| |
Ecuador Dispatches, 2008
Peter and Judy returned to Ecuador in early
2008. The following are dispatches they sent this year.
Index of 2008 Dispatches
[Most recent dispatches at top of list]
Judy's Journal #3, March
31-April 4, 2008
Dispatch #3,
A Celebration & Reflection, April 5, 2008
Judy's Journal #2, March 24-28,
2008, Planet Drum's Eco-Ecuador Work
Judy's Journal #1, March
8-21, 2008
Dispatch #2,
National/Local Transformation, March 24, 2008
Dispatch #1, Tropical Winter Sketches, March 17, 2008
<<<===>>>
2008 Dispatch #1 (March 17,
2008)
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador
By Peter Berg
At this moment hundreds of thousands of tons of water hyacinths are
floating down Ecuadorean rivers headed for the coast. Heavy rains that
flooded out the shallow places where they overgrew during summer and fall
have loosened stalks and leaves in long drifting lines that now artfully
illustrate the river current. Occasionally there are large patches of plants
that tore away together. It isn’t possible to view the river without seeing
bright green reminders of how strong the rains have been that pulled so many
hyacinths loose. More are heaped on the riverbanks forming temporary dunes.
Those that finally make it to the ocean are a gluttonous belly-swelling
treat for the offshore food chain with ramifications throughout the Pacific.
I have even heard that some of the animal life forms on the Galapagos
Islands hundreds of miles from the coast evolved from progenitors that
floated there atop similar ships of debris.
Rain in this season is sometimes violent and relentless. In the short
space while I was talking to a friend water disgorged so strongly from one
towering black cloud that the downtown streets became instantly impassable.
A half-foot of brown fluid suddenly ran as fast and with waves similar to a
mountain creek, swirling through the city from the surrounding hillsides.
Even sandaled walkers were reluctant to wade across because of the force
that sometimes rolled rocks and propelled chunks of wood. Crowds grew on
each corner as more people finished their business and emptied stores or
came out to watch fascinated, smiling to each other at the marvelous
display. As abruptly as it began the rain died away and the flood subsided
like dish water emptying from a slow-draining sink. Residual mud and gravel
in streaks on the street were the only evidence of a first-class natural
display that everyone who experienced it added to their memory of this
winter.
Plant growth has been astonishing. Hillsides that were barren only two
months ago are now so dense with high foliage that we are placing tall
sticks tipped with red paint beside our revegetation plantings in order to
find them for watering later in the year.
Mud is everywhere. Field work is made twice as difficult because of
slipping and slogging in mud. Some streets are sealed with it. All vehicles
are coated or streaked with brown splotches. Clean shoes and pants are
instantly soiled. Floors have small piles of stiff dirt and the light thud
of a broom hitting the baseboard is a nearly constant indoor background
sound.
When people ask what is so appealing about coastal Ecuador I usually
answer, “Nature is closer there.” These sketches are part of what I mean.
<<<===>>>
2008 Dispatch #2 (March
24,
2008)
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador
By Peter Berg
Ecuador is undergoing a political transformation of
undeniably profound and long-lasting significance. As with most South
American countries this is a time of widespread change and realignment for
many reasons, but in Ecuador there is an additional uniquely internal factor
that stands out above all others. It is rewriting the national constitution.
President Rafael Correa put the issue of constitutional
reform on the ballot last year as a fundamental part of his revolución
ciudadana (citizen’s revolution) and received overwhelming electoral
approval for the process. Unlike Hugo Chavez’s recent failure with a similar
measure in Venezuela, the need is more clearly evident here because of a
historically deadlocked legislature that is incapable of effectively
governing the country. An Assembly was popularly elected to carry out the
process of receiving suggestions and framing resolutions for the new
document. It is presently meeting in the city of Montecristi only a few
hours from Bahia de Caraquez with a deadline to finish by the end of May.
The proposed constitution will then be debated (no doubt vigorously due to
resistance by the minority opposition) and approval by plebiscite sought
before the end of this year.
The scale of change will undoubtedly be enormous
whether or not agreement on all of the proposals is reached. The main areas
for revision are divided into different mesas (tables) seating equal
numbers of Assembly members. They range through topics from composition of
the legislature and terms of office to natural resources and education. As
an example of the generally forward-looking consciousness at these meetings,
Mesa 1 - Derechos y Garantias Fundamentales (Table 1 - Fundamental
Rights and Guarantees) is currently discussing whether Nature itself should
have rights.
On the local level there has been an opposite tendency.
Eco-city activities in Bahia de Caraquez have seriously declined in the last
few years. The most obvious symptoms are the discontinuation of the
Municipio (city government) garbage separation system and disuse of an
extensive compost-making facility that previously transformed household and
market organic waste into valuable soil for agriculture. There haven’t been
any notable environmental initiatives by the city other than cosmetic
upgrading of parks through adding plants and installing night lighting. In
fact, persistent conflicts with the Municipio led to the suspension of
numerous children’s Eco-Club projects sponsored by the private Center for
Environmental Studies. The Municipio’s promising new Director of Environment
has just resigned for a state-level job. There is universal disenchantment
by the public, private organizations and businesses about whether the city
is interested in genuine ecological improvement. Lack of vision or even
cooperation by the Municipio isn’t the only factor. There needs to be a
massive reawakening of the eco-city movement in Bahia by private individuals
and businesses as well.
