Where to start...

To put it simply, I'm finding it very difficult to put this experience into words... that's why I haven't written yet. I have had SO many experiences in just a few days here in the Ecuadorian jungle. Right now I'm just going to list some of them to give you a brief overview of why I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed.

• I have met amazing people, ranging from other English speaking volunteers to young Ecuadorian bilingual guides to native Achuar people.
• I have had a private flight in the smallest plane of my life (seriously, it was me and the pilot and cargo) in which we came in for a landing through the clouds directly over a huge river onto a mud airstrip that was about 20 feet from the edge of the river! WOW!
• I have enjoyed beautiful rides on canoes in the wide and gorgeous Amazonian river Postaza (from the moment I stepped off the plane - to a midnight ride the other night).
• I have found GIANT beetles in my shower, a spine rat inspecting my backpack, and a lizard as big as my forearm all in my room!
• I have also seen a more beautiful variety of butterflies and birds (even though I have no idea what they are yet... I'm trying to look some up in the reference books) than I could have imagined ever seeing in my life!
• I have swam in a river where village myth has it that a teenager was "taken" by an anaconda a few months back.
• I have slept in a hut where snakes and spiders (of the worst varieties) are often found.
• I have drank Peruvian beer that was smuggled across the border.
• I have eaten more Yucca than I thought was possible.
• I have also eaten a fish in its entirety that was cooked in banana leaves.
• I have begun tutoring employees of the lodge English when they already speak at least two other languages!
• I have met guides, doctors, and nuns who dedicate their lives to these people and this amazingly beautiful land.
• I have met children that are so bright and curious even though they are running around without shoes or sometimes "proper" clothing, who are carried by cloths around their mothers' torsos and hung in the same cloths as makeshift hamocks.
• I have seen Achuar bathing, washing clothes, and frolicing in the river that is the lifeblood of their community.
• I have attended the school's 8th anniversary party with types of geography fair displays, typical foods, music, crafts made my the students of the school, soccer finals, and a type of track and field tournament!
• I have also attended the election of the "queen" of the village, a type of talent night, and the village's PARTY!

I have learned: how to dance Achuar style, how to drink and serve Chicha, how to pee in the garden (so as to fertilize the plants), how to speak a few words of Achuar, a GREAT deal about Achuar culture, that bat pee stains, that there is such a thing as drunk canoe driving (and they even get citations!), that there is a good business in smuggling beer across from the Peruvian border (three or four hours by motorized boat), that Achuar students are VERY shy in using English, that this whole project is slightly unorganized and I have my work cut out for me, and many more things that I can't think of at the moment!

Now, I mentioned Chicha... this has been one of my most difficult introduction-to-culture experiences of my life. In Peru I tried two kinds of Chicha, made from corn (Britt you tried them too)! And they weren't bad. BUT, the chicha made since the old days here in the jungle is made from Yucca. Unfortunately I learned how it was made even before it was forced upon me. There really is no way to explain how they serve this alcoholic drink here... the women make it, use homemade clay bowls to serve it, and literally force it down your throat! Walking around the cirlce of the community... time and time and time again. Everyone spits after they drink and remember you are drinking from the same bowl as the entire community! BUT, just wait... I have copied and pasted a little info. on this interesting product of Chicha for your entertainment:

The Achuar's most important beverage is the nijiamanch, commonly known as Chicha. It is obtained by the fermentation of previously chewed manioc (yucca). Women are in charge of making and serving this drink to guests.

or as Wikipedia puts it:

Throughout the Amazon Basin (including the interiors of Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil), chicha is made most often with cassava (yuca) root, sometimes with plantain or peanut. Traditionally, the chicha is prepared from cassava root by women, using a very simple method. Pieces of washed, peeled root are thoroughly chewed in the mouth, and the resulting juice is spat into a bowl. The fibrous mass that remains in the mouth is used elsewhere. The bowl is set aside for a few hours to allow the juice to ferment. This chicha is a somewhat opaque blue white, similar in appearance to defatted milk, and its flavor is mildly sweet and sour. Cassava root is very starchy, and enzymes in the preparer's saliva rapidly convert the starch to simple sugar, which is converted by wild yeast and/or bacteria into alcohol.
It is traditional for families to offer chicha to arriving guests.

Just some food for thought! :) Hahaha! So I'm literally drinking chewed up yucca root, spit out and left to ferment, then poured into bowls to be strained by each drinker's teeth (the extra bits and chunks which are then ceremoniously spit onto the ground) and sharing it with about 100 other people... not to mention the server often emits her hand into the substance to mash up large chunks or remove unsavory parts of the mixture... HA! Wow... who knew the things that I would do in the Amazonian rain forest?!

Until soon, KK