The following diary has been republished with the consent of Stephen Krasner. If you wish the view the original weblog, click here. In the interest of preserving the work in its original form we have limited our formatting and editing to essential areas. All other errors were not corrected.
12-5-01
Hey all - Well as the subject heading (A Murderer among us) of this e-mail indicates this is not one of the most cheery uplifting group emails I am accustomed to write about however I felt it important to update everyone on!!! Things have been going up and down since my return here to Ecuador, by that I mean the overall readjustment to being back here as well as dealing with a few personal issues and what not. However yesterday evening I was informed of some rather disturbing news that happened in my site of Luz de America. Apparently what was told to me is that while I was back in the U.S. during my trip a person was robbed and killed in front of the high school on the main road. In any event she was a 28 year old women who was just passing through on her way to Quito. Keep in mind I live on the main road which goes from the south of the country to the north hence the is never a cessation of activities on the road. The incident happened around 3am in the morning two weeks ago. The real sketchy thing is, that the police in town and some people are saying the person who committed the act is believed to be someone who lives in town, hence I will not be walking the street in my site anytime real late at night. On the same line of information there was a murder which took place this past Sunday in the town of El Esphuerso, which is the town over from me where one of my Peace Corps friends lives as well as a former trainer of mine and his family. In any event I’m not worried about my personal security however this is definitely a bit of an eye opener of things going on here!!!
In other news Ill be in Quito from Sunday to Tuesday getting my mid service medical and dental exam...oh joy!!! I then have a 2 day regional conference taking place Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week, so for the most part I will be out of my site running around doing things all next week.
All in all things around here are becoming very holiday like with all the stores putting up their decorations and what not.....its a far cry from the commercialization of the holiday spirit in the United States, however it is very evident the kind of impact American culture has had on the most remote of places.
I hope all is well with everyone, enjoy the holiday season,
Regards,
Steve
12-15-01
Hey all - Ok so I just returned from a conference out in the Jungle yesterday, and discovered a new meaning to the word "HOT". After spending 2 hours walking through the jungle seeing all sorts of interesting things....the humidity and heat made you feel like you had been in a sauna for hours. It was neat to see the wildlife up close though!! We saw a couple sloth’s, a huge venomous snake hanging in a tree and several other different reptiles. One of the more interesting things was a 400 year old tree...older then the U.S.. Overall it was a nice little excursion and good conference.
So here’s where it gets humorous!!! A volunteer friend of mine who had training a year and a half ago in my site of Luz de America, decided to come back and visit all her friends there this weekend. In any event we bought some crabs and lobster (live) that we made for dinner last night. Now we put the crabs and all inside a bucket of water and left them in my apartment while we went to see people in town to say hello. After a couple hours we walked back to my apartment to find several of the crabs escaped. So here we are chasing crabs that had managed to escape and scatter all over my apartment, under my bed, table, furniture etc... So we caught all of them except one which we couldn’t find. Anyway we ate the crabs and lobster (best I have ever had) and then while we were sitting there the crab we were missing runs out the front door of my apartment...it then proceeds to attack the dogs and puppy.....which are now terrified of crabs!!!
All in all its been a interesting few days but things are going well and on the up and up. I’m off on Sunday to the capital (Quito) to hang out with some people for the Christmas break!! Hope all is well, ill be in touch!!
Regards,
KRASNER
12-24-01
Hey all ok so yesterday a group of us went to our normal internet cafe as we usually do and well....we definitely did not meet just any ordinary person. A few of us got talking to this guy who had the most amazing story to tell about just recently getting out of a situation in Colombia where he was held hostage by guerillas for 5 weeks. I cant do his story justice but below is some links to stories on CNN etc... that can. Truly a very interesting guy with what must have been a horrifying experience.
STEVE
Here our links to read about what happened to him
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas/12/13/colombia.kidnapping/index.html
and his personal site which he gave us is.....
www.strikingviking.net
12-31-01
Hey all - I just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year and get off one last group email before the next year. In any event this group mail is quite different from anything Ive really sent out or gone on about in great length in previous emails. However it comes after I received a email from, well, my mom after she had heard through the grapevine about some doubts, and difficulties Ive been having with my service out here. So in responding to her, well I figured since Ive been open and honest about most of what’s been going one here over the past 10 or 11 months now with everyone I email to...that I would include this email as well to update everyone on the status of where I am with service and Peace Corps. The response kind of speaks for itself, but more importantly describes a stage in my service here that Ive reached, that I’m sure other volunteers have come to before...well similar anyway. Again, have a great new years, Ive attached the response below.