Planet Drum Foundation has just developed a written
mandato (mandate) for change beginning this year. It is already
supported by the informal Amigos de la Eco-ciudad made up of
community representatives. Public distribution of Eco-Mandato 2008
has begun, and hopefully members of the general public, present elected
officials, and especially candidates in upcoming elections will adopt it.
Eco-Mandato 2008 aims at changes in four
fundamental areas that require urgent attention. There could be a much
longer list of environmental problems, of course, but these have been
persistent difficulties and involve local bioregional realities that are
experienced by everyone: water, food, soil, and development of ecological
economic activities. Since the city government also administers the
territory of the whole county there is a stronger emphasis on agriculture
and resources than might otherwise be found.
Water is a primary concern considering this
region’s long dry season. Reliable water isn’t easily available to the
overwhelming majority of people so piped sources need to be made available.
Rooftop rainwater collection systems are under-utilized and could be
facilitated with city government assistance. Conservation and re-use through
diversion of wastewater to gardens or toilets should be taught and
encouraged.
Food production by organic permaculture methods
including growing native fruit trees needs to be demonstrated to both rural
agricultural producers and city gardeners. The public should be informed
about health and ecological benefits to stimulate demand for farm products
grown in this manner.
Soil enrichment through production of compost
should be encouraged by education and assistance with equipment. Organic
wastes for this purpose must be successfully collected from households,
markets and restaurants. The present massive burning of brush as a means to
obtain whatever minimal nutrients are provided is ruinous in terms of soil
health, erosion, river siltation, and pollution.
Develop new ecological businesses by providing
resources such as education, training, marketing, and use of public lands.
Teach manufacturing of commercial products from recycled materials including
metal, glass, plastic, and paper.
(Complete Spanish language document below.)
________________________________________________________________________
ECO-MANDATO 2008
Para
Hacer Bahía de Caráquez una Eco-Ciudad
El 13 de marzo, 2008
La Fundación Planet Drum y Los Amigos
de la Eco-Ciudad de Bahia de Caráquez, Canton Sucre exhortamos acción
inmediata en las siguientes áreas básicas públicas para lograr un equilibrio
con el medio ambiente y ganar el reconocimiento como una verdadera
eco-ciudad.
Estas
acciones deben ser asumidas por todos los miembros de la ciudadanía en
general, empresas privadas y el gobierno. Para lograr ser una eco-ciudad las
agencias publicas y oficiales tendrán interés genuino en estas acciones.
Además formarán parte de plataformas de campañas de candidatos políticos
futuros para responder al impulso de la población.
v
Agua
– Desarrollar las fuentes necesarias para la disponibilidad de suficiente de
agua segura para todos. A la misma vez, promover la conservación y
reutilización de agua, por ejemplo: recolección de agua de lluvia, dirigir
aguas servidas a jardines y uso de llaves de flujo reducido, entre otros.
Repartir la información y recursos necesarios para realizar estas metas a
todos los usuarios públicos y privados.
v
Agricultura Sustentable – Proveer educación para
la producción de alimentos con prácticas de permacultura bioregional para
cultivar cosechas orgánicas que sean más saludables y conserven el suelo y
agua. Promover información e instrucciones sobre agro-silvicultura para que
agricultores y jardineros aumenten el uso de árboles nativos de frutas
comerciables y la alimentación de ganado.
v
Mejora del
Suelo – Enseñar técnicas de separación de
desechos orgánicos e inorgánicos y la producción de abono a gran escala e
individual a todos los agricultores para reemplazar las practicas de corte y
quema, con métodos de limpieza y fertilización orgánicos de los terrenos.
v
Empresas
Ecológicas y Trabajo – Ayudar el crecimiento de
nuevas empresas y organizaciones ecológicas con recursos como educación,
capacitación, marketing y terrenos de uso público. Enseñar la fabricación de
productos comerciales de materiales reciclados incluyendo residuos de
metales, vidrios, plásticos, y papeles.
Más Información:
Visite nuestra oficina: 915 Montúfar, Bahía de Caraquez
o escriba: planetdrumecuador@yahoo.com
<<<===>>>
March 8-21, 2008
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador
By Judy Goldhaft
March 8, 2008
The weather is either hot and moist
or hot, moist and slightly breezy. At Jacob Santos’ B&B mornings bring
fruit, fruit juice, scrambled eggs, rolls and coffee. Fresh pineapple with
banana yesterday and pineapple with watermelon today. Took a walk for the
first time this morning. Not too far, but a nice amount.
The Planet Drum volunteers are all
women just now, though one man arrived today for a brief stay. Since it is
the weekend they are all off to the beach north of here for an overnight.
Went to the market this morning to buy shrimp, limes and vegetables which
will be cooked for dinner tonight. Last night we all went out to a
restaurant where the menu was fish with rice and lentils and or ceviche,
both of which were good.
Haven´t been to any of the new
Project planting sites yet, but have had some conversations with Clay, the
Field Projects Manager, about seeing them next week.. Also next week I will
cook with Cheo, a local friend since Planet Drum started working here. He is
an elementary school teacher and also a really good cook. We have already
decided to make a "typical coastal Ecuadorian" meal of fish in coconut
sauce, patacones (crushed fried platanos), etc. Last time he cooked it was
ceviche for a party and it was delicious.
