Stories From The Jungle: Don't Ever Look A Monkey In The Face...

And now for an awesome story involving an attack by monkeys:

Well where to begin on this one. It all began on a quiet monday afternoon. I had absolutely nothing to do that day and the boys in my family were off school for vacation. We decided that since it was such an awesome and sunny day, and for once it wasn't raining, that we'd go to the pool near the community. It's like this exotic hotel across the street from my community, totally random. I've been there from time to time with the boys and it's a pretty awesome place they have all these different species of monkeys and it's super tranquilo. I go with Jamil, Keneth, and their cousin Clide. We're swimming for a good hour or so and having an awesome time when Clide starts yelling at me that he sees monkey's really close to where we are swimming. Me being the "gringa" crazy "extranjera" I start freaking out and am like 'oohhh mmmoonnnkkkeeeyyysss!! Lets go see them!'....what was to occur next could have only been the most unique and horrifying experience of my life. We leave the pool and walk up to were there are these two monkeys hanging out in this low hanging tree. One of the employees at the hotel starts feeding one of them bread and as we approach the other monkey falls out from the top of this tree and hangs down from a low branch by its tail and starts reaching out to me and Clide. Well at this point I'm cheesing out big time...here I am in the Amazon with my Kichwa family and here's this monkey reaching out to touch my fingers like something out of Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam"...I am kicking myself big time for not bringing my camera...So we hold hands with this monkey for a few minutes and then she springs off to go forage or whatever monkeys do in there free time. We go back to the pool and swim some more and again the monkeys return. We go back and this time she is out of the tree and on the ground hanging out in this chair. So Clide and I go to sit with her...kind of close but at what I thought was a good distance...apparently not. We're sitting there for a few minutes and like lightning she went from being this tranquilo little monkey to 'monster monkey' like something out of Wizard of Oz....She starts screaming and lunging at Clide. He gets up from his chair and starts to slowly back away from her but unbeknownst to him the she-monkey's boyfriend has jumped down behind Clide and the he-monkey's not too happy to have someone else looking at his woman in that manner. I see the he-monkey before Clide does and so I try as best I can to yell at Clide that there's a monkey behind him....too late, he backs right into the he-monkey and I watch in horror as he grabs Clide's calf with his squirrely-hands and takes a huge bite into his leg....like he was biting into an apple...At this point I'm screaming and Clide is screaming and we both take off running for the safety of the pool....and of course the monkeys start to chase us...they are running at us on their hind legs gnashing their horrible 'fruit eating' teeth at us and screaming like banshees...they want us out!....I'm running and Clide is limping for his life for the pool. After what felt like a heartwrenching eternity we make to the safety of the pool and the monkeys retreat to the trees screaming in triumph. I check myself over, making sure everything is still in order and then look down at the blood dripping from Clide's calf...there was a deep gash in his leg about the width of a pencil and the length of my thumb. I'm trying to stay calm as I apply pressure to his leg with some tissue from my bag but inside I'm soooo freaking out. Here I am the 'adult' of the group and I let my cousin get attacked by a freaking monkey! He kept insisting that it didn't hurt at all and that he was fine, oh those Kichwa boys, but I insisted we leave and get his leg cleaned out. So we left....Moral of the story: Don't sit with a he-monkey's girlfriend...he will get jealous and he will bite the shit out of you. And Clide is fine...we got him cleaned up and his leg is healing very nicely....Probably one of the funnier moments since my time here...Not then but it sure is now...

An update that is looooonnngggg overdue!

