Kichwa and oil

Most communities have negotiated with the oil companies the planting of a crop or something quite limited  but the leader of this community

 bargained hard with the oil company that wanted to run a pipe though the community.  It was placed 

only at the boundary and for that they had to build Sani Eco Lodge and train the local staff.  The profits 

from the Eco Lodge all go to the community and each community member must work for a year 

at the lodge after finishing school.  There school is pre - three years of high school.  Most complete 

though grade 6 but a small percentage  get to go to university.  

The current president of Ecuador has initiated major education reforms building many 

local schools and making education more affordable or free.  

The kichwa children used to have to travel up to hours by canoe to school.  The lodge has enabled them to buy a bus. 

Correction:  I wondered how they used a bus since I thought, and found it is true that there are NO roads I this part of Ecuador. No horses.  ALL transportation is on the river.  So the school bus is actually 3 motorized canoes.

 

I had a wonderful conversation with our guide at lunch about Kichwa spirituality and Shamanism.  They use the term "witch doctor"  freely and it means someone who practices all the positive ways of herbs and rituals.  I told him how it is used in the States and he was amazed.

 

It sounds like the Kichwa have a good relationship with traditional medicine and Western medicine and the Shaman will send them to the local Dr if it is something that needs surgery etc.

 

Of course many can't afford western medicine. 

 

I asked if there is hunger and he said not I the countryside because people are able to grow rice and catch fish.  It is different in the city where the poor have few resources.