Cajas National Park

Our home is on the road heading west and up to Cajas National Park. We, Craig, myself, a Peace Corps volunteer friend and Sam had a chance to visit while Sam was here visiting in late November. This park is unique in that it is at very high altitude,10,000 - 12,000 ft above sea level. The vegetation is unique to its high altitude, cold and rainy climate. Llamas graze freely, rock formations jut from the grassy, shrub covered mountains and crystal clear lakes abound. Wildflowers grab one´s attention in the stark grey green landscape. We hiked 2 trails before the late afternoon rain caught us and we caught a bus home.

Flowers and more........

This week we and most Cuencanos are back to work after almost a week of vacation and festivities. We knew that Cuenca is a world center for art and culture but we never imagined the depth and diversity of the art being produced here. All of this was on display last week in many venues all over the city and most of what we saw was for sale. What a feast for the practice of aimless wandering. One of our favorite events was the orchid show.......just a fantastic taste of the thousands of orchid manifestations to be found in Ecuador--truly a land of the equatorial sun and the flowers responding to it. So here are a few that we saw.

The rain has begun so all looks verdant and and new growth in sprouting in our yard (including the gigante rosa in our flower garden) here in the Rio Amarillo neighborhood. We are starting to build a raised bed for our garden. The soil is poor, hence the truck load of topsoil.

Hope you enjoy the orchids.

Thursday morning book exchange

Our future Windhorse Cafe site has been fortunate to be the host site of the English book exchange in Cuenca. Ex-pats that are now living in Cuenca come every Thursday morning or once in awhile to meet others, share conversations and to exchange a book they´ve read for another. I´ve just started using the event to share my baked goods. Today I made brownies and although they were less than perfect, they disappeared. Baking anything with chocolate at high altitude is still a challenge for me. Coffee is also shared. Folks are eager for us to get our cafe up and running but also encourage us to continue the book exchange as a weekly event. Used books are not cheap in Cuenca so an opportunity to trade something that one has read is a great opportunity.

Aspire to offer Shambhala teachings in Ecuador

So some of you might wonder why Lucy and I decided to move to Ecuador. A big reason for us was the state of the U.S. economy contributing to the lack of opportunity for people of our ages (59 and 60) and millions of other Americans. With job opportunities so scarce, we were drawn to Ecuador by the chance to try being in business for ourselves with the possibility of becoming self-sufficient income with a much smaller investment than would be needed in the U.S. That possibility became concrete when we found and purchased a small adobe building in the historical center of Cuenca which we shall turn into Windhorse Cafe (pics in earlier blog). Still working on our residential visas and having to put in a working kitchen is teaching us even further patience.

Another dream of mine is to bring the Shambhala teachings as taught by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, to Ecuador in a way that many Ecuatorians can find accessible. These secular teachings can be found in the book Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior but are best experienced as a series of training levels that include extensive meditation instruction and practice. Shambhala training has been a great help to tens of thousands all over the world who have been searching for a way to find more peace and compassion in their lives. Cuenca, I feel, is at the stage of development where people are looking for an authentic spiritual path that addresses the lack of spirituality people are feeling in the modern world, yet does not ask to believe in something that is outside the world that we perceive with our senses.
So I shall see who is interested in studying the teachings and learning to meditate. If there is enough interest at some point, perhaps Shambhala training levels can be offered here in Cuenca. As our Tibetan prayer flags send wishes for happines for all beings we say:
May all beings enjoy profound, brilliant glory! KI KI, SO, SO!

We are moved in- the dogs too!

We have been straddling two cultures for the last year and a half. Now we are back in Ecuador and have moved into the house we purchased. Thanks to our friends in Ridgeland, Wisconsin who helped make this possible. The house was empty when we arrived so we are busy buying all the necessary household items necessary for middle class life in Ecuador. We have been here 8 days so far and the last two nights sleeping in a bed. We are thankful for what we have and each day seems a little easier as we find the things we need. Our dogs, Toky (native of Ecuador) and Boca, are settling in now. We would like to give them the run of our quarter acre yard but alas, the back fence is in need of repair. So we walk them almost every day on a leash while they are greeted by every dog in the barrio.....numerous and none on a leash. We like our barrio as it is very mixed with some people having plenty of money(beautiful houses anyway) and others of modest incomes. We still have plenty of chickens and cows around. None of the streets are paved. We can walk two blocks to the bus going downtown where the Windhorse Cafe is. More about the Windhorse later. For now we are concentrating on getting settled into our home. In another blog we hope to post all we have learned about taking two dogs to live in Ecuador. It was complicated but went off with nary a hitch. Here you see Lucy with the two dogs by our fireplace and some views from our house as well.
So stay tuned. We hope to see some of you here in Cuenca.