Mom - I don’t know where this email you wrote came from, but Ill comment on it by saying a few words. Number one, first and foremost I will get into Law School or a Masters of Law program, regardless of anything I do out here. That means that Ive never not been able to accomplish something that I wanted to....remember that real good! I’m not leaning one way or the other on this issue of deciding to maybe leave early or stay the duration...at this point in time I’m simply not thinking about MAKING a decision. And this decision wouldn’t be made until the summer after ive served a full year in my site. On both sides of the issues, for staying or going, their are arguments, and I think I should probably broaden your horizons a little on a few areas. Let me tell you first every volunteers experience out here is different and everyone here has their own unique challenges they face. My challenges are different in that respect from my other peers here. A common problem volunteers have is getting adjusted and comfortable in their sites. I have not had that problem, I’m comfortable in my site and have a few successful projects going on! I also have several successful groups more or less that are doing things, on top of which I have already succeeded in creating sustainable projects. So my concerns and doubts have very little to do with my site, the people there etc... On that same note though you...nor any admissions director could put yourselves in the exact position I am in!! The difficulties lie in not having the things you and everyone takes for granted, and no I am not talking about electricity or running water etc...those are sub sequential. What I’m talking about is the general everyday interaction and support of friends, family and those you care about at arms reach. Those things are taken for granted when they are right there, but then they are gone and you aren’t able to just talk to someone freely when you want to about little stresses and big ones. Sure you have friends in the community, but the culture and most especially language difference don’t allow you to ever really fit into the community in a way that it becomes home or people you can openly share with. Other difficulties are dealing with the DOWNTIME.....this plain and simple sucks. You end up going more then a week sometimes with very little going on and that’s when you get frustrated, you feel like you could be doing better things with your life etc... The frustrating thing for me, yet good thing for my community is that without my direction, assistance or anything many of them have not only sought the help of peace corps but have taken initiative to seek out professionals from elsewhere to assist them in things such as organic agriculture, grant writing, health etc.... Like I said its great my community has taken this on for themselves so successfully, but the downside on me is that I feel like I’m ineffective and useless in some areas a lot, hence the frustration. Some nights especially after a bit of time has passed you get these sort of loneliness attacks, granted I have found constructive ways to deal with that stuff....but every now and then that can leave a chill. Its not so much any kind of loneliness from isolation. I have no problems being isolated, the tough thing is to hear about everyone, girlfriend, friends and family going out and having fun and just doing little things together, things you want to be included in as well but cannot. Its those kinds of things you miss, the interaction with all of those people, and from that interaction the security and relations with everyone. Its also the thoughts of other areas in your life that you feel could be moving along a little quicker, things like marriage, post graduate education, career and your life back home in general To be quite honest all these challenges and things that give me doubts didn’t really effect me to a great degree for most of the time I have been here. I just relied on my sense of immortality and invincibility that so many people my age have. I thought these are all things that can get me depressed, a little down but nevertheless things that were all second to the sense of mission I feel. None of these doubts ever effected me in a way that I would even consider the option of leaving Peace Corps early until I encountered my own mortality and thoughts in the incident which took place in October. After having a gun held up to me, well for the brief seconds that lasted it was more then enough for me to really start looking at and reasoning with my doubts and issues with service here and what it is I’m trying to get out of Peace Corps and my future. . Of course the benefits of being here which make some of the challenges and frustrations worth it are many. Every once in a while Ill be teaching a class and well Ill write a few sentences in English on the black board and call on a volunteer to write the translation...and that’s when something amazing happens, they get up to the board and they do it successfully and for me I feel like...wow I got through to some of them. Other examples are when you are just sitting around talking about issues and things you have been educated upon and share them with people around you and there eyes open as if they were hearing revolutionary ideas and concepts that they have never even heard or given thought to before. Other ups are the effects that being here has on me as an individual, your communication abilities increase greatly, your understanding of how the majority of people in the world live gives you a greater respect for human beings in all walks of life. In other words its given me a new way of looking at people and the world that I could not have obtained elsewhere, not this extent anyway. On another note its also nice to know that people back in the states follow what your doing with curiosity and pride, which in a way is a motivational tool to keep things moving. So right now I’m caught in what seems to be a tug-a-war of which direction I want to go in, and how to proceed about doing so. I have no doubts in my abilities to succeed and make it through a law or masters program, or even getting into one. On that note I have no doubts I wont accomplish the big goals ive set for my life simply because I’m determined to do them and will not let anything prevent that!! Needless to say this tug of war I seem to be having is difficult to figure out, especially with the many tangents that come from any decision I make. Its difficult having to do service while having created a life for yourself in the U.S. and now a life for yourself here as well. When the two worlds and their issues seems to collide, well then it makes knowing what to do and which direction to proceed a difficult one. In any event what Ive written serves as a broad basis for some of the issues of what I’m grappling with in my service here, and then knowing what is right and what to do next is even tougher. There are several tangent issues that stem of what I touched on here, but those are more personal and deep that I would need to write a book to cover them all. As for now though my stubbornness and determination to commitment is guiding my actions, I just hope im not being blinded by them.
1-17-02
Hey all - Just thought Id write a quick update on things going on down here!!! I just read over my last email I sent out to you all and it was kind of a downer one. To let you all know things are going very well out here and Ive been out and about in the country a bit in these past couple weeks!!!! About a week ago I went with some friend to this really nice beach for a few days called CANOA its kind of in the upper middle part of the countries coast line. Anyhow there is this real laid back resort place volunteers go to right on the beach called the Bamboo!! It was a real good and relaxing time and those of us that went had some fun!! Not to mention the seafood there was great.....imagine an enormous seafood platter for around $3. In any event it was a weird feeling to be diving through waves and lying out in the sun in the middle of January!!! We also spent some time in the coastal city of BAHIA (which looks similar to Miami or something....kind of a ritzy place!!! Anyhow it was about 30 minutes from Canoa. Oh I didn’t mention on the way to CANOA you go through BAHIA and have to pay a quarter to get ferried across part of the bay in this little speed boat!!! Anyhow on the ay back from this trip I stopped along with a couple others at one of the volunteers sites for a night on the way back to my site which was kind of cool. In any event CANOA is probably my favorite beach they Ive been to so far here!! If any of you are in town Ill take you out there!!!! Anyhow the school year with my classes is coming to a close in a couple weeks for their summer break. Next week they have there English final exam, which im sure they are all excited about. Anyhow as kind of a treat today, I brought in some movies to class for them to watch. Granted I bought the films in the states so they were all in English (had to make it educational). Anyhow they had the choices of either watching the Grinch or Shrek. As it turned out my first class watched part of the grinch and the second class Shrek.......even though it was in English every student was quiet and entranced in watching the movies. Next week are finals and then after that they have a couple more classes, where I’m working at getting a couple volunteers from the Health program here in Ecuador to come and do a sex ed presentation for the students. In other news the new training group gets here in February...wow that will be a year in country for my group!!! Anyhow they are going to be situated like 15 minutes up the road from my site..literally on the same main road. So there will be 50 or so new trainees running around my area. The good part of that is that their will be other new people to see and talk to, the bad part is that for three months Peace Corps staff will be in my area and passing through my site a lot. Basically that means as far as spending nights away from my site and what not Ive got to play by the rules for 3 months!!! In any event that’s about all the news Ive got for now!!! Hope all of you are doing well, take it easy!!! KRASNER
1-31-02
Hey All-
Well its good to hear some good news for Peace Corps and well other countries coming from our President these days. I have a link to an article in the Washington Post describing Bush´s initiative for Peace Corps which I think you all might be interested in reading.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64678-2002Jan30.html
So anyway getting back to Peace Corps, things have developed in a few of my projects that will keep me pretty occupied in the next few months.