The women who make recycled paper
products came by and picked up a medium sized order for Planet Drum. We were
excited to see each other. I decided to also have some business cards made
for Planet Drum, Peter, Clay and me.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
I had planned to go out to one of
the sites with the volunteers this morning to take pictures for a new slide
presentation. Yesterday I had the same plan, but arrived at the Planet Drum
apartment after everyone had already left. The volunteers work for about 4
hours every morning, and it turned out that yesterday they had left at 8:30
in order to miss the mid-day heat. For this morning Jaime Andrade, the field
foreman, had previously left a note telling everyone he wanted to be out of
the house at 8AM sharp. So when I got up this morning I hustled and went
down to breakast early. By the time I had drunk my juice and was eating my
eggs it was about a minute before 8. So I drank about half my coffee and
went right over to the apartment, about a half a block away. I could see the
seven volunteers outside the apartment and caught up with them just in time
to catch the bus to the site.
We rode about 15 minutes to the
outskirts of the city, then jumped off the bus and walked down the road to
the site, which is called Don Pepe. The plan for the day was for half of the
workers to push marker stakes in the earth next to already planted trees to
make them easy to find. The other half of the people were going to a
different place in the site and cutting more stakes to be markers. I joined
the group pushing in stakes.
We carried a bunch of stakes up a
fairly steep hillside path to begin. There were rows of planted trees or
each side of the path. I did about three of the rows when someone pointed
out there were two kinds of stakes--ones with a single red stripe at the
top and some with two stripes. The two-striped stakes marked the last plant
in a row. Hmmm. So I went back and checked the three rows where I had worked
exchanging stakes where needed.
Back on the path again, the other
volunteers decided that we should go to the very top of the path and work
our way down. The logic for this was simple--the day will become hotter and
we will become more tired, so we may as well go to top now while we are
energetic. (We had originally started about two-thirds the way up the hill.)
So I picked up an armful of stakes and we went with the others to the top.
In some places the planted trees are
obvious, but during the rainy season all the grasses, vines, etc. continue
to grow rapidly. On one row I had to pick my way through bushes and grasses
to find the last planted sapling. The end of the row was obvious because
volunteers had previously strung barbed wire to keep cows out and that is
where every row seemed to end. Jaime cleared excess vegetation while we put
in stakes.
There were some other routines that
developed while we working. A few places where saplings had been planted the
tree had died. Since those spots were already prepped for a tree, we staked
the earthen bowl that had been previously dug so another tree could be
planted there. Later in the morning Jaime came with Hobo branches, which
will sprout if just pushed into the soil, and replanted the empty earthen
bowls. We also worked out a way to keep track of rows where staking had been
completed. This was necessary because when you start staking a row, there is
no way to know how many stakes you will need, and the number of stakes that
you can carry up the steep hills is limited. So when a row was started, we
positioned a stake on the ground next to the first tree as a marker and then
continued to stake the row. When the last tree in the row was staked, we
went back and put in the positioned stake next to the first tree. So it was
easy to see which rows were complete, which were in progress, and which had
not been started yet. Clever, eh?
About the time we began to run out
of stakes, a light rain started. I went down the hill to bring up more
stakes but couldn´t find any more. The rain became heavier. Others came down
to help with carrying stakes up, but there weren’t any more and the hill was
becoming more and more slippery, so we stayed at the bottom. When Jaime came
down; he said we may as well go and do work at the greenhouse instead. So
we walked to a place in the road where there was a ramada to protect us from
what was becoming even heavier rain while Jaime went to the other side of
the site to get the rest of the workers. By the time they returned and we
walked to the end of the road we were all drenched and it was almost noon,
so instead of going to the greenhouse we took a bus back into the city
center.
On the bus ride back the extremely
heavy rain we had been experiencing had flooded the road in some places so
that there was only one lane in which traffic could travel. We were so wet
from the warm downpour that our bus seats had pools of water in them when we
stood up to get off the bus.
Apparently the entire downtown area
had been flooded with about a half-foot of water. It had happened quickly as
a result of the rapid rainfall and people had to wait for about a half an
hour for it to subside.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Today I went out with the volunteers
again. We worked in the greenhouse planting seeds both directly into a
seedbed—about 500 seeds--and into plastic bottles filled with soil—about 120
saplings. It didn´t rain today and wasn´t super hot. Just in the 80´s
probably.
It is nice to be away from usual
things in San Francisco. Went for a short walk today and also just sat in
the park in the shade....very pleasant.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Went out with the volunteers at 8AM
again. Climbed up and down hills taking photos. Came back a little early
with Clay. Everyone is going away for the weekend so it will be a quiet
Saturday. Some reorganizing of the apartment is the plan and cleaning it up
too. So much for vacation. Also planning to make a day trip to a small town
with a friend to see their Sunday market hoping to see a horse sale as well
as vegetables and crafts.
Several volunteers are finishing
their stay this weekend and some who were previously volunteers and then
left to travel around Ecuador will be returning. This means there will still
be six or seven volunteers next week.
Sunday March 16, 2008
Today there was a car trip to visit
two agricultural towns nearby. Tosagua has a very big market day and the
other, Calcetta, was crowded for Palm Sunday. On the way there were pick-up
trucks filled with people going to the market, which our host for the trip,
Arfranio, jokingly referred to as "local buses." The market was truly
enormous and sold just about anything you could need. Different sections
were devoted to clothing, music CDs, jewelry, kitchen supplies, saddles,
farm equipment, and a food section that was about as big as a football field
separated into vegetables and fruit and meats and restaurants. We had fun
looking, bought a belt and also lots of fresh tomatoes to make a sauce for
dinner.
