Orion's Belt

The longer you stare at the night sky the more stars are revealed. The patina of thinly spotted blackness dissolves and coloured spots of light twinkle into vision. The empty space between those spots is filled with a glowing cob-web of stellar illumination. Galaxies and constellations take shape

Under the stars, I think of our project in Ecuador. We had an idea that we would arrive in the country, proceed to work with Ainoa on our backs, helped by a small force of volunteers to finish the cob house and build a permaculture garden where we would grow most of our vegetables.

The longer we stay and work the more complexities and problems are revealed. The naïve vision dissolves and administrative realities make us spend time where we had not planned to spend it.

The water company's sense of humour.

Recently we lost water and spent a total of 14 days without drinkable water, and without any water at all for 12 of those days. I wish I could say this was a rare occurrence. The only thing to note this time was the extraordinary long duration of the stoppage.

Despite, although "in spite of" is more true to our feelings, all the misadventures and time wasted waiting in doctor's offices, lines at the utility company and Associasion Nacional de Transito, we have managed to complete more than nothing.

First, we have learned a lot. About ourselves, mostly. Call it knowledge, or wisdom -- the skein of accumulated experience that pulls judgement in one direction or another.

And then there's the house. It's not that we haven't worked on it, it's just that progress has been... well...

The first attempt at the house was rushed. We didn't level the site beforehand. The gravel trench was too shallow half around. We didn't tamp the bottom of the trench or the drainage gravel. The "rocks" we received for the stem-wall were actually aggregate full

Radiolarian is not rock.

of fossilised radiolarian, small mineral skeletons formed by oceanic protozoa eons ago, before the continental plates collided together and pushed up the Andean mountains; these "rocks" melted into a wet clay-like substance after the first big rain. We didn't use mortar between the rocks.

The second attempt, our current attempt, is much less rushed. We levelled the site roughly 2 meters around from the exterior of the walls. The gravel trench extends down a good 60cm under all parts of the exterior wall. We tamped the bottom of the trench and tamped again after each 15cm layer of drainage gravel. We built the stem wall with rocks we had ordered from a quarry. We are currently mortaring the rocks together to prevent the biting flies, cockroaches, mice, opossum and scorpions from sneaking in. The spiders we don't mind so much, especially since they tend to consume unwelcome insects. Even the brown-widows are guests on the outside-facing parts of the stem-wall.

Hello, Lycosidae friend.

Doing things properly takes a lot of time. The satisfaction of a job well-done comes at the price of an extended schedule and a lot of effort. We gladly pay this price, and then grimace as environmental variables double it.

Between the first and second attempts it rained and the radiolarian melted into the drainage gravel. We had to remove the radiolarian from the gravel trench, some of it with a 18-pound sledge-hammer, the wooden handle of which broke after three strikes and had to be replaced with a steel tube. The remaining gravel was covered with a layer of concrete-like organic matter that prevented drainage. We continued to have rain. The layer of radiolarian turned into a gooey glue which no amount of sifting would remove. So we shovelled the gravel out of the trench and spread it out on the ground to dry it in the sun and air. When it had dried we sifted it twice and carted it over to the new site by wheelbarrow.

Hard work.

We filled the gravel trench on the second site and tamped it. We began dry-stacking the rocks we had moved from large piles next to the first site. Some were so heavy we had to roll them the 15m into place. After dry-stacking, we began to mix cement and sand to make mortar. Mortar mixes require a good amount of water available, both for incorporation in the mix and for wetting and cleaning tools. Monthly water outages are common in the region, sometimes for up to five or six days per month. When we began to mix mortar we lost water on the third day, for four days. On the fifth day the water came back and we lost electricity in the afternoon. Of course, our mixer is electric. The next day electricity was restored. Two days later we lost water, for four days, and on the fifth day the water ran from the faucet dark grey, all day. So we came down to Quito for a week, from where I write now.

Siga no más

"Siga no más:" the first Spanish phrase I taught to Oliver.

"Go ahead; Proceed; Continue; Carry on." Those three words carry these ideas in Ecuadorian Spanish.

