Please aim away

Is it too much to ask that I can walk down the street without getting peed on?

All I want to do is be able to pass through town without the risk of someone urinating on me.

But around here, apparently, that is too much to ask.

Like most places in the developing world, the sewage system in my town isn't always reliable. Sometimes there is no water. Sometimes you can't find a reliable public toilet.

So if you have to go and you don't have anywhere to go, you should just cozy up to a wall, out of sight, and write your name.

That would make sense, right?

That's not the way kids are taught in my town.

Two days ago, I was walking down the main street in town. I looked to my left and saw a kid, with his pants down, aiming toward the street. I looked behind the child and saw that his mom was holding her son in place so that he pees into the street

She was helping him aim and giving him guidance on where he should point his stream. Unfortunately, that stream was on my intended walking path. I got out of the way, but this isn't the first time I have come across such a situation.

I shouldn't have to watch out for people peeing in the streets or on the sidewalks.

I don't exactly know the specific health risks of living in an open-air septic pit, but they do exist. I just know that there are no public health benefits to having urine in the street.

That is why I have decided to start the "Aim Away" campaign in which we will teach parents and youth the benefits of pointing away from the street.

Even though the kids are committing the act, the mentality that it is acceptable to pee in the middle of the street starts with the parents. That is why we will hold workshops, some that might even last several days, to show people how and where to pee.

I understand the convenience of peeing in public. What I don't understand is why they teach their kids to do it in the middle of the street when it takes three seconds to turn around, go to the wall, and do it there. And I guarantee they have three seconds to spare because, in this society, someone is considered on time even if they are half an hour late.

Really, all I want is to be able to walk down the street without having to worry about a urine stream or splash getting on my pants or shoes.

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Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Se llama kugel

As I have mentioned in my previous posts, I have high expectations for the world of kugel in global development.

Here is my first bit of proof.

Taking my example and recipe, one of my friends in town made her first kugel.

It was based on the pecan noodle kugel with a banana twist. It had received rave reviews at the previous three shabbat dinners at my home and the locals wanted to try their hand at the kugel craft.

I did not know when she planned on making the kugel. All I know is that she was planning on making one. So I walk into her house and her three-year-old son is eating kugel at the kitchen table.

Ian: Hola Pierro.
Pierro: Hola Ian.
Ian: What are you eating?
Pierro: Se llama kugel. (It's called kugel)

Top six greatest moments of my life, being taught by an Ecuadorian toddler how to pronounce kugel.

Two great kugel-related posts in three days.

Well, aren't you lucky?

Yes, you are.

I doubt that it will be three in four days. But if the kugel revolution takes off as planned ... you might just get your wish.

How to connect a canoe to a truck

Well, if you think that you knew how to secure a canoe to a truck, let me tell you another way to do it.

A much faster way to do it.

Step 1: Using a short rope, tie one end of the canoe to a stick wedged between the cab and the bed (loop, swoop, and pull method works best)

Step 2: Because the canoe is so long, you won't be able to close the lift gate So just let it hang.

Step 3: Now comes the most important part. You are going to need to put some weight on the canoe so it doesn't move around. Look for the heaviest person in your party and place them ``securely`` at the front end of the canoe and have him/her stand in the bow of the boat.

Step 4: Drive, preferably on bumpy, rut-filled roads or the Panamerican Hwy.

Step 5: Pray.

It's only four steps.

So easy.

One kugel can change the world

Some might think they have the solution for how to improve the quality of life in the developing world.

Mohammad Yunis won the Nobel Peace Prize for microfinance.

Sustainable agriculture is all the rage these days.

Others believe that education is the key.

Every one of these might fill a piece of the puzzle, but I have found out what they are all missing.

Kugel.

Through this most traditional of Jewish foods, I believe that we can drastically improve living conditions in the developing world, tikun olam if you will.

Every Friday night, I cook shabbat dinner at my house. I invite some of my friends from the community over so that they can share in my favorite part of the week. It is quickly becoming their favorite part of the week.

Every week, we cook something different, but there are a few staples: challah and kugel. Even though I cook ample portions, there are rarely leftovers of either dish.

Last week, my friends told me that he thinks people in town would love the Pecan Noodle Kugel with banana and probably pay for it.

