I have made my way back to Puyo once again and found an internet connection that is not extremely slow. Actually, I spent the weekend in Baños with a friend because this weekend are the election days, and I had time to get out of the jungle and relax a little. Baños is buetiful. It is named this because of the natural hot baths there that come from the Valcano. There are many waterfalls also and mountains surround the city. We took a long bike ride though the mountains and visited some waterfalls. Also took the ripline to the other side of the "canyon" and over a waterfall. Then caught fish and ate them once on the other side. Later in the day we went to a cookout and ate more great food. My stomach was acting strange though, probably because I am so use to eating banannas, yucca, plantains, monkey, armadillo, guanta, larva... and drinking chicha that my body couldnt handle "regular" food. But I can´t decribe how nice it was to have the normal food. The night before I went to Baños the whole village came here to Puyo to support one of the sons of my family here in the running for a political position. So we all climbed on the bus and took the 2 hour ride to Puyo, then drove though the city shouting to everyone to vote for list 64. Then watched the politicians of list 64 talk for a good few hours and afterwards there was a concert and free food and wine. We all had a great time dancing in the street and didn´t end up leaving the city untill 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. It was a interesting bus ride home to say the least...Now that the elections will be over after today, the boys of my family who came to the city to work for the past couple months for the politicians will be back at home, and we will have more workers to build the all natural cabana next to the waterfall. I am really excited about learning how to build a traditional home only from what we have in the jungle. Also, now that all the boys will be home i will start to give English lessons to whoever wants to join, including the teacher of the school who already has just a little bit of experience with English. I think I will have around 10 students, most of them adults. I beleive it is important for them to learn English because they will have many more opportunities if they can speak English. At the moment, Fabian (my brother of the jungle and the director of the volunteer project) has been thinking of going to work in the oil fields. Like many of his ancestors, he has many children. He also has many wives. But now he has seperated with one of them and will need to pay child support, but doesn´t have many options other than to work in the oil fields, which is an extremely dangerous job here in Ecuador because they do not wear protection. And he will also be living there and drinking the water that is highly contaminated. The people living near the oil fields are having horribly high cases of cancer, respitory problems, and skin deseases because they have no option but to bath and drink the water that is there. So, I do not want my jungle brother going there to live and work... My bus will be here in 30 minutes so I do not have more time to write at the moment but will have time this weekend to update everyone because I need to go to Quito, the Capital.

Hello everyone, My name is Abbie Hutchison and at the moment I am living in the Amazon Rainforest of Ecuador. I am still having problems figuring out how to use this whole blog thing so please bare with me...I have been living here for a little over three months now and I was also here last year about this time for a couple of months. So, so far I have spent 5 months in Ecuador all together and have gotten to know the country and the many different cultures pretty well. I live with a Shuar/Kichwa family in a small village called Chico Copataza. I beleive, there are about 60 people who live in the community, at least this is about what I have counted at many gatherings. the family I live with consists of 8 boys and one girl from the ages of 35 to 11. I am well adjusted to the life of the jungle now and am loving every minute of it. It is definately challenging at times but always rewarding. The people have so much to offer and teach. Many of the things are so simple but so precious. I think I now know how to use Blog spot so I will write more and keep everyone informed of what is happening here in the Amazon amongst the Chumapi Family!!!