Oliver came to us fresh from his apprenticeship with the Cob Cottage company. He is a young man ripe with ambition and for five weeks he worked alongside us to accomplish the next stage of our project. In natural building they say that planning and foundations are the most intensive stages of building. We made use of Oliver's tremendous physical efforts to proceed swiftly through these stages. Just look at the materials we obtained:

• 10m^3 of gravel infill for drainage in the foundation trenches
• 36m^3 of stones for the stem wall
• 27m^3 of clay-filled soil for cob mix
• 16 bales of straw for cob mix

I'm excited to say that materials are nothing without hard labour. As we swung shovels, heaved rocks, and laboured away with chisels and sledge hammers, we realised the formal beginnings of the house. We dug the foundation trenches, filled them with gravel, stacked the stem-wall to near completion, poured a concrete column and built a brick wall for the installation of electric and water connections and finally erected a frame for the dry toilet. A fine list of accomplishments for only five weeks!

There are many stories to tell, and I hope to regale you readers with them in the coming weeks as the machinery of this blog spins back to motion.

Oliver left Ecuador on October 1st, early in the morning. He plans to look for work from Seattle and he hopes to begin a contracting business in Guatemala when he has earned sufficient start-up capital. 

Oliver, triumphantly appraising the poured cement column and
2.5m galvanised steel tube assembly.

Thank you, Oliver, for your hard work! Best of luck in your future endeavours.

You Shall Not Pass!

If one makes plans in the Rio Verde communities, past the dirt road turn-off in Lita, one must take the weather into account. Otherwise, one may die.

On the road to Rio Verde - Horse Crossing Muddy Water

The wednesday afternoon I drove to collect Oscar from Chota was heavy with a chaotic spectacle of clouds. Low, wispy clouds stretched across the valley, like the languid smoke from countless smouldering embers hidden between the sugar cane fields. Thick, puffy clouds emanated from beyond the distant eastern mountains, seething up stupendously to the inner reaches of space. I drove slowly, fighting with my curiosity and wonder to keep my eyes on the road. Around the mountain bend a flat crown of clouds remained visible behind. When I arrived at the site, I mentioned what I had seen to Oscar and joined him for two hours of work. When we departed for Ana Lucia’s house in Ibarra, neither of us thought to what the clouds might portend.

On the road to Rio Verde - Villagers Returning

Thursday morning came and we woke early at the sound of our alarm clocks. By a quarter past six we stood in front of the door to Pablo’s offices, waiting for our ride to Lita. The streets were empty. Along came a young man on a bicycle and sat down beside us. He nodded our way. “Are they often late?” I asked him. “Yes,” he said.

At half past six, one of Pablo’s employees arrived in the organisation’s shabby Mazda 4x4 double-cabin pickup. As we prepared to load our tools and my saxophone into the cabin, I asked him if there would be much cargo in the bed. “No, not much,” he replied. We placed our gear in the cabin, thinking to move some of it to the bed before leaving the city. Another pickup, a massive Toyota Hilux, pulled into the space behind the Mazda. Another of Pablo’s employees stepped down from the passenger side door and waved to us. We exchanged greetings and helped her load a few bags more into the Mazda cabin, then the two employees, the young man, Oscar and I boarded and we left behind the quiet sidewalk.

Chicks in Boxes

We stopped on Fray Vacas Galindo, beside the old railroad tracks leading to Highway 35 and out of the city. The driver made a call on his cellphone. He left the car, still talking on his phone, and approached the only open shutter on the block. From the cabin we watched him negotiate a deal with someone inside. The other employee turned around in her seat and asked us to help load some boxes onto the bed. As we climbed out of the cabin and picked up the boxes I had a good view of the dozens of little chickens inside each one. This was the cargo for the chicken-raising project in Rio Verde Medio. Next came four 25 kg sacks of chicken feed. Between the 100 kg of feed and the 70 chicks in boxes there was a full load on the bed.

Across the valley and beyond the first of the eastern mountains, Oscar woke me from a doze. “Look,” he said, pointing to outside the passenger window. I did not see what he intended me to. Realising my confusion, he added “The waterfall.” A wide stream of water was cascading down from the peak of a mountain on the northern side of the Mira River. On our last two visits this waterfall had been a thin white line barely visible from the highway. “It’s been raining here,” said the driver in response to our conversation about the volume of the waterfall. “Jamie saw huge clouds on this side of the mountain range, towards Lita, yesterday,” Oscar mentioned. “You have been to Lita in all sorts of conditions, haven’t you?” I asked the driver.