WOMEN’S GROUP: My work with the women’s group on different project died down for a while but things with that group are picking up. The community bank project with them is now almost 5 months old and has become quite the valuable asset to them all. In any event the director of the community bank program for Peace Corps (a volunteer coordinator) is coming to visit the bank and observe it the end of February. I also have introduced a new project...what’s known here as paper recycling...however its a little different then you might think. What it entails is recycling paper and transforming it, after its been soaked and pressed, into several artistic products such as cards, stationary, invitations, business cards, etc.. In any event this project is widespread throughout the country and these types of products are sold in many tourist shops as well as overseas. In any event it seems to be very lucrative and have done well with tourist markets. So the volunteer the town over from mine has set up a successful project on this and is coming to my site in a few weeks to teach my group how its done. After which we will be going to the other volunteers site one day to see first hand the women’s group in her town doing the whole process. So I see quite a bit of potential with this one as a means of bringing in a chunk of cash at very little capital expense.
SCHOOL - My students had their English final exam last week and I think it all went ok!!! The school year though is at an end as they start summer break in about a week from Friday. Which means my work with the school will have a three month break in it. However I have planned one more educational activity for my students (the older ones) right before they take their summer break. I have two volunteers from the Health Program coming to my site a week from today to give an extensive presentation on Sexual Education and AID as well as other STD´s to my students. I think this will serve as a valuable asset for them right before being released for the summer.
TEACHING ENGLISH - Since I will be having extra time now that the school year here is out, Ive increased the time I will spend teaching adult English classes. Right now I teach these two ladies from the next town over and Ive been working with them for a few months now. Seems people in my town have heard about the job I was doing and Ive picked up a couple more students. Starting this Wednesday I will be teaching English to this group for 2 hours a day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the next 3 months or so!!! I’m confident that with this much time and repetition that I can get them speaking and understanding enough of the language to use it in the practical sense by the end of those three months.
ONE YEAR MARK - Well in a couple weeks from now I hit the one year mark....kind of hard to believe its been that long!!! In any event the experience thus far has had its positives and negatives....but I believe the positives have far outweighed the negatives in everything. If any of you have plans to make the trip to Ecuador for a little vacation while I’m still here.......then don’t wait to long as time is flying by. The last 3 months of service im here (meaning next Feb-May) I’m not permitted to use vacation or have any visitors. So that means you all have 12 months from tomorrow to swing by if you’d like!!!
That’s about all for now I hope everyone’s doing well on the home front!! Take care and be in touch!!!!!
Regards,
KRASNER
2-9-02
Hey all, I know it hasn’t been to long since my last update but a few things have gone on that I thought were worth writing about. Peace Corps has been busy in my area recently setting up the new training program which is being centered around a town not to far from mine on the same road. This means for three months starting in early March there will be many training programs and about 50 trainees right in my area. Also it turns out Peace Corps is having 3 or 4 of these trainees live in my town of Luz de America. Which I’m sure will be interesting for the town and myself to have other Americans living there for a few months. On another note I was involved in a freak accident here in Santo Domingo yesterday...don’t worry I’m ok and all. Anyhow here I was crossing the street and waiting at an intersection. There was a nice 4x4 pick up truck waiting for the light to turn green. As the truck pulled out to turn the side of it when right into me and made some nice cuts and bruises on my hand, knee and chest...... All in all I got pretty lucking and walked away from the whole thing with minor injuries. Granted now Ill be a little more observant as to where I’m standing on the street!!!!
Hope all is well with everyone, Regards, Steve
2/20/02
Hey all - Sometimes things in this country just don’t really make a lot of sense compared to the place we all live being the USA. Now granted one comes to expect certain dangers and accidents to happen in a country such as this, but when they hit close to home its rather disturbing. Last Saturday night....as with many Saturday nights....men and women in their late teens and in their 20's head out from my town to the larger city of Santo Domingo for the Disco Techs, parties, dances etc.... So last weekend was the same as most weekends as young people from my site (when I say young I mean my age) went into town. One of them was a 24 year old guy who I was no more then acquaintances with...occasionally I would say hello to him and his brother often plays basketball with a bunch of us every weekend. Well turns out that last Saturday night he was in a car with a bunch of other people the driver being drunk. As they left the party scene a police car came flying down the road (the driver of the police car also being drunk) in an instant the two cars slammed into each other sending about 7 or 8 people to the hospital. The 24 year old guy from my site was in the worst shape, unconscious and not having any brain activity. Yesterday morning at 9am he passed away. The drunk drivers paid the bribes and walked out of the situation with a few cuts and bruises. The funeral ceremony is today at 4pm. This is the second car related accident in three months now claiming the life of someone in their 20's from my site. The whole situation is extremely sad and the town and many are in a state of mourning these days. As for me I’m just upset with not only the death but the bigger problem of the policeman and the drivers of the other car being drunk behind the wheel, the fact that the guilty paid $10 or so to be excused from facing any justice, once more there are just so many things that could have been done to prevent this kind of tragedy and all the tangents from it. Anyhow these kinds of situations happen everyday here and much closer to home than you can imagine. WEll in other news....since the above is a bit of a downer...things with Peace Corps and the new set of trainees arriving next week are starting to come into play. Their are going to be 3 trainees living in my site starting on March 3rd which should be interesting. Peace Corps stopped by yesterday and will be around tomorrow as well as Friday to do some preparation things in my site. All in all things in this area are going well..... March is shaping up to be a busy month with the trainees coming here, some new projects Ill be getting underway and the girlfriend Lisa visiting for a couple weeks. Needless to say it’ll be a busy month ahead but im looking forward to it!!! Hope all is well with everyone, Ill be in touch,
Regards, Steve
Hey all - Just a quick update since its been a few weeks!!! The new trainees got to my site Sunday evening and Ive had the opportunity to hang out with them a bit. There are three of them in my site for the next three months Matt, Jessica and Colleen...wow I remembered their names!!! All in all as first impressions go they seem pretty cool!! Its funny listening to some of their questions and concerns they have come up I the past couple days as its so similar to the ones I had when I had just gotten here over a year ago, its interesting to be on the other side now and see that take place. It does feel a little weird having three other American now living in my site....but I think in the big picture it can only serve as a good experience for the families hosting them as well as the people in the community they come in contact with....
