And so another adventure begins! I am heading out on Saturday, 24th for
just over two weeks. The first week will be at Yachana Lodge on the
Napo River in Ecuador which is a major tributary of the Amazon River.
My Spanish teacher, Lucia, will meet me in Quito and travel with me by
bus and canoe to get there. Hopefully I will soak up a bunch of Spanish
this first week. Then off to spend a weekend on my own in the town Tena
- just a few hours from Yachana. I hope to meet up with some people
during the first week and have a fun weekend seeing what there is to see
around Tena. On that Sunday, my teacher (or maybe a different one) will
again pick me up and we go to Sinchi Aqua, or Sinchi Warmi..... I am not
quite sure which is the official name yet - both are used. Basically it
means Strong Women. This is a small communitywhere a group of women run
an art center. It is just about 5 minutes away from the town of Misahualli
My second week will be spent learning more Spanish, helping out in the
community, teaching the kids English as well as enjoying the many
cultural experiences they have there for me. It looks as if I will be
the only 'tourist' there during this week, so it should be very
interesting and have a greater possibility of getting really involved here.
I hope to find out much more about the area and the needs. Ever since I
was in the Amazon 3 years ago, my heart has held a special place for the
place and the people - especially the kids at the river schools. They
need so much and some of them walk hours and hours to school and back
each day. The math that was on the boards in those classrooms was
complicated fractions and so on - none of us on that tour could work
them out! The schools close down when they run out of money for
pencils, paper and other school supplies.
Those kids are happy to be learning, happy to be at school and they have
so incredibly little. Maybe in some way I can help make a difference.
After two weeks in the Jungle, I will be spending the weekend in Quito
where I will meet up with Tavo - he is a fantastic guide that I met last
time. I am hoping that he will have some time to show me more of Quito
and its surrounding areas and hopefully squeeze in a visit to the
Otavalo Market too!
So.........I am almost all packed up with about 100lbs of 'goodies' to
take to the schools and communities along the Napo River, looking
forward to seeing everything there and also to see how I will have
changed yet again by the time I get back. Come along, lets go see what
there is to see!
Annie
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