“Yes.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to pass the roads to the Rio Verde communities?”

“We won’t have any problems today. I have seen worse than this.”

Thinking that he must not have seen the clouds I had seen, I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.

When I awoke, we were at the military checkpoint just before Lita. A soldier was directing the pickup into the small parking area and had asked for Oscar and I to bring our passports to a little desk underneath a tarp. We crossed the two lanes to the desk and I sat down on a bench against one of the three waist-high walls. Still bleary from sleep, I heard someone say, “Remove your jacket.” I looked at the soldier sitting behind the desk. “You cannot wear that jacket here,” he repeated. I looked at him. “What?” I asked. “Your jacket, you have to take it off here.” Finally my brain clicked on. I began to unzip my military camouflage jacket while asking, “You mean here at the checkpoint, right?”

“Yes, you cannot wear that jacket at the checkpoint.”

When we were back in the car I turned to Oscar. “I’ll have to find some military camouflage pants.”

Former Road to Rio Verde

Three minutes later we were in Lita, turning onto the dirt road. As we climbed the first steep incline, rounded a corner and began to climb again, a siren interrupted us. The driver pulled over and we watched as first an ambulance, then a pickup truck with seven people in the cabin and about a dozen crowded together on the bed, and then a police pickup with

Road to Rio Verde - Waiting at the bridge

another dozen people packed onto the bed passed on our left. Oscar looked at me. “I don’t think we have luck with the roads today,” he said in English. “No,” I replied, “I don’t think we’ll be doing any painting today.” Continuing along the road for several minutes we came to the first clay bank, an enormous red wall of earth which usually presented us with the first sign of how the roads further along would be. On our last visit we encountered a heavy truck unable to pass, but I managed to drive the pickup as it had fishtailed through several puddles of mud. Today was different; there was no road. The road was there where it passed over the river on a short bridge, and it turned right to head in the direction of the slope -- and that was where a lake of mud occupied the ground where the road normally continued, two small trees bent over in the middle of the lake. There would be no passing through to the Rio Verde communities.

Road to Rio Verde - Young men and their bikes.

As the employees waited around trying to postpone the inevitable decision of returning to Ibarra, mission incomplete, I climbed onto the mud bank to take some pictures. While I was taking photos of the slide, two men from the Rio Verde Medio community arrived on foot. They spoke briefly with the driver and then set out into the jungle. When I had climbed back down and cleaned the mud from my boots in the river, I asked him what they had said. “Someone on a motorbike was washed off the road last night by one of the landslides. They found his body under the slide this morning.”

Chicks in Baskets

We began to discuss our options. The employees tried contacting Pablo, but neither of them had reception. We waited. I took more photos. A trickle of Rio Verde Medio community members began to arrive, and then a stream, until half of the community had marched through the mud to reach us. All at once we began to engage in activity, moving the chicks from boxes to leaf-lined baskets, deconstructing the cardboard boxes to make basket lids, lashing the feed bags to their horses. As each basket was filled with chicks someone would heft it onto their back and start out across the lake of mud. When all of the cargo had been distributed and taken away we bid farewell and a safe voyage back to the remaining members of the community and watched as three young men who had arrived in the meantime hauled a motorbike through the mud. The employees tried once more to contact Pablo, could not, and at last made the decision to abandon the rest of our mission and return to Ibarra.

Road to Rio Verde - Help Arrives

On the drive back Oscar and I were discussing the efficiency of weekly drives to Lita that might or might-not end in a quick return. “We have no way of knowing if the roads are going to be cleared by the time we arrive or not,” chimed in the driver. “So you drive down regardless of the weather and if the roads are blocked you return to Ibarra?” I asked. He nodded. “That is a remarkably inefficient way of conducting business.” Oscar looked at me. “Jamie,” he said, “better to be inefficient and alive, than efficient and dead.” I looked out the window. Thick torrents of water gushed down the mountainside. Above, the open sky shone blue.

Recruiting Volunteers -- Haircut not included.

Ana Lucia on the scissors.

