I realized that I forgot to mention that I was heading out to Bua again, but I´m writing this from Santo Domingo (aka the ugliest city in Ecuador) as I´m here for a few minutes before heading back into Bua for a meeting with cacao producers at 3.

As usual, Bua is beautiful and one of my favorite places to be in all of Ecuador so far. It´s impossible to explain the tranquility that there is here, but there´s a lack of rush, and a sense of calm throughout the community. Everyone works in their fincas, but also has time to talk to me. When I got here on Wednesday, I had a meeting with the cacao producers, and figured out times to visit each of their fincas to check on their cacao and to fill out a sheet that would help them and the whole group get to know their cacao a bit better. A few people don´t know what kind they have, and almost everyone has cacao that suffers from some diseases, mostly monilia y escoba de bruja. I´ve been walking to fincas a lot, checking on cacao, and talking to each producer, which is what I really enjoy doing. It´s a great learning experience- I have a lot of knowledge garnered from the internet from my time in Quito, and they have all the practical knowledge. My favorite thing is when they offer me fruit from their fincas- fresh maduros (essentially, bananas like we know them in the States), papayas, sucking the pulp off of the cacao beans, mandarins and oranges. My favorite producer, Wilson, took me through all 3 hectares of his finca today and showed me all of his cacao, and then his wife served me lunch! It´s difficult to describe the Tsa´chila because they´re all different, but they´re almost all humble, quiet, reserved, incredibly friendly, and occasionally wickedly funny.

Saturday we went to the cancha to watch a few local futbol games, and bought probably the best choclo- corn- of my life. Roasted in butter, later smothered with more butter and mayonaise (just believe me, it´s delicious) and topped with grated queso fresco + super rico corn to start with = AYYYY DELICIOSO. Last night it rained like crazy and we played pictionary, hangman, charades and pin the tail on the donkey- it was perfect. I also had one of a few of my lessons in tsa´fiki, the Tsa´chila language.

I met a friend, Marcia, in Canoa, who had just finished an internship with Kallari, a cooperative of Quichua families who not only produce their own cacao, but also have their own chocolate factory and make their own chocolate, leading to added value to their cacao products, leading to more profits. She had experience in a definitely different process of cacao, but I invited her to Bua and she showed up and went to a few fincas with me. It was cool for me to hear about her experience, and she got to learn a bit about the Tsa´chila and see the preliminary steps to the process in which they´re a lot further advanced.

We also presented the leadership/communication/self-esteem workshop and it went quite well both times.

I´m off to look for recipes and buy ingredients for chocolate chip cookies- our attempt to share comida tipica with the Tsa´chila! I think I´ll be heading back to Quito on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, so don´t worry too much about me!

much love, y man quirasarae (en tsa´fiki significa nos vemos pronto, or in tsa´fiki that means we´ll see each other soon)

M