At Calcetta, an older town, we went
past the new church with many Palm Sunday church goers—everyone in town was
carrying palm fronds intricately crafted with many circles—to look at the
old wooden church and the oldest part of town, which has the remains of a
previously extensive railway system. We hoped to lunch on a specialty food
from this area which is made from cheese curds. We checked around, but none
of the restaurants was serving it. Then we learned it can´t be made right
now because the rains have decreased milk production, so we returned to
Bahia. The whole trip took about 4 hours.
Last night featured a visit to speak
with the local Constitutional Assembly woman, who is very ecology-minded,
that was both interesting and friendly. She is on the "rights" (human,
women, indigenous, etc.) committee. It sounded like very complicated as well
as long and tiring work. She is also interested in trying to help Planet
Drum become an officially recognized NGO in Ecuador. (A process that has
been going on for several years.)
Monday, March 17, 2008
Just got back from a meeting with
Patricio Tamariz, an old friend who has always been helpful to Planet Drum
here. He is a very interesting person who was working internationally with a
quasi-governmental tourist organization until recently. Now he is involved
in setting up new coastal Ecuadorian tourism routes. Patricio has always
been supportive of the Eco-city actions in Bahia, and we discussed the
mandate for change that Planet Dum and the Amigos de la Eco-ciudad have just
finished writing.
Patricio’s mother, Flor Maria Duenas,
stopped by as well. She started the Eco-Clubs for kids movement in Ecuador
and has worked in all of South America. It was a friendly visit with people
who we work with on various levels. We introduced Clay to them and they were
very obviously impressed by what a solid person he is.
Later in the morning, one of the
women who makes recycled paper products delivered some of the new business
cards. All in all it was a good morning.
Tuesday March 18, 2008
This afternoon all the Planet Drum
volunteers went to see the workshop of the Arte Papel women. The women
demonstated how to make paper from recycled waste and encouraged the
volunteers help a little. Then they showed the products they make and gave
each of the volunteers a gift of a notepad which had been made but not yet
decorated. The volunteers really enjoyed decorating their notepads. I was
struck that the "demonstration and workshop" we had just experienced would
be a lovely experience for tourists visiting Bahia. It was a very sweet trip.
The volunteers joked that maybe they would rather work some days making
recycled paper than doing tree planting. Later everyone agreed that with a
little publicity Arte Papel could do presentations for visitors.
Friday, March 21, 2007
Happy Spring to everyone! Here the
equal day and night of the equinox happen all year long. The moment of
Equinox was just before midnight (i.e. March 19) and the sunset that night happened
here at exactly 6:30PM (sunrise had been at 6:30AM). The sun sank into a
purple, pink and orange bank of clouds. As it slid down to the horizon reddish
embers glowed through cracks in the clouds. Really beautiful! The
volunteers and Clay toasted the equinoxal change of seasons with a bottle
of wine that night.
By Thursday morning a few of the
female volunteers had left to continue their travels and that day the plan
was to plant trees at a new site with a neighborhood called "Reales
Tamarindos". Clay thought it would be a good photo opportunity as some of
the community would be joining us.
We left at 8AM in a rented pickup
with equipment and people in the back, the driver and his friend in the
front. Two volunteers and I were dropped off at the site with marker stakes
and the supplies to paint stripes on them. The others continued on to the
greenhouse to fill the truck with saplings to be planted. So we set up to
paint the stakes and had almost completed them when the truck returned
filled with saplings in 2 liter soda bottles. We unloaded them from the
truck to the side of the road, and then proceeded up the hilly path to the
site. By now the president of the neighborhood and about six boys aged from
about 7 to 12 who live there had joined us. The path to the site was hilly
and wound past a house. The recent rains made the clay path difficult to
navigate, so Jaime used a machete to cut steps in the most slippery places.
Seven adults struggled about a half a mile up the hill each carrying three
or four bottles filled with saplings. The kids were like mountain goats. The
carried one or two bottles and fairly bounded up the hill. It took about 7
trips each to get all of the trees up to the site.
The next chore was to decide the
placement of the trees. We had a number of species—some fast-growers and
some slow-growers. The previous three days, Clay and the volunteers had
cleared planting paths and dug holes where the trees would be placed. Now we
placed saplings either in or near the holes, with the fast-growers on the
steepest areas and the slower ones in the flatter places. At the same time
that were we doing this, some people carried painted stakes up the hill, so we
also pushed in stakes next to the holes. By the time we had about finished
doing this, it was about 11:30AM and fairly hot. It was already a good
amount of work for one day, but of course we still had to plant the trees,
so we continued working. By the time we finished it was 1PM, and we had
planted 162 trees. All the empty plastic bottles were collected into a huge
pile (to be picked up another day), and we walked down the hill to take a
bus back to city center. Everyone was hot and truly tired, but it felt good
to have accomplished so much. The shower I took when I got back was just the
best!
<<<===>>>
March 24-28, 2008
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador
By Judy Goldhaft
Overview: Last week there were seven Planet
Drum volunteers who concentrated work on one large neighborhood site. Only
three volunteers remained by the beginning of this week, and by midweek
only one. Regardless of fewer numbers we weeded four previously planted
sites as well as the greenhouse.
