I´d Give up Forever to Touch You Because I Know that You Feel Me Somehow

Ever said to yourself, "If I could just have a net connection for 5 minutes, I would be so happy"? That's how I've felt most of this week and I am taking advantage of a bit of time that I seem to have a connection to write since I haven't been in contact with anyone for about two weeks now. I do apologize, but please keep in mind that I'm in the middle of the Amazon and the fact that I have a connection, even occasionally, is a miracle of science in itself. I hope you are all well and that life is treating you right. It's really just no fun when things are on the down and out.

These last days have been "so so" for me, or maybe that's just how I'm feeling today. Really it is hard to tell. The case is that life is, simply put, a roller coaster. For those of you who have never lived abroad, take a look at the following diagram and you'll understand a little better what I mean:



That diagram is created with study abroad in mind, but it works for living and working abroad too. I'll let you be the judge of which stage I am in, keep in mind that you can go back and forth between stages.

When I last had the chance to write, I had recently returned to the high school and I, along with the other volunteers and the staff, found things in "interesting" conditions. It's been a long time coming, but our freezer, which ran on propane, froze its last piece of carne (meat) just before the end of our last session. When we got back, we still had that great white beast sitting in the kitchen, mocking us with its inability to cool a single thing. It is, yet and still, occupying the space there and being used as glorified counter space. Apart from that, for reasons I won't get into, we had no cook, the facilities (pipes, water, showers, floor boards, etc.) have all been slowly deteriorating from the get go and we have arrived at a frustration point with the internet and other forms of communication problems. Don't let me exaggerate too much; as I keep reminding myself, we are in the Amazon after all. On the other hand, these small issues, which are really basic necessity faults, have been problematic and stress causing. If anyone reading this with a bit of pull and a desire to help with some kind of donation, has an idea of how to make a freezer arrive at this end of the jungle, please don't hesitate in writing me and letting me know. Nonetheless, we are getting along here and I am slowly seeing many of these problems getting resolved. I am, of course, doing my best to help the progress along as well. I did the 100 hour oil change on our generator just the other day. For lack of a better tool, I used a pipe wrench to remove the oil plug and, miraculously, didn't strip the nut.

Apart from those problem areas, things have been going as smoothly as they can. For my part, I have found it to be a little difficult getting back to work after a week off. I must confess that I have felt more than a little lazy during the last week of teaching and work. This doesn't mean that I have been working or teaching any less, on the contrary, I have been putting an extra effort forward and doing my damnedest to keep things on track. For my Spanish-speaking readers, I reference one of my favorite citations by Jorge Luis Borges, “Como ser humano, soy una especie de antología de contradicciones, de gaffes, de errores, pero tengo sentido ético. Eso no quiere decir que yo obre mejor que otros, sino simplemente que trato de obrar bien y no espero castigo ni recompensa. Que soy, digamos, insignificante, es decir, indigno de las dos cosas. El cielo y el infierno me quedan muy grandes” (pag. 29, texto #13).

During this week alone, I have organized an entirely new library of over one-hundred books, in Spanish, donated graciously by Mónica, whom I have spoken of in other blog entries. I have each one of my students reading a book on there own, which is a big deal for these kids. They will, hopefully, finish the books by the end of this three-week session and write up a short 1-2 page book report over them. I´m really anxious to see how they do with this work and I really hope it turns out well. In class, we have been looking at how to write a book report, how to read well, looking for certain information, and how to develop an opinion based on and about what you have read.

We have also been reading, together, Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria (Passages of the Revolutionary War) by Ernesto Guevar de la Serna. As I wrote before, In the last session, we read Diarios de motocicleta, and I considered it to be of utmost importance that the students see the complete story of "Che". He was not only a young idealist who set out to change the world, but also a Comandante (Commander) of the armed revolutions in Cuba, The Congo and Bolivia, where he was killed by Bolivian forces who were trained by and had the backing of the CIA. As Comandante Guevara, Ernesto was responsible for the deaths of many enemigos, traidores y desertores de la revolución (enemies, traitors and deserters of the revolution) and I wanted the students to see that side of the story as well so that they may form their own, well-informed, opinion later. Make no mistake, Ernesto did change the world, I´ll let you decide on weather he did it appropriately or not.

I'm having a fantastic experience as I'm writing this blog entry, "el ataque de la abejas del sudor," little sweat bees that don't sting, but love to swarm you when your sweating and sitting still. I've got about ten of them encircling my head and typing hands right now. They are driving me incredibly insane! The reason I am sweating so much is because it hasn't rained for going on seven days now and the temperatures have been going up to a cool mid to upper nineties every single friggin day! The sun has been baking everything to a crisp, including me. If anyone knows any good rain dances, please send them my way because I will seriously go out and dance in the downpour. I know it sounds like I am constantly complaining about the weather here, but, firstly, I'm from Indiana and that's what we do and, secondly, if you were here you would understand. Don't get me wrong, I don't wish that I were in Indiana right now, I know that it's starting to get cold and you all have another lovely deep freeze coming soon. I'll keep my hot and miserable jungle weather, thank you very much. At least here it never snows or freezes, even less so than our non-functioning freezer.

To tell you a little about other goings-on here at Yachana, we went to Los Ríos on Thursday and bought víveres (provisions) for the week. If you have me on Facebook, you can see some pictures of this event. Basically, the trip involves carrying propane tanks (3-4) to the canoe and upriver to exchange them for recharged one and buying other food and supplies that we need for the week. This takes place every Thursday because that´s the day they have the market in Los Ríos. Yes, I too carry tanks and other supplies. I try to do my best to share the burden of this type of work with the students and the jungle is doing its part to condition me for this work. I´m, slowly but surely, acquiring a little of that strength that I wrote about the students having before. I guess I´m not so old after all. For myself, I bought some Venus Lonas, which are these really neat shoes that are made in Ecuador and only cost me six dollars. They´re blue and white and made of a material that drys out very fast, ideal for jungle life and I love them. I looked all over for shaving cream as well, but couldn´t find it anywhere. Fortunately, someone gifted me a can so that I don´t run around looking like one of Che´s barbudos (hairy men).

En fin, we are about midway through Pasajes as well as midway through the drought. I would like to finish up with the book as soon as possible so that we can have a movie night and watch the very well-made, two-part, film, Che: El Argentino, by director Steven Soderbergh http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892255/ with Benicio del Toro as Che. If you haven´t seen it, I highly recommend it. It´s a bit long, but a very good and accurate depiction of the true events. I want you all to know that I´m thinking a lot about you and hope that you are doing the same. I have some days, or nights, when I feel very much alone and isolated, and I really wish that I had my dear friends near. I know that you are with me and for me, but you´re not here physically and that is damned hard to cope with at times...

Thinking of you always, un abrazote, big hug,

Christopher Mackenzie