One Week; One Comuna

We've done it! My GPS now holds coordinates corresponding to the complete community boundary.
So far, I've now circumnavigated Comuna Los Naranjo, been on board a 4-person motorcycle ride, and not gone a day this week without eating bananas in some form or another. I'd like to say I walked the whole perimeter, but the last day we drove a few of the boundary roads on Roberto's bike (see right), thus finishing our fourth day's work in the afternoon of the third day. Another qualification, the 4-person moto did include 2 children, so was actually less of a feat than sharing the seat with two fair-sized men. The banana boast is no stretch though, I've hardly gone a meal without plátano, interestingly, never once served raw. We eat it boiled, steamed, mashed and fried, sliced and fried, and of course, the Tsáchila favorite: boiled, mashed, then rolled. Here you can see the process, the finished product is sitting in the pot on top of the boiled bananas. Excuse the culinary digression, it has been somewhat of a preoccupation in the last week.
With the extra time I had after the exterior property lines, I made waypoints at the school, football field, cemetery, and a bridge. This will hopefully serve as highly visible reference points for overlaying an aerial photo.

On Friday, I attended a meeting in Puerto Limon concerning a reforestation project for the county containing Los Naranjo. Giovanny, Yanapuma's agriculture expert, gave a presentation advocating the participation of the Tsachila as seedling vendors to county officials, members of a local NGO and an environmental consultant. I was brought along because one of the issues complicating project initiation in border regions is that the county does not have very well defined boundaries. I was surprised to hear some debate about which towns actually fell within the county's authority. Towards the end of the meeting, the brought the position they envisioned me taking on: head county GIS technician! That was a bit of a shock. I felt like I was possibly getting myself roped into something I had no desire or ability to do. Fortunately, I knew all I had to do was talk a little longer and they would better comprehend my skill level as demonstrated by my language (in)competence. They were not easily dissuaded, but we eventually compromised to the goal of mapping the nearby Tsáchila communities instead of the entire county. The only problem with this plan is that it will take full participation from each of the Tsáchila comunas. So as of yet, this blog's title maintains its pertinence. This week I have my work set out for me though, remembering how to use ArcGIS at the Quito office.