This is long over due!! I must apologize for my lack of updates but I've been fairly busy and lazy out here in the jungle and a lot of crazy/hilarious things have happened to me since my arrival here most of which I can't write about on this blog but if you really really want to hear some ridiculous stories come visit me; we'll drink a beer and I'll regale you with my adventures....
So where to begin?....Where did I leave off?...Well as of now I'm just trying to stay busy and trying to figure out what sort of work I can do here in my community. So far I've accomplished a few things. I started three gardens (small vegetable gardens) in my community. One and a half of which has failed miserably due to too much rain and not enough sunshine (fungus has killed my tomatoes) but the biggest and, in my opinion, most important garden at the women's association is doing really well. I've got over 20 tomato plants (red and yellow), cucumber plants, watermelon, and chili pepper plants (which are sooo pretty by the way!)...I'm trying to look at this as a learning experience, I have absolutely no experience growing things out here in this type of climate so most everything is an experiement but so far I'm really excited with the results. My hope is that I can begin a seed bank with the women's association so they can continue the garden if they so desire. I'm trying to stay open minded and neutral to this idea, I'm not sure if it's something they would be interested in.

One of my gardens in the Rukullacta Vivero

One of the other gardens at the Women's Association

Teresa, my host mom, is on the far right with some of the other women from the Association; cleaning this area for the garden

With Runa I've been working with their interns doing community development assessments in the communities affiliated with Runa. I helped, by helped I mean gave my opinion, develop an interview format; went out to communities to conduct interviews with presidents and community members; data collection, and collaborate ideas for future projects with the communities we are working with. It's been an interesting experience and we had some really awesome days and some really horrible days I feel like we can make some real strides with the information that we collected it's just a matter of accepting that it's going to be a slow process unlike in the States when things get finished right away, here it's more like..."ya mismo"....or I'll get to it. My hope here is to continue this work with Cassandra, the intern coordinator, after the first round of interns leave. I also hope to work on agroforestry development/projects at the Runa factory when they start to construct the tree nursery there.
Future goals in my community: Well I've been doing my encuestas (interviews) within the community and I've learned some interesting things so far and gotten a few good ideas for projects. The encuestas have been exhausting mentally in some ways. It's really difficult to listen to people here talk about how poor they are, the health problems they have, how badly they need help, etc. I feel so horribly guilty some days and I just don't know what to say in most cases. I want so badly to just run around the community like Santa Clause with a huge bag of food and money for everyone. But that's not sustainable and I don't have those kind of resources. Like they say "give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, teach a man how to fish and he can eat for the rest of his life"...or something like that. I have had this idea about using this abandoned field near my house to start a garden and/or chicken farm for the youth in my community and within that add charlas about whatever topics parents think their children should learn about. It would be AMAZING if I could get that working but there is an issue with the land. It's owned by the commuity (plus) but many people in the community don't want to share or let others use it (minus)...I could just be running my head into a brick wall with this. I suppose we will see. I'll keep you updated....Maybe.... :)
I got a puppy!!! I've had him for about a month now. He is an absolute terror! Yet I can't help but love him all the same. I have a feeling I jinxed him with his name. I call him "Supay Oso" which means "devil bear"! Supay means 'devil' in Kichwa and oso means 'bear' in spanish. He really lives up to his name. He's constantly getting into things and chewing things and pooping/peeing everywhere! Its all part of puppy parenthood right?? He's been a great help to my integration though...now when I see people they are like "hey!...where's Supay?"....They greet the dog before they greet me....Oh well.....Anyway heres a photo of my little devil....

Don't let the face fool you...He's a monster.... :)

Love the head cocking....

I got a house and I'm moving in two weeks! Pictures to follow when they finish constructing the bathroom, shower, and lavadora (clothes washing area). It's ballin! It's two rooms with an open area for my 'livingroom/hammock area' It over looks the soccer fields so I can watch the kids play in the evenings and its an awesome view of the mountains...I really lucked out...there's not too much to choose from here in terms of housing. I'm so excited to have my own space and privacy. I love my family here, they are absolutely amazing but it's vacation time right now and that means EVERYONE is home...that's 10 people in the house and that does not include cousins that come to visit frequently....Plus I can't stand the constant rap music coming from Wilfridos room....among so many other things...Privacy does not exsist here. I literally have someone watching me at all times and relaying to everyone else just what I'm doing. It's not personal it's just how it is here and I'm a source of gossip and interest here in my family and the commuity....Now I know how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie feel...I don't envy them.