Remolino Grande primer contacto para un estudio impacto de los voluntarios de Ecotrackers en la comunidad

Introduction and initial remarks.

Shushufindi is the arrival point from Quito it is a petroleum town with lots of migrant workers and obvious signs of pollution. From there you take the bus to Puerto Gregorio the bus ride is interesting you drive past hectares and hectares of palm plantations there in no remains of primary forest and all you can see for miles is more and more equally spaced palms. The port takes you to the community, Gustavo lives just outside the community as do most of the families with only half a dozen actually living in the centre. There Is anther volunteer staying and she has already been there for a week. The house is made from wood it is large downstairs but they have divided the upstairs in what I consider an interesting manner, the three youngest children, Edis, 11,yurema, 9 and Jenni 19 all sleep in the same room as their parents whilst the older boy Freddie gets is own room and there is a box room for guests. They cook on gas stoves on the floor and use rain water for drinking. The food is generally quite simple, consisting of rice and yuka or green bananas and occasionally meat; even though they grow chillies there is no spice in the cooking although hot sauce is often added later. The toilet is formed from a shack at the back of the garden but it is infested with ants that bite so they generally use any space in the garden. The garden is large and extends into the rainforest, due to the pollution of the river from the petroleum companies they have started to farm fish in what they call a piscine. At the moment there are only baby fish and they have to constantly check the water level so the overflow pipe doesn’t get blocked causing the fish to be sucked in and die. They also have a bull and a horse which are used for transporting wood and other building materials. chickens which are used for eggs and a wild pig that is a pet and serves no useful function.

The type of work

The work in the community is generally carried out in a communal fashion, although small work in their personal gardens will be done by man and wife. Whilst I was visiting they went to this nature reserve where they are trying to attract tourists and teach them about the Secoyas, at the moment it is very basic with a old Secoya house, which is a large wooden shelter with one long table, they also have information about the Secoyas in English and Spanish but there is not much else and they are charging ten dollars for tourists there is also a jungle path but I did not see this as we were there to work. The men had come to work on a new pool for fish, Anna informed me that they have had an expert come and show them how to make the pools and have only being doing this for a few months. To get to the pool you have to clamber down a muddy slope and then they have made a dam of sand bags we were all there to build up the dam which involved packing on more mud to rise it up, I was not sure how well this would work because when the rains come it seemed that the mud would be washed away but I am not an expert on building materials. At first we all used our hands until it was realised that the work was much faster with shovels. The boys ranged in age from 13 to 50 and they all enjoyed the work spending much of the time throwing mud at each other and putting it in each others shoes. The work lasted three hours as everything is dependent on weather and darkness. Afterwards we were given lunch prepared by one of the women who was heavily pregnant it struck me as interesting as she clambered into the canoe with large cooking pots that in England she would be resting. Everyone brings their own plates and cups for the food. We then head over to the main community so they can play football which is a passion here. When the men get hot they do this curious thing of pulling their t-shirts up to reveal the protruding bellies. I do not understand why they all have such large stomachs as the rest of their bodies is pure muscle I assume it is to do with diet and is something to investigate. All the men ar every keen to learn English and no question is answered without them saying ¿como se dice ingles. The school is also run in the same community fashion with two of the members acting as teachers but they are often not both available as they have other tasks to do. The rest of my time there I did not see anymore community work as Gustavo and Victoria were working at home transferring seedlings. Work here is not very strenuous in the sense that the men seem to work for about two to three hours a day. Having said this the women see to work most of the day preparing food and washing clothes as well as helping in the garden. Victoria spends three days making yuka bread that will last a month.

The school

Whilst I was there they asked me to teach English to the children the school is in the main part of the community about 30mins by canoe if the children are driving. There are two community canoes and this means that all the children are picked up in them like a school bus. School starts at 8 or 9 depending on when the children and teachers arrive. There are two classes, the children under 7 are in one class and the others another with the oldest being 19. not all the children go to school, some have uniforms and others don’t. There seems to be no clear structure to the teaching as one day all they received were classes of English. The little ones find it hard to understand Spanish and they are used to secoya and those aged 5-6 can not read, making English quite hard to teach. School finishes at one with a break at 11 where they receive government issues biscuits and lunch is made by the mums who live in the community on a rota basis, it is always rice with lentils and tuna, with sweet water, they have a very sweet tooth here and many people have gold teeth.

The future

The teenage girls whom I spoke to told me that they wanted to live in the community forever but they were undertaking a computer course in Shushufindi and as there are no computers in the community I asked how it was possible to pursue a career and live in the community to which they had no answers. The oldest son Freddie had been in the army and talked about living in Quito or another part of the country and even Gustavo told me that he did not really want to live in the community and joked about me taking him to England. When questioned about religion I was told that there is a Secoya religion but no one really believes in it anymore and the shaman also seems o have little significance, there are many medicinal plants but when his daughter was sick he asked us for western medicine which we didn’t give because she is under twelve. I am not sure what the impact of volunteers is having on the community hopefully it will bring more opportunities to the Secoyas but at the same time it should be monitored , the fact that they are more interested in mobile phones and dvd players which they have than diversifying their crops and expanding the cocoa production or other local opportunities seems worrying.

Recommendations for future volunteers

The community wants to learn English and so be prepared for this as there are limited recourses in the community. It would be good if more opportunities could be developed in the community for example, demonstrations of local plants or at least of topography pf all that’s in the area. I didn’t see the local carving but this definitely appears to be a skill that could be built upon.