The Last Comuna

Comuna La Peripa: two full days. My visits are getting shorter and shorter. At this pace, I could have easily finished the six unmapped Tsachila communities if I had a full semester instead of the Dartmouth quarter. Still, I’m happy with the three we managed and I’m glad I got to squeeze in Peripa. In this last comuna I had some good conversations, saw some beautiful countryside and finally got to ride a motorcycle without straddling another man. Friday afternoon I took out Eddie’s (short for Edison, the 28 year-old president of the community) Suzuki to mark roads. Although it took me a good 5 minutes to start the bike on an uphill (after pushing it across a river), I still felt pretty damn cool riding home with a backdrop of banana palms against a sunset.

Walking the boundary in Peripa

I was pushed to an interesting conclusion recently (no, not about my vanity as I set up a tripod to pose with the motorcycle). The Dickey Center, benevolent providers of funding for this internship/adventure, sent me a short check-up including a seemingly mundane question; “What kinds of daily/weekly routines have you established? How are these helping or hindering your experience of the local culture and customs?” After writing the obvious, “I wake up around 8:30 and go to the office…”, I got stuck on the second part. I had been pleased with the routine I’d established and the efficiency I accomplished, but pondering it more, I couldn’t help thinking there was some negative correlation between efficiency and ‘experience of culture.’ Work in Naranjos was anything but efficient, but the extra time allowed me to get to know the family and learn about daily life in the comuna. Peripa may have been a deviation from the rule; during my short stay I engaged in more social activity than my four days in El Poste, though I wouldn’t say it was an exception. Saturday night I attended a huge graduation party for the son of the vice president. I was dropped off early, got to help set up, and then was fed the famous guanta while I talked about mapping with a member of another community. It was fun, but I probably would have stayed for the raucous later party if I had known more than one face in the crowd, that is, if I had been in town for more than 48 hours.
So in my philosophical musing I decided efficiency might not be all it’s cut out to be. We hold efficiency as a synonymous virtue with productivity, but maybe productivity, with some necessary redefinition, is a more appropriate goal. If ‘product’ is broadened to include the intangibles, correctly weighted above physical goods, then we have a more useful metric. Judging by this standard, I was as productive in Los Naranjos as in El Poste, where I mapped twice the area in half the time, because I made friends and learned a ton.