Que viva Web 2.0!

Web 2.0

After a not so great period at work in January, when one of my projects got cancelled “for the time being …"(the final decision still doesn’t seem to be taken), things improved greatly at work.

Because she wanted to keep her supporters informed of the proceedings and decisions taken within the mesa 7 of the Asamblea Constituyente, Helga asked me to set her up with a Riseup mailing list. Servers at Riseup were down, however, so I needed to come up with a different solution. In the end, we decided on a Google Group and the constant stream of emails that has been coming since then testifies to both the good intentions of - at least some - politicians and the fact that Google can be used without too many difficulties by non geeks ;-) (referring to me as well as to Helga)

Mid February, mentioning again to Annabel that we really ought to update the No Bases website, I heard from her that some semi volunteer/programmers were working in this and would present their proposal one of the following days. (Communication could be better here at the office!) However, a month further now, we still didn’t get any proposal from the specialists …

I don’t remember how it came up, but the No Bases Network for a long time has had the plan to start with a database on all known foreign military bases. After playing a bit with the Google Groups, I was quite curious to find out what else Google could do for you once one was in the possession of a Google account …

Btw, I won’t deny Will’s influence in totally - although with some reserve - converting me to Google … ;-)

So, I started to experiment with Google Spreadsheets. They just had released a very cool feature that allows you to produce questionnaires, which you can send out by email and when people fill them out, the entries will automatically appear in your spreadsheet! A very cool feature, but unfortunately still in its “kid’s shoes”, with the necessary bugs that remain to be resolved ...

My search for another application that would allow me to collect data via on-line forms led me to Dabble DB. Which is really, really great!! I’m a total convert! You can get an account for free as long as you register your data under the Creative Commons license, which is just perfect for the No Bases Network. And the cool thing is that they make it dead-simple to embed the whole questionnaire in your website - or blog: check out my test on siathehedgehog - and visitors to your site can search the database without the need for an account.

I ended up making three questionnaires with Dabble DB. Unfortunately they’re not on-line yet, because I don’t have access to the current No Bases website and the people from the Network need to make some decisions first on which way exactly they want to go with their to-be-renewed website …

Something else positive about all this geeky stuff is that I got into contact with one of the people of the Network - totally by chance cause I didn’t know he was part of the red (communication …). I contacted Wilbert, a Dutch guy, because the Transnational Institute he’s working for made a great database - although smaller in scope than what we were thinking of - and it would have been a shame not to incorporate those data … He proved to be very enthusiastic about the idea of on-line gathering of data and on top of that he also had been thinking about restructuring the website and had similar ideas as me, which provided me with the proverbial “green light” to go on with my experiments. It’s nice if your work is appreciated!

February 14^th, a rose was awaiting every employee at ACJ …

Will, Karla and Kai’s office had a very nice smell that day as well. The floristeria on the ground floor must have started working at 4 or so in the morning, preparing hundreds - if not thousands - of roses to be sold that day and the stairs going up were full of flowers.

Valentine’s day is a big thing in Latin America!

After the questionnaires, I moved on to make another Google Group and set up a blog. When my Google Reader (another great thing! Sorry to spam you with all these links …) one day came up with an article on yet another new feature: Google Sites, I started thinking of making the new website myself ... The Network seems to have money available to pay people to make and maintain a website, but why waste so much money if you can make an easily maintainable interactive website yourself.

So, I bought my own domain name (hedgehogdilemma – Sia obviously became a rather important part of our lives ...) and started experimenting with both Google Pages and Google Sites, again all for free. Very cool!

And apart from all of this, I would like to experiment a bit with Google Earth … There are some cool mash-ups possible these days, i.e. combining Google Earth with other types of data. Hope to find some time for that once the whole decision-making process is over and the new website is coming along all right …

Test

More work

The week after our Cuyabeno trip, I continued with language lessons and took my second - and probably last ever - salsa class. Then Will left for two weeks and a half to the States and that’s when computer, camera and money got stolen.