So aside from the influx of new Americans in my site things are going at a pretty good pace. The three classes I teach a week on Mons, Weds, and Fridays are going well and since its summer break and the students who I teach are there cuz they WANT to learn makes a big difference, and their skills are increasing with each class much more so then the students I taught during the school year. I also receive a formal letter from the Director of the School saying how pleased they were with the classes I taught this past school year and they would like me to teach two additional classes coming up this school year, so six classes a week in all!!! They also liked the results of my classes so much that they are putting money in their budget to order English Text Books for the students to aid with my classes!!!! So come this May things will be hopping along over at the school. I plan on introducing some new subjects to go along with English lessons....such as some environmental and organic agricultural education......as well as a sex education session.
This week is a bit busy as I’m off to a meeting with all the new trainees tomorrow. I was selected to be in a panel with a few other volunteers to talk about are safety and security experiences with the new trainees and answer questions they might have... Basically I’m pretty sure I got selected due to my incident having the gun held to my head in Quito...which always a fun experience to share with new people to the country!! I think it will be kind of cool to be able to meet the new group of trainees so I’m looking forward to it!!!
Friday Ive got that inter exchange program going on which ive mentioned before with the paper recycling project which should be real nice for the women’s group I work with!! And today at 3pm is my weekly community banking meeting....which Ill add is going real successful the women have over $1000 saved in it already which they can borrow from and use, I’m just glad to see it working so smoothly!!! Next month I’m off to build a greenhouse....but that’ll be an experience in itself so Ill write about that at a future date.
Lisa gets in next week which will be nice!! Most of the trip we will be around my site but I’m using what they call our weekend away privilege to go with her to a place called Papallacta...which is like a hour and half from Quito and its a resort with several of these natural hot springs surrounded by incredible scenery way up in the mountains.... It’ll be nice to take a little 2 day resort vacation so I’m definitely looking forward to that!!!!
Well that’s about it for now on this end!!! Hope all is well with you all back home!!!
Regards, Steve
3-11-02 Hey kids,
Just thought Id spend a little time doing a quick update while I have some time here to kill at an internet cafe. The past week has brought a few activities with it over in Luz de America (my site). We had a very successful program last Friday morning with the paper recycling project. Another volunteer from the next town over came and did a fantastic hands on experience presentation which all the women in my women’s group really got a lot out of. We also had several additional Peace Corps trainees in the audience to get a little intake of peace corps type projects.
So speaking of trainees...ill say this much!!! It is kind of weird both in good and bad ways having three trainees living in town!!! The negatives I find are the constant Peace Corps activity running through my site on a daily basis. Not that Ive been one to really break any rules or leave my site when im not suppose to a lot....but more or less it feels like the big brother is watching you so to speak. That and its always unnerving to hear things about yourself mentioned to other people trying to pry into your life....meaning certain staff asking questions about me to other trainees and volunteers about my daily routines etc etc.... So that’s kind of an example that gets me a little uncomfortable. However to be fair I think all in all that its a good experience for those families hosting the trainees as its something they will never forget and is a good opportunity for cross cultural exchanges. The other positives is that all three trainees living there have personality and from what I know are nice people.....I have yet to corrupt any of them!! Kidding!!! All in all though its definitely more exciting in my site then usual having other Americans around and I think it can only prove to be a positive aspect of things here!!
So in other news I watch the big Futbol (Soccer) game last night in Santo Domingo!!! It was a rare match between the U.S. and Ecuador and the USA beat them 1-0, which was kind of cool although I’m glad no mobs attacked us after the game!!! Another random note I had a interesting snake experience in my site last week. An Equis as I think they are called (yes they are poisonous) moved across the road like 2 feet in front of me mid day as I walked to my place last week. Its was actually great having one of my dogs with me as they saw the thing before I got there and starting barking!!!!! Granted now I’m like paranoid and looking everywhere I walk!!!! That’s about all going on for right now!!! Hope all of you are well and Ill be in touch soon,
Regards, Stephen
3-24-02
Hey all - Just a quick little update on all that’s gone on the past couple weeks!!! So after being here in Ecuador for over a year I finally got to go to one of the biggest tourist attractions here in country.....the Euator. They have this cool monument marking the spot as well as the line where the actual Equator is.... I took tons of photos of myself standing on both sides of the equator as well as some other photos. All in all it was real cool to get a chance to go there!! And yes I experimented with flushing toilets on both sides of the equator and on it!!!! As for what happens when you do that, Ill keep it a guarded secret!!!!
In any event the last two weeks have been a whirlwind and a absolute fantastic time. As many of you know within 24 hours of Lisa arriving we went and visited a real nice mountain resort in a place called Papallacta with several nice hot springs and amazing mountainous scenery!!!! We then went back to my site after a few days and I dragged Lisa out into the jungle to meet some of the people out there and to get some first hand observations of the mosquito population in the area. All in all we spent a nice relaxing 8 days in my site hanging out and visiting people in my area. IT took us a while to explain to the Ecuadorians in my site that we were engaged simply because in Ecua-culture they do not go through anything like engagement as we know it in the states. However after a few attempts they all caught onto the idea of it all!!
We have spent this past weekend in Quito doing seeing and doing sites like the Equator and the Otavalian Markets here and have just been relaxing and enjoying ourselves. Tonight is a real treat for me as we are staying in the Marriott hotel in Quito for Lisa’s last night here. Its the most posh , and beautiful place in the city....not to mention you can flush toilet paper in the actual toilet (I know Ive been out here a while because that kind of thing excited me and all my peace corps buddies who knew about it)
Anyway things continue to go well in my site as well with all my work!! We have some new projects getting underway that look to be quite successful. I also have a increased teaching load in the school come this May which will keep me busy with them right through to the end of my service!!
I hope all is well with all of you back home, Ill be in touch again soon. I wish all of you a Happy Passover or Happy Easter (Whichever applies) Take care....
