Hey everybody!!! I´m finally back with an update after a really enlightening, fun, rewarding week. The only problem is that this keyboard is ridiculously sticky, I feel like I´m mutilating each key in an attempt to get the letters to register on the screen. But, unimportant!!!! Okay, so. This last week was truly amazing. Early Monday morning Gabriel and I left our hotel here in Loja, and went with Nick and Phoebe (our friends and the NGO people) in the Jeep their organization had loaned them, out into the most isolated part of Loja province, and one of the most isolated areas in all of Ecuador. That entire week, we stayed in a hotel in the tiny, beautiful town of Amaluza, and every day we went out from this town to tiny communities high in the mountains, where we gave talks and workshops with people called ¨promotores de salud¨--really any community member who has taken an interest in the health of their community and decides to come to the talks. Nick and Phoebe gave Gabriel and me a specific project for the week, which was to develop the idea of installing wood-burning stoves in people´s homes. Many to most peoples in these small communities (when I say small, I mean like 50 to 100 people) cook over open fires in their homes, and some people have gas stoves. Neither of these, as it turns out, are as convenient and efficient as wood-burning stoves. Open fires fill the house with smoke, use up lots of firewood (and there´s already deforestation problems in some of these communities), the pots can overturn and food is wasted and people can even get severe burns, AND, there is more possibility for food to be contaminated when it is cooked on the ground. This can contribute to people getting certain parasites which can lead to epilepsy. Epilepsy is actually a huge problem in these communities, with about 1% of Loja province´s population having seizures. The construction of wood-burning stoves is hopefully a way to ease the increases of epilepsy among these populations, because once a person gets epilepsy, a rigorous treatment is required and it´s really hard to administer the medicines and make sure that people are controlling their seizures. Nick and Phoebe told us about numerous cases of children having one or two seizures at an early age, never getting the pills they needed, or failing to take them regularly, and as a result being mentally retarded by the time they´re young adults, due to so many seizures, each of which is devastating to the brain. SO. These stoves are a place to start.

So, on Tuesday, Gabriel and I worked all day in Amaluza with a family there who had heard about the possibility of building a stove, and wanted to try it. The amazing thing was that we were able to build the stove entirely out of recycled materials that they had lying around their house--mud, old bricks, pieces of plywood, some cardboard, and some old iron strips that they took off some other aparatus to use for this. Oh, and a chimney out of tin roofing material. We worked from about 8:30 to 4 (I mean, this wasn´t just me and Gabriel slaving away, it was mostly one construction worker they´d hired, and the father of the family), and by the end of the day, we´d built a stove!!! They haven´t used it yet because it needs about 8 days to dry out, but we´re hopeful it´ll turn out to work!

Anyway, having had that experience on Tuesday, Gabriel and I were able to help Nick and Phoebe in their workshops from then on, doing a special presentation each day on the values of wood-burning stoves, showing the promotores de salud pictures of the construction process, and assuring them that they really COULD construct something like this if they put their minds to it. People were really, really interested, which felt rewarding. It was especially cool that the men seemed just as taken with the idea as the women, because we were told by this woman (an amazing woman named Doña Carmen, whose been using her own home-built stove for 15 years, started a women´s association in Amaluza, and is currently working on helping campesinos legalize their land) that wood-burning stoves can really contribute to a boost in women´s self esteem, because it becomes a family project, and a recognition of the fact that the kitchen is important, women´s work is important.

Seeing all these tiny communities was fascinating. You would never know they were there, you have to drive up these absolutely terrifying dirt roads to get there, but then once you´re there, and you see all the houses and farms, you realize that there really are people who make their lives there, and for whom Amaluza, a town of maybe 2,000 people, is the ¨big city.¨ Once I get to Quito I´m looking forward to trying to put some pictures up of the roads we ascended to get to these communities; I was telling Gabriel, at least half of them time we wound our way up these roads, all I could think about was the look on Mom´s face if she could see where I was, haha. But Nick was a very responsible driver and we had absolutely no mishaps.

We came back to Loja on Friday, spent Friday night here, and then Saturday morning spontaneously decided to set off for Zamora, an hour and a half long bus ride up into the mountains and down the other side (also not the most relaxing ride in the world). Zamora is a fairly small city in the cloud forest/jungle. It´s not the most amazing city, but it´s right at the entrance to the Parque Nacional Podocarpus, where we went yesterday morning. We hiked around to all these waterfalls, tested one of those bridges, what are they called? Swinging bridges? You know what I mean. There were beautiful butterflies and stuff too. So yeah we spent the morning there and then took a bus back to Loja, and once again stressed out due to our bus traumas, but then got smart and played 20 Questions for an hour, until we were once again safe in Loja. Last night we hung out with Gabriel´s college friend Andrea, whose hotel we´re staying at here, and that was really fun. Today I think we might go to the zoo with her and then watch a movie tonight. Then tomorrow Gabriel and I are taking a day trip to Catacocha, Paty´s hometown. Wednesday we´re going to go to the NGO´s office here in Loja with Nick and Phoebe and see what that´s all about, and then Thursday morning bright and early we fly ¨home¨, to Quito that is. in a way I´m excited to be back in Quito, but wow, this has been an amazing trip.

Sorry if you´re tired of reading now!! But I hope now you have a clearer idea of the kind of stuff we´ve been doing. I´m great and I miss you all!!!!! Write!!!!! Love, sara