First week in the Campo

Hello everyone,

Wow! This is without doubt the first thing that comes to mind when we want to describe our first week. Here, it’s a hard life, a new experience everyday. We arrived right in the middle of winter, but its mainly cold at night. There is snow on both volcanoes, which are fully visible when the sky is cloudless (mainly in the morning). Soa is happy to have her personal « horno » to sleep. As for Simon’s Spanish, it’s getting better everyday. It’s the ultimate test here as he has some private free lessons everyday.

We rode a little more than 3 hours by bus from Quito to Pujili, the closest main city from our finale destination. But to get here, we first had to bargain with official cabs that had no idea where our village was and with non-official cabs that we’re charging over 8 dollars (a fortune here!). When out of nowhere, a woman chilling on the sidewalk recommended us (in what we think was a mix of Spanish and Quichua) to take a fancy 0,50$ trunk ride each in a pick-up truck for what would be our last 30 minutes trip.

Part of our village, pictures of the volcanoes on our next blog.

The cold was filling our astonished tears of the incredible mountain view of our new « campo », completed by the Cotopaxi volcano.

The driver seemed to know exactly where we were going, at least that’s what we thought until he dropped us in front of a non-paved, sandy little road and told us to climb it until the last house.

When we got there… it was so deserted that we seriously considered sculpting ourselves a tent with our Swiss-army knife. We yelled many times in front of one of the modest house we’ve ever seen in our life. No answer. When suddenly, we see a little girl, carrying on her back a gallon of water, in her hands a bucket of the same substance, running through the land behind her house.

It was Blanca, our new little sister.

 We are currently working in the community of Guantubamba for 4 very different families.

There is our hostess, Dona Maria Avelina, her husband Segundo (who we only see on the weekends as he is forced to work 2 hours from the village; a recurrent situation since the financial crisis and the forced dollarization that hit the country since 2000) and their superstar of a daughter, our guide into the village, Blanca.

There used to be a house for the volunteers but since one of their sons got married (and took the house), they cordially lent us their room! It consists of 4 spacious concrete cold walls, lots of peasant’s belongings and a big bed with a mattress thinner than the plywood that is holding it. For Simon’s pleasure, this is the double version of the bed in the monastery in Bulgaria. One month on that bed and we will have our back straighter than the plywood!

There is a very rustique kitchen, without an oven, without hot water, which we can use supposedly whenever we want. We say supposedly because we always eat all together and Avelina is quick to prepare meals.

The kitchen as an interesting feature; it is the only place where we can find a little bit of heat after a hardworking day. We heat up the water for our shower or for dinner with an oven fire.  Because of the kitchen size, we get smoked up very easily but it starts to be a smell we love … since it reminds us of the warm feeling of heat.

Soa doing Blanca's hair.

Avelina doing Blanca's hair.

The second family for which we work is Don Riberto’s and his wife Joaquina and their kids Nicole, Cynthia and Kevin. We worked a lot we them, more details to come.

The third family is Gloria’s and her kids. They have the potato business of the village which unfortunately are the only one using chemicals. It is horrible as there are located at the top of a hill, which could and can contaminate all of the local productors. Those products do travel very far from the point of origin by wind, earth or water. Nevertheless, the habitants don’t seem to be aware of that fact and are ironically proud to be 100% bio!

We strangely had a weird feeling about that family…we felt exploited a little bit. We will give more details later when the daily description of our tasks will be explained.

The fourth family is Dona Magdalena’s and her husband Jacinto. We don’t know them very well because we only worked for them few hours but they seem cool. Magdalena is the oldest of the group and she seems to love Soa!

Now: little recap of our 1^st week in the “campo”.

Monday: We arrive at 3pm, too late to work. Blanca guides us in the little village that, like every other village, is located on a stretch of a main street; geographic situation caused by the mountains. There is one “tienda”; small shop “dépanneur” style with bread, cookies, nuts and more, one primary school and lands and lands and lands of all colors and tastes.

Blanca showed us of her mom’s land, approximately 1 km from the house with uphill and crazy downhill. We learn to give water to 3 of the 5 cows, move them around to feed them. Moving them is not as easy as it seems. First we have to remove the metal stick form the ground which hold their ropes to the ground, and than re-stick it to the ground with a very rudimentary hammer, piece of a wood or rock.  First Spartan race challenge, campesino style!

Tuesday: Morning we feed and move the cows and we end up under them to milk them of course. Simon has no idea what he’s doing but Soa, it looks like she has done that all her life!  We just insured our daily dose of calcium.

At noon, we meet Riberto’s family where we will cut for the milking cows.  The hierba Luisa is the favourite grass for milk production. Joaquina seems to be the only local productor of cheese. The cut grass is put in big potato bags of 50 kilos and a donkey is at our disposition to bring our hard work up the 500 meters on a 50% elevation. Simon is very happy to learn the task of saddling a donkey. It ‘s not super simple!

Soa qui trouve, enfin, le béluga de la chasse aux trésors de l`ile aux coudres

Wednesday: Hello potatoes! The previous night, Gloria catches us on the road and offers us to dig for potatoes for ourselves. Poisonous gift for 2 reasons: it was a way to ask us to work for 10 hours the next day and of course Simon had to carry the bag of potatoes 2km further to the house.

Second Spartan race challenge!

So on Wednesday we are there at 8h, after feeding the cows of course. Digging and digging of potatoes in the earth all day long. On paper, it sounded like something we really wanted to do, but we promise you we will not go into the potato business!

It’s very hard work for a vegetable, which yes fills up, but doesn’t feed that well!

On our departure, little last task: sort thousands of potatoes by size for reselling.

Third Spartan Race challenge!

Best part: Gloria asks us to come back the next day!

 

Thursday: On our way to feeding the cows, Avelina tells us that the volunteering program is: one day per familia. What a deception, no potatoes today! Gloria did try to pass a quick one on us! So we return to see Joaquina, we cut more grass down the hill. But oh oh, this time, no Burro; the donkey today is Simon! 2 bags in the morning, 2 bags in the afternoon!

Fourth challenge: Donkey carrying in the mountains!

Meanwhile, we had lunch at Joaquina and we learned to make cheese! Oh yeah! More calcium!

Friday: Quite a relaxing day. In the morning we get to go at the market with Avelina and Blanca at Yacubamba, the closest village (5km wallking distance with a bag of rice on Simon's back; a real vacation!) The bag of rice, to exchange for fruits and vegetables! Therefore, we're coming back with even more stuff to carry!









In the afternoon, no goofing around, we're going to meet Dona Magdalena. We met a wonderful woman that makes us hit on dry beans all afternoon. Why? Because, in what looks like dead and useless, is located thousands of grains that will be used for planting in a month!
It's a long process but very inspiring and revealing on life's secrets. Nothing is lost here.



Saturday: First day off! On the menu: omelet and clothes cleaning, quinoa soup and cow caring. Just a little problem... when we're at the top of the hill, with the cows, there is no water coming out of the pipe! We now have to go to the closest neighboors, one kilometer from the land, to fill up the handheld-less buckets! Fifth challenge?
Then follows a beautiful adventure through the mountains that will make our couple's day even more romantic.

So that's it for today. You should all know we will only have intrnet on sundays, we have few problems with our phone, but we're good good good!

PS: Marco, Guillaume, Claudou and all the other spartans that are reading us, Simon is warning you guys to be scared because is 6 packs-campesino style are hot hot hot!