Of trees and trago

So ive been at the fundacion since last monday. ive got to admit, the way this country works is amazing. i caught a bus to tabacundo, a small village near where the fundacion is and told the driver that i needed to get off at kilometer 23. i then walked 400 meters to the compound and couldnt find anyone. after asking around with folks working in the fields i found stuart, the volunteer coordinator guy making a grand lunch of chili and rice. would definitely be sketchy if it were anywhere else, but its normal here! so great.everyone here is awesome. there is a total of something like 10 volunteers spread throughout this county and the one neighboring it. stuart is quite a character and is all about making the month the best it can be. ive been thinking lots about how this stuff could be applied elsewhere. theyre always needing more volunteers so if any of you are interested, the link is on the right toolbar.at the hacienda, i split my mealtimes between eating with stuart and with one of the families that lives in the compound. the father of the family that i eat with here is named fredemon and he insisted on giving us all trago (the local cane alcohol) on a particularly cold night. he lights it on fire to make it a bit milder and fixed three different varieties for our drinking pleasure. he makes it himself, and i started to explain about the beer making but then i remembered that i dont know any of the right words.
speaking of spanish, its funny how hit or miss understanding can be. a few times ive said i have shit instead of i have fear (dont worry it was only in a joking context, theres nothing to be afraid of here). sometimes i get so comfortable talking with folks that i forget i should be speaking in spanish and dont realize ive slipped up until i get lots of squiggly faces.
one of the main missions of this place is to encourage reforestation with local trees. they need about 1/10 of the water of the exotic eucalyptus trees that are all over the place here so theyre much better for water conservation in that regard. so we took a trip past this place called papallacta to talk with some folks that were very traditional ecuadorians. they sold us some of their llawal branches and we climbed up in the trees and sawed for about 2 hrs before taking the long winding road home. at one point we stopped and the guy driving pointed out that the rainforest was just over the mountains. what a great country!