Work ... finally

On the same day that everything got stolen, I had a meeting with Wilfried from Broederlijk Delen and some people from ACJ Officina Nacional. There, it was decided that instead of working with the kids in ACJ Sur, I would be helping them out with two projects at the Oficina Nacional. One of the projects is YMCA Tours, the travel agency of ACJ and the other is No Bases Network, a worldwide network against military bases whose “headquarters” are stationed for two years is in Quito (since April 2007). Both of them need to change their websites and that’s where they can use my help.

Projects

For YMCA Tours I’ve mainly been revising the English part of their website, something that is really necessary if they want to be taken seriously by the international market and came up with some ideas of how to address that international market.

The work for the No Bases Network is a bit more diverse. Apart from putting articles on the website and checking their mailing list, I needed to find a way to make videos available on the web. It was quite an interesting search and I learned a lot more about different kinds of technologies, but in the end it proved to be a good thing to have a geeky boyfriend, with a good computer and a good internet connection at the house ;-) At work, it is virtually impossible to even convert the movies, let alone to upload them to the web!

Helga, the Directora Internacional of ACJ is since last year also involved in the new Asamblea Constituyente. Since the members of her group want to keep people informed about the progress they are making, I got to set up a Google Group for her. Something else really cool I discovered recently, are the forms you can send out to fill Google Spreadsheets with data that other people provide. Obviously, Will’s geeky-ness is rubbing off on me … ;-)

So, on the 4^th of December, after being here for about a month and a half, I eventually could start working.

Work related fun

On Saturday the 15^th of December, I went to ACJ Sur again together with Karla. To celebrate the almost finishing of the ACJ campaign against violent toys, they had organised some kind of festival called D’Arte Paz, where some drama and dance groups performed.

The plays of course tried to convey a message, which came down to something like “try to preserve the earth for your children”, while the dance and music was just very cheerful and nice to watch – especially the girl doing the Bolivian dance … (now we understand the role of dance in Bolivian society, that’s how you find yourself a husband! Check You-Tube)

The Friday after that, on the 21^st of December, we had our ACJ Amigo Secreto-annex-Christmas party. This is where the names of all the participants are shuffeled in the hat and you get to buy a present for the person whose name you drew. Every day of the week preceding the party, you bring little presents (like candy). My poor amigo secreto had to do it with children’s glasses and a red-coloured hedgehog type of fruit / nut).

I thought we’d have a small party at the office, but no … After a lot of guess work to find out who’s your amigo secreto and each of us opening our presents, the festivities moved on ... To Helga’s place in Tumbaco, a district about half an hour to the northwest of Quito, some 400 m lower and, hence, with a warmer climate.

The oficina nacional provided a gigantic turkey, the crew from ACJ Sur was in charge of the salads and Cesol (ACJ’s micro credit program) brought dessert – ice cream. Once there, we got a tour in the beautiful garden, enjoyed oranges straight from the tree, played football and handball, prices for winning and losing teams of each of the four matches were distributed, we prepared the salads and fresh jugo and then finally started eating. After dinner, when most people were already gone, we had some tea and chocolate and I got another tour in the garden from Helga’s husband, showing me all the herbs and giving me a lot of them to make tea of. They even have a pepper tree!

The next weekend then, on the 23^rd of December was the final day of the no violent toys campaign Mambru no va a la guerra, after a children’s song Mambru va a la guerra. Will and I went there and met up with Leo and Pato and the girls and with Lili and Belen. We got to demonstrate our animal-and-flower-making-abilities with the balloons, but unfortunately, I only remembered three types of animals :-(

On the way home, we visited a concours in nascimentos (nativity scenes). The winning creation was made of metal, where the artist had made a moving maquette of Quito, including Pichincha, TeleferiQo and the Panecillo.

Highlight

That was December workwise. Apart from the Fiesta des Ensaladas one noon at work, where we had loads of delicious food (each of us brought an ingredient), January has been pretty calm with one major highlight.

On the 15^th of January, Patty, the directora nacional of ACJ invited me to go with her to the ACJ filial in Santo Domingo. I was picked up by a taxi early in the morning, and two hours and a half later, we were deposited in warm and semi-tropical Santo Domingo, halfway from the Sierra to the coast. On our way, Patty gave me a summary of the history of the town as well as of the activities of the filial.

