Chimborazo, an Insane Duck, and Communal Dinners

Life in Salasaca begins every morning with my Timex Ironman (best 30 bucks I have ever spent at Target), beeping at 6:30am.  Elisabeth and I roll out of bed, pull on sweatshirts, and head upstairs for breakfast.  On our way upstairs we have to go outside and walk through an outside porch area with an INCREDIBLE view.  Salasaca, the town we are staying in, is 2,800M (9,200 feet) above sea level and situated amongst the highest peeks in all of Ecuador. To the south we see Carihuairazo, a dormant snow caped volcano that looks absolutely stunning on the blue sky.  It is a rare treat to see it though, as usually clouds cover the tops of the peaks.  From the porch to the west sits the piece de resistance in the jaw dropping skyline -- Chimborazo.  Chimborazo, at more than 6,200M (more than 20,000 feet) towers over every other mountain in the area and is actually the closest place on earth to the sun!  It is even harder to see than Carihuairazo though, and I have probably looked at the skyline 25 times for it and every time but ONCE it has been shrouded in clouds.  Fortunately, one morning at 6:30am, it was totally visible!  What a way to start the morning!

The view at sunset from our back porch.  Typical cloud cover...

Chimborazo!  Visible bright and early!

Elisabeth reluctantly posing for a photo at 6:30am.

The mornings are generally pretty routine -- a filling (but pretty uninspiring) breakfast of ¨porridge¨ (apparently this is what British people call oatmeal) and sugar cane extract we set off to the school.  In the mornings, sans coffee, the journey to school is slow and chilly.  We arrive at school (to see more about the organization we are volunteering with check out www.skyecuador.org) by 7:30 and get to work.  After a few days of playing with the kindergartners (I was often a ¨caballo¨ and every kid wanted at least one ride), Elisabeth and I focused our energy and tried to solve the problem of the chickens living area (the school includes a farm).  9 chickens, and one duck who actually THINKS he is a chicken, live in a 10 foot by 7 foot pen.  It is a pretty sad state.  The duck quacks around all day and harasses the chickens, ripping their feathers out one by one until the chickens all take the appearance of Belle´s hind quarters (Belle is my parents dog, she has a bald spot on her back left leg).  These mangey chickens run around all day and hunt for non existent grubs.  All 10 of them subsided on a diet of corn (before we started supplementing with table scraps), aren´t laying eggs, and generally don´t´t seem to love life.  Elisabeth, myself, and about 5 volunteers have set out to enlarge the area and give all the animals space to breathe (there is a pond the duck could go into so he would stop harassing the chickens) and live a happy life.  We first went and bought 60 meters of chicken wire to enclose the pen.  We thought we could knock it out in a few days, but the project has taken on a life of its own and now probably will not be done for a few more weeks.

Two of the kids (Christan and Yanic) who treat me as their personal horse.

The pond, to be utilized by the duck in the near future.

The current state of affairs.

Elisabeth, hard at work digging the trench.

When we finish up working at school (between 1:00 and 2:00 most days) we trudge back home on the downhill path that takes about half an hour.  The walk home is pretty incredible, not just because of the views and the much easier downhill trek, but because it is spring time in Ecuador and on the way home everyday we see piglets, lambs, puppies, calves, baby donkeys, and chicks.  Not a day passes without oohs and awws from both of us!

The afternoons usually consist of naps, backgammon, reading a book, and games of chess.  Once a week we also work a five hour shift at the library (run by the volunteers in conjunction with the school).  Mondays - Thursdays we divide the 15  volunteers into small groups and cook communal dinners.  Preparing a meal for 15 people in a town without a proper supermarket is quite a challenge.  Usually this means busing half an hour to the closest big town and stocking up on groceries.  Even when we are in a large town it is quite the experience getting everything we need.  We have to usually go to a bakery to get bread, a supermarket for anything packaged or dairy, an outdoor market to haggle for fruits and veggies, and then lug it all home on the bus.  The cooking at home is pretty inventive, one person has turned fresh cows milk into ricotta cheese!!  Elisabeth and I have cooked three times now, the first meal was open faced toasted sandwiches with roasted veggies, fried potatoes, and fruit salad with whipped cream (which one the prize for best meal that week!).  The second time we cooked we did a tomato and basil soup, twice baked potatoes, and a strawberry cobbler (a close second place in the voting).  The third time we cooked french bread pizza, roasted red pepper soup, and brownies (voting is next week!). 

We are leaving the volunteer program some time early next week (the 25th or so) to travel to Machu Picchu!  We will be meeting two friends from home, Jason Norris and Thomas Minter, to do the trek.  I am giddy with excitement already!