Santa Rita

Hi Family and Friends!

Last week I went up to the school in the community of Santa Rita with Alexandra, Runatarpuna's project manager, and Welcome, our Global Citizen Year volunteer.

Fundación Runa did a community mapping project with Santa Rita to establish where the community boarders the Colonso Forest, a protected area of Amazon Rainforest. This map can help the community make decisions about how to use community land and how to protect the Colonso Forest. With the use of this map, we will work with the community to create buffer zones of agroforestry production by planting guayusa among their other crops. The guayusa will be a source of income to the farmers and hopefully deter them from entering the forest to cut down trees and hunt. You can read more about Fundación Runa's project to protect the Colonso Forest here.

We gave copies of the maps to the leaders of Santa Rita last month, but they requested that we make copies for the school as well, so that they may use it in their curriculum.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Aliana

Name Tags

Some communities wanted us to identify ourselves when we are in the communities with Fundación Runa badges.  Here we are with our new badges:

Happy Wednesday, all!

Love,
Aliana 

St. Patrick's Day BBQ

Hi Family and Friends!

Last weekend my friends and I went to a barbeque at San Pedro on St. Patrick's Day.  Our friend Ester lives there, right by the river.

Kate, an intern, and I made a cake and Irish Soda Bread :)

Carolina (a friend visiting from Chile and good cook!) and Carolyn (my very fun housemate) helped prepare the food.

The fire was lit under the choza (thatch roof building) and we grilled sweet plantains, kebabs with vegetables and meat, and corn.

 Xavier and I dancing salsa at the BBQ.















Bonnie (my housemate who is a Fullbright Scholar) and Ester (our friend who hosted the BBQ).

Ester, Carolina, Aliana and Carolyn wearing our sunglasses at night :)










It was a really fun day!  More to come soon!

Love,
Aliana

Penelope

Penelope is our sweet, mellow office dog. She loves to be pet and will get my attention by putting her chin or her paw on leg when I'm sitting down. She always joins us for a walk around town or when we go running after work. Here are some great pictures.

With Nick at a meeting:

Distracting me from work:

With our intern, Kate:

 

She even won Cass' heart (she didn't like dogs before Nel):

  

 Relaxing with Lindsay on the couch:

Celebrations

Good morning family and friends!

Last Tuesday was International Women's Day or Día de la Mujer. It is celebrated here in Ecuador by giving flowers or chocolates to important women in your life, much like Mother's Day or Valentine's Day. It was originally established by the Socialist Party of America  to celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women. At the office we received roses and chocolates from Runa and our factory director, Manolo, bought a cake for us. (L to R: Cass, Katya, Aliana, Sandra, Alexandra, Sophia, and Sophia's daughter, Shirley)

I worked on Saturday because we had another Guayusa Producer Executive Body meeting.  We are helping them create a Fair Trade development plan for this year. They are required to do this in order to have access to the money from the social premium fund. Kate, one of our interns, is assisting us in facilitating this process with the farmers.

This weekend we also celebrated Xavier's birthday with a small bbq on Saturday evening at our house. We had about 10 people over and we grilled steak and hamburgers. Xavi's friend who makes amazing cakes brought a strawberry tart and a tres leches cake, both were delicious! She promises to teach me to make tres leches sometime soon.

Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Aliana 

View from the Office

Here is a view from the second floor window of our office. Beautiful!

La Cosecha de Guayusa (The Guayusa Harvest)

Hi Friends and Family,

Last Monday I went out with a family in a Kichwa community to harvest guayusa on their farm.  Runa was hosting a group from a Canadian tea company, David's Tea (they just opened in NYC as well, check them out!), and they came along for the harvest, too.

We arrived at the office at 7am and drove out to the community, which is about 20 minutes away, accompanied by a harvest field technician. The farmers were there waiting for us and we trekked through the traditional jungle farms, chakras, to get to the guayusa trees that we were going to harvest from.

When we got to the guyausa trees, the farmers had cut down branches for us to pick the good leaves from. The leaves must be green and free of any spots, rips or holes.

We saw (and were bit by) many different kinds of bugs along the way...

Guayusa is not the only crop that these farmers cultivate, they also grow coffee and cacao (for chocolate). Here is a picture of their cacao trees (this is what the cacao fruit looks like as its grown on small farms in tropical countries...the seeds inside of this fruit are used to make chocolate):




 





The farmer we were working with showed us some flowers:

We picked five sacks of guayusa from the five trees that the family has. Cass and I helped bring the sacks back to their house using baskets carried with a strap our heads (the farmers must have strong necks!).

Here is all the guayusa in white sacks, ready to be taken to the factory to be dried and processed.

The farmer made me promise that I would send her a copy of this picture of us with the guayusa tree in the background :) 

It was definitely a lot of fun and a great learning experience to see first hand where Runa's guayusa comes from and the process that the farmers use to harvest it. If any of you come down and visit me, I can arrange for you to go out with a family and harvest, it is a great experience!

Love you,
Aliana

PEB Meeting and Dan's Visit

Hello Family and Friends!


This week has been very exciting and fun.  About two weeks ago, Runa was certified Fair Trade. On Saturday we had a wonderfully productive meeting with the Guayusa Producer Executive Body (PEB) at Runa's office to share the good news and plan their activities for the year. The PEB is made up of representatives from the different areas in which Runa works, and has been set up through the Fair Trade standards in order to ensure that farmers have a voice in the supply chain. According to Fair Trade, the group must take on projects to benefit all guayusa farmers and can do so by spending the Fair Trade Social Premium (a 15% premium paid by the business above the cost of the guayusa). Eight of the nine members of the PEB were in attendance and we accomplished a lot. Runa co-founder, Dan, is visiting Ecuador and he brought boxes of Runa Guayusa tea for the PEB to try. They tasted the peppermint guayusa and the citrus ginger mixes and enjoyed them (thanks to Dan for taking such great pictures).

 

 

We got samples of the guayusa bottled beverage that will be launched in the next couple of weeks in Whole Foods from New York to Boston. Here is a picture of me with field technicians, Pedro, Alex, Elias and Silverio with the new bottles.

I went out to dinner and drinks this week with some coworkers from the office (from left top around the circle: Alexis - our accountant in Quito, Sofia - our accountant in Archidona, Manolo - our factory manager, Dan, me, Cass, Katya - our secretary, and Gabriela - a student researcher).

Next post, I'll share pictures and stories from harvesting guayusa with farmers and Runa volunteers in a Kichwa community.

Love,
Aliana