Congal revisited…

December 14th, 2007 by Danielle Denis-Lalonde

Today is our last day in Ecuador.

I can´t believe how fast two months can go by. At the same time, it was so full and rich with experiences that it feels like I´ve been here much longer.

Enough about that…I want to go back to writing about my adventures at the Congal station.

*********** Friday, Nov. 23, 2007 *************************

Unfortunately, it rained like mad all morning during the ¨Dia de la no-violencia¨. But that didn´t stop us and many of the local people from marching down the main streets of Muisne, shouting ¨No a la violencia!¨ and waving palm leaves in the air and holding up posters to raise awareness of the issue. Roberto brought his Diggery Doo and played some deep vibrations throughout the march, while Alex and Mario wore their Ninja Turtle costumes, made from the carcasses of sea turtles that were found dead (to raise awareness of this issue).

That afternoon, the skies cleared and it was time to paint our mural.

Wow, what an experience! I was designated ¨Pintora¨-in-chief and pretty much got to tell everyone what to do…haha, the POWER! I admit it was a bit daunting at first. Standing there in front of the massive white canvas, and having to walk up and draw the first chalk line was an insanely wonderful feeling! I used my little paper sketch to outline the entire thing, then I got my helpers to start painting.

The mural was essentially this:
The profiles of a man and a woman (in an aztec style), smiling and facing each other, with vines and foliage for hair (to tie-in the environmental theme of Jatun Sacha). A funky sun above their heads, and a single flower growing between them. In between their profiles is written:

Respetemonos unos a otros
y
Respetmos la naturaleza
Porque todos estamos liados.

(Roughly translates to ¨Respect one another and respect nature because we are all connected¨)

It took at least four hours to finish, and we didn´t have as much paint as I would have liked, but in the end everyone expressed their admiration of our mural. I felt so creatively satisfied – Ahhhh. We celebrated our hard work with a few Pilsners then when back to the station for dinner.

That night we played poker in the volunteer house, and I drank my red wine straight from the bottle. Very classy.

On Saturday, Mareike, Tanja and I woke up at 5:00am hoping to catch the sunrise. What a waste of sleep! For one thing, it is always so cloudy there that was no real sunrise to speak of (just a gradual lightening of the cloudy skies) and we were all so tired from the night before that I think we were barely conscious! Still, I suppose it was worth the try.

After going back to bed for a few more hours, I enjoyed a very lazy morning, talking for hours with Mareike at the breakfast table. I believe this is when we first toyed with our ¨Utopian society¨ idea, which would become the topic of animated conversation many times during the rest of our stay at the Congal station.

It started when I casually mentioned how crazy it would be if the people at the station were somehow the last people alive on earth…and what our society would be like if we were responsible for continuing the human race. How would we survive? How would we determine who should have children with whom (we were 4 girls and 4 guys at that time)? What would we teach our children about history and the ¨way things were¨? More importantly, what would we NOT teach them? What things that we would intentionally leave out because we now can see the devastating impact it has had on society? Basically, it would be a opportunity to create a utopian society, free of the evils of our modern age. We were likely very optimistic and naive in our thoughts, but it was fascinating to talk about! We would probably adapt a language of spanish, english and german all mixed together. Of course, I would fight for a few french words here and there, and Tanja would probably want some of her Slovenian culture to live on.

Part of the fascination with this topic was the interpersonal dynamics. Would we ¨share¨ and have children with many partners (while still preventing in-breeding as much as possible)? How would we deal with conflict? Would we raise our children as a community? It was a mixture of socialism and communism, and seemed like such a wonderful (but no doubt challenging) way to live. Already, it was clear which ¨couples¨ would naturally wind up together, which made for many hilarious conversations and jokes.

That afternoon, we all went into Bunche to attend a meeting at the local Guarderia (Day care) with the staff and parents. There were several issues that needed to be dealt with, and it was truly amazing to watch Paolo work his magic. His idealism and his energy for the people is so contagious. Half of the time I couldn´t understand what he was saying, but I was willing to do whatever he was suggesting because of the enthusiasm he generates.

I guess there wasn´t enough money to pay the Guarderia workers over Xmas and they were discussing way to drum up the funds. Also, the playground outside the Guarderia needed a fence (as the children were often running off on their own) so there was the issue of who would put in the manpower to build it. Talking amongst ourselves afterwards, I understood a bit more of the complexities around the issue. In the end, the money issue was still unresolved, but the parents and us volunteers agreed to collect wood next weekend to build the fence.

Back at the station, Mareike and I did a bit of yoga before dinner (on a bamboo floor…kinda cool!). That night we had all planned to go into Muisne to party at a local bar. It was funny to see all the girls together in the washroom, getting ¨ready¨ for a big night out, just like we might do back at home. I hadn´t brought any nice clothes with me on this trip so I borrowed a cute top from Sam, and we giggled as we curled our lashes and shared makeup (I also didn´t bring any of that!). We also indulged in some pre-drinking. God, it was such a girly experience!! But I actually enjoyed that for a change. It was nice to be clean, smell feminine and put some effort into making my hair look decent.

Just before leaving, we said our goodbyes to Julia, as she was leaving the station to go travel Ecuador with her father. Then we all waited on the muddy road for Victor to come pick us up with his flatbed truck.

The ride into town was somehow very ¨zen¨ for me. I stood near the front of the truck, wind playing in my hair,beautiful dark skies overhead with a fine mist of rain coming down, feeling like I wouldn´t mind at all if the truck tipped over and that was the end of everything. That´s how I feel when I am truly living in the moment and blissfully happy….I feel like it could all end now and I would be ok with that. I feel complete, at peace and connected with everything.

Victor´s truck suffered a flat tire halfway to the main paved road and we all had to hop off the truck while the boys changed the tire and got muddy. Even that seemed so perfect somehow.

We danced our asses off in Muisne! Paolo and I danced together for a while and again I was struck by his intense energy. He´s really not someone I would be attracted to normally, but in that moment I could see why others might be.

Talking a boat back home later that night also felt very zen, and I felt very satisfied with the night. We had to walk home down the long path between the shrimp ponds and the mud sucked off my flip flops so I would up barefoot by the time we got home. Not ready to let the night end, we played some tunes, enjoyed a secret smoke with Mario and Alex, and chatted until 5:00am.

The last thing I heard when I finally laid my head to rest on my pillow was the sound of a rooster crowing…

Three hours later, I was up, feeling great, and in a blissful mood. I curled up on a hammock outside and just watched the world around me for hours. The dawning sky, the quiet ponds, the horses wandering by in the morning mist, the bright orange and pink flowering trees…so much to see. Everyone else was sleeping so I got to just soak everything in. Bask in the glow of my experiences.

I was listening to my Zen (mp3 player), and one lyric jumped out at me…

¨All I want is what I got¨ (Ill Scarlett – OneA)

Couldn´t be more true.

(to be continued)