Regards,
STEVE
PS GO MARYLAND TERPS!!!!!!! (Ill be watching them kick UConn this evening)
4-5-02
Hey all - Thought Id send out a quick update of what’s been developing out here in Luz de America, Ecuador. I am amused at the name of my town Luz de America. which translates to Light of America, reason I’m amused is we have had several power outages recently....hence no hay luz (no light) In any event Ive made some progress on moving a few steps forward in efforts to export Cacao to foreign markets. I recently sent out a contact letter to over a dozen companies that import cacao to the states. I took a bit of a different approach this time to contacting companies then I did previously, so hopefully Ill see some results. I have big meeting with the Cacao Association on April 26th that will hopefully produce some positive results. In case any are interested I attached my initial proposal letter below for your reading enjoyment. Tomorrow I have the first meeting with my paper recycling project with the women’s group I assembled. They are all extremely excited and motivated about getting started as its a big money maker with tourists here. In any event their first big customers are going to be Lisa and I, as we are ordering 400 cards, envelopes to be used as future thank you cards and what not with the engagement and wedding on the horizon. Hence the women’s group is thrilled and motivated to get moving along with the production of things as soon as possible. In other news I start teaching my classes in the school on April 15th (First day of school in the coastal region of Ecuador). I will be teaching in all 6 classes a week (2 on mons, 2 on weds, 2 on Fridays) with student ages ranging for 8-12. The primary focus of the classes is of course English but I’m developing a plan to incorporate sex education, cultural studies, and a unit on organic agriculture into my classes for this year. I also am beginning an adult class at the request of a few older people in my site who want English course. I start this class this coming Tuesday. Its will run Tuesdays and Thursday from 7:30pm - 9:00pm. So its looking like Ill be teaching now 5 days a week!! Lastly things with the community bank continue to be an anchored success, so much so I will be starting another one with an interested group of men and women within the next month....Ill keep you all posted. The last bit of news is that I’m tentatively planning a trip back to the U.S. from around August 31st - September 20th. IF everything works well with these dates it puts me around for my Birthday, Lisa’s Birthday, my buds birthdays and most importantly the Jewish Holidays Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. That’s about all the news from under the Equator. Hope all is well on your ends....chao!!! Steve
CACAO PROPOSAL Dear Sir or Madam,
I contact you in the midst of serving in my second year as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador.
I am writing you in hopes of establishing future business relations for the exportation of cacao. I believe that we are in a unique position to achieve mutual benefit by establishing relations between your company and the farmers that I represent.
Currently, the practice of exporting cacao to foreign markets from Ecuador has a four tier system with prices being increased with each change of hand. Simply, a farmer sells their bulk cacao by quintal to a middle man at market price. This middle man in turn sells the cacao at a higher price to a Fabrica, who in turn sells the cacao at an even higher price to a Exportadiva. Finally, the Exportadiva makes the final sale and price change to overseas markets. FARMER($) > MIDDLEMAN($+) > FABRICA($++) > EXPORTADIVA($+++)
> FOREIGN MARKETS
Due to the many increases in price, it is obvious that the farmer loses out on a substantial amount of profit from their product. According to the laws and regulations that exist here in Ecuador, the only way a farmer can avoid going through this four tier system, is to have a direct buyer overseas (e.g. U.S., Europe, Asia).
The opportunity that exists here is of benefit to both the farmer and the company whom is importing the cacao. Through a direct exporting/importing system, each would enjoy greater overall profits. By eliminating the tiered system, the farmers here and the buyer abroad would have eliminated the costly middle points to the venture.
FARMER($) > EXPORTADIVA($) > FOREIGN MARKET($)
The farmers I represent are quite organized and prepared to do business in the proposed system. Currently, they produce upwards of 6 shipping containers worth of Cacao a year. (1 Container = 80,000 kilo) with access and the ability to obtain upwards of 5-10 times that amount if the demand exists.
I would very much like the opportunity to discuss this proposal with you in the hopes of establishing a financially beneficial arrangement for the future. Thank you for your time and consideration. You will find all my contact information listed below. Very truly yours,
Stephen Louis Krasner
4-16-02
Hola todos, Como estan? Ahorita toda bien aqui en mi pueblo. Hoy dia es mi primero dia en la escuala. No tenia clases hoy dia, solo visitar mi nuevo estudiantes. Yo tengo mi clase actual manana. Entonces, este semana es muy loco para mi, tengo mucho projectos con la escuela, las grupo de mujeres y asocacion de cacao. Tambien hemos recibido much lluvia semana pasada y este semana.....todos los noches y dias. Esta bien, voy a cambiar por ingles ahora. Well I hope you got all that, as I’m sure I made a few gramatical errors....but the good things is I put my money on the fact that many of you cant spot my gramatical errors in Spanish as easily as I make them in English. Anyhow as I mentioned above things are rolling right along and today is my last day with much of any free time for the next few months as things are going to be getting a little more hectic down here. I met my students this morning real briefly and learned my teaching schedule. I start teaching my classes tomorrow. I’m teaching 3 classes a day on Mondays and Wednesdays from 7:30am-10am. I also will be continuing with teaching night classes on both tuesdays and thursdays, which gives me 4 days of teaching, which is good and bad...but I figure what the heck!!!!! The women’s group had their first production meeting for all the cards, gift bags, boxes etc.... of the recycled paper project a few days ago and it went extremely well. They have another session with it this afternoon right after their weekly banking meeting. So things have been moving right along with them!!! *Just a little sales pitch when I visit in September Ill be bringing some stuff from the women’s group to try and sell in the states to family and friends..its for a good cause!!!!* On to my work with the Cacao Association, I made some headway with the cacao presentation I sent out as I received a few responses and ideas from different processing companies in the U.S.. I am going to be putting together a photo presentation of the process to scan and put on the internet as well as send electronically to various companies, this was an idea suggested by one of the responses I received. So ok that’s about it for my work.... In other news.... the weather here has become quite hot and humid recently and the rain will go for days and nights sometimes without letting up. We are moving into dry season come June, so by then things will be a bit more comfortable as far as weather is concerned. OH I forgot to mention one of my adoptive dogs has been pregnant and will be having puppies soon, hopefully these puppies will live, her other ones 6 months ago didn’t make it!!! Well that’s all I have to say for now, hope all is well for everyone back home!! Regards, Stephen
5-7-02
Hey all- Just thought Id update you on the latest excitement and goings on down here where the toilet flushes the other way. Ok so here I am last Sunday night....just finished a little evening workout and had my towel, change of clothes etc in hand to go take a shower in my bathroom which is outside the front door to my apartment. YES you have to leave my apartment and walk 5 feet to where the bathroom is.... In any event one of my dogs starting barking and growling the second I went to open my door!! Well the dog was barking for a good reason as in front of me about 2 feet a way was a nice sized snake which my dog had pretty much put the fear of god into as it was lying very still on the cement. Well after a few moments the dog went for the snake and the snake fled under the door and into the bathroom. Hence at this point the neighbors in my complex and the house across the street came over to assist in the snake craziness. Well eventually we trapped the snake under the garbage can that’s in the bathroom. And with a few guys on hand, I assisted in getting the snake from the bathroom outside to the cement where another guy was waiting to do brain surgery on the serpent. So after we killed the snake, the drama came in the identification of the type of snake we had hunted down....it was indeed a Coral Snake...very dangerous and very lethal. However all us men walked away from the scene unscathed with our manliness uplifted and testosterone in check!!! I took it upon myself to take a few (LOTS) of photos of the whole scenerio which at some point Ill put up on my website!!! So how was all your Sunday evenings?
