Emotions and Memories.

Just before I will start my second tour of two months through the Andean mountains, I first want to tell a little more about my time in Merazonia.

Right after I send my last story I became really sick for the first time in 15 years! I still don’t know what hit me. The doctor thought about some unknown tropical disease, but it also could have been a combination of parasites with something else. For a few days I lost my appetite, got very tired and had a little fever. On advise of the doctor I had already bought some strong and expensive antibiotics, when I slowly started to feel better.

Also around this time there was suddenly more activity from the Tungurahua again and even an other volcano started to ask for more attention. This volcano is called el Reventador and lays about 100km east of Quito. In November 2002 a strong eruption from this volcano caused ass-rains in Quito. Now there were several small eruptions and on one side there came lava down the slope. Only because the wind blew in a different direction most of the asses didn’t reach Quito this time. Both of the volcano’s are now calm again, but no-one knows for how long…

The same can be said about Merazonia. The politic situation around Merazonia has been calm for more than two months, but for how long will this stay so?

Last Monday (the 30^th of April) was suppose to be the big day, but like so many ‘Big Days’ before, this one also ended in a disappointment. After the results from some of the court cases against the brothers, the willingness of the first brother to share half of the money that he received for the land with his brothers and the final highest verdict in which is written that the Merazonians have earned, without any doubt, the possession over the land, the hope on a solution was very high this time.

However, when the Merazonians and the first brother were waiting to sign the deal and even the money was on the table, non of the brothers showed up and their layer wasn’t reachable either…

At this moment there still seems to be an option to get the deal through, but how much more of these disappointments can the Merazonians handle?

The last two months I could feel for myself how much tension this whole ‘fight’ against the brothers had brought into the project. Tension because of the insecurity, but also because of the loss of more than 10.000US$ on costs for the ‘fight’ and for not being able to work on the land for almost one and a half year.

Luckily these last two months we finally did make some nice progress in finishing the house, kitchen, sanitary unit and both of the gray-water systems, for the wastewater out of the kitchen and showers. The most proud however, I am with the system we invented to get streaming water from a very little, clean mountain stream into the kitchen and  sanitary unit. For this we made two wooden boxes to collect the water. In these boxes we made a little hole, just above the bottom and in that hole we put the end of a big water hose. Because the gravity is pushing on the surface of the water in these boxes, it is pushing the water through the hole with more force than normal gravity. As long as the end of the hose stays just a little lower than the boxes, we could create enough pressure to get water above the height of the roofs from the kitchen and the showers. This way we now have streaming water inside these buildings! So simple, but ó so useful.

Now we have started to work on the land again and even had a few volunteers, the Merazonians have to start thinking about the future, if they want to give their project a last change to succeed. This is hard on them and became difficult for me as well. However I didn’t spend that much money on this project, I did spend a lot of time and energy in working on this dream from the Merazonians and feel a bit responsible for its future.

Before I came back I wanted to help Merazonia to make their project ready to receive animals and after that I would see further. I don’t think that I’m the type of guy who can live a long time without electricity. I decided to gamble a bit that I would have enough money to come back to Ecuador and work for Merazonia, until I get my first salary for my first tour. I’m still not sure if I will make it and I’m also not sure anymore if it was such a good idea? After all, it is not my project.

While they are dealing with the political problems, I’m having a very good time working on the constructions within the park and am I spending money on their behalf. I like to think ahead and work on plans to get Merazonia as soon as possible operational, while the Merazonians are dealing with the problems of now, and don’t dare to look to much ahead.

We are both fighting for the project, but on a total different level, which isn’t a very healthy situation and has probably cost me one friendship.

I lost more and more contact with Jennifer. Which is cynical, because she was one of the biggest reasons I came to Merazonia in the first place. But now it turned out that we have a totally different way of working. This resulted in the fact that she doesn’t trust me and thinks that I’m just having a good time and I think that she’s (at this moment) incapable of building and running an animal refuge. Somehow our differences in opinion are so big that there doesn’t seem to be a way to talk about them, so we were avoiding each other and poor Frank stood in between us…

Yes, an unhealthy situation, in which I’m still the volunteer and have no right to argue about their way of working. It seems I didn’t learn enough from I.W.Y.. Or, I’m probably just to stubborn and will never learn. It is just in my nature to always go for what I think is the best, until different is proven. Jennifer shouldn’t have to prove herself to me, so I think it is best for us if I stay away from Merazonia for some time. Maybe things calm down when Merazonia finally has a deal with the brothers. Maybe it is best for me to find other challenges.

Whatever I will do next, I will never regret my time working on this dream, even if it isn’t my own. If Merazonia becomes my second I.W.Y., then the bad moments will become stories and happy moments will become good memories for ever.

For this moment I think that being a tour leader is just about the right job for me. I’m a little bit my own boss and my groups like it when I try to get the best that’s possible for them. Only not all the agencies can appreciate this. Some love me for my enthusiasm and some think that I’m a pain in the ass… I guess it is difficult to make everyone happy, but for the next two months I’m going to try again how far I can get.