Wednesday, March 25, 2015 Under the Palm Tree

After breakfast this morning, Washington invited us to his workshop for the interview. His first question was why are we here? He has been working with Chris for years--Chris brought a couple of tours to see him, but he has never met Romel, the artisan rep nor even Elizabeth, the South American manager who lives the closest. Why now these gringos who come and want to ask him questions? We explained that we are trying to help the artisans sell their products better by supplying some background to the story. He seemed to accept that, and told us he had been working on carving tagua animals for most of his adult life. He showed us the illustrated wildlife book he uses to make the designs. First he chooses the tagua nut that is the right shape for the animal he wants to make.

Compared to all the other tagua carvers we have seen, Washington is a Michelangelo. His figures have a lot of detail, but more importantly, their poses are very lifelike. You almost want to back away from the miniature elephant or lion because of their imposing presentation.

At 10 am, we took a break to Skype with the U.S. They have an idea they would like us to stay for a couple of more months to finish the reorganization we have started here. We agreed to discuss it, but the internet connection was so poor that we had to postpone it until the following week.

We continued the demonstration that Washington had started in the workshop. The steps are intricate and quick. We watched the elephant taking shape under his hands with amazement. There are a couple of rotary saws he uses enclosed in a wooden box to keep chips from flying into his face. Then he has several small size electric hand drills to shape the fine details or in some cases, make holes to insert tail, ears or tusks.

After the animal was shaped, Washington brought it to his sister, Irlanda, who helps him in the work. She has a rotary sander she uses to give the animals a high polish. She uses three different grades of sandpaper and a kaolin clay and buffer to give it the final shine. Then she returned it to Washington.

He looked it over carefully for flaws, then chose a tagua nut to be the base, planed it off top and bottom, carved our names with his drill, cut the tusk piece in half and inserted the halves into the holes he had already drilled, and voila! there is our elephant. The entire process took about half an hour. We were very impressed with his skill and dexterity. His fingers seemed to us to come perilously close to the saws. He clearly knew what he was doing, and hasn't had any major accidents in all the years he's been doing this. Still, we breathed easier when he took up the drill or sander.

At lunch, Washington told us that Manta is considered the tuna capital of the world. Alba served fresh-caught tuna so perfectly cooked and seasoned, it made me want to cry for all the cans of tuna I have consumed without ever discovering what tuna really tastes like. Wow! Heavenly!

It is very hot and humid on the coast of Ecuador. This causes it to rain a lot, as all that evaporated sea water can't stay and accumulate in the air indefinitely. However . . . never in my life have I seen such rain as fell this afternoon! The water was beginning to back up toward the house, so Jorge took off his shirt and waded out into the mud of the tiny front yard with a shovel to do some civil engineering--flood relief, actually. He dug a ditch right next to the concrete slab in front of the door, lined it with bricks and rocks and the water ran off down the slight hill beside the house. It was nice and cool afterwards. It rained and rained and it was so heavy, I was sure it would stop soon, but it did not! No wonder the vegetation is sparse here--the water must wash all the seeds away before they can grow roots to hold on with. The heat is causing my ankles and legs to swell. It is scary-looking to the family, but only painful to me.

In the afternoon, Vincent made a slide show for the family, using the "007" theme. Everyone was delighted with this gift. How special it was to see their family all represented in the record of their activities in the past two days. It is something Vincent has learned how to do that blesses our hosts very much. We are both so happy to see their delighted smiles and hear their laughter.

Just before sundown we went up to the roof to check e-mail and were delighted to see several lorakeets in the scrub trees behind the house. The birds are so colorful here. The national bird is the picaflor--the hummingbird. Their emerald and scarlet are everywhere. There is a Kingdom Hall (church) right beside Washington's house, and it is beautifully kept and landscaped. It grows like a tidy mushroom right out of the jungle and waste land.

Washington has a really tiny apartment on the roof where two young Jehovah's Witnesses live. I can't imagine two people living in that space, but they came out to talk with us. They are missionaries, so every morning they go out to preach, i.e., read the Bible to neighbors in this small town. Life here is calm, proceeding at an unhurried pace. When the sun sets, we all go to the front door to watch it. Friends and relatives drop in, chat for a while, then others replace them. Alba cooks dinner and we stuff ourselves with her delicious food.

Tonight we learned what the mosquito net was for--a much more peaceful sleep this night.