As a Peace Corps volunteer, I am not allowed to make money. But that comment got me thinking:

What group am I involved in that could use the kugel as a fundraiser?

And what is the group that I have been working the most lately?

The community newsletter.

Soon, I will teach the staff how to make the kugel so that we can increase the sustainability of the newspaper project. I still have to do a cost analysis of the whole endeavor and figure out all of the logistics, but the seed has been planted.

So what are the benefits to society of having more kugels? How exactly will this repair the world, in other words?

1. Quality of life - There have been scientific studies that prove people who eat kugel are happier.

2. Food security - Kugels are very easy to make and can occasionally be not unhealthy. It's at least more nutritious than rice.

3. Micro business - Someone could take this project and open up a kugel-only bakery/restaurant/cafe.

4. Cultural awareness - You expand people's understanding of other cultures.

5. Creativity - I like to think of kugel as the canvas, not the painting. There are infinite possibilities of the kugel. And in a culture that doesn't foster creativity very well, people cane express themselves through kugel.

Well, that is just five of the possible benefits to humanity of kugel promotion.

To make a long story short, within ten years I expect to win the Nobel Prize for kugel. I think they should make it a new category, alongside medicine, physics, peace, and economics.

You might be thinking "Ian, you are pretty much just promoting a bake sale. And why are you restricting it to kugel when there are so many other things that you could also include?"

Valid point, but if I made that clear earlier, the rest of the post wouldn't have been as outstanding.

Hangover day

Thursday was neither a holiday, nor did it carry any civic significance.

Yet, there was no work in city hall.

There high schools were out.

The schools didn't have class.

Even the pre-school was closed.

Thursday was officially hangover day in my town.

With the fiestas finishing with the big bash Wednesday night, all of these institutions decided to close down for the day to allow their employees to recover from a long night (and early morning) of celebrating.

It felt like a Sunday morning on a university campus. Except that it was a Thursday, and the entire town was dead.

In the U.S., we don't really have the officially sanctioned hangover days. The nights of big partying come the night before holidays, so that people don't lose a day of work. You have New Year's Eve and pre-Thanksgiving bar night. But the day after the Super Bowl everybody is expected to be at work on time. The Tuesday after civic holidays aren't treated any differently. But here, we got the day off.

I'm not complaining about having the day off of work, which I didn't really take because I went to Machala to take care of some errands, but I'm just confused by the reasoning for this day off and the message it is passing on to the society and how this mentality, in some way, might explain a lot about the society in which I live.

I could really go on an on about my opposition to these types of vacation days, but to save space I'll just say that I don't agree with the policy and leave it at that.

That's not part of the routine

For the last two weeks, my town has been in fiesta mode.

You can find the schedule of the fiestas by reading this excellent publication, which was put together by some of the local youth, but that's besides the point of this post.

The fiestas end on the anniversary of our town's founding. In the morning, they mark the event with a giant parade.

The parade is giant in many ways. First, the entire town comes out for it — plus most of the neighboring town. Second, it lasts six hours.

Six hours.

It started at 9:00 a.m. and lasted until 3:00 p.m.

And it's not like there was much variety in the groups that marched. The pattern was typically high school war band playing the same melody followed by a group of students marching followed by an elementary school followed by a group of citizens walking followed by another high school war band playing the same melody.

I contend that Arenillas needs a bobsled team.

While the people who were watching the parade started to lose enthusiasm for what was going on and began milling about after a while, likewise the parade participants were also beginning to lose interest.

Look at this photo of a group of high school professors in the parade. Notice anything odd.



Luckily, with the help of computer technology, I can zoom in and point out ridiculousness.



But he wasn't the only one to take more interest in the news than the parade, a parade in which they were marching. Numerous people broke formation to buy a newspaper during the route.

Taking a load off

About a month ago, I realized that my neighbor's compost pile was lacking carbon.

I could have simply resorted to any of the convenient carbon sources that I encounter daily: dry leaves, rice shells, wood ash.

But I didn't.

I decided to contribute a little bit of myself to his pile.

After nearly eight months of growing my hair out into an outstanding Jewfro, it was time to get that mop under control.

Actually, it was more of a realization.

