Gira a La Amazonia 2012

   This time two weeks ago, I was crawling through the trees and leaves and learning about the culture and medicinal plants. I was swimming through historic and rich rivers full of piranha and a world of unknown creatures. I was interacting with indigenous residents and learning about their culture. All of this is because this time last week, I was in the Ecuadorian Amazon Jungle, and what a trip of a lifetime it was! 

Day one: We left our local Rotary Club, in Machala, just before 5pm and off we went. It took us a good 12 hours to get to our First destination: Quito, the capital city. We made many stops along the way, including the picture of us with the giant pineapple! I'm still not entirely sure why the town had a giant pineapple in it, but we stopped none the less.... But anyways, we took two 15 seater vans but despite the amount of room, we had a lot of trouble finding comfortable sleep. We were in those vans from 5pm to 6am the next day when we finally arrived in Quito at the airport that would take us to our first stop in the Amazon. 

The Giant Pineapple! 

We were SO. TIRED. 

The Group on the Plane

FINALLY leaving! 

The first River shot we could manage

   Day two begins when our plane touched down in the Oriente. We landed in Lago Agrio (or Sour Lake) at about 9am and our day was off and running from there. The tour guides from our Camp picked us up at the airport and away we went. It was two hours from the airport to the entrance to our camp and along the way we saw a toucan and incredible nature! We finally arrived to a big... hut of sorts... and ate our lunch. I had originally thought we were staying at this giant hut, but it turns out that our lodge was another 3 hours away by boat. So after lunch, we loaded up in the boats and headed to our lodge.
   On the way to our lodge, we saw more toucan, an anaconda, and even a couple families of monkeys! Going through the jungle felt like a real life version of the Disneyland ride Jungle Safari in Adventure Land. I kept expecting a motorized hippo or crocodile to come up out of the water. While there were no hippos, we did see some crocodiles, but we'll save that for another day! The trees, river, animals were all astounding and to think that I wasn't just on a ride was what kept surprising me. This was the real life and I was really experiencing the Amazon Jungle!

When we finally arrived to our lodge roommates were quickly chosen and cabins divided. My group included my two best friends Maria and Deborah. They go to school with me and it was easiest to share a cabin with people you know really well. We were in the Toucan cabin at the very far end of the lodge.

Every bed was equipped with a mosquito net to protect us!

My friend Alyssa and I in our dining hall

A little place for relaxation

   After a quick minute of relaxation, we were told to change into some long pants for a night hike thought the jungle. Equipped with our flashlights and our brave faces, we ventured into the dark jungle in search of bugs and nocturnal animals. What we found was plenty to make your skin crawl. I'm not a fan of the dark in general and being in the jungle in the dark nearly brought me to tears! I didn't take any pictures that night because I had forgotten my camera in the lodge. But like I said, the creatures we saw were enough to make your skin CRAWL.

       Day three was our biggest day. We went for a long three hour hike in the jungle where we learned what plants could be used to save our lives in the event that we get stranded in the jungle. Up hills we hiked and through mud we trudged. It was really something to be able to experience the Amazon jungle from the very heart of it. It was gorgeous! We saw a lot less animals than in our boat because our group was pretty loud, but all is well- we still had an incredible experience! 

There was a vine that we could swing on,
so much fun! 

The group mid way through the hike. Behind us, you can
see that there is a hole in the tree that we could crawl in

A tree that produced wax that the indigenous
used for candles

Finally done! And OH oh oh so tired! 

   After hiking we enjoyed a nice, refreshing lunch. A quick change into our bathing suits and were off into the boats again, only this time were fishing for piranha! Armed with 2 kilos of raw beef we set out to catch us some dinner. Except for I'm kidding, we released all of the fish we caught.

First catch of the day! Germany- 1 Rest of the World - 0

Our tour guide, Luis, showing us how to take the hook
out of the fish, which we weren't allowed to do because the
teeth were too sharp!

A good view of those sharp teeth! 

All of us were standing, made me so nervous! 

