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Kristen Ford and Chris HaasPlanet Drum Volunteers It has been one week since Peter and Judy’s departure to Guayaquil. I figured that today would be a great time to send my first report. This week has been full of successes. I spent quite a bit of time at the compost patio in Fanca getting to […]
Read MoreBahia de Caraquez All of Ecuador is in the near-frantic clutch of election fever. There are over ten political parties (listas) who have been running candidates for offices from president and first deputy down to city council members in a time frame of just two months before mid-October voting. In Bahia the pitch has risen […]
Read MoreBahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Planet Drum’s new office/volunteer center is a promising three bedroom, two bathroom, large living-dining room apartment on the second floor in the city center that is notably inexpensive due to the ravages of 1998’s earthquake. Only $30 in cash and $30 worth of repairs per month. Field Projects Manager Jeff Goddin […]
Read MoreBioregional Olympics: Environmental Recommendations Go Unheeded by Olympics Organizers The Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) is “greenwashing” the 2002 Winter Olympics. Even though assigned the task of providing the first environmentally sound Winter Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), SLOC makes claims that it refuses to substantiate and fails to take the necessary steps […]
Read MoreJeff Goddin, Eco-Bahia Projects Manager I sit at a table in a half-finished house as the street sounds, neighbor’s voices, and the smell of fresh baked bread waft in to distract me from writing this introduction to my Ecuador experience for the Planet Drum community. So, you’re probably wondering who I am. I’m a 27 […]
Read MoreLisa Kundrat, Field Assistant Last Wednesday morning accompanied Marcelo Luque and Linsey, his volunteer, to Kilometro 8, one site where he has been working with Laura Commike on Planet Drum’s reforestation project in Leonidas Plaza. Pedro met us there and gave Linsey and I tips on our machete wielding techniques as we slashed small circles […]
Read MoreLisa Kundrat, Field Assistant A week of storms and heat, of transition, of visiting, walking, listening. Been raining nearly every night, every morning, sweat dripping hot in between. There were nights when no one slept, thunder that made us crouch in our beds, lightning we could see with our eyes closed. Tried to plant in […]
Read MoreLisa Kundrat, Field Assistant Received a letter from home. Spoke of cold hail running through apple wood ash. Makes me miss Montana these days when I have been questioning my role here, in this place that is not my own, where I am only just learning the feel of the hot ocean, learning to speak. […]
Read MoreBahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Since it became unoccupied due to mud slides three and a half years ago, Bosque en Medio de Las Ruinas revegetation park in Maria Auxiliadpra barrio has been slowly evolving as a habitat. Our eyes have been trained on the progress of planted grass, brush and trees with only momentary interruptions […]
Read MoreBahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Eduardo “Cheo” took on the role of locating owners of land on the eroded hillsides above Leonidas Plaza to enroll them in revegetation activities out of his dedication to ecological betterment of the Rio Chone Bioregion. A high school English teacher by profession, he has often aided other dry tropical forest […]
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