Ecuador 2017!

It's really hard to believe it's been six years since we started this project.  Over that time, we've been grappling with how to adapt and condense such a complex story into an hour and a half film.  But we're reaching the end.  This trip is probably the last we'll do for the film.  Today is our eighth day here.  Our group consists of me, Keith and Ricardo Ballesteros, our student from the BURECS Program at Boston University who was kind enough to join us as our translator/intern.  Originally from Mexico, Ricardo is a native Spanish speaker, which was most helpful for our interviews with the former and current Presidents of AMWAE, the Waorani women's organization, who live in a Waorani community in the town of Shell.

First, we interviewed the current president, Patricia Nenquihui.  She dressed in traditional Waorani clothes, and painted the area around her eyes with the waxy red coating found inside an achiote fruit, Bixa orellana.  As the new president, she talked about the many challenges the Wao face, in particular, of early pregnancy among young Waorani women.  She said the laws imposed on the Wao by the Ecuadorian government prevented them from disciplining their children the way they are accustomed to, and their children have thus run amok.  Kids learn about sex at increasingly younger ages, many at 5 or 6, and an alarming number are giving birth to their own children as soon as they are physically able.  In this era, with their land and way of life at such risk, Nenquihui believes proper education is the only way forward for the Wao.  That will never adequately happen with pregnant young women dropping out of school.  But also, the quality of the education they are able to receive is often abysmally low, which presents yet another challenge. Since first contact in 1957, a succession of schooling systems have been imposed on the Wao, initially from the evangelical missionaries, and later on from the Ecuadorian government.  One of the major problems is simply finding teachers willing to travel to Waorani communities, which are sometimes extremely remote, for very little money.  Those willing are often poorly educated themselves, and cannot find jobs elsewhere.  Worse, it is not uncommon for these teachers to form inappropriate relationships with their students, and many young Waorani women are giving birth to their teacher's children.  Those students able to make it all the way through school aren't developing skills sufficient to compete in the outside world, and worse, these schools take the Wao out of their traditional classrooms in the forest, so they are losing the skills necessary to survive in their own world.

The women of AMWAE are working to create opportunities for their children in ways the larger Waorani governing body is not.  Through promoting the sale of traditional artesian crafts and a new venture to grow and produce their own brand of chocolate, they are creating economic opportunities for the Wao to generate a sustainable income.  This, Ima hopes, will provide an economic platform from which Wao families can both maintain their traditions and have some stability in the outside world.  The work these women do is truly inspiring.  They seem to have the ability to realize a vision for their children and their people where others, both Wao and outsiders, have not.

Right now, having traveled from Quito to Puyo and Shell, then Coca, we've now parked ourselves at a bridge along the Via Auca, which crosses the Shiripuno River.  In a few minutes, we'll take a canoe up that river for 3 hours or so until we reach the Waorani community of Keweriono.  When we first started coming here, the trip took at least 6 hours, sometimes longer.  That's changed in part because of the failure of the ITT Initiative, which gave oil companies the go-ahead to drill in parts of Yasuni National Park and Waorani Territory.  To gain access to their land for seismic testing and eventually drilling, the oil companies traded motors, boats, generators, and satellite phones to the Waorani, so what were once heavy, dugout canoes have now been replaced with those made of lighter fiberglass.  The new boats and motors are much faster on the water, and since we are smack in the middle of the rainy season, water levels are high, which usually makes travel a little quicker.  

When we come back to civilization on the 15th, we hope to have plenty of media to share.  See you soon!