Megafauna

Being in Quito is a trip. Everything is bigger – the buildings, the cars, the houses, and the disparities between the haves and the have-nots. I have lived in this country for over 10 months now and am still struck by the fact that in Quito, on my way for a medical visit in a modern skyscraper, I pass by indigenous women in full-dress, babies in slings on their backs, hawking gum for ten cents. Or that there are gleaming Centros Comerciales (shopping malls) filled with designer wares across the street from the local tiendita (little store) where I can’t get change for one dollar.

I was in Quito recently for my mid-term medical exam and got to meet the new volunteers, Omnibus 99. I am so happy not to be a newbie anymore. Our Omnibus has been in-country for 10 months, as of April 20^th.

I also went to Quito because I was selected to join the staff of El Clima, the “esteemed” PC/Ecuador volunteer newsletter. You can read my article on food insecurity, in Ecuador and around the world, here.

I also got to catch up with friends from my Omnibus (98 woot!) and attended the Swearing-In party for 99. I have to admit that their party was more fun than our own, mainly because there was no pressure of having to leave for your site the next day and not knowing what to expect (party pictures to come). Due to intense flooding throughout the country this winter, the trainees from 99 did not get to do site visits. Which I think is insane. They also had Center Based Training, which means they were together for 10 weeks, instead of living in separate communities out in the campo, as we did. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of training (ok, I complained about it bitterly), I do think living in dispersed communities better prepared us for the reality of our sites, and improved our Spanish skills much more than if we had all been together in one town. Out of the 43 volunteers that arrived in early February, there have been no ETs (Early Terminations)…yet. Pero, vamos a ver.

Happy Earth Day 2008!

In honor of Earth Day, here are some simple suggestions for doing your part to help the environment: Plant a tree. Print double-sided on recycled paper. Take public transportation. Ride your bike. Walk to work. Bring your own cup to the coffee shop. Don’t forget to Reduce and Reuse, not just Recycle. Take shorter showers. Get a low-flush toilet. Change to low-wattage light bulbs. Use solar and wind power when possible. Buy local and eat organic. Bring reusable bags to the grocery store. Hug a tree. Vote for Barack Obama.

All right, the last one is probably not directly related to helping the environment, but Obama does have an ambitious and detailed energy and climate plan. His proposals call for: 60 billion gallons of biofuels to be produced in the U.S. each year by 2030, a $150 billion investment plan to boost energy and create green jobs, raising fuel efficiency standards for cars to 40 mpg by 2020, getting 25% of US electricity from renewables by 2025, and a cap-and-trade system to cut U.S. emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Not hugely different from Hillary Clinton, but drastically better than the noncommittal, non-plan currently offered by John McCain. Click here to see how the candidates compare on climate and energy issues.

Since I moved to Ecuador, I have cut my own carbon footprint dramatically. I don’t drive at all, and while I am in my town I walk everywhere. When I go out to work in the communities, I always carpool with at least my counterpart and usually other folks from PLAN, the NGO I work for. If I am traveling anywhere in the country, I ride buses with a 40-person capacity, not counting chickens, vomiting puppies, or screaming babies. My apartment has no heating system and I cook via gas-powered stove. The one thing I am ashamed of is that my shower is powered by a gas heater instead of electric. In my defense, the dueño of my building insisted on installing the gas heater. To my credit, I do not own a refrigerator or a television.

Our town even sorts organic vs. non-organic waste. I have a green can for organic garbage and a black can for non-organic; the garbage truck collects the green on Mon/Wed/Fri and the black on Tue/Thurs/Sat. Organic matter is collected at the town’s relleno sanitario (dump) where organic matter is composted with the help of worms (lombrisas) and turned into fertilizer that anyone can buy from the Municipio. In 2001, Loja, the capitol of the province, won third place in an UN contest “Nations in Bloom,” which awarded prizes to the most environmentally friendly cities of the world.

The most polluting I’ve done since I’ve left for Peace Corps is probably when I flew back to the States for vacation in February and drove while I was home. Even with all this talk about the BRIC countries (Brazil-Russia-India-China) consuming more energy and creating more pollution, it’s really our country that needs to cut back its consumption. The U.S. consumes 25% of the world’s natural resources, despite only having 5% of the earth’s population. That is appalling. Most European cities are far more “green” than American cities, with higher density and smaller vehicles. Then again, we do have a President who refused to sign on to the Kyoto protocol and who only recently has grudgingly acknowledged global warming as an environmental “issue,” not the dangerous, enormous change-the-world-as-we-know-it PROBLEM that a worldwide consensus of scientists and the IPCC have shown it to be. Like I said, vote Obama 2008.

If you’re interested in calculating your own carbon footprint, visit this website: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

Flooding, 9 months, and Chagas

I’m a lousy blogger, I know. Or at least not a very consistent one. Over a month has passed since my last post, and there’s really not much to new in my world. Rainy season is still not over, in fact, rain is falling in sheets outside the window as I type. The rains have been so severe and have lasted so long that the country is actually in a state of emergency due to flooding. On a recent trip to my mailstop, the road was a mess, with tons of mudslides and potholes. I am headed up to Quito tomorrow, and am not exactly looking forward to the bus ride, since it’s supposed to take longer than the usual 13 hours from Loja. Hooray!

On March 20th, we celebrated 9 months in-country, which means that 1/3 of my service is over. We were pretty excited about that, so we threw a 9-months party.

Recently, I spent a week helping a Brazilian graduate student from Ohio University conduct focus groups on Chagas disease in rural communities around my town. I’m helping out the Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE)/Ohio University with a Chagas research project that they have been conducting for several years. The project is a joint venture between PUCE and OU, led by an Ecuadorian scientist at Ohio.

Here’s the quick and dirty on Chagas: Chagas is a fatal tropical disease transmitted by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The vector for Chagas is an insect called the Reduviid bug, more commonly known as “the kissing bug.” The bug, or chinchorro as we call it in Spanish, bites humans while they are sleeping and deposits its feces, containing the T. cruzi parasite, next to where it has fed. When the person wakes up in the morning and scratches the bite, this spreads the parasite into the bloodstream, and is thus infected. There are three stages of Chagas, the first of which is known as the acute stage, when people exhibit flu-like symptoms (fever, headache) and the heart and spleen begin to enlarge. This is the only stage where it is possible to cure the disease. The second, or latent phase, of the disease is where the walls of various body organs deteriorate; this phase can last up to 20 or 30 years while the infected person may be completely unware that they have the disease. The last phase is death, usually due to heart failure. There is currently no vaccine for Chagas. The disease was discovered in Brazil, where it has largely been eradicated. In Ecuador, however, there are an estimated 3 million people with Chagas, so it’s definitely a public health problem. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health in tandem with PUCE has begun a campaign of eradication and prevention over the past several years, but it’s an uphill battle, largely because those most susceptible are largely unaware of its etiology or how to prevent it.

Sorry to babble on about Chagas, but it’s something that’s of great interest to me and hopefully I’ll get to work with the team from the Catholic University when they come down to work in my area this summer.