The work: Weeding involves locating saplings
planted in the new sites and “cleaning” a space about two meters in
diameter around the tree. Sometimes the canopy of other trees above it
needs to be cleared as well. When working alone this can be a very
meditative experience—you could redefine/reevaluate your life while
working.
Also involved: Vines grow incredibly fast and
can overwhelm saplings unless the trees are released from their grip.
Paths and spaces between trees that tend to disappear into fast-growing
vegetation during this wet moist season need to be cleared
The Sites, the People & the Work:
Monday, March
24, 2008
All of the volunteers except me joined foreman Jaime
to deal with a site that is close to the greenhouse at Universidad
Catolica. Meanwhile, Clay and I cleared the recently planted saplings on
the side of a long staircase in the city center that leads to a
neighborhood with a vista area at the top of a hill that has a large cross
on it. The hill and the site are called La Cruz (The Cross).
The day was sunny and very hot. In two months since
the saplings were planted, grasses had grown higher than them, so the
trees were hard to find. The lower areas were planted in short rows next
to the staircase, but at the top the land flattens and about half of the
trees were planted there. We used machetes to do the clearing—a first
for me. I spent some time figuring out how to cut effectively. It took
about two and a half hours to clear the whole space. When we finished both
of us were completely drenched—actually we were drenched after about
only five minutes work! The morning ended with us resting and chatting in
the shade. On the way back down Clay pointed out a view of the Bosque en
Medio de las Ruinas below, Planet Drum’s very first planting site in
Bahia that I had previously only seen in photos and had often puzzled over
the location from which the photos had been taken.
Tuesday,
March 25, 2008
The site for clearing today was Bosque en Medio de
las Ruinas. It is large and at a further north end of town than any
others. One of the volunteers was feeling sick and one was preparing to
leave on the afternoon bus so Jaime, so Darline and I walked to the site
unaccompanied and began weeding. The first places we worked had been
recently planted (i.e. during this year’s rainy season). Because it was
started more than five years ago, this site has quite a few large trees so
we were working both in and out of their comfortable shade. Young trees
were easy to see and work was steady. After finishing the new plantings we
continued clearing older ones. It was gratifying to see how large the
earlier plantings had grown. Most of them originally had short bamboo
sections inserted next to them both to mark the tree and to transport
water directly down to the roots. Back in the San Francisco Planet Drum
office there are photo albums from each year’s work in Bahia. How
enjoyable it was to recall the photos of tiny trees being planted with
bamboo sections while working around the same trees now 12-15 feet tall!
Several other methods of marking trees can be seen in this site, which
brought to mind the various project managers over the past years, each
with unique contributions.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Bosque Encantato, which is on a hillside above a farm
at the end of the Fanca neighborhood (a 15-minute bus ride—plus the walk
past the farm), was our work destination. Darline was departing today and
Jaime was sick, so Clay, Jill and I went to the site. It contains about
300 trees on seven paths up a long hillside. We each took one of the
paths, planning to meet at the top where they ended. The paths serpentine
around and meander up the hill. You could hear rhythmic chopping from the
neighboring paths while we wound around the hill. Just as it seemed to be
reaching the top, my trail descended and looped around again. I called to
Jill at one point to see the spectacular vista that emerged behind us.
Eventually Clay came down my path and helped finish
clearing the last 8-10 trees. He had already completed two more paths and
Jill was just reaching the top too. We found a shady spot and exchanged
experiences all of us had with caterpillars (large bright pink and green
with long body hairs—which could cause skin rashes.) and butterflies
(completely black, white and red; yellow and black; and bright orange ones
with a wing span of about a foot.)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Finishing up Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas and Bosque
Encantato sites. Jaime, Jill and I walked back and cleared the older and
oldest plantings at Ruinas. Some of the trees were so tall and broad that
they hardly needed clearing because their canopies shaded out intrusive
plants. Clay joined us after about an hour and was amazed when he realized
that we had almost finished. The four of us then spent some time clearing
the extensive walking paths between the trees after first finding them
because most were so overgrown. Together we covered most of the paths and
all the plantings.
Near the large Ceibo tree that marks the top entrance
to the park, I heard a loud two-noted bird calling, repeatedly. I’m sure
the bird was in the Ceibo but remained a haunting mystery because it never
showed itself.
It was still early when we walked back from the
Bosque, so Jill, Jaime, and I bussed over to the Bosque Encantado site
about six kilometers away where there were still three recently planted
paths that needed clearing. Instead of each person taking one path, we did
all of them together. Since they were fairly short it was all finished in
about an hour. Took a breath in the shade and then returned to El Centro
(City Center).
Friday, March 28, 2008
The site—Planet Drum’s greenhouse next to the
Universidad Catolica at Kilometro 8, the last stop and turnaround of the
city buses. It was about two weeks since I had been there planting seeds
in one of two outside beds. During that short time, a prodigious number of
weeds had grown both inside the greenhouse and around it.
Jill and I followed Jaime’s instructions and first
cleared weeds in the indoor seedbeds. There are about eight of them, and
except for one or two, everything had to be cleared through a combination
of hand pulling and swinging machetes. What a change to be using machetes
without tromping up and down hills!
Next we worked on the indoor paths between the beds.
