SustainablEthos

Of all the things I had put some thought into, in terms of expectations, on my trip, Bahía and my stay with Planet Drum preoccupied my mind the most. It didn’t help, however, that my friend Mike had already spent a month here, posted, pictures, and told stories.

To begin, the organization, and family involved, had just moved locations and I would also come to find that, for the first two of my three weeks here, I would be the sole volunteer in the house. Clay, the guy running the show, thinks another may be coming around the first week of June. It wasn’t the work that took the most getting accustomed to (pictures, stories, and the organization’s webpage painted a pretty good picture) but rather the general lifestyle within the house and around town.

Bahía takes the shape of a small peninsula on the western coast of Ecuador – half of which is ocean side and half of which is river/estuary side. It declared itself an eco-city in 1999 and does a good job of living local in a food sense and, as a result, this fosters (to varied effects) a reuse-recycle mentality. Nonetheless, it remains a work in progress ten years on and has plans to pilot a new recycle system for all of Ecuador and a strong initiative currently in the mix to axe plastic bags all together – something the whole world would benefit in adopting. The new, uneco-minded mayor hasn’t made the going easy, however, as garbage still floats sporadically in the wind and a new bridge to San Vicente (across the river side) threatens the eco-taxi system with pressure from your traditional motor taxis. To be quite honest, they really aren’t needed at all as the downtown part of the city is a thin peninsula and a constant bus system runs far into the incoming highway which is home to a university and our green house. All these positives paired with their reforestation efforts – of which Planet Drum is a strong factor – hold valuable lessons for cities and towns the world over.

Inside the volunteer house lives Clay, an emigrated American from Pennsylvania, his wife Margarita, a native Bahían, and their one and a half year old son Sol. From first glimpse, I would say that it is well run and functions relative to the calming and appreciative lifestyle endemic to this area. I am interested, though, in seeing what it would be like with upwards of eight volunteers at the same time like my buddy Mike was able to experience. Around the house, chores are assigned, including alternating dinner cooking responsibilities, and $10 weekly is put in a group pot to pay for food and water and other household necessities (Clay and Margarita contributed as well). What truly took the first two days to get used to was the open-air (no glass windows), occasional sights of critters (which NY prepared me for pretty well), and water conservation methods (only flushing toilet after #2s came a callin’), and smell of the compost bin (which actually worked better left open). All things considered, I am writing three days on and have slept well, feel healthy, and couldn’t be more relaxed!

My first half day here was spent getting to know the surrounding couple of blocks. Clay introduced me to the rules of the house and program, explained what we would be doing to start the week the following day (my first in the field), and ignited a conservation about the need for a circular system for manufacturing and consumption.

Day two began my field work. I was introduced to the green house where the seeds are planted until they are ready to be transported to recycled, three liter bottles where they would grow until final site planting during the next wet season. My job was to cut wood and construct a few more corrals for those second stage trees. I met Orlando, a wonderful native Bahían and Clay’s assistant/partner with Planet Drum, who had a smile on his face 95% of the time! Our schedule was Monday through Friday from 8:00am until 12 noon. Our afternoons were free to read, write, siesta, explore the city and neighboring areas, or visit the local bakeries.

Tuesday began our machete work. This would be the most physical, yet frequently needed, activity to protect the newly planted trees from attacking weeds. Our first site to clear was also near the university, next to a farm and our green house. It held about five hundred trees and took four days of machete work between us to clear. Here Orlando also pointed out a tree to me which Mike had planted three months back:

That afternoon I helped with some cleaning and caught up on some reading before taking my turn in the kitchen. With a fresh daily fruit, veggie, and seafood market two blocks away, I was in heaven and didn’t disappoint.

Wednesday and Thursday were full machete “cleaning” days as well My hands were starting to feel a bit fresh, but a couple knuckle spat jobs and some after work “air” care did the trick to prevent any nasty blisters. The first day we cleared the nature path for the site that is Planet Drum’s first so that a bioregionalism class field trip could pass through. The second was spent back cleaning the site near the green house and university again. Here I encountered my first (of quite a few) run-in with a snake. Orlando suddenly called my name and said to me, “matala cuando la vea”, kill it when you see it. This particular one is called an “X” or “equis” and is fatal within twenty to thirty minutes depending on the bite. You better have a venom kit (which we did) or be on your way to a hospital before that time elapses if you want to breath for another day. In addition to the venom kit, we wore knee-high rubber boots and used a goncho (which you will see as a piece of wood shaped as an L in a photo or two) to lift and clear the weeds and protect from these three foot long serpents.

This work was so physical that it made the glorious calorie amounts each night not only necessary but also rewarding as leftovers for lunch when we returned each day. Wednesday I made some tasty sangria to go with our homemade pizza dinner while we watched a movie like a family of sorts. Thursday was chicken al horno with a fresh Russian salad and a cuba libre for dessert. Clay fell asleep with Sol while Margarita and I stayed up and conversed about our families and past volunteers. Another night of dream-filled sleep ensued.

On Friday, Clay mixed things up a bit and introduced us to step two of three in getting a seed ultimately to the hillside of Bahía. This involved prepping fertile soil – a mix of sand, earth, compost/manure dirt, and rice shells – cutting the necks off of 2-3L soda bottles which we collected from the streets of the city day in and day out. The baby trees which were removed from their beds ranged from two to six inches and were all native trees to this coastal jungle area: Pachice, Wachapelie, Seibo, and Papaya. We transported about fifty trees and would watch them grow in their green house corral for a few months before picking a final home that needs new life.

That night it was my turn to cook again. I chose my Yosemite Salmon and Sweet Potato recipe, just modified for coastal Ecuador’s available goods: komote in place of yams and a sword-like fish in place of salmon. The fish was sautéed to perfection while the potatoes, cinnamon, raisins, walnuts, and butter, were pureed and spread over rice. Plates were cleaned.

Saturday and Sunday were rather routine days as I caught up on some reading (finished The Snow Leopard), writing, blogging, exercising, and made some calls home. I was also able to squeeze in some wonderful siesta time. The one and only hangup was when our neighbor tried to ignite a solo dance party from his balcony by blasting music from midnight until 4:30am. One speaker was lined up nearly perfect with my window, and just when I thought I had the morning to sleep in peace, he started the party back up at 8:30am with Lady Gaga as his first three choices. This I couldn’t possibly exaggerate, but a memory nonetheless!

Tags: Bahia de caraquez, bioregionalism, eco-city, ecuador, equis, fresh food, green house, localization, machete, planet drum, recycle, reforestation, reuse, serpent

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 at 8:45 am and is filed under jesse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.