Back in Ecuador

Dear Friends, Lucy and I are back in Ecuador living in our little building in the historical center of Cuenca. We love our little adobe building which we are planning to turn into a breakfast/ lunch cafe. Lucy will specialize in pies (not the spanish word¨pies¨ which means ¨feet¨). Upstairs there is great space for yoga and meditation. We think Cuenca is very ready for serious meditation practioners and those who will want to study Buddhism and the Shambhala teachings. We shall see! Life in a different culture is challenging. So far nothing overwhelming or unworkable. The suffering and joys of life do seem universal. We just sent our friends from Ridgeland, Wisconsin home. Unfortunately they were robbed of their backpack containing camera, cellphone, and $200 cash when they fell for the trick of robber impersonating a bus ayudante helping them put their pack on the rack above their heads. It is very easy to fall for these robbers tricks because the vast majority of the people here ARE very helpful and go out of there way to be so....yet as in todo el mundo, materialism is increasing here too in a seemingly unstoppable tide. Well we intend to do what we can to encourage a life of appreciation of what we have and the basic goodness that permeates it all. I shall post a few pics of the view from our front balcony so you can see what we see.....yes it is the rainy season. The weaving of the horse will be the logo for our Windhorse Cafe. Googel windhorse and you will find that in Tibetan Buddhism and the Shambhala teachings it is the energy of basic goodness that is always present in any situation. Hasta pronto. Que les vayan bien.
Craig

Milk for Kids is a GO!!

Greetings to all.   Lucy writing this time.   We just learned today that "Milk for Kids", our project that we spent so much time researching and writing up last fall is fully funded and we can begin bringing it to fruition.   Thank-you, thank-you to our numerous friends that have made donations and also to those that helped tell others about it.    Our upcoming blogs may very well have photos of goat stables in progress, a training workshop, and GOATS!

        Since school has been in recess, our activity has slowed a bit also.   However, using our creativity we have found a variety of things to do.   One, we hired a local metal worker to make us a small wood stove to heat our house in the chilly evenings.   Folks from the community have been stopping by to see it and they all want to know how much it cost and who built it.  One comment from an older man was, "Wow, that would work great for roasting guinea pig"  (translated from his Kichwa/espanol).   Now we have the additional job of hauling and splitting firewood.  I´ve included a photo of the outside of our house . . . maybe you can see the tall smoke stack.

       In the upper remote village where I taught English every Monday morning, we have organized Monday afternoon "educational game" time for all ages.  We teach all ages to play checkers, chess, puzzles, and read numerous picture story books in Spanish.  This has turned out to be very popular and the school classroom where we hold the session is full.   A few adults, as well as teens and many elementary kids are attending.   We may try sneaking in some environmental activities in the weeks to come.

      The Foundation that serves youth and their families has been in a bit of recess also for the summer but a small group has been building an earthen block building for housing laying quail.   The market for quail eggs is good in Ecuador.  They say they are cholesterol free.  So, Craig and I have gotten involved in the construction and I´ve included three photos.  Can you find me, hoeing the dirt and water mix?   Notice the two men up in the mold for the rammed earth block.   Fun to watch them jumping and dancing up there.

     Another photo is of "Marta", with her Mom, little brother and Craig on the day of her graduation from high-school.  She was one of two girls to graduate this year thanks to scholarships they were awarded by the Gender and Diversity Commitee of Peace Corps.  Craig and I nominated 6 girls for scholarships for the upcoming school year and all 6 were accepted!  It really is a boost for them and their families.

     Craig has been hauling his drill all over town, to drill a hole for the L.P. gas line so families can get their gas tank outside the house.  He also has been using the drill to help install kitchen shelving.  He is often thanked for his effort with a bag of potatoes, "oca" (a potato like root vegie),  "habas" (lima beans, I think), and once we received honey.

      Craig wants to add for all interested in his last entry about the small mystery animal that he identified it as a member of the wolverine family. . .  "tayra" in English and "cabeza de mate" en espanol.

Sadness and Joy

Hi folks. It's been awhile hasn't it? Memorable events here for me have been: 1)moving into another house which has running water (usually) and more room for visitors to sleep, 2) a fantastic 2 day bike trip of more than 100 kilometers with our son Louis thru Sangay National Park, and 3) the arrival of a yet un labelled animal caught by a member of our community.

