From the Concrete Jungle to the Cinnamon City

Well, I am back in Puyo, after taking a long [unwanted] jungle hiatus in Quito for over 2 months. I have to say that Quito is one of those places where after spending too much time within the city limits, you viscerally feel it eating away at you.  Some attribute it to constant lead poisoning in the air, the notion that it is at the center of volcanic energy [or vortices for the woo-woo of heart], or that most of its population never leave the city so it's just full of people ready to burst at the seams. I've heard some sayings and seen some graffiti around Quito (largely diffused by some young and creative Quiteños I've come to know as of late) that addresses this sense of latent locura lingering in the Andean city air. "Some are born with luck, others are born in Quito" or "After I kill myself, I wake up in Quito."

This is not to totally cast a negative light on Quito, it most certainly has it's secrets and treasures, but it is so easy to feel trapped by life within the little Andean city and to become blind to the beauty, complications, and different little worlds that exist within the country. For example, it's easy to get in a tizzy over petty social life yet once you leave the reality of the city and become immersed into another, (where, for example, people struggle on a daily basis to not have their children get gravely ill and to keep them properly nourished), you begin to put things into perspective. Not to say that one must feel guilty, but sometimes certain issues become frivolous by comparison. As aware as I have to be on a constant basis about these different spaces, realities, and dreams, I must say that it is difficult at times to keep them in perspective. Spending so much time in Quito somehow left me feeling disconnected with the work I do in the jungle, with the Achuar, despite the fact that I work on planning, organization, and coodinating for this program every day.

So as fate should so thankfully have it, I find myself in Puyo again, embarking on another leg of the Jungle Mama's journey (when I say Jungle Mamas or Ikiama Nukuri, I am referring to the intercultural women and community health program I am working on with the Achuar of Morona-Santiago aka the driving force for being down here...see other entries).  We are here to make alliances with the Ministry of Public Health, specifically their intercultural health branch and to broaden the collaboration with community health and safe birth workshops. This trip will be an exciting one for making alliances and taking important steps forward, so I should be writing with more frequency!