It seemed amazing that weeds could even grow on them, since they consist
of very heavily compacted earth. About the time we finished Jaime returned
from working elsewhere at UC. When he checked all of the plants we had not
pulled out, thinking they were saplings, he found that only about half of
them actually were desired plants and the other half were weeds.
Then we attacked the two outside seedbeds, one of
which I had helped to plant earlier in this visit. It was a delight to see
a few newly planted seeds already sprouting up. Following this we returned
inside to weed the many species of saplings that were growing in 2 liter
plastic bottles. By now many of the weeds could be easily identified.
Occasionally the sapling in a bottle had died. Some bottles had just a few
weeds, and some had giant intruders. A few saplings were inadvertently
“weeded”—a sacrifice is how I thought of them. Fortunately there
were only one or two of those all morning.
While Jill and I were working inside, Jaime cleared
tall grasses that had grown up outside to surround the greenhouse. Our
final project inside was to weed along the interior walls. When we
finished and had weeded both inside and outside completely, the greenhouse
looked wonderful. Finishing up, Jaime watered all the plants and the crew
walked to the bus stop. On the way there was a swarm of yellow and white
butterflies and Jill danced through with her arms in the air. It was a
lovely way to end the afternoon.
<<<===>>>
2008 Dispatch #3 (April
5,
2008)
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador
By Peter Berg
We hosted a
dinner billed as a “celebration” for both landowners and representatives of
urban communities who have participated in Planet Drum’s 2008 revegetation
program. After an hour of meeting each other and waiting for the inevitable
late arrivals, Clay as Field Projects Manager explained the purpose of the
gathering, described Planet Drum’s history in Bahia, and invited everyone to
watch a slide show of recent highlights. It began with background about the
benefits of planting trees to reduce erosion that deteriorates soil, creates
siltation in the river, and leads to public disasters ranging from
destroying houses to closing roads. New vegetation also restores animal
habitat, provides native plant resources, and contributes to the global
environment.
Clay’s an
excellent photographer with a distinctive off-centered style that shows
people clearly but to the side of their work rather than dominating the
frame. He presented the greenhouse operation through all phases of plant
development, compost-making, gathering seeds and seedlings (one particularly
effective scene of a volunteer digging out seedlings from under a tree
growing in the cement rubble of a ruined house), digging post holes for
fences to guard sites, planting, weeding intruders from newly planted
saplings, and arduous watering by hand during the entire half-year or more
dry season. None of the guests had seen all of the sites or phases of work
in the show before, but they all knew some of it and the resulting sense of
recognition and fulfilment gave a special binding introductory tone for the
evening.
As one guest
shouted out, dinner was saborosa (flavourful) home-prepared fish soup
followed by a sautéed fish entree served with blackberry juice or beer.
Discussions ranged from farmer talk about this year’s heavy rain (bad for
watermelons, good for corn) to mobilizing neighborhood cooperation in the
city. There were some surprises such as unusually frequent comments
regarding uses for native plants including gathering algarrobo seed pods for
cattle fodder, making fence posts from hobo and muyoyu branches, and
blending jaboncillo with piñon to make a traditional dark-colored soap. The
dangerously erosion-threatened city barrio of El Astillero was a central
subject all evening. This may have been because there were several
representatives from there who want Planet Drum’s help in revegetating the
steep hillsides whereas everyone else came from places where work was
already underway. One of that barrio’s residents had even begun his own
composting efforts ingeniously using cafeteria remains from the nearby
National Guard headquarters, and planted a handful of native trees for
erosion control. There was a particularly enlightened discussion led by the
Universidad Catolica administrator about whether El Astillero should have an
entirely independent program with its own greenhouse, tools and education
program.
Clay closed by
asking for support in finding more participants to revegetate new areas,
creating public awareness by giving radio and newspaper interviews, and
assisting in raising public awareness in other ways. It was a completely
successful first gathering of what could become a strong network as our work
continues with more tree-growers.
________________________________________________________________________
The conflict between the spirit of progress and the
precepts of ecology isn’t difficult to understand even if it often seems
impossible to reconcile. Progress usually involves introducing new methods,
tools, materials, and techniques to solve old problems or facilitate new
possibilities. Ecology is based on the healthy interdependence between
organisms and the natural systems that support them. Change is the
inevitable accompaniment of progress whereas ecology thrives on balance and
homeostasis.
The difference between these two driving forces is
glaringly apparent in comparing highly industrialized, materially developed
countries with more traditional, less developed ones. There is always the
question of ecological consequences when considering whether established
practices should be improved or discarded. As a random but clearly present
example, should sandals be made of native materials like straw or leather or
manufactured from plastic, or whether autos should replace walking
altogether. We know that plastic is notoriously resistant to biodegradation
and exacts a rapidly mounting toll on ecosystems all over the world
including the hundreds of miles wide swirling gyres in the middle of oceans.
Automobiles have proven to be one of the most potent contemporary ecological
disasters in all aspects of their existence from construction and disposal
to fueling and contribution to climate change.
There’s a metal working shop two blocks from Planet
Drum’s office in Bahia de Caraquez where I went today to have some uselessly
dull kitchen knives sharpened. It occupies a street-level corner space
without a roof and spills out onto the front porch of an adjacent house and
the surrounding sidewalk. There’s a forge, welder’s outfit, some
workbenches, an emory wheel, and other well-worn basic equipment completely
out in the open. The stacks of blank materials such as iron plates and rods
for assembling new items or repairing broken ones are clearly visible. All
of the work done is a public performance. In spite of glowing-hot metal and
flying sparks, the three or four men who do it wear blackened t-shirts and
shorts without aprons or other special protection except welding lenses when
necessary. Sometimes the sidewalk itself becomes a solid impervious surface
for pounding metal into shape.