The people of the filial were very nice and open. They gave me a tour of the park in which the filial is housed and I got to taste the home grown guava, fruta de pan - a kind of nuts from a big fruit that fell from the tree, splashed open, was gathered by us, boiled and then eaten - and delicious mango juice.

Then Geoffrey, the gardener-and-more of the park / filial, took me by motor bike to a CRA (Centro de recréación y aprendisaje), where I met a very engaged and engaging group of mums all conspiring in favour of the education of their children. Back at the filial, I talked with one of the volunteers in charge of the canastas comunales, where the food is bought in large quantities which makes it a lot cheaper and then redistributed among the participants. After that, Geoffrey took me to a mercado in the centre of town where I bought a gigantic guanabana (a big fruit, looking a bit like a giant litchee on the outside, with many pits and white flesh on the inside, slightly pear flavoured, but much more subtle and tasty; you can make delicious jugos out of it!), we went to a hill nearby from which you had a great overview of the city and when it was time to go, both Patty and me got a couple of mangos as a present.

Conclusion of the day: I met some great people, ate very well and learned a lot, as well about ACJ itself as about plants (thanks to Geoffrey).

Setback

At the end of January, Evelyn, my only remaining colleague of YMCA Tours (since Ivan left at the beginning of January for a very interesting UN project in the Ibarra region) resigned. She was being employed with three month contracts and had found a fixed job elsewhere. At the moment it is a bit uncertain whether ACJ will continue with the project or just cancel it. The decision was to be taken this week - but as should be expected from any self-respecting Latin American culture ngo - the meeting has been postponed …

Quest for work

Where was I last …

I haven’t updated our blog properly ever since we went to Baños, the weekend of November 3^rd and 4^th. What happened next …

In terms of work, there wasn’t much going on in November or December. After a reunion with ACJ Sur – on which I insisted – I got a couple of dates out of them when I would have to “work”. What I thought would finally be the activities with children for which I had come, turned out to be capacitacion (training) to prepare for the festivities that would take place on the 23^rd of December. On that date, the town of Quito would have activities going on on all its major squares to celebrate Christmas and ACJ had planned some activities in collaboration with them to celebrate the end of their campaign against violent toys (Mambru no va a la guerra!).

So, the Saturday after our Baños weekend, I went to ACJ´s Filal Sur in the South of Quito where I learned how to make animals and flowers with these thin, long balloons and how to paint children’s faces (although only two children were present to try our skills on, Natalia and Milli, daughters of Leo and Pato who usually play football with us on Sundays). We had a lot of fun, but it was then that I started wondering where all those children were that I was supposed to work with and what exactly they’re doing in the Filial Sur …

The week afterwards, we heard from Elba that they would organise a tombola at the daycare centre of ACJ Sur on the 17^th of November. Both Will and I went to have a look that day. I discovered a couple of buildings of which I didn’t know they also belonged to the filial and a monton of parents and children.

The atmosphere was great, children were playing football (2 to 3 year olds, quite funny to see) and performing their dances, they had invited a (semi-)professional group to perform some traditional Quichua dances and there was all sorts of typical Ecuadorian food to be eaten, like guatita (prepared with cuero - literally “leather”, being intestines), which is actually quite yummy if you don’t think too much about what you’re eating, and llapingachos. Together with Diego, who is one of the regular volunteers for ACJ, we helped to prepare the llapingachos - mashed potatoes in the shape of a hamburger with cheese inside.

We bought some tickets for the lottery as well and became proud winners of a pair of children’s socks, which we gave away, and a sort of tupperware pot with children’s glasses in it, which I gave as a (joke-)present to my amigo secreto in the week leading up to our Amigo Secreto Christmas Party at work. The tupperware pot prooved to be quite useful in the house.

Ain´t no sunshine ...

Hi all,

it´s been a while ... and so far not much has come of the English resume that I have kept on promising ... Well, that is to say, I had written about two pages worth of our Ecuadorian exploits, but then on December 3rd, the Chilean-Ecuadorian girl that had been living in our place for about three weeks decided differently on my blogpost-under-construction. She took of with computer, camera and money, along with of course all my files and the pictures that I took the weekend before in Tena and Misahualli ...

