MedLife Ecuador: Reality Tour: Shiripuno
Today, the MedLife team took our group on a reality tour. The purpose of this day is to learn a bit more about the communities the students will be working with, their customs, traditions, and challenges. We would be volunteering and visiting communities in the Tena municipality, which is the capital of the Napo Province in the Amazon region of Ecuador.
We arrived at Shiripuno, a community cultural center run by a women’s collective. The goal of this collective is to supplement and generate income by sharing cultural traditions and selling artesanal goods. One of our hosts explained how this center has been formed by the community in the early 2000s, but that it had not been successful until the women of the community had taken charge of the initiative. Today, women take shifts working at the center, balancing this with their family responsibilities and subsistence farming work.
The women welcomed us by sharing a traditional drink, a tea made of guayusa - this caffinate drink is prepared by families daily and serves to give not only energy before working on their plots or fishing, but also purifies the body and spirit. After drinking the tea, our hosts painted our faces with symbols representing the rainforest.
We also took a short hike into the forest and learned about medicinal plants and agricultural practices, such as the preparation of cacao, mining for gold dust at the river banks, and more.
After our visit to Shiripuno, we traveled by boat along the river to a small island known for its monkeys, which we saw playing in the town square! The monkeys were quite playful and entertaining as well as mischievous, trying to grab our water bottles and play fighting with each other.
Learn more about MedLife here and follow the SESO MedLife chapter's Instagram account for more videos, photos, and information about upcoming service projects and initiatives.
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