te regalo amores :)

before we get started with the latest news from la mitad del mundo, go ahead and put these sweet tunes on. feel free to ignore the video, or not if you want read the lyrics. this song you might hear when you are about anywhere in ecuador. its on the radio, its blasting from a cd stand, its mixin at a club. its kinda aweful and also soooooo wonderful. LOVE IT, lets dance :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri8v4csOl40

what a whirlwind these past few weeks have been. one of the highlights of my time in ecuador thus far was when mt and a few friends and i took a trip to lago agrio, an oil town that dips its feet into the amazonian mystique, to go on a tour of the oil pools and pollution that were left behind from texaco, which is now chevron. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duFXuRnd2CU
here is the trailer of a documentary that i saw in the states titled crude. it is about the case a highly contaminated community near lago agrio filed against the corporation. our guide was working on the case, taking the environmental scientists of the case to visit the sites that were polluted the most. an interesting debate in the whole case was whether the pollution in question was by texaco or by petroecuador, who took over the sites when texaco left around 91. some of the worst pollution are the pools of oil waste that texaco literally covered over with dirt, pools that petroecuador never used in the production process. it was pretty amazing to go to these areas, some that seem totally normal, and see that as our guide walked on them the ground would shake because underneath was all oil, or we would dig and 4 feet under the dirt was pure oil, and then see it run into a river where children are bathing and drinking literally 100 feet away. the reality of oil extraction is absolutely disgusting, even when the waste is disposed of 'properly'. one community in particular was effected drastically, with cancer rates through the roof and no clean water. this community filed the case against chevron, but it surely will not end for another 10 years. on the one hand, its incredibly discouraging to see how people are living and dying like this while lawyers jump hoops and tie knots. at the end of the day i asked our guide if he was friends with pablo fajardo, the now famous ecuadorian lawyer on the case, and he said 'yeah, i work with him!' (duh). he gave him a ring and we met him at his office, at 6pm on a saturday night mind you. it was soooo inspiring to talk to pablo! he destroyed my discouraging thoughts when he explainged to us that he realized he will probably die long before some visible change happens, but thats completely beside the point. our job is only to do what we can--we cannot throw our hands up and do nothing. its kinda like this quote i love, "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."
a powerful day, one that will stay with me and remind me that the greater the injustices are in the world, the harder people are fighting against them.

and now i would like to share with you about my day today, which has been a mix of a thousands winds. so there is this young boy mt and i have known since we first came to mindo, always showing up wherever we are, begging for an ice cream, joking around with us. as i started to get to know him better i realized that he doesnt really have a family at all here in mindo, rather 'lives' with relatives that seem to care very little about him. this is actually a big problem in mindo, so many children with young parents, there arent sufficient resources to support them, and many kids wander around, start drinking at a young age, and have a really rough time in general. two days ago our friend broke his arm, his relatives wouldnt take him to the hospital, and he came to mt and i to take him. we were so concerned and confused why no one had done anything. he had been walking around two days with a curtain wrapped around his broken arm and no one, not even the school, did anything about it. so mt and i went searching for a friend that would care enough to come with us to make sure we understood everything the doctors said, so could ensure the best for him. juancho, one of our dearest friends who we work with every day on the farm said he would come with us. we all bought some ice cream for the journey and our spirits, and hitch-hiked to the hospital. the ride there was beaaautiful (everything is more beautiful when riding in the back of a pickup, ive come to believe), and we all had such a great time--the happiest i have seen this boy, even with a broken arm--joking and laughing with the wind in our hair. we made it to the hospital, got some xrays, and were eventually told that he had waited too long and the bones were 'cold'--he had to go to quito. luckily there was an ambulance headed right then to quito, and he apparently had parents there that could meet him, or at least pay the bill if there was one. it was so hard to watch him go through that much pain, and put him in an ambulance alone to quito. i cant even imagine having my own kids. of course his arm will be ok, i only worry what having no one even care enough to take you to the fucking hospital would do to your feelings of self-worth. these are the stories of the 'bad kids' that are never heard.

so tonight we are having a going away party, of which we invited basically all of mindo. at 7 is the soncubano dance class and at 9 starts the other festivities. tomorrow its back to quito to writewritewrite and then who knows where! im really really really going to miss mindo, chilling in town eating ice cream and encountering everyone just walkin down the one street, our lazy breakfasts on the farm, and the BEAUTIFUL people i have met. my heart is warmed. i am grateful.

algunos fotos, por fin :)

living of earth, of love

the past few days on the farm have been some of my favorite thus far. the magic began when we had finished all we could do preparing the beds thus far (were still waiting on the precious caca de vaca). cris looked at us and said, well we can just gather fruit and make things! and such began our most beautiful day on the farm, gathering limes from the many trees on the property, hunting down the ripest papaya, picking aji (hot peppers) to make delicious hot sauce, etc. the feeling of walking outside to pick food that will soon be used to sustain our bodies is really an amazing feeling. i suppose thats the idea of it all; to live and closely with the earth, to put your sweat into the ground and let the ground sustain you, to see the cause and affect of the things we do to the earth. this might explain why i cant stop thinking about the chemicals from our shampoo, detergent, and soap that are all going directly into the ground--where we are sowing our food, the river that we bath in after our hard work, and la pachamama in all her diverse species of flora and fauna.

today as we were gathering the caca from our neighbors cows, i couldnt stop thinking about ways that i can personally live more closely and respectfully with the earth. over the past few years ive tried to consume less, be a little nicer, use less chemicals, things like that. but i still wasnt really ready to let go of my luscious lather of herbal essences shampoo. even after i visited the duwamish river and heard the protests of the people suffering from all the pollution, high rates of chemicals from ´fragrances´ in the items we use daily that are dumped into the river.
but living here with the dirt under my nails and in my hair daily, just thinking about where this is going physically pains me. in an ideal world we would all be aware of these things, but ´sometimes it takes a journey to come home.´ just so happens that this past weekend i went to visit a friend in a town outside of quito. we went to a sort of hippy event (i felt very at home, i am not ashamed to say)--hosted at a cafe with everything inside of it made out recycled material. there was a man there selling dish washing detergent made out of lime, vinegar, and salt...perfect! we have a ridiculous abundance of limes on the farm, not to mention we are currently using potent agent that hurts my hands and the land. so i got the recipe and bought detergent to give us a start! im looking into making natural shampoo, conditioner, and whatever else i can fix up around these parts--the idea being to use what we have on the farm to minimize plastic waste, chemical output, improve overall bodily health, and spend less money! should be an interesting challenge when im back in the states, but that is just more motivation to grow things and explore how to use plants from the pacific northwest.

as for my independent project, things are rolling along. this wednesday i am hosting a dialogue with women in the community about gender and identity. i am sooo excited. im still planning what i will facilitate, but i think we will be using different artistic expression to warm things up (dance, drawing) and then move into the whole talking part. the whole thing depends on who comes and what the want to share, and i cant wait to see where the night leads us.

i know you are all just dyyyying to see me! and if you didnt already know i will be returning a little earlier than expected, june 24th. how could i possibly miss a doble lado family reunion extravaganza!?!?

well i have a million things to do tonight so i will say my goodbyes.

en paz y amor,
laurita