The rest of this week looks to be like a good time... Off to a meeting at 6am tomorrow in some town called La Mana, about an hour from the city of Quevedo and 2 hours more or less from my town!! Its a meeting or more like mini conference on the progress of the community bank projects that a few of us volunteers started in the region. Then this weekend I’m off for a short weekend getaway trip to the beach....surfs up!!! That all for the goings on, on this end!!!
Hope all is well with you, Regards,
KRASNER
5-13-02
Hey Kids - Ok well its kind of like sometimes days and weeks go by with nothing interesting to report or update all of you my loyal readers here....in the goings on of Peace Corps Ecuador with the exception of my regular descriptions of the jobs and projects I do!!! However grab seat and drink as what transpired over this past weekend was one crazy slue of events that I definitely thought I would share. So here I was visiting the beach for just a short weekend trip to get some mental sanity back. Beach was great, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect....granted I got a bit sunburn!!! Anyhow I ended up just going to the beach alone with none of my peers...as sometimes its nice to go off alone and escape things. Anyhow I visited the beach of Canoa and this one particular beach resort right on the beach that’s popular with volunteers, and MANY European backpackers. In any event I met up with a volunteer who lives nearby and we hung out for a bit, but then I ended up having met several travelers from all over the place and we all had a good time....and might I add some interesting conversations. I met a group from Belfast and we ended up talking about and drawing parallels between the Israelis and the Palistinians with their troubles with the IRA. Very interesting conversation and this one young lady overheard our talks on mideast and world affairs and ventured to join the conversation. She was indeed Lebanese (from Lebanon) and the two of us with VERY different views on the Israeli - Palestinian situation ended up discussing all the issues going on for something like 3 hours or so. The most interesting thing we both seemed to fine is the misunderstanding on all sides, in the Arab and Israel worlds. We also acknowledged the point that although she and I strongly disagreed with some issues of the current situation and land disputes, other issues we saw eye to eye, for example in terms of Arafat we both agreed he needed to go!!! When all is said and done here we were a Jew and Arab talking about all the heated issues, having agreements and disagreements...but we were TALKING about them in a intelligent and civil, friendly way.....which we both agreed was the thing that is pressing and most important right now in the Israeli - Arab conflict......is that they need to do what we did and sit down and talk the issues not literally ATTACK about the issues!!!! Ok so the beach was very interesting and a very nice escape, now for the events which transpired in my site this past weekend (I’m glad I was at the beach) At 5am Sunday morning a car drove by a restaurant on the main road in my site where a man pulled out a gun shooting and killing another man who lives in my town and hitting at least three other individuals with bullets. Apparently it was a Mafioso, Mobster from Santo Domingo out to get this one guy in my site for whatever reason. Granted the police did nothing to find the killer who lives in Santo Domingo. And from what I am hearing the police in Santo Domingo wont go after this guy because he’s part of a maufia there and the police are afraid. One of the Peace Corps trainees awoke to the several gun shots right near where he is living at 5am that morning!!! Ok that was incident number one!!! The other big incident was the same night yet earlier a normal NICE bus traveling to Guayaquil was boarded in my site , by robbers in masks and the passengers were held up and robbed at gun point!!! Anyhow the less serious thing compared to all this....was the same weekend there was a knife/machete fight in the park with a bunch of drunk guys but from what I hear no one was seriously injured!!!! On the same sling of craziness a little girl was riding her bike in my site and was accidentally hit Saturday evening by a car, she is in a hospital and expected to make a full recovery!!!!! All in all it was a crazy weekend, full of ups and downs!!!! That’s about all Ive got to report on things for now, on my way to plan a conference right now!! I’m a coordinator with another volunteer to plan a peace corps conference in June hence we are doing all the planning of the logistics’ today and tomorrow!!!! Hope all is well with you!! Chao KRASNER
5-30-02
Hey all greetings from down south!!! Things are all going smooth and what not down here. Not to much going on that’s really out there or exciting. However this month coming up is shaping to be a little busy. The conference I helped to coordinate is coming up from June 12-15. We planned some cool activities and put together and "different" kind of itinerary then those conferences Ive attended in the past, so hopefully all the participants will have a good time and do some good work!!! In other news I think Peace Corps is going to have a delegation of other Peace Corps staff from various countries in South America visit my site at the end of June to observe the community bank that the women’s group I am working with has established successfully. Classes are going as well as can be expected. The students I teach simply do not learn that cheating doesn’t pay and that is one of t he hardest lessons I am trying to teach in my class whether they actually learn English or not. You need to understand that EVERY student in the schools and colegios copy and cheat their way through the system, what’s worse is all the teachers seem to turn a blind eye to it and do nothing to prevent it, its almost ingrained in their culture that cheating in school is acceptable. Hecne this may be the reason they don’t always like me as I go in their the days I give test with 4 different types of test so they cant look at the person on either side of the mto ge the answer. I have also had them leave backpacks, and books at the entrance to the classroom, on top of which I make them turn around their desks so they cannot hide anything in the cubby of the desk. However you would thing all these preventative measures would be a strong deterrent in teaching....its not they still try!! I caught an average of 5 or 6 students per class with cheat notes they were using, and so to make a point I rip up their test in front of the class. I am now going to try and use a peer pressure technique to eliminate copying on the next test by implementing the rule that if one student cheats EVERY student will receive a -0- for that day....we will see how that goes!! This weekend IM off to build a green house with some farmers and experiment with growing different types of tomatoes which fetch a good price in the market here. The Cacao exporting project seems to the most frustrating thing I am working on, as no matter how many proposals I have sent out and no matter how many angles I go about things I cant seem to generate interest among companies to do business with the group here, mostly because of the groups little or no experience in direct exporting on top of which the bigger companies have steady suppliers and contracts with them and are just not willing to take a risk with the group here!!! On a different note the puppies at my place are now 6 weeks old and are getting into everything the past few days!!! I took some great photos of them this morning which ill have to share with all of you warm and fuzzy animal lovers at some point. Nothing to much else to write about so Ill leave it at this for now!! Hope you all are doing well, and hope to hear from some of you soon!!