Tena and Misahualli are two jungle towns at the edge of the Oriente, alias the “selva”, better known to Europeans as the rainforest. Early Saturday morning, 1st of December, a busride that made me feel rather uncomfortable took Hannes and me to Tena where we met up with Chris. Chris, being the English guy, 18, but you´d give him 24, and Hannes, our somewhat more-silent-than-Chris (and that is an understatement, cause Chris really talks a lot!!) German friend, the ones we met in our language school with whom we spent the great weekend in Banios. Maybe I should add here that we like Chris a lot, just in case he reads this blog; Will even adopted him as "my other boyfriend" ;-) Anyways, it was a great and very relaxing weekend with a lot of warm rain and loads of monkeys. Misahualli is a very small town that -every time a bus arrives - is invaded by a school of squirl monkeys and I managed to get some great pictures and films, that unfortunately got lost forever …

For those interested, you´ll find Chris´ account of our weekend in Banios underneath my entry. And once Will gets back home (that is - if he decides not to take the NASA´s offer to go to space with them for an undefined period of time) - he´s on his way home from San Fransisco right now - I´ll put some pictures on the blog from our jungle trip to Cuyabeno (19^th to 23^rd of November).

Besides the trip to Cuyabeno and hell bursting loose after that girl took off with everything, things have been rather quiet here …

Crime seems to pay off in Ecuador ...

For two weeks now, I have been trying to press charges against the girl, because we do have her name and I think she´ll try to do the same thing in other people´s places. This is how it works when you´re in Ecuador … I warn you, it´s a very boring, not-ever-ending story …

When going to the police, you can´t press charges for theft if you don´t have purchase proofs of whatever got stolen! So off you go to a notary where you have to declare on oath that beforementioned stolen property was indeed your property. Unfortunately enough you need to provide them with serial numbers, which of course you didn´t think of brining along.

So the quest for serial numbers begins … Once in possession of the serial numbers, another visit to the notary proofs quite useless, cause the next day (December 6^th) will be the Fiestas de Quito and no person right in his mind here will want to work …

So, you try again two days later … But don´t dare to show up at 16.30 h, cause people stop working at 17.00 h and will not move! “Come back after the weekend!” …

Monday morning, 8.20 h, another try … a cedula and a colour copy of my international passport don´t suffice to identify myself … I might have gone through the trouble of falsifying all this - to never get either computer, camera or money back …

So, we´re Tuesday now … a week and a day after the facts … after half an hour of waiting for the computer to finally be functioning - or was it the secretary who needed to finished her nails and personal phone calls first - we (Maria the Landlady and I) can finally declare on oath that aforementioned good were rightly mine. For a signature I would have to come back later, since the notary “is visiting a relative in the hospital ...”

Tuesday afternoon … another try at the fiscalia to press charges, but no – too late again, it´s already 16.00 h. Finally, on Wednesday morning, I manage to press charges and think that I´m finally done with the whole story, until the nice lady behind the desk tells me that I can come back on Friday to go to the actual police! Apparently, it takes two days for the files to go up one floor …

Decided to do what I was resolved to do, Friday, first thing in the morning I go to the fiscalia again, this time accompanied by both Maria and Adriano, where they tell me to come back next Wednesday … which will be two weeks and two days after the facts!!

Conclusion of this story and of a brief summary of the Ecuadorian judicial system that Karla – who happens to be a lawyer – gave me: it really pays off to be a criminal here!!

Routine sets in

Back to the daily routine … Weekends, if spent in Quito usually include a football game with Kai and Karla and their friends at Parque Carolina, a huge park in the middle of town where you can ride little boats, visit the serpentario, join a public fitness session on Sunday morning and eat ceviche de chochos and other more greasy things. I thought that by now I´d be used to the height (2800 m), but sprints still wear me out and I just can´t keep running like I would in Belgium, nothing to do about it … On the more cold and rainy days, like yesterday and the day before, a good film is also an option. 1.5 $ for a decent copy, English spoken with Spanish subtitles … and I thought we were renting the movies!

