I arrived in Puyo- well i say Puyo, but the not wholly inspiring bus
terminal is a bit north of the main town- and was met by Simon one of
the coordinators, wearing a trademark polo shirt and driving the
even-more-trademark red and rusty jeep of the project, and we headed
into town. there i met another coordinator, Vini who´s also working
here at the moment.

On out way to the house which is about an hour outside of Puyo along
the Arajuno road Vini and Simon´s banter, dodgy jokes and detailing of
how stuff works here put me totally at ease. We also picked up another
volunteer on the way, Natalie, who´s also my age and the four of us
made up the intial teaching teams, which worked out really well as the
four of us get on great.
-That´s one thing i´ve noticed during my weeks here: the
great personalties this project attracts. everyone working here has
been really cool up for a laugh, like minded people, which made
intially settling and all the days since fantastic.

The house where the project coordinaotrs and volunteers live is also
great, its been a really nice, chilled space to live in. Its wooden
floors and walls shape around a sort of roman-style open courtyard,
with hammocks on either side and the kitchen/lounge and bedrooms
beyond them. The veranda is such a great space to relax in, and i was
particularly stoked to discover there´s permenantly a guitar here,
which i had previously been missing on my trip! We get 3ish hours of
electricity in the evening thanks to the petrol run generator, which
is more than sufficient for charging the creature comforts you might
want/need/have.
-Although i almost prefer the candles we use when the
generator goes out, there´s a cool atmosphere at night here, and the
stars on a clear evening are incredible in the jungle!
We´ve been playing ping pong a lot recently on the crooked and
haphazard table which is a lot of fun, and, being in the jungle, the
insects and other life chilling at the house is crazy- we had
tarantula out on the veranda recently- but i´ve totally got used to
living with them.

I´ve mainly been teaching at schools near kilometres 22 and 40, where
the kids are just fantastic. So freindly and full of energy, i always
go and come back witha huge smile on my face, and i´ll will miss them
all so much when i have to leave in a few days time. We plan our
lessons in the afternoons after school lets out, usually 12.30ish. I
teach 4 and a half days a week (the ´half´ is the local adult classes
on wednesday and friday, which are a lot of fun) and the rest of time
is pretty much free to relax, go into Puyo for internet and a batido
(sublime) or help out with the sundries of the project; like tidying
up the house a bit, writing an improvised blog for Simon and Nick, or
helping out with maintenance of the house (my questionable woodworking
skills have been called upon recently)!

Overall the atmosphere and general vibe of the people and places of
this project has been really great, and most important of all, i´ve
noticed the real diffence us volunteers are making to the lives of the
people in this part of the world, and its been a truly incredible and
rewarding experience.