Life here is like life everywhere I suppose in that it (if you are truly alive and somewhat awake)often feels like you are standing under a shower with two simultaneous streams, of joy and sadness. The genuiness and resilience of the people here are a constant source of joy for me. At the same time there is sometimes and ignorance and even cruelty sometimes exhibited towards nature and things wild. One example of this was the capture of the yet un-named animal in the photo. When I came across it, it was hanging on exhibit in a tiny cage on the grounds of the foundation we work at. It was suffering greatly from thirst and fear, nearly dead. I naturally took it and put it in a bigger more comfortable container and tried to get it to drink. It drank a little and revived a little. I noticed a lot of blood in the water and found out later that those who had captured it had beat it with sticks, struck it with stones, and cut part of its tongue off. For this reason, by the next morning its tongue was so swollen it could hardly breath or drink and died a few hours later.

Somehow the death of this little (but feisty) animal became symbolic of all that humanity is doing to our planet. the sadness for me was all encompassing and I could hardly sleep. I told community members that only humans are truly capable of killing for diversion, to see another being suffer. Somehow this combination of ignorance and agression is killing us all. I still cry to think of how that little animal suffered. May we all cry for the thousands of beings that suffer in the same way each day.

In the photos you will see a couple of the bike trip. The "animalito" in the photo is now dead and stuffed. Carmen along side accompanied me in caring for the animal before it died and along with a number of other village members, was quite saddened on hearing it had died.

The last photos are of orchids in an orchidea garden we visited in Puyo (near the fast disappearing rain forest). We were honored to meet the man who started this wonder of nature. 30 years ago he bought desnuded and compacted cow pasture and started planting native trees and plants of all kinds. Now the beauty and biodiversity of this refuge is indescribable. Nature is totally in balance in his refuge and was an inspiration as to what one person can do to reverse the process of specie destruction and monoculture humans are inflicting on our sacred planet. May the Great Eastern Sun be victorious!

A year's gone by

Hi Readers,

I know we've lost many of you since we don't update this blog regularly. We've been at our site in San Bernardo, Ecuador for a year now. Our son, Louis, is now living in Ecuador too. He's teaching English at the IndoAmerica University and living with Miguel, our former foreign exchange son who lived a year with us in Glenwood City. The picture of Louis and me above is with our tennis partner, Nelson and his girlfriend on the court in Riobamba.

Below that is a group of young people who went out with Lucy and I to collect trash and recyclables on the streets of San Bernardo. The kids really got into it. Now if we could only motivate the adults!

The two bottom pics are of the composting toilet we built with funding from Farmer to Farmer. We are using it and really like it. After every time we go to the bathroom, we add a measure of wood shavings. As you can see, the composting takes place in the plastic barrel in which all the waste drops into. Obviously, when the barrel fills up, we take it out and replace it with an empty one. We got the idea after staying at a luxurious (by Ecuadorian standards) eco-lodge called the Black Sheep Inn: www.blacksheepinn.com Check them out!

The upper right picture is of a very sweet older Kichwa couple who have a great little farm and are very proud of it. This picture of them in their corn shows their pride and dignity.

The one year anniversary of our arrival in this Kichwa community is this week. We have learned to be comfortable here and look forward to one more year. Our garden is producing amazing red, Romano, and some head lettuce, swiss chard (a favorite of people here), cilantro, carrots, leeks, arugala, cabbage and brussel sprouts. Some WOOFERS from Alaska that we met here came out and stayed with us 4 days and helped to build a fence around the garden. What a big improvement to the garden to not have dogs fighting on top of the plants and it has kept the pig out too! We would love to have more of you visit in the upcoming year. Our service ends in April of 2010. Love, Craig and Lucy

Nothing happens and we report it

Well now. It might seem like a long time since we updated this blog, but really, time is a construct of our minds. On thing is certain: all phenomen are impermanent; hence the title. Christmas in San Bernardo was interesting. Living in a evangelical community we thought no one danced. But we were wrong. As you can see in one of these photos they take their dancing seriously. It had a good beat and was very energetic as I can testify to.

At new years they have a tradition of burning dummies representing people they might want to speed up their impermanence. So in the spirit of things we made a dummy of George W Bush who only had a few weeks left in office. We entered the dummy in a competion and won! Before burning the dummy at midnight, we had George read a letter that bequeathed a number of his legacies including the war in Iraq to the Peace Corps and his ranch in Texas to the people of San Bernardo. Needless to say this was a popular move. In the photo George Bush is the dummy on the far left.