   Most of us caught fish with the exception of a few... I was one of the few. I felt a significant tug one time and in my excitement, I flung it over the boat. Oops! When I ran out of meat, my "fierce" determination to catch a fish lead me to attempt to catch a fish with a caramel candy. Safe to say my efforts went without positive results. After fishing we headed to a close by lagoon and met up with the other group we were with and went swimming in the lagoon while we watched the sunset! We even went skinny dipping! If the water wasn't as muddy as it was, there would have been no way I would have done it, but HEY, how many people can say they've been skinny dipping in the Amazon Rain Forest! After swimming we got back into to the boats and hunted for crocodiles. We ended up finding a lot of them, a lot more than I had originally expected. Our crazy tour guide practically hugged one! 

Some friends and I with amazonian mud on our faces! 

There he is! The crocodile liiives! 

    Another day over and yet another great day afterwards! Our fourth, and final full day was a trip into a local village to learn about the local culture. We got to hear their language, called Pinecoco and they showed us how to harvest yucca and make a nutritional bread with it. Later in the day, the village Shaman came and talked to us, giving us some of the history behind being a Shaman, or a witch doctor. He was getting to the age of training other Shamans to take his place and he told us that the road to spiritual enlightenment is one of challenges and pain and only a small handful of the men who train actually make it. It was a very rewarding day and a great learning experience!

Arriving into the Village

A local woman chopping the excess
yucca tree

Just an average boat ride in the Amazon... 

   Our last day was a pack up and head home day. Before we left, we all got up at 5am to watch the sunrise. The sky was full of clouds, but was was something wonderful to see the jungle emerge from the fog. We left the lodge at about 10 and left in the plane around 5pm. We stayed a while in Quito and enjoyed the cool weather. It was about 50 degrees in Quito which is the coldest weather we've been since we've all been here. It was so refreshing! We all slept the majority of the way home, only waking up once! Right before we all went to sleep, though, we passed "El Mitad del Mundo" or the Middle of the World. I'll be back there later and I'll make sure to take lots of pictures! 

  

   In other news! I have switch families and and I am so much happier! I look forward to getting to know them and getting to see Ecuador with them! Additionally, I received my itinerary and will be land in PDX at 10:10PM on May 20th! See you then, friends! 

Lastly, I got my email for the Galapagos and I will be heading there the 16-20th of March. Funds are increasingly low on my end and any financial help that you all are willing to give would be much appreciated. I am especially tight financially being that I will be heading to Western Washington University in the Fall. Let me know if you would like to help! My personal email is marlee.chavez@yahoo.com I look forward to seeing you all soon and in the meantime: MORE POSTS TO COME (:

   

More Cultural Woes

   Despite being here for 5 months (officially as of yesterday) I am still being exposed to cultural "shocks" that stop me in my tracks and allow me to further appreciate my experience here as well as appreciate the environment I was brought up in. During a recent Skype conversation with my mom it was brought to my attention how poor the Latin outlook is on women is. They have these gorgeous bodies, incredibly long hair, and flawless skin, yet they insist on breaking themselves down.
   What caught my attention was my mom telling me I was beautiful. It was something, that since being here, I had only heard boys saying to my "gringa" friends. Moms don't tell their daughters that they are beautiful; that they have things to offer other than their bodies; that they can be whatever they want to be; that they are independent. I don't mean to go on a feminist rant, but these girls are being hindered by their lack of self respect. Take my host sister for example. She is 13 years old and her idols are the Kardashian sisters. Each one of them has issues with their body image, problems with their family and with their husbands. It's safe to say that the Kardashians are some of the worst examples out there for our young girls. So here is my sister, not knowing the full extent of the damage that is being done when she watches the shows highlighting the Kardashian family. My sister is 13 years old and obsessed with her body, I know this not by assumption, but because she told me. To my sister, the only goal she has in life is to be skinny and marry a hot guy and as normal as that might be to a 13 year old girl, it worries me because I know this is not just a phase.
   What can I do to help? They look down on me here because of my weight, because I don't like to get dressed up  and wear high heels. While their perception of me has been a challenge, I have never let it get me down, for I know where I stand with myself and if another person has opinions about me, my body or my personality, let them have it. I just really wish there was something I could do to show these girls that there really is more to life than the Kardashians, outer beauty and high heels (or as they call them here, "Tacos"). Intelligence, modesty and self respect are characteristics that  should define a person, should someone be defined in the first place.
   I do not yet know what I have been put here for, but if the only thing the Ecuadorians learn from me is how to love themselves, then so be it. But I'm determined to show them just how amazing they are. They all, boys and girls, have so much to offer, if only they would put their abilities first instead of their hormones and (God help us) the Kardashians. 