During the week, I´m still taking spanish courses from 9.00 to 13.00. I got to the more advanced level of grammar, but due to a lack of studying I guess, my speaking doesn´t reflect that advanced level – at least not in my opinion. And the subjuntivo, which like in French you have in the presente, 3 preteritos and 2 futuros doesn´t make talking more straightforward …

ACJ

Since last week I also started working in the afternoon. Instead of putting me with the kids in ACJ Sur, they thought it might be better to put me on two projects in the Oficina Nacional. So, I´ll be assisting Annabel, who works for the No Bases network, and Yvan, managing YMCA Tours, to update their websites. My main task so far has been to watch several movies - documentaries - on the consequences on local or national level (ecological disasters, diseases due to testing of chemical and other weapons, people expropriated from their land and houses or altogether bannished from their island of origin, fishermen not allowed to fish any more, foreign investors exploiting locals with approval of the local government or - in the past - entire populations that have been massacrated) of mainly US, but also Great Britain, France and Italy for example, policy to expand its global military reach.

If you´d like to visit the website of ACJ, check at http://www.acjecuador.org/, or for YMCA Tours, see http://www.ymcatours.org/, and for No Bases, see http://www.no-bases.net/.

And here I end my update for now, you´ll find Chris´ account of our Baños weekend and a bit on our climb of the Pichincha below …

Kisses to all of you!

5^th noviembre.

Chris´account

ok so i guess you guys will need an update, because ive been a bit antisocial for the last couple of weeks. so, here goes.

Righty then my lovelys, well I spent one day on my own, in the internet cafe mostly, and south american exploreres, before heading home to find a girl named jen form canada, and hannes from germany had arrived. they both are awsome, and we spent the next few days exploring quito together, at least when i didnt have a headache. Turns out jen is on the same scheme as me, so as i write im preparing an email for her. We discovered a bar that plays nothing but classic rock where the barman dance and make amazing cocktails, so a few nights were spent there. we began getting friendly with the other people who we would meet during the break in our lessons in the morning, and we all decided as a group to climb the nearby volcanoe Ruca Pichincha. The group consisted of me, jen, hannes, Will and Joke (from belgium), Merrill from the states, Richard from austria. it was an amazing climb, and a lot of fun, everybody seemed to gel really well, and that night we all went out for dinner in an all-you-can-eat restaurant, exactly what we needed after surviving on only bread and bananas on the mountain! Turns out im the youngest of the group by six years, but everybody assumed i was about 24, which was nice! on a non bragging note, its really really nice to be treated as an equal and im really enjoying their company. i feel like im making some quite amazing friends. its really strange how interesting other people are. for example, richard, 37, designs computer systems for airports, but because he finds that boring, also is a freelance journalist, as well as being one of the main organisers of live elctronic music in austria! and also a legend! will and joke are from belgium, and are ace cavers!!! very biyarre, but really quite awsome!

