nomad corps

There is finally news to report. Yesterday 15 of us, plus or minus, went to a small town called Nono, about 17km outside of Quito.  Nono used to be part of a cloud forest but due to climate change and lack of rain, it is no longer.  Still it is beautiful.  Just after arriving we went to a primary school to talk to kids about how to turn plastic bottles into vessels for starting seeds, they didn’t care much about that as we had magically arrived on airplanes. To most of our surprise Ecuadorian public education puts a huge focus on the importance of the environment.  Children are learning about the affects of global warming as their parents and grandparents are simultaneously blaming the recent earthquakes on evil spirits and voodoo.

Shortly after this we toured an organic garden of a local and then played a game with the small children of Nono, which turned into a parade in our honor.  We were serenaded street side by a full brass band, greeted by “potato head midget people” and caballeros performing dances with their horses.  We danced with the children and then paraded down the street to what was more or less a bonfire in the central park where we danced some more and drank some kind of sweet fruit tea. I was befriended by a little girl in the beginning of this adventure, who didn’t let go of my hand for three hours.  Finally I had to return back to the house because I was suffering from a fever. 

Woke up early this morning to ordenar some vacas… milk some cows.  The ladies were a bit nervous at the sight of 15 gringos decked out in rubber boots and goretex jackets and were hesitant to lactate for us.  Nonetheless I got a chance to milk a cow, although to my immense disappointment it did not come naturally and I wasn’t very good at it.  We then had a lesson in the local cheese production which was interesting if not slightly off-putting.  Then we got to go check out a terraced farm, literally terraced on the side of a 60 percent slope (I’m just guessing).  They mostly grow potatoes, corn, squash and tomates de arbol (at least for this time of year).  We walked back to town through a cow trail, and had a lunch of vegetables out of the garden. 

After lunch there was an incident that involved milking a dog. Also a few of us created a new disorganization called nomad corps, details later.