Okay, that is the end of my rant. Thanks my loves.
In other news, I move within the next couple days and I couldn't be more excited! I'm out of school now until April and I can finally enjoy what Ecuador has to offer! Hope you are enjoying your chilly winter up North!

Half-Way Mark! (I am so sorry for all of my spelling errors, spell check has failed me)



The Christmas Tree my mom sent me! She had friends and
family send her ornaments so I could have them all close to me.



   Assuming I leave on June 3rd in order to make it back for graduation, I am officially at my half way point through my exchange. It's hard to believe that for as long as I have been here, I will be gone. There is still so much to accomplish and I won't leave before I get it all done, so I am going to have a busy, busy summer! I say "summer" becasue Thursday is my last day of the school year here in Ecuador. Since our seasons are switched, the school years are also switched: case in point, I get three months of full free time in the middle of my exchange. I know, it SO hard to be here.

   So, surprise! A lot has happened in the almost MONTH that it's been since I have posted. I swear, time seriously just flies here. Since my lost post, I have had surgery, Christmas celebrations AND New Year's. I just can't believe myself and my lack of updates, but what are you going to do? It's been getting a lot busier around here and that is always a good thing. Well let us do a little rewinding in order to get ya'll caught up again, shall we?

   So SURGERY, huh! Yes, I under went some minor surgery while being here. Apparently my body really does not like the humidity and the heat because my sweat glands decided to fight be back. What I thought was a clogged sweat gland (totally normal, right? Of course) turned out to be something a lot more serious and to this day I still don't know exactly what they had to remove. Anyway, long story short, there was something growing in my armpit and they had to cut it out and it was extremely painful. That first shot, of my arm is the result of a penecillin test. I had just been tested for penicillin but 7 or 8 months ago and I was sure I wasn't allergic, absoultely sure. They gave me the test anyways and when I saw this bruising, I nearly passed out and I'm not being dramatic either, I literally almost passed out; cold sweats, loss of vision and hearing- oh the works and all with the added benefit of none of the people knowing English.

  

   About a week after this penicillin test (which, the doctor later told me I was infact NOT allergic to penicillin and that my shot was a bad injection) I was taken to the clinica, which is basically just a hospital) and layed down on the table, stripped of everything but my pants, injected with anethesia and cut open. It was really just a slice and dice opperation, no big hullabaloo was made. I had to listen to my iPod (the soothing songs of Enya) and I bawled like a baby throughout the whole operation, but I made it through like a champ. Ecuador's medical equipment may not be top notch nor the most advanced, but it was clean and straight forward, I got what I needed done and it was realitively cheap. In total, from beginning to end (which included the opertation and two additional check ups), I ended up paying $160 out of pocket. Not too shabby!

   Surgery was most definately the biggest thing to occur in the last month, but Christmas and New Year's also passed. Christmas here is not as big of a... commotion as it is in the States. The whole Christmas holiday kind of came and left without much said about it. Gifts are not the focus, the Baby Jesus is and people don't get any cheerier during the season. In fact, people get mean and guarded as during the Christmas time is the most dangerous time in Ecuador due to the rise in crime rate. Luckily, my family was spared any harm, but some other family members of ours didn't get off so easily. We know of two peole that were robbed at gun point and my uncle's truck was smashed by someone on New Year's Day. Just goes to show you what money and the desperate need for money can do to people.

  

   But back to Christmas! My paternal Aunt and Grandmother came to stay the weekend with us and on Christmas Eve, later in the evening, we all went to Mass and then came back and waited for more family and sometime between 10 PM and Midnight, we began eating dinner and opening presents. After that the family hung out a bit and by 3 AM everyone was dispersed. Christmas Day was just a day to relax and clean up from the night before.

Our Christmas Eve Spread. That first dish is a typical Ecuadorian
Christmas dish called Relleno that has some sort of mystery
texture, dates, and green olives. It was.... different.

My adorable Family!