Regards, KRASNER
6-17-02
Hola ALL - Well the conference came and went this past week and everything went without a hitch!!!!! We built a garden with the school in town near where the conference was, and had all the volunteers, counterparts, and several classes from the school. Sure enough with everyone working in 4 hours or so we all cranked out a hands on demonstrative organic garden~!! The other big activities was a huge health fair the incorporated all the volunteers and counterparts as well as town residents participating actively in, main subjects their were sex education, family planning, and the food pyramid etc... We also had a ECO TOUR into the jungle for all the guest of the conference to learn about medicinal plant, how to live in balance with the environment (something the Bush administration and republicans refuse to learn....). And lastly as more of a fun activity we had a intertube excursion down the nearby river, which I got completely beat up doing... In other words I fell a few times in the rapids and tumbled around a bit!!! So all in all things went well and we got really good reviews and positive comments about the outcome of the conference we coordinated, when I say WE I am referring to myself and another volunteer Estela whom coordinated the conference with me!!! Anyway hope everyone is having a nice weekend and enjoying Fathers Day!!! Stephen PS I’m drafting another letter to our President and a few members of congress which Ill share when they are complete!!!!
7-2-02
Hola mi amigos, Que Hace!!! Well its been quite the week of activity so I figured Id do what I normally do to kill some time and what not on the internet, write a mass email and update to all my loyal readers so to speak!!! So anyway last Thursday a slue of Peace Corps officials came to visit my site!! There was a conference for Peace Corps staff from various other countries in South America as well as a couple people from Washington Dc, here in Ecuador. So last Thursday the delegation of visitors along with the Director and a few others from Peace Corps Ecuador came to my site to observe the different project Ive been working on in my town. The first activity was that of seeing my women’s group conduct their weekly banking meeting. Which the delegations seemed to be quite impressed by!! It also gave the women’s group the opportunity to show off the paper recycling products they’ve been working on, as well as make a few sales!!! So anyway right after the banking meeting activity I was approached by both a Newspaper Reporter from the city of Santo Domingo as well as a TV reporter from there and was interviewed and photographed for the paper which is doing a story on the many projects and especially the banking one that Ive been doing in Luz de America. I’m going to try and get some copies of the article and VHS tapes of the interview this week!!!! In any event it was a real test of my Spanish skills to conduct these interviews, im just hoping I didn’t end up saying anything too silly or humorous!!! So next the group went to visit one of the farms in my site and spend some time seeing the Cacao (Chocolate beans) fields. After which they came back and had a meeting with the marketing group I work with on our strategies and challenges of marketing cacao and other agricultural products in foreign and domestic markets. All in all the day went well and the delegation was real cool and it was nice to meet staff from many different countries working with Peace Corps!!! So onto last weekend!!! I spent the past couple days at a Pig Fair at another volunteers site not to far from here!! Its a once a year fair that the town and peace corps volunteer in the site hold to promote publicity for their pig business as well as auction pigs and have different judging contest and what not!! It was an interetesting experience to say the least, but being that their were many volunteers there we all had a pretty good time the past couple days. The nice thing was that I arranged it with the volunteer in that site to enable a couple women from my women’s group to go to the fair and sell the recycled paper goods along with a few other items, which I believe they made quite a bit of profit on this past Saturday and Sunday!! So in other news while I was out watching different Pig Contests two political icons were sitting in my house having brunch with a slue of people at an event my mother was holding for all her neigborhood and growing up friends from way back when. Turns out two of the guest were Ben Stein (Nixon Speech Writer, Win Ben Steins Money, Ferris Buellers Day off) and Carl Bernstein (Washington Post Reporter who cracked Watergate). So anyway I had my mother get me 2 personalized autographed books from Carl Bernstein which are and read as follows; All the Presidents Men --"To Stephen, from his Mom's Old Admirer"---Carl Bernstein The Final Days---"To Stephen---from his old family friend"---Carl Bernstein You can only guess how psyched I was to get those, as most of you know I myself am an aspiring politician and future presidential candidate so it was pretty cool!!! (: Anyhow this coming weekend I’m off to a 4th of July celebration at the U.S. Ambassadors house over in Quito. I went to the event last year which was a real good time so I’m looking forward to it! That’s about all that I have to write that’s been real exciting these past weeks. I’m in the US for 3 weeks or 19 days minus 2 for traveling!! (August 31st - September 20th) so that's around the corner and some cool stuff to look forward too!! Hope all is well on all your ends, take care and feel free to write me a line!!! Regards, KRASNER
7-18-02
Hey kids - Just thought I would send out a quick update to ya all!! Well its been a very long week this week and definitely not one of the more fun ones. However in brief I have been sick in Quito for the past 6 days and what not but now everything is cool and I’m alright. It was suspected I may have had malaria but after several blood tests it turned out negative which is a bit reasurring since I take these preventative maklaria meds almost religiously!! But I will say the symptoms that a person with malaria goes through are definitely not a walk in the park after experiencing some of them myself!! Turns out I just had some sort of viral infection but I’m on the up and up now and ready to get moving again!! So in more enlightening news the 4th of July party at the Ambassadors house, a couple weeks ago now, turned out to be a real good time. Kind of felt like we were all back in the good old USA for an Independence day celebration. In any event it turned out to be a fun weekend!! I also got to see Star Wars II which just came out here recently...that was pretty cool too!! Not to much to write about in my town as well I haven’t been there for a week now!! However lots coming up in a few weeks with projects, classes and other activities Ill be working on. Anyway hope all you kids are doing well Ill have more to write in a couple weeks or so!!! Later all, KRASNER
7-21-02
Hey all I don’t want to get to far ahead of myself but wanted to share a bit of news. I just received word from a pretty big publication that they are considering publishing a part of a piece I wrote and had submitted to them months ago. Anyhow I thought Id share it with you below...the part they might publish. Anyhow I don’t want to jinx things so if they go ahead and publish what I wrote or I receive word that they are definitely publishing it you will be sure to hear from me about it. Ok so here is what might be appearing.....