I can't think of a single experience that pushed me over the edge. I think a culmination of months of kids yelling "Michael Jackson" every time I walked down the street. Plus there was the time the little girl called me ugly. Plus there was the hair blocking my sight. And the weight.

So ... I decided to look for a barber.

The thing about me and my hair is that we don't trust anyone. The same woman cut my hair for more than fifteen years (I don't really remember when I started going there). A few times, I tried other places, out of convenience, but it just wasn't the same. Then, she moved to another state, and I had to face reality. My hair and I had to become more trusting ... which would be great practice for the Peace Corps.

I went to Coach and Four in Ann Arbor. They didn't really do a great job, but the atmosphere was great. I don't know if they had seen my quality of afro for thirty years, so I forgave them. Then, I went to a Russian guy, in his basement. He gave me the shortest haircut of my life, and probably the cheapest. Then I left for the Peace Corps — prepared to grow it out for two years if I couldn't find a half-decent barber.

Well, the verdict about my town is that there is no decent, let alone half-decent barbershop.

The other volunteer in town got her hair cut and was unhappy to say the least. Her haircut was so bad that even I noticed. Then, when another volunteer was in town visiting, they both decided to give it a shot. It couldn't be worse than the local butcher.

I'll let the following photo essay describe the experience

1. Not the most pleasant experience of my life



2. I need 350cc of Soul Glo, stat.



3. From this, I then shaved down to a mustache, which has since been eliminated to maintain my good standing in the community.



4. My kitchen floor



5. That is no dead animal in the compost pile



During the actual haircut, the stylists found tons of organic matter (nothing that was moving), which should pan out really well for the compost. It was mostly just twigs and leaves. I told me neighbor that I was adding my hair to his compost and he was totally stoked.

Some of my Peace Corps friends thought I should plant some seeds in there and see what happens. That would be a bit ridiculous and require me to sleep sitting up and spent a lot of time in the sun. I like a ridiculous experience as much as the next guy, but that would have pushed the line.

The next morning, I had to teach in the high school. When I walked into class, some of the students gave me a standing ovation.

AREvista

In this town of 17,000 people, there is no community newsletter.

Well, that was until last week - when a group of twenty high school students decided to do something about that.

With the technical assistance of a two Peace Corps and a municipal employee, the kids put published the first edition of AREvista.

You can find a pdf copy of the newspaper by clicking on the link.

AREvista

If you any comments on what the youth can do better for the December edition, consider this a place where you can pass your message to them - until the paper has its own website.

Procrastination doesn`t translate

There is no word in Spanish for procrastination.

Now there might well be a word for it.

But the people in my town are not aware of it.

I have asked around and explained the idea to several of them. The general response is: that`s the way we do things.

Which is very obvious, now, in the height of the local fiesta season.

A major part of the local fiestas are the big ferias where the people show off what they have been doing all year - or what they whipped up in the last week to show off what they say they have been doing all year.

So people have been rushing together to put their things together. Last week, some farmers wanted me to whip together some organic compost really quickly, some school directors wanted my groups to change the world overnight, and someone who I had never talked to approached me about helping out.

To say the least, this town has a do it at the last minute culture.

Tis the season

October 30th, I was walking down the street when I looked in the window of one of the homes.

They were putting up the Christmas tree.

I looked at my calendar to make sure I wasn´t a month behind.

I wasn´t.

That was an actual Christmas tree (well, a plastic one), with Christmas ornaments adorning a house in my neighborhood.

A couple of days later, another neighbor had their lights going.

I´m excited to see how the holiday season goes in Ecuador, but I wasn´t quite ready for the holiday season in October 30. I mean, you still have Halloween, Dia de Los Muertos, and the town´s fiestas before you even sniff the middle of November.

All of those would seem like logical moments from which you could then move forward into the holiday season. But then again, every day I learn more and more about the culture in which I´m living.

You decide

Two points of view on why there have been turning on and off the power recently.

The first comes from someone at city hall.

Many people base their judgment of whether or not the mayor is doing a good job on whether or not the fiestas go off without a hitch.

To ensure that there will be power at tonight´s Miss Arenillas beauty pageant, he has instituded a program of roving blackouts.