In the next photo is a ¨dinamico¨ or skit that Lucy and our counterpart put on with some kids from the foundation we work with. It demonstrated how to use the new recycling and garbage containers the foundation is installing at different locations including this school. This was a direct result of groundwork we laid for a community clean up committee that took off after our initiative. Now we can just hang back a bit and help when needed. We are anxious to get started on the dairy goat project but are still waiting for Peace Corps approval.

The next two pics were taken at the amazing Warrior's Assembly we attended in Chile. Lucy was an attendee and I was on staff (having taken this program back in 1997 in Colorado). This is a program intended to stimulate personal and societal transformation, started by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Trungpa wrote ¨Shambhala:Sacred Path of the Warrior¨ and brought Tibetan Buddhism to the West in a fresh and accesible way. For more info on these programs and practice centers, you can go to http://www.shambhala.org/ Next post I shall share more of our experience in retreat and travelling a short time in Chile. Besides the picture of Lucy and I as the program was coming to a close, there's one of me with Richard (Director of Practice), and Ivan (program coordinator). Chao.

Craig

A lot to be thankful for. . .

Cuenca, the 3rd largest city in Ecuador is known as the city of beautiful churches, intellectuals, and great coffee cafes. We bussed down to Cuenca to celebrate Thanksgiving, potluck style, with 13 other P.C.V.´s. Cajas National Park has a big rustic cabin on the shore of a gorgeous lake so that´s where we slept and ate, played cards and listened to American music. The park entrance is at around 3,300 meters altitude and some of the hiking trails go up to 4,000 meters, so it wasn´t any hot tropical paradise but wow, the scenery was spectacular as was the bird watching. We highly recommend this park, high up in the cloud forest but be sure to bring your waterproof hiking boots and rainjacket.
If you wonder, what we spend our time doing at our site these days. . . here is a list: (Lucy is writing this entry and I do love lists) teaching English to 4 different groups, gardening and related activites i.e. the compost pile, repackaging and selling seeds cheap, researching and writing up the milking goat project proposal, planned and performed a skit regarding trash and recycling, chess and other foundation kid activities, keeping our tiny house tidy and functional and knitting socks and hats.
We´ve had a few stomach related health problems but nothing that "remedios" can´t fix. I am very thankful to be in Ecuador. Here is a list of a few things I am grateful for: fresh juicy mangos, kids that know my name and call out to greet me in the street, gorgeous Cajas National Park, the challenge of learning Kichwa, P.C. volunteers, my best friends here in Ecuador, e-mail, knitting shops that carry alpaca yarn, 3 papayas for $1 in the market, a dry day now and then, our Ecuatorian counterparts that are always encouraging and appreciative. We have quite a few family and friends arriving for a visit at the end of December and for that we are especially grateful. Happy Holiday season to all.

Potato Heads

Dear Readers,

As is apparent from some of the photos, we are excited about potatoes. Being the main staple of the Sierra diet here, we want to see if we can plant and grow them organically.

Lucy and I are teaching classes here at the foundation every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. As in the U.S., it is challenging to get young people interested in agriculture. They are more interested in becoming consumers with a 9 to 5 job in urban areas. But we were able to motivate some of the younger ones to climb the steep hillsides with us. Two teen age girls (as is common in the kichwa culture), were proud to show us how much compost fertilizer they could carry. Aside: I am still blown away by the tenderness and care men show toward children, and the physical prowess women proudly exhibit in this culture.

So the potatoes are in the ground in expectation of the heavier rains to come.

A couple of weeks ago we made a trip to Quinche outside of Quito to check on a goat farm we heard about. Carlos, 80 years old, full of energy and still passionate about agriculture, showed us around his impressive farm with more than 100 goats. We came away more determined than ever to initiate a goat project here in San Bernardo. The people here, including our counterparts are starting to warm up to the idea. We are talking about starting with 3 or 4 families, each of which would receive a pair of young pregnant females. The families would have to invest labor and some materials in building a small stable, corral, feeders, and milking stand. The first female offspring would have to be returned to the project to be presented to new families. Currently I'm calling the project, Milk for "Kids". A good buck goat (check out the Chilean bucks in the photo) will be kept for breeding purposes at the foundation.

We are applying to the Peace Corps to be approved as a Partnership Program. This approval would mean we will be listed on their website and people will be able to donate directly to the project there at http://www.peacecorps.gov/. Of course our friends at Farmer to Farmer (http://www.farmertofarmer.org/) will certainly expedite any support for this goat project also.

