Author: Newley

The SELA Foundation
Last week, my friend Mike introduced me to the friendly, hard-working folks at The SELA Foundation, which is based here in Cuenca. SELA is involved in legal services, human rights, and conflict resolution for marginalized groups in rural and suburban Southern Ecuador. I look forward to learning more about their work.

I’ve finally gotten around to scanning in some photos of my various adventures here. In mostly chronological order, here goes:

—Me jumping over a fire on New Year’s Eve (a local tradition)

—Some Ecuadorian friends jumping over the same fire on New Year’s Eve

—An Ecuadorian guy dressed in drag on New Year’s Eve (also a local tradition)

—A cool trashcan (foreground) and a mother and son (background) in Gualaceo

—An impromptu jam session at a favorite Cuenca restaurant

—Me towering over some girls in Quito

—A really nice photo (if I do say so myself) of a funeral here in Cuenca (I wouldn’t have taken if I knew then that it was a funeral)

—A photo of me and my fellow TEFL classmates in Cajas National Park (yes, I’m wearing ridiculous red pants–and I’ve got a great story about a wild bull we encountered while backpacking there: he gazed at my trousers for some time; I was nervous)

—Me backpacking in Cajas National Park

—My friend Mike posing next to a bed in a very bad hostal in Riobamba

—Self portrait taken atop our bus on the way to Canoa

—Me at the beach in Canoa

—Me and a food vendor atop the famous “Nariz del Diablo” (Devil’s Nose) train (not sure who the guy in the back is)

—Sideways photo of the Nariz del Diablo riders

—A postcard of Cuenca (home sweet home)

“The Plague We Can’t Escape”
Larry Kramer, writing in the New York Times, notes that 50 million people around the world are infected with HIV, and that “in China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Russia, the number of AIDS cases is predicted to double by 2010, with a total of 50 million to 75 million infected people in those countries alone.” Kramer says we shouldn’t allow drug companies to keep life-saving and life-prolonging drugs from people who need them.

Civil War Ninjas
“So, then, on to your central thesis. I certainly can’t dispute your assertion that the presence of ninjas at Gettysburg would have altered the outcome of the U.S. Civil War. However, it is one thing to make this statement and quite another to claim that a clan of ninjas indeed was present and was, in fact, the force that tipped the balance of power in the war to the Union. Your evidence is… scanty.”

From Civil War Ninjas! The Tenth-Grade History Report (via Reenhead).

Thanks for Clarifying That
Lockhart Steele points out a very funny, very odd New York Times correction.

Ecuador and Drugs
NarcoNews.com, an odd, grassroots-style Web site devoted to drug news from Latin America (and decidedly in favor of decriminalization), recently published an interview with Fernando Buendia, leader of the Pachakutik Movement. It’s a thought-provoking piece.

NaNoHuh?
Although the world surely doesn’t need any more mediocre novels, I’ve always admired the spirit–the camaraderie, the forced creative production–of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. So maybe National Novel Editing Month is a good idea. Too bad the latter (in March) doesn’t immediately follow the former (in November).

“The Balloon Goes Up”
The Economist reports on “Plan Colombia”–the US’s attempts to curb coca cultivation in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. “But the ‘drug war’ has imposed its own costs. One is known as the ‘balloon effect’: local squeezes simply move the industry elsewhere, spreading violence and corruption with it.”

“Russian Fat Cat Creams the Rest”
Here’s one big feline.

I Spent a Week in Loja Sunday Night
We had yesterday and Monday off school for Carnaval. So on Sunday, I decided to bus six hours south to Vilcabamba, a sleepy little resort town.

It was not to be, however: in Loja, where I’d planned to spend the night, I fell ill. Ate something bad.

So I spent Sunday night holed up in Loja’s none-too-Parisian Hotel Paris. By Monday afternoon, I was feeling better, but still didn’t feel like making the journey back here to Cuenca (and by then, I didn’t have time to continue on to Vilcabamba). So I stayed in Loja on Monday night, too.

Finally, I boarded a homebound bus yesterday. Only problem: I didn’t know it, but I’d bought a standing-room-only ticket; I spent the last three hours on my feet in the aisle.

But now I’m better. And as they say here in Ecuador, “asi es la vida.” That’s life.