With a fresh new haircut, a clean car, and a house finally approaching completion, we're ready to begin looking for volunteers. We'd like to cast the call as widely as possible, which means you, our readers, will have to act as the internet megaphone. Drop some information in a casual conversation with a friend, suggest a trip to Ecuador to a family member looking for something to do, if you or someone you know is emotionally disconnected at work consider taking time off. Do what you've got to -- we're waiting for you.

Travel to Ecuador and spend up to three months learning or refining natural building skills with a small family in an Andean valley. Information is presented three ways, as suits your reading style, below.

Too long; Won't read.

We are looking for several interns to help build a cob house and tend the kitchen garden on land in the Chota Valley of Ecuador. We will provide housing, shower and toilet facilities, Internet, food for 3 meals a day and ground transport to and from our site. You will provide air fair and a minimum of US$200 per month to cover lodging expenses. You may choose to stay between one and there months. The week is five days of work with the weekend off. The climate is hot and dry with lots of sun. Contact us by e-mail (pedregaldechota@gmail.com), twitter (@pedregaldechota) or Skype (barisajam) if you are interested or have any questions.

Don't mind reading more: Details!

We are looking for three volunteers/interns to help us in the construction of a cob house in the Chota Valley region of the Imbabura province in Ecuador. Living facilities will be provided, including: one private bedroom, one shared bedroom, three meals a day (to be prepared communally), potable water, Internet, electricity, outdoor kitchen & larder area,  washing machine for laundry, composting dry toilet and solar shower. Additionally, we will provide road transport to and from our site, or in the case we cannot provide it, alternative methods will be arranged.

Out back.

The land is located in a warm, dry climate with lots of sun and a daily breeze in the mornings and evenings. The Chota River runs along one side of the property 500m from the lodgings. Temperatures range between 20-30ºC in the day and 15-25ºC at night. There are many insects and arachnids inhabiting the land and many of the insects have a mosquito-like bite (think biting midges). We have done our best to seal the habitation as well as driving the worst of the insects from the immediate vicinity of the house and workplace, however no method is perfect and encounters with these flying neighbours should be expected.

Both of us (Jamie and Sandra) have worked as volunteers on natural building projects so we have some understanding of the issues facing you. We are prepared to offer emotional support and what counselling we can. We are always open to discussion of on-site practices.

We ask that you pay a minimum of US$200 per month to help us provide utilities to the site and ensure the pantry remains stocked. The amount is open to higher donations if you enjoy your stay and wish to contribute more to our project.

You will be expected to work 5-day weeks from morning (~8am) to evening (~6pm) with a two-hour lunch break and water/snack breaks. You will not be asked to work through sicknesses, injuries, or physical or mental exhaustion. We know you are volunteers/interns, not indentured servants.

Weekends will be free to do as you see fit: spend the day relaxing, work on an on-site project, visit Ibarra or Quito, travel. If you wish to travel we ask that you inform us at least several days in advance so that we can plan to transport you or help you arrange transport and accommodation for yourself.

Washing the pickup. When this gets old, you can carry
old cooking-gas tanks up the mountain to Ibarra,
or crawl through the ceiling looking for opossums.
We have prepared a number of tedious, strenuous chores
to ensure you 'enjoy' your stay!

Work will consist of preparing and building cob, putting in doors, windows, plumbing and electricity, floors, shaping terrain and landscaping, gardening and some cooking and cleaning. In general, you should consider all activity surrounding natural building as included in work. All work is communal, in other words performed together or on a rotating schedule -- we will be cooking meals and cleaning the site as often as you.

Ecuador offers 90-day tourist visas to holders of passports from certain countries. You will be asked to possess a passport valid for at least a year from your planned date of entry. We will help you as much as we can, should you request our help, in locating the nearest consulate and identifying required documents. We are veterans of the visa process and at the very lest we can offer you some helpful tips.

“We” are myself, Jamie, a 29-year-old American man from New York, who has lived on both coasts of the US, Japan and Belgium, and Sandra, a Belgo-Peruvian woman in her early thirties who has lived in Belgium, Peru, Japan and the Czech Republic. We are LGBTQ friendly and welcome people of all skin colours and ethnic backgrounds. We believe that everyone has the right to their own belief (and diet) and while we enjoy discussion, we ask that you please not evangelise.

