By Welcome Dundas, Fundación Runa Volunteer and Global Citizen Year Fellow
Living the in the community of Santa Rita and working as an intern for Runa since September of last year has given me the opportunity to meet some extraordinary people.
My neighbor Vicente and his wife Jacinta have become extremely close friends and have helped me truly understand the culture and tradition around guayusa. When I arrived in September of last year, I was invited to the first of what has become a near-weekly invitation to 4 a.m. chats over hot cups of guayusa about our thoughts on the week ahead, reflections on my dreams and my goals, and the latest village gossip. Vicente, a short, well-build man hardened by years of work on the farm, constantly feeds me new Kichwa vocabulary to add to my small-but-growing list. His patience and easy smile as I try to learn the non-Latin-based language make time with him and his family some of my most cherished in Santa Rita. His wife Jacinta, slightly taller than the majority of Kichwa women and always wearing green, speaks softly and sparingly, but her shyness is broken ever so often by a broad, beautiful smile and infectious laugh. I am regularly invited to boisterous dinners with them and the other neighbors, laughing as we move from topic to topic over a seemingly endless supply of rice and yuca.
Another neighbor of mine, Wilson, one of the village leaders and the Santa Rita representative on the Runa farmer's association board, has become another close companion. After getting home from work at 6:00, he can always be found sitting on the neighbors' front porch watching the day's pickup soccer games, people returning from the fincas (farms) around the community, and the flow of people coming back from Archidona via the Expreso Napo buses. He enjoys hearing about my work, what I think of Ecuador, and without fail, asks daily when I plan on returning after I leave in April. I accompanied Wilson on a crazy two-day adventure deep into the jungle to collect GPS points several months ago, and jokes about how gringos and the deep forest don't mix are told and re-told to no end. Although he commands much respect in Santa Rita (being one of only a handful of college graduates), his humble, kind nature and utter loyalty to the people he's grown up with has been extended to me, and people like Wilson are the reason I feel so at home when I return to Santa Rita every night.
Before living in Santa Rita, I thought that leaving the other gringos that I work with to live in a Kichwa community would make me long for English and the comfort associated with being around people who have lived the American lifestyle. This has proved to be far from the truth, as the incredible opportunity to work as a Runa intern has also turned into the chance to get out of my skin and form wonderful friendships with the very people that Runa works with to bring guayusa from the farm to the mug.
My neighbor Vicente and his wife Jacinta have become extremely close friends and have helped me truly understand the culture and tradition around guayusa. When I arrived in September of last year, I was invited to the first of what has become a near-weekly invitation to 4 a.m. chats over hot cups of guayusa about our thoughts on the week ahead, reflections on my dreams and my goals, and the latest village gossip. Vicente, a short, well-build man hardened by years of work on the farm, constantly feeds me new Kichwa vocabulary to add to my small-but-growing list. His patience and easy smile as I try to learn the non-Latin-based language make time with him and his family some of my most cherished in Santa Rita. His wife Jacinta, slightly taller than the majority of Kichwa women and always wearing green, speaks softly and sparingly, but her shyness is broken ever so often by a broad, beautiful smile and infectious laugh. I am regularly invited to boisterous dinners with them and the other neighbors, laughing as we move from topic to topic over a seemingly endless supply of rice and yuca.
Another neighbor of mine, Wilson, one of the village leaders and the Santa Rita representative on the Runa farmer's association board, has become another close companion. After getting home from work at 6:00, he can always be found sitting on the neighbors' front porch watching the day's pickup soccer games, people returning from the fincas (farms) around the community, and the flow of people coming back from Archidona via the Expreso Napo buses. He enjoys hearing about my work, what I think of Ecuador, and without fail, asks daily when I plan on returning after I leave in April. I accompanied Wilson on a crazy two-day adventure deep into the jungle to collect GPS points several months ago, and jokes about how gringos and the deep forest don't mix are told and re-told to no end. Although he commands much respect in Santa Rita (being one of only a handful of college graduates), his humble, kind nature and utter loyalty to the people he's grown up with has been extended to me, and people like Wilson are the reason I feel so at home when I return to Santa Rita every night.
Before living in Santa Rita, I thought that leaving the other gringos that I work with to live in a Kichwa community would make me long for English and the comfort associated with being around people who have lived the American lifestyle. This has proved to be far from the truth, as the incredible opportunity to work as a Runa intern has also turned into the chance to get out of my skin and form wonderful friendships with the very people that Runa works with to bring guayusa from the farm to the mug.
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