Hey all,
Thought I´d post a few photos. I´m still working out the details of putting them on, so these are not totally organized, nor even my photos, but they give you a sense.
This is me translating in the botanical gardens of Jatun Sacha (a biological reserve). I dont know whether this was before or after the guide told us about feeding kids ayahuasca before classes to öpen their minds¨. This was topped only by the guide who took us caving and tactfully pointed out the ¨Devil´s penis¨formation...complete with testicles.
Here´s our delightful group in Orlando minus one teacher who went ahead to Quito. They´re all freaked out...would never take such a serious looking picture now!
Cara and I posing with the ¨hot lips¨plant...we´ve been told its an aphrodisiac of the Amazonian shamans and also just looks ridiculous :)
Lodges we were staying in in El Establo de Tomas in Tena before we went in to the jungle...
The oil pipeline that descends down in to the Amazon and pumps oil out of primary forest. The Ecuadoran people sell their oil to transnationals to have it refined since htey have no oil refineries in the country and then have to buy it back to use as gasoline, electricity, etc. The Huaorani people vs. Texaco was the first legal case brought against a large corporation outside of that country´s courts. This case was tried in the United States, Texaco was found guilty after leaving approx. 350 open pits, resulting in cancer increases by 1000% and billions of dollars worth of clean up behind.
The four steadfast teachers holding strong outside Jatun Sacha...Cara, Claire, Samantha, and I.This week we are staying in homestays with indigenous families outside otavalo. This is quite a transition for many of the girls - who tried cuy (guinea pig) for the first time on our first night. they´ve all embraced this amazingly...i have a family of 7 kids here...i find myself hardened to a lot of what i see, but this family is breaking that down. they are absolutely incredible, passionate, excited... last ngiht the boys spent about 30 minutes just saying ¨good night heather...good night holly...good night christine...¨over and over again. We´re having a blast, and I´m amazed constantly that my job is introducing high school girls to this experience over and over again. Its hard not to spoonfeed politics to them in the face of all of this...alternatively, its amazing to take a step back and look at all of this as its happening for each of them.
The land here is beautiful, its surrounded by volcanoes and cool crisp green air. people here still farm traditionally, and are proud of being organic and not using any pesticides. in science we are studying plate tectonics and how this land was formed, as well as looking in to local methods of agriculture and how they contrast to European or western techniques.
Much love to all of you, I´m missing you all very much.
Heather
