Losing and winning

My mom's party lost the elections which means a pretty somber mood in the house. From what I can gather she is not as sad for the fact that she lost herself, but more for the mayor that has been in office in Cotacachi for 12 years is now gone. She and my host dad are pretty bummed, especially because the new mayor is from a neighboring community called Turuco. Turuco and my community, Santa Barbara are currently in a heated conflict over rights to a source of water that is located in Turuco. I don't understand all the details but my dad goes to meetings pretty regularly with lawyers and Turuco keeps doing sneaky, underhanded things like cutting the pipes that Santa Barbara has worked hard to install. So the last few days have been dramatic, sad, emotional and tense in the house.

One good thing that happened was that yesterday I finally accomplished a small project! This is a big deal because it is so freaking hard to get anything done here. I finished making signs with the Spanish, English and Scientific name of all the plants at the vivero I have been working at, as well as the classification of the plant--fruit,reforestation, etc. Small victory for me!

I leave on Friday but have a lot to do before then. Unfortunately, I am waiting for a meeting this afternoon to be able to get started on my mountain of work. Hopefully all goes well and the meeting actually happens!