this trip was getting to experience the local families.  We had dinner with them in their tiny cocina that had a wood burning stove which they cooked traditional foods for us.  I was able to play with the kids and show them some of my favorite games.  We also took the liberty to sing English songs to them and I was grateful that they couldn´t understand how off key I was in my own language!  I absolutely delighted in having this authetic experience with this family.  Later in the evening they dressed us in their traditional wardrobe and we set off for the discoteca.  We danced in the local Peruvian dance and I thoroughly enjoyed shaking my tail feather with this community.  The following day we had fresh trout from the lake and it was by far one of the best fish I have eaten in Peru thus far.  As we left the island headed back home I couldn´t help but be grateful for the whole experience.  It stays in my favorite top five experiences of my trip to date.

Huaraz

There are moments that make you realize your potential.  I am currently in the state of being re-defined.  Soy Americana? Si.  Soy Gringa.  Si, si.  Soy spiritual mujer.  Definitely.  Are there moments that I feel lonely on my journey.  Yes.  Not in the way that most people think porque there are so many individuals interacting with me that I rarely have the time to feel alone.  The thing that I miss the most is my spiritual connections.  I have a shortage of that in this far away land from mi casa.  However, I feel more in harmony with the values and qualities that exists south of the ecuador.  The local people are full of heart and energy.  Their voices and song reverberates inside my mind and heart as I drift off into sleep.  Community, oneness, connection is all here and even though I look like an outsider I am rarely treated that way.  I smile and they smile back at me.  I utter senseless Spanish and wave my hands and arms in gentle reflection of their language, and the local people try to comprehend my Spanglish.  While it has been a few weeks since I have last wrote the adventures continue hence forth--Let´s take a brief commercial break and review....

Huaraz-deep in heart of the Andes my adventures truly rests.  I arrived in Huaraz with eager anticipation of the sights I would behold. I was not disappointed in the least and the whole experience would surpass my expectations.  I was recommended a hostel to stay in Huaraz and I took a luxurious bus that served drinks and snacks.  Imagine a bus stewardess similar to an airline stewardess with lounge seats and blankets on a double decker bus.  Heaven.  Ecuador has the worst bus rides and no accomodations especially for gringas!  I arrived at Hostel Churup which had a bird´s eye view of the Andes mountains.  I was completely in love and infatuated.  I met up with a Canadian couple and we hiked some of the local lagunas which led me to meeting the English gents.  Peter and Neil were two active surfers who I would spend the next 3 days with and have epic times.  We hiked laguna 69 and decided that we were a good threesome to set off for Vallunaraju.  Vallunaraju is a 5,486 meter mountain that commands respect right away for those that venture on this specific peak.  The tour guides said it was an easy mountain.  They lied.  We hiked in the first day for acclimization purposes and then in the morning we set off for the summit.  The altitude worked its way through my body and I did my best to push through the pain.  Peter and Daniel set off in the morning together and Neil and I were strapped in together for our trek.  A trek is certainly was considering we had to rock climb and use ropes and a ice axe to make our way over the glacier and cravasses!  I felt like I was in a dream.  We missed the summit by 400 meters, but I was happy with my accomplishment that day.  Neil and I felt pretty nasty on the descent and we were both grateful to get down on dry..ish land and let the altitude sickness leave our bodies.  Currently, I am in Cusco a city that is filled with spiritual and cultural history and it pales in comparision to my journey in Hauraz.  I am off to my next destination tonight in hopes that I can experience something even vaguely exciting as Vallunaraju....