Anways, the last week we spent hanging out after lessons, and trying to plan a trip for all of us at the weekend. I spent a couple of lunchtimes at will and jokes house, and a few afternoons chilling in la mariscal, the main tourist area. Me and joke tried to visit the big museum, but it was shut, so we settled for a craft market instead! Jen left on monday, but it soon transpired that we would be meeting again when we all went to banos for the weekend. I spent a couple of nights out with John Paul for ireland and richard in the salstequeas. We had settled on bans after much indecision, whether to take an organised tour or not, where to go ect? we settled on banios because of its reputation as a great party town, with loads of opportunities for outdoor activities. With the weekend decided, all that remained was for me to buy a guitar, which had been my aim for ages! i dragged hannes around for about 3 hours, before settling on a 34 size steel sting, with a nice waterproof case, always useful in the jungle! it took me and hannes another half hour to find a cash point. from which to dispense money to pay the rasta guitar shop man! that night, we threw a dinner party in the hostel for will and joke, and hannes and a new girl, marion from austria cooked an amazing meal, we had an Ecuadorian guest for the evening, which was a great excuse to try out some Spanish. sadly, i didn't take this opportunity because i was embarrassed!!! Next day, we finished lessons, and headed off to banos, all very excited! On the way, we passed cotopaxi, the tallest active volcanoe in the world, and it was amazing. cotopaxi is a perfect cone, and as we watched it, dissapeared into the clouds, set alight by the setting sun. as night fell, we continued on to baons. as we neared our destination, we began to see what appeared to stars in the sky, which was strange seeing as the sky was overcast, and a little rain was falling. it was only when we arrived in banos we realised that the lights in the sky wer ein fact on top of huge hills, encircling the town. after checking imn to the hostal, we headed out to eat. thus begins the most surreal night in the world. We had decided on a nice quiet meal, and then bed, but after meeting some more gringos in the restaurant, we decided to go for a last drink before bed. this turned into a number of drinks, which then became salsa! after balgging our way into he club for free, we danced the salsa, and when ready to go home at about 1.30, we went to say goodbye to our new found frinds. however, the suggestion was made to go and visit the waterfall in banos, and one thing after another, it transpired that we all ended up in our underwear, in the waterfall at 2 in the morning! after splashing about for a bit, John Paul and I happened to notice a group of Ecuadorian kids around a car, playing salsa and drinking. undeterred by our nakedness, we headed over for some more salsa! remember that at this point i was soaking wet, and wearing white boxers. On the way over, we begged the security guard of the neaby hot baths that give banos its name to let us in to warm up, but he refused. it was up to the salsa to raise our body temperatures! turned out the people we met had spent time in england, which was pretty cool, but again not a great thing for the spanish! Just as we were about to slink home, lo and behold the gate of the hot baths swung open, and we plunged into the scalding water! it was amazing, so hot it was impossible to move. Richard and Will jumped in without a whimper, but I have to admit i screamed like a woman the whole way, and then ran for the slightly cooler baths! we head home, soaking wet about 3, for some much needed sleep. The next day, after breakfast, we head up the hill for a hike. However, once at the top, we caught sight of the volcano near banos, which has been erupting pretty frequently! with that in mind, we set out along another trail, heading straight for it, so we could get a better view. Along the way, as i stopped to zip off my shorts, we noticed for the first time a low rumble in the distance, like and airplane landing. after scouring the skies for said plane, our eyes settled on the plume of smoke emergin fro the cone of the volcano. It was only bloody erupting in formt of our eyes. Earger to see more, we hurried to the summit fo the climb, only to find the volcano had been obscured by the cloud. Our patience and hard work was rewarded however, for on the way back down, we got some great photos of the summit, as you will see. The landscape surrounding banos was stunning and warranted many pictures. We had heard ab out huge waterfalls you could swim in around the next valley, so we struck out for these, only to find that our long and sweaty walk was not to be ended with a cool dip, but instead with a hair raising ride in the back of a locals pick up back to banos, which was fine by me! That night, Jen came to meet us form the scheme, so i gave her a good grilling about what was what, and was pleasantly suprised! We had a chilled night, drinking beer in one of the local parks, and then headed home for some sleep. The nxt day we went canyoning, which was amazing, there were some huge jumps, and awsome abseil sections, the biggest being 35 meters. We found a way to climb behing one of the waterfall,s and it was an amazing experience, and one hell of a lot of fun! the pictures will appear soon, it takes a long time to upload, and jen has all the photos in the canyon on her camera. After canyoning, we lunched on fresh fish from an restaurant overlooking a fish farm, hich was delicious, then headed back to banos for the bus home. As the rain began to fall that night, we became increasingly concerned where our bus had gone. It transpired that the rain had washed away a large section of the road, and it took ages to get it clear. We finially got back to quito at 2 this morning, so today has been very lazy. After classes, i lunched at will and jokes, then joke and I headed to the immigration office to sort out our visas. Having no luck, we walked home in the rain, and now im writting this! The next time i write ill have been at the volunteer project, so wish me luck people!

Much love chrisxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

De toekomstige collega’s ...

Op zaterdag 20/10 waren Will en ik uitgenodigd in filiaal Quito Sur. Er zou die dag een bijeenkomst plaatsvinden van de verschillende werkgroepen die deel uitmaken van ACJ, maar vrij onafhankelijk werken.

