Snakes with Wings

By: Emily

For as long as I can remember, I have believed that anyone can do anything if he or she only believes in his or herself. I am lucky to have had many personal experiences that prove this to me. Until this journey however, I have never been so fortunate as to see so many similar experiences of others. I am amazed nearly everyday as I am reminded of the validity in this idealistic faith of mine. But it wasn’t until just a few days ago, when I found myself tiling a wall, something I figured out using google.com, that I truly understood the grand lesson I am continually learning.

During our time volunteering at La Hesperia, we learned of many issues with the education system in Ecuador. Alexandra and Juan Pablo, our hosts and owners of the reserve, explained that when their youngest child was having trouble progressing in the local school system, they decided to start their own school that would accommodate his and other children’s potential to apply themselves. They encouraged their community to pursue the education project, but due to a history of conflict, the people were reluctant to support the endeavor. Long story short, after much battling and ongoing court hearings, Alexandra and Juan Pablo founded their own Montessori school. The couple recruited 12 family’s children from the nearby towns, and constructed the building on the reserve property. Now the children have access not only to dedicated teachers but also to the reserve biodiversity, preservation methods, and hands-on learning.

When we were volunteering at Pisco Sin Fronteras, I was impressed by two 18-year-olds. With no previous experience, I watched them fundraise and lead the construction of a playground. El Molino, a community in which people live in homes with dirt floors and bamboo-supported tarps overhead, inspired the two and the project. Most of what these families had was destroyed in the 2007 earthquake, and the people fled to higher ground, erecting the chozitas (huts) as an easy and immediate means for shelter. The families in the community travel to Pisco for all their needs and most children don’t attend school because it is too far to walk and too expensive to pay for a taxi everyday. There is a small daycare for toddlers and babies but no other place for kids to play or learn. These two volunteers saw an opportunity to give the children of El Molino something more, so they learned the techniques they would need to make the project possible, and they worked hard to raise the money to make the school and playground a reality.

Upon arriving at Finca Utama, we soon discovered that while the membrillos and walnuts needed to be harvested and the animals needed to be fed every morning, there was a significant amount of un-allotted time in each day. At first I watched as other WWOOFers took the free time to rest, knit, read, or travel to the pueblo. However, I have always liked being a busy person, so when Maud offered a lighting project, I took it on gladly, excited to pass the time with a new activity. Though I didn’t have any electrical experience, I decided I could take another lamp apart, figure out how it worked, and wire this one in the same way. It worked! I discovered that with a little creativity, I could seek out and mend other odds and ends around the house: a tarp over the adobe oven and fire, a soap dish, a towel rack, and a shelf for the bathroom. Seeing my interest in construction, Maud asked me to build a spice rack for her kitchen…why not? I found some scrap wood, cut it to size, stained it, and mounted the rack to her kitchen wall. This was easy enough with a little sustainable usage of materials. Then she showed me where the tiles were coming off the shower wall and asked me to re-tile the bathroom. Well now I was into unknown territory, but I remembered a little thing called google and decided I would pretend I knew what I was doing. To my surprise, and with a little help from a fellow WWOOFer, Mr. John Fornof, we tiled the bathroom.

The most inspiring aspect of this trip has been watching the progress of a friend of mine. As we began the first major leg of our cycle trip through Ecuador, we all had our skepticisms of how we would pedal the Andes. But our companion Kether held the largest fears. Before this journey, Kether had never traveled to South America, never been out of the United States without a family member, had never tour biked, and had not even been on very many long bicycle rides. Though I knew all this before Kether joined the PEDAL team, I never doubted her. She is a strong, diverse, and energetic person who is always up for trying new things, meeting new people, and she keeps an open mind to the possibilities life offers her. She has lived in places across the country from Colorado to Maine to Oregon and Rhode Island. She worked full time through college to pay her tuition, but still managed to make many wonderful friends and do very well in school. She lived in a Co-op where she was a housemate to an array of people from all over the world, while she worked as an AmeriCorps representative and volunteer coordinator for a diversity of teenagers from Rhode Island. She studied Marine Biology in college, but has a keen sense for flavor and may end up exercising her skills as a sensational chef and teaching young people how to appreciate the world of food that surrounds them. She is always up for new things and I believe Kether looked at this journey as an opportunity to learn more about the diversity in the world and test her ability to face the unknown. So when we started climbing our first large mountain pass at 10,000ft, and Kether started to fall behind, I knew she would make it to the top, even if it took her all day.

After almost seven months of traveling together, I have seen Kether climb countless mountain passes and each time she reaches the top quicker than the time before. On the second day of biking we descended 40 km into Ecuadorian cloud forest and I would argue Kether nearly wore her brake pads through. Four months later, as we sped downhill for 25 km into Yura, Peru, Kether was right on my tail. In addition, both Kether and I spoke little-to-no Spanish when we arrived in September. But connecting with the people around her was and is clearly a priority and she read the dictionary every night, studying the language. Kether speaks clearly now and has a vivid memory for words. She now converses comfortably and awes me with her ability to step out of her comfort zone to talk with anyone she meets from other cyclists along the road to Maud’s local friends to grocery store attendants and anyone else that may cross her path.

Recently, I learned of a mythic symbol that depicts a snake with wings. I immediately thought of the theme of my journey. I thought of the unlikely chance that a snake would ever grow wings and learn to fly. Then I thought of all the people I have met throughout this adventure, I thought of all I have learned I can do, and I thought of my friend Kether. I remembered the time she built a brick wall in Pisco and was so excited to have done it all on her own. I thought of the time she spent an hour with an old woman in Argentina, learning how to make alfajores, later producing the cookies to a T, and finally smiling delighted yet humbly as I confessed it was the best thing I had ever tasted. I am now wearing the symbol around my neck so that I am always reminded of all the snakes with wings I am so lucky to know. And I am happy to be confident that future PEDAL for Change journeys can produce a few more.