Business and Pleasure

Work and Excursion

Date: January 3, 2011
Location: Puerto Cayo, Manabi, Ecuador

My alarm read 7:00am. A quick breakfast and I was on my way to the Junta for our first group meeting and English lessons. As our planning had established earlier last week, we were each assigned to one work group (Marketing, or Environmental Education) and one daily English tutoring session(to: fishermen, restaurant workers, or open to the community). Clearly marketing was vastly superior to its rival work group. We quickly set up a brilliant plan that would outshine any of the Environmental Education's work.

I got a chance to teach English to the fishermen. It was as much a learning for me as it was from them, I learned about their different fish types in the area, their fishing customs, and the locations of their fishing spots. English lessons went well. And our first test run occurred right away. That afternoon, we set out, two of us, on a fishing trip with the fishermen. To be able to experience first hand the entire process was satisfying. Most notably, the wildlife was simply stunning. Not only were their nets catching all sorts of fish (mainly small) and crabs, but we also saw eels, star fish, blow fish, prawn shrimp, and even a sea horse. On top of all that, the boat was surrounded by a flock of a dozen seagulls all waiting to try to eat whatever fish the fishermen could not sell/bring back to port. Meanwhile, we talked for hours and hours. The fishermen told us their tales of large hauls of fish they used to catch. Those times however, they said sadly, are over. The industrial boats are coming in closer and competing with the local fishermen, who have much smaller boats, and equipment. These industrial boats are slowly chocking the local fishing economy, in favor or a corporate agenda. These marked my first true bonding experience with a local Puerto Cayan.

Fishing:


Pelicans:


PS.
Our work plan for marketing was pretty straightforward: Our goal was to digitally record the town and our trips, while at the same time planing a major publicity campaign. However to do so, we first had to do some research. We had to find the popular locations in the town and come up with a list of assets to publicize.