Yesterday I indulged in a little beekeeping with our counterpart, Jose Pilamunga. At one point he said I was covered with about 1000 africanized bees - which means they are very aggressive but also hardy and resistant to disease. On inspection, one hive needed to be harvested so we took out about 9 liters (worth about $5 per liter here). No stings for me but 2 for Jose. A few of these little buggers waited around 10 minutes until he took off his protective equipment, and zapped him!

Didn't mean to write a book but we are staying busy. Nine of our original training group of 43 have returned home, most because they weren't happy here. Certainly life in a strange culture can be lonely....less so for married couples like Lucy and me. Maybe there's a lesson here about trying to find happiness in external circumstances......

Anyway, may you be happy and know the root of happiness,

Craig

Some Easy Travelin'

Hi Friends. I wanted to write for those who check, to let you know we are live and well. We had a great time traveling with our friends, Marty and Jeri. They spent three nights at our (now) cozy place. I think they were genuinely impressed with the warmth and generosity of the kichwa speaking people at our site. From here we went south to Cuenca, a truly charming colonial city. Cuenca has so much charm that it seems European. I wondered why so few tourists were to be seen on the street-- a few Europeans but no Norte Americanos except us. That made it more appealing to me! We took a little side trip to the very pretty little artesania town (especially jewelry and pottery) of Chordeleg. After that excursion we met up with our two friends in Tena, in the Oriente region of Ecuador. It was great to be on the edge of the Jungle and experience the vastness of jungle and river water, all flowing to the Amazon and the Pacific Ocean. Both Marty and I tasted enough to be wishing we had time to explore a few weeks further down the river and into the jungle.
Notwithstanding time being an artificial human construct, we had to move back up in the mountains to Baeza, shockingly pretty and cleaner than any other town we've seen. It was surrounded by three big ecological reserves (with their own volcanoes). It was great to see so much forest (primary I think) when so many other parts of Ecuador are deforested. Our goal there was to see the goats at a municipal farm in the hopes they might have some good breeding stock for our site in San Bernardo. Turns out they have lots of Saanen, one of our favorite breeds.....and they want to sell them at a reasonable price! They are not up to the challenge of marketing goat milk to a population not accustomed to drinking goat milk or eating goat cheese. They are located several hours at least from any large population. So we are very interested in some of those goats and savor the challenge of commercialization of goat milk in the Riobamba area. A ver. After Baeza we said our sad farewell to our brave friends, Marty and Jeri who went on to Octavalo and home. They lost there son, Roberto, a welder, who fell to his death in May. We hope they found ways to see their son alive in the beauty of the people and natural phenomena of Ecuador.
I promise to update our recent activities within a week. No pics because a virus infected our memory card so we have bought new one today. Will post some pics next post. Love to all.
Craig

Hace 3 Meses Aqui

We have been here in San Bernardo/Sasapud for 3 months now. As expected the newness has rubbed off and we are down to the normal rhythms of life with its usual ups and downs. At first it seemed like things happened without too much effort on our part. Now it seems like we have to really make a strong effort with a measure of thoughtful concentration to make helpful change happen.

We still deal alot with issues of daily life: being with the ever increasing boredom, how to bathe without a shower, keeping warm, how to keep the mice out, keeping the dogs out of the garden, and now, dealing with the dust driven by strong winds. Our best times continue to be connecting with the people and living things in our little part of the world. These photos show a couple of families we visited (Lucy wasn't as sleepy as she looks). One includes a retired pastor who still works for the benefit of his community and asked Lucy to put on a workshop to help the women learn something new. She is going to help them make tapioca pudding as there is plenty of eggs and milk produced here. The other family spins their own wool yarn by hand to make ponchos and handbags. Lots of wool produced in this valley as well. Rosa, the young woman in the last photo is receiving a scholarship from a Peace Corps volunteer committee to attend high school (colegio) as her father died a number of years ago. The animal in the picture is a "cuy", or a guinea pig as Norte Americanos know them. Cuys in Ecuador are a traditionally favorite food reserved for special occasions. We have tried them on twice -hard to refuse as they are offering you their best. But it is very difficult for me to know they are killing one of these little guys in my honor!

Lucy is finding her teaching and cooking skills in big demand. I'm struggling some because my skills seem less in demand. Yet one more lesson for me in patience and letting go of identity. The I Ching says that success usually leads to failure and failure usually leads to success.....two sides of the same coin.

That's all for now folks. If you haven't checked out our friends' in Wisconsin, Farmer to Farmer, at their website, you should. They are doing great work: www.farmertofarmer.org

Craig