My sister Nathalia, 13 years old

My dad and the "Princess of Christmas"
 (AKA my grandmother). Every year they draw for the
Princess of Christmas and this year it was my abuelita!

   New Year's also came and went, but this time with a bang! It is Ecuadorian tradition to burn dolls representing a year's worth of strife and troubles and these dolls are called "Año Viejos" or Old Years. They do this to symbolize the start of a new year along with new beginnings and maybe some reconcilliation. For example, my sister fashioned an Año Viejo to look like a girl in her class she doesn't like. I'm not so sure that it was for the symbolism that my sister made this doll, but I think you get the point. They load fireworks into all the dolls and at midnight they light them all on fire. I don't know what I was expecting when I heard this, but I assure you I was certainly surprised. We went to a big neighborhood to celebrate New Year's and in the middle of the neighborhood they had dug a great big ditch especially for the Año Viejos and just before midnight we all made a pilgramage to the dig site and threw the dolls in a heap and right at midnight the dolls were lit, with a little help from some lighter fluid. Don't worry, this was completely safe. WAS. It was safe untill the fireworks that were loaded in the dolls started going off at random and in random directions too. Guessing where the next firework was going to explode just adds to the fun though and we ended up getting out of their unhurt. Just like with Christmas day, New Year's Day was spent sleeping and just relaxing and just like that, the 2012 had begun.

You can see the heap of "bodies" to the right
 of the photo and the ring of fire engulfing the heap.

And that my loves is my update! I swear to goodness I will keep them coming. I just had to get the last couple weeks covered. I owe you another update this weekend. Enjoy the New Year and I will see you in 144 days.

Love always, Marlee

Beef with Spoons

Dearest friends, family and Rotarians,

   It has been nearly 2 months now since I have updated you all. It really is amazing how fast time flies. I mean, goodness, I'm almost half way through my exchange and yet I feel like nothing has happened! Don't worry, there is a reason for my not updating. Those of you who really know me, know that I have an excuse for everything, and this is no exception!

   The last 2 months have been some of the most emotionally challenging months of my God given life. Of course this exchange hasn't been easy, ever, but these last couple of months have, by far, been the worst. I don't know how many times I attempted to write an update and every time I got through with it, I realized that I just sounded negative and ungrateful. There have been a lot of really good and/or interesting things that have occurred over the two months and I have overlooked those and felt that my "suffering" was more important.

  Since the last time I updated, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the beginning of the Holiday season have passed and with the passing of those days a lot of sadness and a sort of depression has come, as well as new traditions and experiences. The Saturday before Halloween, for instance, the kids in my grade hosted a big Halloween party. I was so excited to get out and socialize with my friends. I spent the whole day trying to figure out what to go to the party as. I hadn't thought of taking a costume when I was packing, but it was no matter. I found a white sheet, bought some gold tissue paper and bent an old wire hanger into a crown and within 15 minutes I had created a costume: TOGAA. Turns out, however, that Ecuadorians don't actually celebrate Halloween and when I showed up to the party I was the ONLY one dressed up.

   Directly following Halloween, I went up to Guayaquil to take the dreaded SATs. I failed to take them before leaving the country, which might have greatly improved my scores, but I passed with great scores anyways. When I came home from taking my SATs, the house was decorated for Christmas and I was taken aback. Back at home, it is tradition to decorate the house and the tree together, as a family. But here, decorating is more of a chore and the maids usually take care of all the decorating. Like we're taught to say, it wasn't bad, it was just different! Following the SATs was Thanksgiving that passed without a peep. I ate mac and cheese by myself and watched my favorite movie Dan in Real Life in Spanish. Again, not bad, just different.

   I have hit that inevitable "3 month wall" that happens to every expat in the world. One begins to reject the culture, the language, everything. Day to day life just kicks in and one realizes that things are no different in this grand foreign country then they would be at home. It feels like there's no more adventure left in the the experience and one might feel ready to go home. Well, I felt like that and worse. Even now, I don't know if these feelings have passed, but I do know that I am here for the long haul. Just even in the last couple of week I have had some problems with the Rotary here and my host family.