Amazing work is done in this shop, everything from
sharpening long machetes to fabricating finished chrome-surfaced pieces for
such up-to-date construction projects as apartment buildings or an
international chain gas station. I mentioned
remembering the gas station job to the shop chief and he described the
repair he was making at that moment on an air conditioning unit. The bottom
had rusted out so he cut it away, replaced it with some plating, and was
bending a shiny decorative spare strip into an L-shaped piece as flashing
for the front. I’m sure there are few familiar objects with metal parts, old
or brand new, that he wouldn’t consider fixing.
It’s an obvious observation that a lot of this work
isn’t done anymore in the “developed” world, or it has become so expensive
as custom work that people will throw away an air conditioning unit or other
consumer appliances rather than have them repaired. This open-air shop is
actually a surviving contemporary version of the blacksmith’s shop that
disappeared from everyday life in more industrialized countries near the
beginning of the twentieth century. It has never been replaced except by
growing piles of refuse thrown into pestilentially polluting landfills.
The blacksmith shop in Bahia isn’t just a quaintly
antique holdover. Recycling, repairing and reusing items of all kinds has
become re-found technology in the developed world, and more “modern” than
throwing them away. (Making compost and planting trees is “modern” in this
same way.) Like a lot of other older practices and behaviors, the
metal-working shop is an inspiration for changing the ruinous styles that
have dominated the more industrialized world. Luckily, Bahia still has a lot
of them.
<<<===>>>
March 31-April 4, 2008
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador
By Judy Goldhaft
Monday
This morning Jill, Jaime and I set out for one of the
El Toro sites. They are along a river basin that slopes steeply down from
the hills. In relation to other sites, they are located just before Bosque
Encantado in the Fanca neighborhood, but behind it and much farther away
from the road. A half-hour walk just to reach the site. Luckily, we had only
light backpacks with just water, insect repellant and sun-screen. Jill and I
discussed how difficult it must have been for earlier volunteers to tote
several plants growing in bottles with wet soil.
The river that rises in El Toro is fairly large. During
the El Niño flooding of ’98-’99 a high wall of mud raged down the river
course wiping out a reinforced concrete highway bridge and completely
blocking the main road into Bahia. After a day's drenching rain a week and a
half ago on our bus ride home from working, the flash flooding river could
be seen almost level with the bridge again. Erosion on the nearby riverbanks
is impressive, 90 degree angles above the river. For Planet Drum it always
seemed a particularly important area to plant, but especially daunting
because of its magnitude and the difficulty obtaining access to sites.
A main objective of Planet Drum's revegetation project
is to control erosion. The depth of the bottom of both Bahia Bay and the
Chone River which leads into it has visibly risen due to soil washing down
from the hills. At low tide during this visit sandbars were apparent along
the south side of the bay. The El Toro Basin, which is a major tributary of
the Chone River, covers an extremely large area, and most of the land facing
the river is in private ownership. There have been continuing discussions
with the owners and a few have agreed to have some sites there revegetated.
We rode the bus to just before Fanca, about 15-minutes,
and then walked first down the road, then along the riverbank, then down
along the river itself (which had subsided and was quite small), and finally
back up along the river banks again. In some places the riparian erosion had
formed steep banks 30 feet high. At one place we saw a honeybee hive in the
soil of the embankment. Honeybees in Ecuador nest only in the ground, so it
was impressive to see one on this 90 degree embankment, in the ground but at
a right angle to what we normally think of as the ground.
This year's saplings were planted in finger-like paths
that branch horizontally from the left and right of a main trail.
Fortunately work was under a canopy of larger trees and bushes so the sun
wasn't beating directly down. At one place a large flightless bird, flushed
out by the chopping, revealed a nest on the ground with six eggs. We worked
individually on what originally seemed to be single paths. The "single"
paths repeatedly divided and it became hard to figure out which paths had
been completed. I began taking the highest path of each fork and then came
back and cleared the next highest fork, continuing down the hill. Paths
ended in either a barbed wire fence or an impenetrable mass of vegetation.
The trees at this site seemed to be doing well, and after more than a week
of working together we had developed into an efficient work crew. Despite
some disorientation early on, we worked quickly and when Jaime did a final
re-examination of the paths looking for unfinished areas, he found none.
On the long walk back to the road Jaime pointed out a
gray stripe in one of the yellowish vertical walls of the creek. He drew his
machete gently along it and a few shells, clods of gray ashy earth, and some
small red and black pottery shards dropped out. He explained that the gray
layer was the remains of a Pre-Columbian site, just the thing that
archeologists look for to locate potential digs. The area around Bahia has a
truly high number of these sites. Remnants from ancient civilizations are
found all along the coast, often when simply planting crops or walking
through fields. Beyond this Pre-Columbian spot was a snake about two feet
long which had folded itself in half and was taking a nap about 20 feet up
the same vertical wall. Jill and I departed from Jaime, who decided to try
and get some honey from the bee hive, and easily found our way back to the
road and a bus to the city. (Jaime later told us that the bees had not
produced much honey as they were busy constructing their hive.)
