playa, viajare a ti

Yesterday was possibly one of the longer days at work, largely because of La Reunión de Muerte, also known as the Meeting of Death. I’m currently working with two other interns here to create a workshop on self-esteem, communication, organization and leadership to help out the main group of people with leadership positions in the community, because they have mentioned that they need a lot of internal help in order to serve the community better. We all went into the meeting with two Yanapuma employees, not knowing that both of them have very strong opinions and without any sort of reservations about NEVER COMPROMISING. The three of us offered compromises, alternatives, everything, but we discussed the pros and cons of using puppets that were supposed to be Tsáchilas versus other campesinos for about an hour (the line was fine between offending and wanting to make sure they would connect to the story, the puppet thing is another story) until one of them suggested that maybe we would use animals, at which point I could not pretend to not be disgusted, and I laughed, probably a bit too loud, at the fact that while they wouldn’t connect to other campesinos, they WOULD connect to animals. However, I digress. My point is that I’m learning quite a bit about my own working style (I can improvise well, I don’t need hyper-organization) and also learning how to work with people who need to have everything down to personal introductions planned and written.

This weekend we’re hoping to actually make it out to the coast. We bought our tickets earlier, and we have guaranteed places on the bus. We’ll take an overnight bus and pull in to Bahía de Cáraquez around 6:30am. From there, we’ll take another bus or ferry and arrive in (hopefully) beautiful Canoa! After stressful meetings, cacao frenzies, and not much sun in Quito, the plan is to hang on the beach, enjoy the sun, read on the beach, eat on the beach, and relax in the hammocks. I think we should be able to handle it. Fear not- I’m bringing sunscreen.

Last night was one of the better culinary experiences, possibly because it involved absolutely no arroz, plátanos, frijoles, sopa ni papas. Noémie and I made crêpes and they were DELICIOSOS. Think kiwi and Nutella. Think lemon juice and sugar. Think peanut butter and banana. Think peach and lemon. If you’re thinking, that sounds like heaven in my mouth, then you understand the intensity of the situation.

I can’t believe I’ve already been here a month. In some senses, it feels like I just got here but I can’t believe that such a tiny country has enchanted me in such short time either. I’ve made some good friends in that time, and it’s sad to think that I finish the part where I do my internship so soon, though I’m pretty stoked to start the part where I get to travel and stop dreaming about cacao.

I was reminded by the lovely hermanita that it is the 4th of July in the U.S. (and around the world, though it means significantly less…). Happy 4th!