water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink!

Last night, it started raining here in Archidona around 7 p.m. and did not stop until this morning around 8 a.m. It also rained in Tena, the capital city and in the surrounding communities. I woke up a few times last night noticing the strength of the rain, but thought nothing of it. Laurel, who lives in Tena, called me around 7:30 this morning to let me know of the destruction the rains had caused there. The water rose higher than it ever has before. It completely covered the roads and flooded many of our favorite restaurants there by the river. Houses and belongings were being brought down the river which eventually took out the bridge to the zoo on the island where the two rivers, the Pano and the Tena come together. There is still a family stranded there waiting for the waters to reside. The bridge was made with steel-reinforced concrete, which you can see by the picture above. I went out to survey the damage this afternoon and it was truly incredibly. The roof of a dance club by the river was completely destroyed, stores with their merchandise strewn across the road, everyone helping and doing what they could. To top it off, there is no water in the pipes and the river water is too muddy/dangerous to use. It's ironic. Two girls died here in my town because they couldn't get out of their house fast enough to escape the rushing water. No schools here in town had classes. It was truly a sad, interesting day. Tena has alot to clean up and rebuild in the coming days. The waters have started to reside, but as of this afternoon the Misahualli river that runs beside Archidona and eventually into the Pano river was still very high. Everyone out here from Peace Corps is safe and accounted for, thankfully. It just started sprinkling in Archidona....

As long as exciting things keep happening down here, you lucky readers will have something to waste your time on! After I got back from the weekend with the dentists - completely exhausted (I went to bed at 7 p.m. on Monday!) - it was back to work at Runa. All of the 'tecnicos' from the Archidona office have been working for months building our new tea drying racks, garden, and firepit behind the office. After all of this work, Wednesday was the big day - the inauguration of the new equipment and the chance to get the important people from governmental agencies to come see what Runa is all about. Fundacion Runa has a main office in Quito and two field offices here in Archidona and down south in Puyo. From the field offices, there are 'tecnicos' that travel into the communities to teach them how to plant the guayusa and give them technical assistance along the way. Each farmer plants 625 plants in 1 hectare. In about three years, they will begin to see more income from selling the leaves of these trees to us. We buy at .35 cents a pound - almost double the going rate. Also in three years, Runa will see increased primary materials because the plants will be ready. We bring the leaves (from the farmers in Napo and Pastaza provinces) to the Archidona office to pre-dry the leaves, dry them in our industrial dryers, crush them and then ground them even smaller to be ready to put them into tea bags. Right now the business is online (http://www.runa.org/) but in the future we hope to move to small organic food stores like Whole Foods and also into small cafes and coffee shops. The founder of Runa is Tyler Gage, a 24-year-old graduate of Brown University. I've gotten to spend some time with him in these few weeks I've been working here and he is a remarkable person. To be so young and already have such a successful business is amazing and I definitely admire him and everyone that has been working for Runa. Tuesday night, all the staff was treated to an amazing dinner at Huasquila Lodge, north of Archidona in Cotundo. It was a nice way to start the inauguration and realize all of the great things we are doing. Wednesday was a long day - we were up at 7 a.m. to start setting up the tables, chairs and promotional materials outside. At 9, we all headed to the minicipal government for Tyler to give his presentation. After a successful presentation and much publicity, everyone headed to the office to begin the festivities. We had plenty of guayusa to drink, traditional dancers, a toast and then all went to lunch. In the afternoon, a few more people showed up to see the open house, and I was exhausted. Lydia, my friend that also helped with the dental translatng, had traveled up that morning from Puyo. Lydia lives in a community where they have Runa guayusa and helps the farmers in the area of technical assistance and also has school gardens. It is cool to be working for the same foundation but in different levels of the tea-making process! After a quick nap, we headed back to the office to see if we could help with anything, but everyone was already heading to the karaoke bar across the street! The owner of the bar is helping us out with the drying process so it is a place they frequent often. After plenty of Pilsener, singing, and dancing, we headed to eat. Thank you to the only restaurant open in Archidona late-night! I am very lucky to be working for such an organized, driven foundation. Thursday and Friday were holidays leading up to Easter so there was no work to be done. I hope everyone had a relaxing and happy Easter!