Tuesday
Jill, Jaime and I went to the barrio of El Astillero
and walked to an empty lot, which has a large Pechiche tree in it. Numerous
seedlings had sprouted under this mother tree. The duff was so thick that it
was easy to gently release the tiny trees from it with their roots intact.
It was a beneficial act since the seedlings wouldn't grow much larger
otherwise. They were put into a half gallon plastic bottle partially filled
with water. Then we continued walking to the new Reales Tamarindo site,
which had just been planted about a week previously. The empty 2 liter
bottles used for saplings had been left in a pile and were now stuffed into
large sacks and awkwardly carried to the bus stop. It had been rainy and
muddy when the planting had been done, so now on this dry morning it seemed
to be a very different place. Some of the new trees already looked healthy,
but some were still in shock from being transplanted.
When the bus came, the conductor obligingly opened a
compartment in the back for our sacks for the trip to the greenhouse at
Universidad Catolica. Workmen were clearing weeds in a field near the
greenhouse when we arrived. The sacks of bottles were dumped and some soil,
sand and compost were mixed to fill them again. Jill described our work as
“playing in the sandbox.” By the end of the morning 75 bottles had been
refilled with soil and planted with the Pechiche seedlings. The greenhouse
now contains almost 100 of these highly desirable native fruit trees. During
the morning the workmen found and killed a pit viper called equix. It
was only about a foot long, but is very poisonous. Looking at it with a
number of the University professors constituted our break that morning.
This was Jill's last workday, she left for further
adventures in Cuenca on the next morning’s bus.
Wednesday
Most of today was spent preparing for a presentation
and dinner meeting with over a dozen participants in Planet Drum's
revegetation project. We met at the restaurant in Jacob Santos’ Bahia Bed &
Breakfast, a lovely space for a dinner meeting decorated with bamboo and
large murals of country scenes. The tables were arranged in a square so that
conversations would be easy, and a projector (with a sheet pinned on the
wall for a screen) was set up for Clay’s slideshow presentation. The guests
were the landowners of sites planted this year and representatives of city
barrios were community plantings had taken pace. After Clay’s presentation
about Planet Drum’s work, the various sites, and future potential for
revegetation, we enjoyed a delicious dinner. Fish soup was the first course;
followed by fish in coconut sauce, rice, red cabbage salad, and patacones
(twice cooked plantains, an Ecuadorian specialty) as the second.
Beverages included fresh Mora (a sweet blackberry/raspberry fruit) juice and
beer. Questions and discussions continued through dinner and beyond.
Everyone enjoyed the evening. More information about the content of the
meeting is described in Peter Berg’s Dispatch #3 on this page.
Thursday
During the morning Peter and Clay made a visit to
discuss an access road with a neighbor of the land that has been bought just
outside Bahia to house a future Planet Drum Institute. Accessing the land
has been a matter of discussion for the last two years.
In the afternoon, Patricio Tamaris and his mother Flor
Maria Duenas picked us up for a visit and lunch at her ecologically
sustainable organic shrimp farm. We had hoped to include some of the
volunteers, but by Thursday all of them had left.
Most shrimp farms are barren industrial places. Shrimp
are raised in rectangular diked areas and the dikes are simply compacted
soil in a wide grate-like design. When I visited Flor’s shrimp farm in 2000
it was much the same. Since then she has planted thirteen thousand Mangrove
trees along the dikes and changed from chemically aided feeding and
collecting methods. Her shrimp are now certified as organically grown and
are much more ecologically sustainable. After visiting the shrimp ponds we
went to a slough where a pavilion was built over the water. It is a
beautiful ramada-styled building with low bamboo walls, a grilling area, and
a large dining section in the open air. There are also two bedrooms, a
kitchen, bathroom and a kind of living room/sitting area that were somewhat
more enclosed. Originally it had been built for youth Eco-club meetings, now
she is considering using it for volunteers who will be helping her. It was
surprisingly breezy on such a hot day.
Lunch centered on shrimp and other local foods
continuing through many courses:
Pechiche juice tasting like tangy prune plums to start,
then shrimp ceviche with chifles (crisp fried banana chips), lightly
breaded fried shrimp balls with mango sauce, rice mixed with fresh corn cut
off the cob, grilled whole shrimp, small tamale-looking packages containing
pureed fresh corn with chicken pieces wrapped in a banana leaf,
lettuce-tomato-cucumber salad, roasted sweet bananas, Maracuya (passion
fruit) juice … whew, have I left anything out? Oh yes, fresh very sweet
chilled watermelon for dessert. Delicious, but I was stuffed!
Friday
Clay spent most of the day discussing access rights to
the Planet Drum land with lawyers and then finding every piece of formal
paper that related to the land. By a miracle he uncovered all the old
paperwork (it took several hours and included getting copies from a notary).
He also created a legal document giving him authority to work with neighbors
while Peter is not in Bahia. This last document was notarized and then all
of them were copied so that a set could be used by Clay, a set remains with
Peter for the San Francisco office, and a set stayed with Jacob Santos, who
had facilitated the original land purchase and has continued to be extremely
helpful in the continuing negotiations. With all this completed, a wonderful
sense of accomplishment beamed from Clay and Peter.
What a wonderful fulfilling visit this has been!
<<<===>>>
|
|