   I have been a generally independent person for as long as I can remember and being here has put my pride and my independence in a tight spot. If ever a problem should occur, I expect myself to be able to handle it without telling others about it and without a big deal being made. The faster and the quieter I can tackle a problem, the better for me. However, being in a program such as this, it is important, as I found out, to keep people informed at the beginning of my problems. My counselor thinks I have lied to her about my family problems and my mom didn't appreciate that I was sharing my problems with my counselor. A lot of the problems that have occurred are cultural and could have been avoided had I taken the fact that people talk seriously. I had trusted my counselor to be my confident and she went and told my mom what I had said without giving me a change to explain anything. Since last week, everything has settled down with my family, but I still have to face my Rotary club. Like I said, it has been a challenging couple of months.

   The frustration as well as the new experiences are perfectly summed up into the term "Beef with Spoons" which I have officially coined as the phrase of my exchange. Much like, "It's not bad, it's different", BWS just means that we may be used to doing things one way and upon immersing into a new culture, we may find those old habits challenged and replaced with new ones. All in a year's work. Where I am used to eating my meat with a fork and knife, sometimes it is served with a giant spoon here, making proper eating nearly impossible, but you carry on because you're an exchange student and you're allowed to make mistakes.

   I am still so grateful for the opportunity to come here and live a completely new life. The everyday challenges only prompt me to grow more and I am thankful for those opportunities. I will make sure to update after Christmas and again after New Year's, but in the event that I completely forget, Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year! We are enjoying our summer weather down here in the Southern Hemisphere, but I hope you stay nice and warm in your cold weather!

Love always, Marlee

P.S. I leave for the Amazon at the end of January. I am SO excited but I am in serious need to Sun Block (it is amazingly expensive here) and Bug spray or bracelets. If you are interested in donating, let me know. They would be greatly appreciated! I love you all so very much and without your support, I don't know where I would be.

Mailing Address!

Hello loves! I forgot to mention that I now have a mailing address! The post system isn't as useful here as it is in other places, so it's taken me a bit to test the reliability of it: we're good! So here it is:


Marlee Mansfield-Chavez
Machala, El Oro, Ecuador
South America

*Recoger a la oficina de correos
#086791540

Write it just like that and I will receive it!
Hope you all have a wonderful week!

-Marlee

Two Months Already!?

   I cannot even believe that it has been a whole two months since I've been here. While I'll say that the days and minutes seem to drag on, compounded, the time just blinks by! Two months ago, Tuesday, I pulled into this country completely clueless, confused, scared, and SO EXCITED! I'm now nearly completely fluent in Spanish, comfortable and still excited. Even just in the last two months I have grown and changed. I'm sorry that it has been SO long since I've last posted, there's day to day activities that didn't seem to hold much importance, so I thought I'd wait till there came something of some kind of importance.

   A week after RYLA was our resident Brazilian's birthday! He turned 18 and instead of doing the typical Ecuadorian thing and going out drinking and partying during an 18 year old's birthday party (Eighteen is the drinking age here in Ecuador), we partied like Rotary Exchange students: Responsible and Sober! We all met at his house for dinner, cake and dancing. It was so much fun and we took this picture. It wasn't till afterwards that we realized that we're kind of a family. Luis (the Brazilian) is like the dad, always planning our activites and everyone calls me mom, always making sure everyone is being safe! What do you think, one Good Looking family, right?

   School has greatly improved and I am SO thankful for that. Going to school is still a chore, but it has become an enjoyable chore. During the day, I have taken to reading books (thank God for my Kindle, I don't know what I would do without it), drawing little pictures for my friends, and writing letters home. My activities are a time consuming but by the time Friday rolls around, I cannot wait to get out of there. I realized that the one thing that was causing so much frustration with my school was the fact that we don't switch classes! I am so accustomed to having different students in different classes and that is how I make my friends. Having to be "stuck" with the same kids for the whole day, the whole week and the whole year has really put a strain on my personality! Not to worry though, I am pushing through it!

   Okay, for now for the good stuff: This last week was our second Rotary-organized trip. We drove the eight hours from Machala up to the Ecuadorian providence of Manabi and this time the trip included all 140 inbound students in Ecuador. 140 students. 15 countries. 5 days. 3 full sized charter buses to haul us around. 1 amazing trip! I love my fellow inbounds more than words can describe! This is the first time that we've been all together and if I understand correctly, it may be the only time we're together as all 140 of us, but that is okay! Trying to make friends with 140 people is nearly impossible and it takes a lot of energy too- but hey, we managed just fine. The trip lasted from October 15th at 6:30 AM to the 19th at 6pm. While the first and last days were full of driving, the middle days were packed with activities and bonding! 

