Cebadas

Here´s a little summary of my site after my visit for 4 days!

The people speak Kichwa and Spanish, I know the older generation prefers to speak Kichwa and I probably speak better Spanish then they do. The kids don’t learn it in schools, just in their homes. I learned a few words last week – Imanalla = Hola, como estas – and had plenty of offers from people to teach me Kichwa if I teach them English. The people here I can tell are more conservative, the personalities match the general indigenous “stereotype.” For example, when I ask my parents a question, my dad always answers even if it was directed to my mom. That’s ok with me though because my mom is really hard for me to understand most of the time when she is speaking. My grandma is interesting I guess – I don’t think my family really told anyone that I was going to be coming before I just showed up so everytime my grandma sees me she says “What a miracle” (this is the same one who doesn’t speak Spanish very well). Then she and my mother will talk about me for a while in Kichwa, I only realize because every once in a while there will be a spanish word thrown in like “Estados unidos” or “dos años”. I do know she cares about me already though because the other day I cut my finger while husking corn so she chewed up some clover leaves, ripped a piece off of her sweater, and made me a little bandage, telling me that it will heal really fast now. My sister is 17 and is about to start attending the university in Riobamba to study nutrition and public health, so when she comes home from school on the weekends hopefully she can help me with some projects. I have a little brother that is 12 and then my dad. Even just during the last week I had lots of conversations with my dad about the importance of sustainable projects, and I know he’s going to be a great resource.

I will be working in/with the Subcentro de Salud in Cebadas most of the time. The doctor has been working there for about 15 years and has tons of ideas on how to improve the community. He is also in a music group with my padre and is very interested in the local indigenous culture. Some of his ideas are pretty “out there” like having a cultural fair and inviting all my friends from Colorado to generate income for the community. I don’t think this is really sustainable, but when I return I’m gonna talk to him more about things that I would like to do.

Our subcentro is really cool because it’s the only one in the country with a practicing shaman as well. Sundays are the market days so the town is packed and apparently there’s also a health fair or else there’s just lots of people coming to the doctor too. This is also the day the shaman is there, and after seeing the nurse to tell her the main problem, get weighed, get blood pressure taken etc, the patients can choose if they want to see the shaman or the doctor. I didn’t get to see the shaman at all, but the doctor told me I should plan on being there every Sunday because they will always need more help since its so busy. We also have a dentist who pretty much pulls teeth from every patient who comes in – the bad quality of the water causes dental problems, along with the lack of general oral hygiene. There is one doctor and one nurse who travel to the communities Monday through Thursday to do home visits or just set up somewhere in the community. I know the other doctor travels some too to the communities, we went one day while I was there to a nursery to give out vitamin A and weigh all the kids.

The county of Cebadas is the 3rd poorest in the country, but there are already lots of other organizations there working, including World Vision, some other organization for development, PLAN Internacional, and there’s a group of indigenous organizations, but I’m not sure what they do. When I go back I just want to learn more about what they’re all already doing, if they work together at all, etc.