"......a corner thus have I seemed to have turned. I no longer see things here in black, white or gray but yet in a kalediscope of colors ever inter-woven in a cloth of humanity. Not money, politics, race, creed, religion or lot seperates us in life. It is the blinders we put on ourselves as people. I have learned many things in my lifes thread of time, but only a stitch in the endless cloth we call humanity........" -Stephen L. Krasner, April 3, 2002- Ok Ill keep you updated.......just in case the suspense is killing you.....the publication who wrote me was indeed Newsweek. Ok hope all is well, Steve
8-21-02
Hey all -
Well its been quite the busy time this past week! So Ill get right to the point and give you all a quick update!!! Ok first with some promising news!! For the past couple months Ive been talking up this project with the the School and High School here in my town in which they could receive computers for $80 each. The program is through the World Computer Exchange, which is the organization the buys used computers in the states then modifies them, fizes them all up and sends them to institutions of education in developing countries. Turns out one of the guys working for them is a former peace corps volunteer from Ecuador. So many volunteers here in conjunction with the World Computer Exchange are organizing their different sites to raise the money to buy computers. The deadline is in a couple weeks and I think the School in my site will be buying 6 and the High School 3 or 4!!! So Ive got my fingers crossed that they will have the money and forms ready and submitted by mid september to this other volunteer who is coordinating all this!!! But if all works out they will have these computers sometime in February or March right before my service is done!!!
In other news for the past week and a half now their has been a country wide strike of all teachers and profesors in all the Schools and Colegios here. Apparently the goverment doesn’t have funds left to pay their salaries. Youve got to love the money managing skills of the national government here sometimes!! So the strike is set to last indefinately until the teachers get payed..I don’t blame em!!! But the students are the ones whom will be losing out the most because of this, in the past these kind of strikes have lasted up to 2 months, its no wonder the education of the people here is so far behind in many areas!!
On a brighter spot I finally got the schools funding to get text books for the English classes I teach, we will be picking them up tomorrow!! In case your wondering the administrative staff is still functioning in the schools hence I could meet with them about the computer program and the text books!!!
Well that’s about it in a nutshell!! I’m psyched to be coming home the end of next week, wow how the summer flew by!! But it will be nice to be back in the DC area for a bit and up in New York for a while!!! Hope all is well and Ill see quite a few of you real soon!!
Regards,
Stephen
9-22-02
Dear All - Well after a fun filled day of flying I arrived back in Quito, Ecuador safe and sound last night!! The trip home went better then I could have imagined. It was great seeing family and friends etc... And it was really nice to have been in both the DC and NY areas for a time. Lisa and I had a fantastic time at the Engagement party in NY and did quite a few wedding preperation things (seeing the place, meeting the Rabbi etc etc) which was quite cool.....well visiting the florist wasn’t the most exciting thing but interesting all the same. We also had a real nice time visiting with her family and their friends. I also had the opportunity to visit ground zero in NYC... Not too much I can write in words about how that went, but it was just a very emotional thing to see that area. I guess for me anyway visiting the site there was something I needed to do for me to pay respects to the lives lost. All in all though it was nice to have been home for the Jewish Holidays, Birthdays, and to see everyone. Its kind of strange being back here now but I’m sure Ill get back to my random and crazy routine soon enough. Hope everyone is well. Talk to you soon, Regards, Krasner
9-27-02
Hey kids - Well it hasn’t been to long since I sent out an update that I returned her safe and sound, and back I am to the realities that surround life here. I met with my women’s group the other day and gave out all the money they earned for the products of theirs that I sold while home. They truly appreciated the extra income. I want to thak all of you who purchased some of the cards and other things. In other happenings the school where I teach hired a full time English teacher to teach engish. But as is the usual case here in Ecuador, the English teacher has no understanding of speaking or teaching the English language. So I think I might be assisting this teacher on teaching methods in the near future. However by them having a full time English professor I am freed up a little more to concentrate on teaching other subjects more in depth such as geography, world cultures, sex education, health etc etc etc... On a sad note one of my dogs died while I was in the US, needless to say I wasn’t the happiest of campers when I learned about it. I also just got confirmed to attend a conference all of next week. Its an in service training conference that Ill be attending with one of the ladies from the women’s group I work with. I leave Monday afternoon and head to the sierran town of Ambato about 3 hours away where ill be spending a night and then leaving in the morning for the town of Guaranda and from there further into the mountains to the destination place of Salinas...the town is famous for the cheeses they make!! Anyhow this will keep me occupied from Monday - Friday of next week, should be interesting. That’s it for now, hope you all have a good weekend. Regards, Krasner
10-4-02
Hey all - Greetings from Ambato, Ecuador. I just got here after having been at a conference for the past 4 days. Our conference was about 2 hours from where I am now in this little town called Salinas. This place was definitely off the beaten track, but it was super cool. The conference focused on the making of Essential Oils, which we had hands on activities walking us (volunteers and their ecuadorian counterparts) through the whole process. It was pretty interesting I guess, the wome
