Pistishi, a day in the life of Ecuadorian countrymen

Last weekend I joined my future roommate on a visit to the community where her NGO, AVANTI, works called Pistishi. This involved a short three hour bus to rio bamba-a rather deserted town-an overnight stay at a hotel and another three hour bus ride after a traditional Ecuadorian breakfast of bread, eggs, juice, and coffee, finally hopping off the bus in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. Once safely on the ground, one of the 3 Ecuadorians I was with told me to look out over the overloook behind us, where below the picturesque mountainous backdrop, I could see what appeared to be a small town, and where we would be spending the day. We picked up our bags filled with clothes, some food and sleeping bags for camping that night and made our way down the windy dirt road leading down the hill towards the town.

Upon arriving, we were greeted by several leaders of the community of the mid midsize community which lays spread out over an expansive hilly countryside, filled with a small town center, where I currently stood, farmland, and open hilly landscape untouched by industrialism. As I was the only one with the group who did not have a specific job with the NGO, I started talking with some of kids while AVANTI led trainings on best practices for farming and a meeting to discuss future initiatives and get town feedback. I was immediately taken aback by the smiles on community members faces, and the freedom children had to run around without boundaries. The children seemed to be raised more by the community than by a single family, creating an openness you would never see in a city. One of the girls, who had some sort of retardation which was also noticeably prominent among the children in the community due to a vitamin deficiency in pregnant women, befriended me and my future roommate, the director of AVANTI, going as far as calling us Mom. During the meetings I would listen to her babble on and show me around the town center.

I did have a chance to listen to parts of the meeting, which gave an interesting insight into how communities perceive outside aid. The leaders in the community began arguing, complaining that AVANTI had not fulfilled promises, or that they had expected something different. Once one person began complaining, others would chime in until either a community member, or the director of AVANTI would try to bridge the miscommunications, and the meeting would continue. I noticed many similarities between the dissatisfaction of Pistishi and colombian refugees. When an aid organizations comes in to work with a community, they can only offer assistance and work with the group, not resolve the communities problems as a detached organism. That is what needy communities perceive they deserve, someone to come in and make problems disappear without having to do much work themselves. After speaking with a few members of AVANTI and another friend who tagged along to take pictures and works with the UN, I realized the universality of this misconception, which I believe is a cause for many of the failures of aid work. I hope that I am able to fulfill some of the desires of the refugee community I am working with during my time here, but was reminded by this meeting that I will be confronted with frustration on both my part and the refugees, and will not be able to accomplish the immediate improvement they might expect.
That night we hitched a ride with the president of the community to the base of the mountain where the community sits, near a popular tourist attraction, a mountain named La Nariz del diablo (the nose of the Devil) for the contours of the rocks on one side of the massive natural wonder. With the help of the president, the 4 kids who had tagged along in the back of the truck, and two guards watching over a nearby train station through which one train comes a day, we put up a tent and gathered wood for a fire. By the time the fire was lit and the community members returned home, it was getting dark and we took out the salchichas (similar to hot dogs) and other food we had bought throughout the day. We spent the rest of the night talking with the guards, drinking a three dollar bottle of rum we had bought at one of the 3 stores in Pisitshi and enjoying our campfire. It was interesting to talk with the guards, since one of them had lived illegally in the US for several years before returning to Ecuador. He crossed through Mexico on a train, commonly used by migrants who risk their lives sitting on the roof of this train, hiding from immigration officers and gangs who try to rob them while making their way through the perilous and beautiful country. If you are interested in learning more about this experience, I highly recommend the movie "Sin Nombre" which came out in the beginning of 2009.