Een klein woordje uitleg (grove omschrijving) over ACJ misschien ... ACJ staat voor "Accion Cristiania de Jovenes”. Het is een organisatie die gegroeid is uit de YMCA en zich inzet voor rechten van jongeren. In Ecuador is zo’n 60 % van de bevolking jonger dan 20, maar jongeren worden hier niet bezien als diegenen die aan de toekomst moeten bouwen en er wordt zeer weinig in hun opleiding geïnvesteerd. ACJ probeert mensen hiervan bewust te maken, zowel de jongeren als de ouderen, en zelf actief veranderingen teweeg te brengen. Ze hebben hun hoofdkantoor in Quito op de Avenida Patria en filialen in Quito Zuid, Santo Domingo en nog twee andere steden. Ik heb de indruk dat ze voornamelijk draaien op - veelal lokale - vrijwillige krachten en dat er slechts een tiental betaalde mensen werken.

In de voormiddag werden we samen met Eilert, een Noor die werkt voor Karibu, een onafhankelijke Noorse foundation, rondgeleid in de barrios van Quito. We bezochten hier onder andere het huis van een vrouw die samen met vier andere vrijwilligers al 18 jaar door de week de armste kinderen uit de buurt / regio opvangt en hen van eten voorziet. De opvang gebeurt op privé-locatie en ACJ komt tussen voor de inrichting en infrastructuur en het speelgoed voor de kinderen, maar eigenlijk is er een grote nood aan een soort gemeenschapscentrum. De staat voorziet enkel een minimale bijdrage om te voorzien in het eten van de kinderen. We bezochten eveneens een gebouw dat dienst zou kunnen doen als opvang- en gemeenschapscentrum, maar hiervoor zijn nog onderhandelingen bezig en de lokale autoriteiten lijken niet echt geïnteresseerd in de problematiek. Klein, maar opvallend detail aan dit bezoek was het enorme huis van de priester in de buurt. De katholieke kerk blijkt in Ecuador nog vrij veel macht en bezittingen te hebben, maar of deze ook ten goede van de armen komen ...

ACJ was ook van plan om in deze buurt een centrum op te starten. Er was al een stuk grond gekocht of ter beschikking gesteld (deze hele dag kregen we uitleg in het Spaans, dus het is zeer goed mogelijk dat ik hier en daar iets mis verstaan heb) en men was begonnen met het afgraven van het terrein om er een gebouw op te zetten. Spijtig genoeg zijn deze graafwerken zeer amateuristisch gebeurd en werd het terrein vervolgens te gevaarlijk bevonden om nog op te bouwen ...

Een busrit in de gietende regen bracht ons dan terug naar ACJ Sur waar we lekker eten voorgeschoteld kregen en nadien konden kennismaken met de verschillende werkgroepen: communicatie, politiek, toneel, Y´s(wise)-men en de vaste krachten zoals Elba die al 7 jaar voor ACJ werkt en Henry die directeur is van ACJ Sur. De mensen waren allemaal zeer sympathiek, de meesten van hen vrijwilligers die zich in hun vrije tijd voor ACJ inzetten. Zo zijn er Leo en haar dochtertje en Lili (een advocate die ook een directrice is bij ACJ) van de “politieke vleugel”. Geen zorgen, het gaat hier eerder om de politiek en het gedachtengoed die intern gehanteerd worden dan over andere politici. Verder waren er nog Santiago en nog twee andere grappige kerels wiens naam ik vergeten ben van de toneelgroep, de oudere dames en heren van de “wise-men” en een mengeling van studenten en oudere mensen die instaan voor de communicatie.

Na een soort meditatie-sessie (de “C” in ACJ mag dan wel voor “cristiania” staan, maar gelukkig mogen we dit met een korrel zout nemen; Henry is trouwens een groot voorstander van het boeddhisme ;-)) zaten de mensen per werkgroep samen om hun doelstellingen en redenen van bestaan eens onder de loep te nemen, waarna ze zich aan de andere groepen voorstelden. De vergadering eindigde een beetje op z’n spekuliaans waarbij er data afgesproken werden voor bepaalde activiteiten die de komende maanden op het programma staan en waarbij iedereen zich voor één of meerdere activiteiten engageerde. Op het programma in december staan onder andere “caravanas” waarbij de mensen in stoet door de straten passeren en bij de mensen thuis binnen lopen om eten binnen te gooien. Ik ben zeer benieuwd wat ik mij daar precies bij mag voorstellen ...