So leaving Quito (previous blog), I took a 40 minute flight
to El Coca, principle city of the province of Orellana and then a 2 hour car
ride to a cultural centre in the buffer zone of the Yasuni National park. So
here I will be for a few months, in the Amazon Rainforest!
So what is it like to live in the largest tropical forest in
the world? Well my ‘casa’ (Spanish for ‘house’) is a small en-suite wooden
cabin approximately 11.5 by 23 feet (of size seven sandals), with a metal roof
(so it amplifies rain and in the midday sun it cooks me). Within the cultural
centre complex there are 4 other similar cabins, a concrete-wooden house
(bungalow) where a young family of 4 live, who ensure the maintenance of the
place and a 2 story concrete-wooden building that serves a variety of functions
from a house (for the family friend who invited me here, and who comes here now
and again) to a community teaching centre.
Behind the buildings is an orchard containing a range of
fruits, from different genus and species of banana, cawcaw (what they call coca
pods – from which chocolate comes from), urka (similar but not closely related
to the potato), papaw, guava, pineapple, coconut, coffee, cane, lemon and other
exotic fruits that I’ve never come across before (but I can assure they taste
nice). There are also plants here with particular health vitalising properties
and some used by a local shaman (someone who is a specialist in using natural
products for healing illnesses – not a witchdoctor, a common miss-association,
one I had made prior to coming here).
Beyond the orchard is the forest (belonging to the centre)
which takes a full day to walk around the perimeter. It is a primary-forest (I
remember something from my high school geography) and is home to a diverse
range of flora (some used for studies by associates of the centre) and fauna,
such as wild pigs, armadillos (no Ben I cannot bring one home) different
species of monkeys, snakes, birds of varying colour and other things of which I
am unsure of their English name. A large river runs along one perimeter of the
forest and if you follow that downstream for 2 hours you can get your piranhas,
crocodiles and boa constrictors, follow it further and it will eventually take
you into Peru.
Next-door (down the road) is a base for a petroleum company
(there are a few sites in this neck of the woods) and are noisy enough to hear
from around 6am to 6pm every day of the week.
1 mile down the road is the local town. It has a recently refurbished
school and a university currently being built. That aside, most of the houses
are wooden and stilted or grounded and concrete. You have your local carpentry,
some small food and grocery shops, a few bars, volleyball pitch (a common sport
here) and of course the standard dusty football pitch (the local women are keen
players – win!) and a couple of churches. This place also extends to the river
and the other side is the official start of the Yasuni Park with your tigers
and what not. Heading back the way is the stone road to El Coca, the tarmac
road it joins is midway between here and the city, with one other significant
sized town in between.
My role at the centre is to provide education in English and
Computing for members of the local community, ranging from primary school level
to adults older than myself… all of whom are taught in the same class. It is an
opportunity for them to hear English spoken by a mother-tongue speaker and give
them more experience of using a computer (some have good prior experience, some
limited). The adults and youngest seem to have least experience with computers,
though both subjects are currently taught in the local school. I am teaching
entry level English grammar and basic computing skills, like the use of
Microsoft Office documents.
That is a brief overview of the setup here, more news and
views to follow soon. Hasta Luego.
No comments:
Post a Comment