These are the general descriptions of where, and with whom the internship/volunteer position will be. If you are interested and/or have additional questions, please contact us at the project e-mail (pedregaldechota@gmail.com), on twitter (@pedregaldechota) or at Skype username barisajam.

For all interested persons we will conduct Skype or phone interviews. We are looking for people who can bring something from their own lives, so if you play an instrument, sing, practice yoga, tell stories, speak a second language, teach children, can educate us about a different walk of life -- you get the idea.

We look forward to speaking with you.

Conditions

1 Pay for your own transport to and from Ecuador.

2 Agree to 5 day/week work schedule, weekends open.

3 Agree to certain daily and weekly chores: cooking, cleaning, etc.

Soon to be site of the outdoor kitchen.

4 Inform us of any dietary needs, allergies, phobias, health concerns, etc.

5 Pay a minimum of $200 per month to cover expenses. Price open to donations!

6 Have a passport valid for at least a year from date of entry.

7 Pay for medical visits and prescriptions while in Ecuador.

Environment

1 Housing in a restored brick and concrete house. Private room & public room for bedroom options. Outdoor kitchen. Electricity, potable water, cooking gas. Dry toilet. Solar shower.

2 Dry climate, temperature between 20-30ºC with breeze in the morning and evening. Lots of sun.

3 Many small biting flies. Spiders. Opossums. Birds.

4 Spanish speaking country, neighbours.

5 About four hours from the pacific coast (no nearby surf spots however), 45 minutes from Ibarra (provincial capital), two and a quarter hours from Quito (national capital), three hours from Columbia.

Provisions

1 Basic foodstuffs, seasonings. Three meals a day.

2 Ground transport, by pickup truck, to and from the airport. Trips to Ibarra or Quito on weekends. Other trips can be planned in advance, or help with the bus service will be provided.

3 Counseling and emotional support. Language support.

4 Learning opportunities in natural building, dry toilets, wastewater management, gardening.

5 Internet access on-site.

6 Support for medical visits, sick care, etc.

Term

1 One to three months for holders of passports from countries with a 90-day tourist visa agreement.

Chota Calling - Volunteers

Chota Valley - Back view

Chota Valley - Putting in mosquito netting

Which brings me back to the house. Since our little trip to Lita, we’ve made good progress. The supplies we grossly overpaid for (we got a little too eager when talking to a greenhouse-installation contractor on the adjoining property) were delivered and we’ve been setting up the wooden frame for the mosquito net which will guard our rear veranda from the tiny biting flies so prevalent in Chota. We’re halfway finished with the new ceiling in Oscar’s room: three large wooden beams, the two on the side of the room attached to the wall with bolts and the middle beam placed through holes in the walls on either side; smaller wooden boards running between the beams in four places with three sheets of 122cmwide gypsum board (a.k.a. drywall) suspended on those boards. It’s a lot of work to get everything up where it needs to be and a pain because most of it is above shoulder level, but with half a day’s effort more the ceiling should be complete.

The water company finally came, a month after we had paid for service, to set up the water meter. They knocked a hole in the brick and cement pillar served formerly to hold up a gate and installed the meter there with cement. The pressure is a bit weak but we’re happy to have this essential utility installed at last!

Chota Valley - Side view

And so, we have Oscar’s ceiling to finish, the mosquito netting to put up, and a dry toilet to design and install and then we’ll be ready to move into this temporary house while we construct our cob house. “Fixing it up” has taken a month longer and about $500 more than we had originally planned for, but at least we’ll have a building to protect us from the bugs and the elements, and most importantly, somewhere we feel comfortable with Ainoa.

This update has been a long time coming, and yet I wanted to write so much more. Buying supplies, driving to-and-from the land in Chota, working on the house, helping cook dinner and taking care of Ainoa require almost all of my time and until recently I didn’t know how to fit updates into that schedule. Now I’ve made a habit of writing a little every day and even if the writing isn’t always good or the subject interesting, at least you should have some idea of what life for us is like here and how we are progressing in our project. Updates will be done in a more regular fashion in the future -- and with construction on our house starting soon and a room opening up when Oscar leaves in June, invitations to come and visit/volunteer with us!