Their logic being that if the mayor can´t even get the lights to work during the party, then he must not know what he is doing. But if he can turn the lights and sound on, then he has things under control and is doing a good job.

The second perspective comes from the Xinhua news agency:

The Ecuadorian government on Thursday announced a plan to ration electricity for two hours a day because the country's major dams have recorded low levels of water due to a prolonged drought.

The Paute-Molino central hydropower station on the Paute River generates about 35 percent of the electricity consumed in Ecuador.

The water volume in the river is now below its historical minimum, said Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister Esteban Albornoz.

Albornoz said priority would be given to the production sectors and residential zones would have the rationing of two hours daily till the problem was solved.

The drought has affected Colombia, which exports electricity to Ecuador, and has reduced its supply, Albornoz added.

You can decide which solution you want. The mayor better hope that if its option number two, that the power doesn´t go out during the pageant or Wednesday´s dances.

Fruit Ripener

If you go to the market and the fruit isn't quite as ripe as you would hope for, I learned an easy way to speed up the process

Now, it could be that everybody already knows this but I don't really spend much time allowing fruit ripen. I'm of the "Oh, there's fruit and I want to eat it right now" school.

Anyway, I went to the store down the street and asked about what fruit they have in stock. The woman told me that her husband brought some mangos from the farm, but they're not quite ready.

I said that's fine. I can let them sit out to mature or just eat them green

Curious person: You can eat mangos green?
Ian: They're not as good as a well-matured mango but the kids love them. In fact, there are little mango carts that wait outside the high school toward the end of school day. My issue with the cart mango is that they put salt and lime on it, and I think that ruins that glory of the mango flavor.

Then the woman told me that ripening would take several days, which I knew but was willing to be a patient. She told me I could wrap the fruit in newspaper and it would be ready soon.

Then I asked how tightly the fruit needed to be wrapped. She said it depended on how soon you want the fruit to ripen. If you aren't in a rush wrap loosely. If you want the fruit for tomorrow, you're going to want to make sure that thing is nice and tight.

Apparently, this will also work for banana products.

Perhaps you and the whole world already know about this ripening trip and that I have always been privileged to procure with perfect produce. (How about that alliteration)

To update you on the situation:

One day into the ripening process, the fruits are not quite ready to eat. There may end up being some truth to this process, just not overnight results like I wanted.

Halloween Costume

Ecuador doesn`t really do Halloween.

But that shouldn`t stop a Peace Corps Volunteer from enjoying this tradition.

I had my costume all planned out.

I was going to be a Bonice salesman. This is a topic that merits its own blog post, but Bonice salesman are everywhere in Ecuador, selling their freeze pops and flavored yogurts. They sell for 25 cents and are very popular.

The salesman`s uniform had a hilarious polar bear on it. The uniform also includes a fanny pack. Here is an example of what Bonice guy looks like but he wasn`t wearing his full uniform at the top, so you don`t get the full effect.



I asked the Bonice salesman at the local high school if I could borrow his uniform for the night. First, he didn`t understand me and told me that he could get me a job as Bonice salesman if I wanted (if this whole Peace Corps thing falls through, I have a fallback). Then I clarified what I was asking for, and he agreed to meet me at 3 p.m. in from of the high school.

He wasn`t there. And I gave him the full hora ecuatoriana.

Had to start thinking fast. The people were going to come over, the kugel wasn`t made yet, and I hadn`t even though about the mango crisp. Now, I have to get a new Halloween costume. I had settled on the Bonice guy costume my third week in Ecuador. Other costume ideas were so far away from my frame of thought that I was in a bit of a panic.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

Costume inventory in my wardrobe: Ridiculous adidas tank top
Costume inventory on my person: facial hair (hair cut happened in the last two weeks that will be recapped soon)

Question: How can I combine these two things to make the most ridiculous costume possible in the time allowed?

Answer: I shaved down to a mustache and went as an adidas ad.



Impossible is nothing.

For 23 years, people doubted my ability to grow a mustache. While it might not be so full, it is there (even with a gap in the middle that my father says never really fills in).

Plus, I`m wearing a tanktop, which I never wear.

But Ian, how did you get this all done and cook at the same time?

Multitasking.