   On the first day we went to this special beach called Boca Resort. It was like a movie set with pure white beds and canopies and an incredibly teal blue ocean. We spent the morning at the resort swimming, playing soccer and taking tours of the place. There was a little river that led to the ocean during low tide and the resort workers were offering tours down river. We saw about a billion pelicans perched in the trees, it was just a prelude to the wonderful creatures we will be seeing in the Galapagos! 



The USA kids: Represent!



   

 Later in the day on Sunday, we hiked up the the mountain behind our hostel. The city we stayed in, Crusitas, wasn't a very big city, we we paraded through the city with our flags and our national anthems! Once up the hill, we took a couple group pictures and our country pictures. The view from up top was amazing! One boy from Germany had the ingenious idea to tie all the flags together to make a big World Kite and that's what is flying in the picture.

   The next day was another beach day, only this time we spent the whole day on the beach. We cleared the beach of rocks and built ourselves a full sized beach volleyball court and a soccer field for the tournaments between teams! I didn't personally participate in the sport activities, but I did spend the whole day swimming out the ocean, not getting out until too many people were getting stung by jellyfish for my liking. Don't you worry, they weren't bad stings, the jellies were no bigger than a finger, but that made the mysteriousness of the water a little more daunting. Later on that night, we enjoyed a massive bon fire and some fireside singing.

   Tuesday brought on a whole meaning of tired. We all got up early because we had to drive about 45 minutes to a near by city, called Portoviejo, for a huge city parade! I still don't know exactly why we were parading through the streets, but I'm not complaining, it was so much fun! All 140 of the exchange students were included and we even made the local paper! Front page of the "Life" section. The picture to the right is the picture that was put in the paper and I'm in the front row in the middle! After the parade, we headed to to a little town called Montecristi where there was a little market set up especially for us exchange students FULL of Cositas Ecuatorianos (little Ecuadorian things!). We pulled up and there was a live band playing music for us and, like I said, about 20 vendors selling their goodies just for us students! After everyone's pockets were wiped clean, we headed to lunch at what seemed like a 5 star hotel! It was gorgeous and our buffet-style lunch was served right on the beach. Tired from the running around we had done all morning, we returned to our hostel in Crustias for some rest and to get ready for our Grand Evening!

   We pulled into Portoviejo and were dropped off at these big trucks (pictured) with bands on the roof. The drivers were telling people to climb on and at first we were a little scared, but we quickly forgot all means of safety and hopped on! As you can see, people were jumping up and down on the roof, hanging from the sides and standing in the back. For the second time that day, we paraded through Portoviejo, only this time on wheels! For what seemed like 2 hours, we rolled around the city, attracting the attention of the locals and their cameras! It was a BLAST! It has been one of the many times I have been grateful for Ecuador's lack of road rules. We finally pulled into our last destination for the night at a Rotary club for our night of ceremonies. We elected a camp King (from Denmark) and Queen (United States) and handed out awards from our sports day! We ended the night with a long dance party and didn't end up getting back to the hostel until 3:45AM! Mind you, this was a weekday in the middle of the city, the music could be heard for miles! I guess this is just normal though, which I'm so glad for, it was so much fun!

   The last day was just a big send off for everyone. We all left pretty early because we all had a long drive ahead of us. The El Oro kids had the best time though! I love my El Oro kids and we all bonded so well. On the way home, we stopped in Guayaquil for lunch and were happily surprised when we spotted a Subway in the food court. It was safe to say that we were happy campers! I got REAL coffee and Subway all in the same day: highlight of my life. I have bonded with this group of kids so much, I love them like a real family. We are all so close and all so diverse! I love it! I am loving Ecuador too! I hope all is well back where ever you are finding yourself.

Love, Marlee!

PS, a note about the blog name change. EcuaPortlian: I consider myself to have officially crossed that cultural line where I consider myself an exchange student or different. I am practically one with the Ecuadorians and since I am from Portland, the two just kind of morphed together. That's it! Love you all!