First Day - Fruit Day!
By Klara Thiele
August 24, 2022
Today was our first day in the community. Curious and not knowing what to expect, we started our journey to Rosario Vainas. After driving through banana plantations for half an hour, we passed Porvenir. Who would have thought that we still had 20 minutes of banana plantations ahead of us?! Porvenir was the only community we could locate on Google Maps during the school year, but into the jungle we went to finally see Rosario Vainas with our own eyes. Because of our smooth arrival to Ecuador, we weren‘t exactly sure if the community was expecting us today. But then, all of the sudden, Carlitos (our lovely bus driver) stops in the middle of the road. Is there a party across the street? Yes, a party for us!
The community welcomed us with everything their land has to offer. I got to try maracuja, mandarine, oranges, cucumber, coconut, bananas, guaba, pineapple, lime and many more. Freshly picked from their gardens, no GMO, no pesticides. In addition to the fruity welcome, the representatives of the community prepared some speeches to express their happiness about finally getting to meet us and also about the seriousness of the project. I like to recall one of Marlene’s (head of the community) sentences: “you can live a week without food but not a day without water“. Thanks to our new very good friend Evelyn, who helped translate, work and literally arranged everything we needed, we also got to say a few welcoming words to the community.
As everyone was very excited about showing us around and we were eager to get some initial information about their water sites, we started our work right away. Maribel‘s family and their well was the first site we visited and it had to stand our first tests and survey questions. A little bit chaotic but with a lot of information we continued to explore the community after lunch. Of course, lunch was home cooked by Rosita: Chifles (green plantain chips), tigrillo (green plantain with cheese and pork), and stuffed achojcha (vegetable). Marlene showed us the center of the community with the school and the chapel. It turns out that the community stretches out around 2 km along a road that ends at the big river “Río de Vainas“. That meant a lot more wells and households to survey and water to test.
A little bit overwhelmed with all the information we got and work there was to do, we sat quietly in the van on our way back to El Carmen. Watching the banana plantations pass by, I couldn’t wait to go back to these lovely people and learn more about their community.