Standing up for What they Beleive in

Hi there
I hope this to be a short blog..... I hope but I feel really passionate about this so who knows when I get a rattling along.
Tomorrow is the first time we will experience a National strike. This is where, in this case, the Indigenous persons will block all the roads in Ecuador, in protest of the new mining laws.
I understand that the miners are shockingly..... mostly Canadian companies. Most of the issues are referring to gold but also other minerals that are abuntant here. Those environmentally concerned companies (not) are chomping at the bit to get in there and start raping with the fervor of valkries. Since Rob has a very good understanding of the goings on of these industries and has directly witnessed the exploitation what the large companies do and how they manipulate the laws, especially when they think that no one is looking, plus we understand the results of the 25 year long oil spill in the Ecuadorian jungle, again caused by outside country companies, that has been what can only be discribed as the worlds' worst man-made catastrophe. I support these people fully. These people are afraid what happened in the jungle, the devestation of lives and environment, will happen in many other places here in Ecuador. This is a very natural resourse rich country.
Texico, I beleive was the company that happily and recklessly spilled their petro and or wastes for 25 years, for the priviledge of making sooooo much money at the expence of lives and land, and have since refused to clean up their mess. They are certainly not interested , (pardon my french)or give a shit, what will happen to or what has happened to those people and the jungle. Gee, I wonder why the citizens are not happy. (there is a class action suit going on against said company and I hope they win.) (I have met several people working in the jungle who are trying to solve the problem in both the clean up and the poisoning results to the locals and what they have said hurts my soul).
What I understand, that normally takes place in a National strike, is the protestors will close the highways with all the appropriate signage and cussing. However, I understand that the Ecuadorian military will make a huge pressence and there are expected to be fatalities.
Those who worry when I say this, must realize this action would only take place at the blockages on the roads to various cities and not residences or in towns. So we have no desire to leave the house or get into any kind of trouble, everyone knows where and who to stay away from to keep safe. Apparently, what is to be expected: traditionally, is that you store up stuffs at your house and that is where you hang for most of the day. Usually it is a one day strike, they burn tires on the road, no one travels from city to city and that is the end of that.
What really moves me to blog is, coming from complacent Canada, these people band together passionately, against their chosen government and cause immediate change.
I was involved in the stand against the changes to the medical cutbacks in the 80/90's in BC and our results were: When everyone thought that they were heard and there would be no changes, the government let it slide for six months and told everyone to be happy because they were listened to and with in the six months the government applied those cut backs anyway and changed the laws to make the protests illegal or at least more difficult.
This also happened with the irradiation of dairy laws, actually, it was 8 months before they restocked the shelves with irradiated dairy and only told the stores higher ups and not the public what they were doing. So the masses had absolutely no say in the changes and were kept in ignorance, and unknowingly consume irradiated foods they thought were not irradiated.
Nice eh. We the Canadians, are a sneaky country who doesn't like to fight in public. That's for sure. Here they stand for what they beleive in. No questions and no failing. Apparrently though, this is one of the reasons they have had soooo many presidents over the years and so many government changes. They catch the buggers in the act and oust them out, no long investigations and wasting time, out he goes, simple. Is that really soooo bad. It just seem logical to me somehow.
What I think though, and after having talked with soooo many people/locals about, is they love this president and want him to continue, however they just want to be heard and not allow their country to die. This is more of a stand against the raping of the land and providing voice and body to their feelings. I say all the power to them and burn those tires and block those roads, if that is what can make change happen. I know I don't want to see here another Fort McMurray or jungle exploitation.
Many people, make fun of the protestors here, especially if those people are "extranjeros". They are made fun of because we see burning tires and adding voice and energy to their ideals as primative, but I think if they can create change and cause such discomfort that the government bends, they are not primative at all, the extranjeros are because we just do what our governments dictates without question and without thought. I remember a logo that was out there that I loved and it was "Question Everything", also "there is not such thing as a bad Question".
Just look at the policies of the US that have changed, they, because they listened to their government, they are no longer the free, the proud and the brave,..... are they. Their government has stripped the people of all their rights of freedom because their government said so and want complete blinding control. They even changed ownership of land rights/laws in the US to where an individual doesn't actually own their land. We know of several US citizens who were either going to buy land in Ecuador or hotels and needed to get their money across only to be stopped at the border by the feds and told to put the money back in the country (they were not carrying it on their persons but sending it through the banks.) When those people said it was their money, the feds reply was "It is only your money while you are in the country, it is ours when it is out." Now thats real freedom, eh.
I don't want that to happen here, and I pray that if tire burnings and road closures cause ears to listen, then good for them. REALLY.
Talk with you all later, find your freedom and support life.
Robin

Clean those body parts.

Okay, I realize this is the second posting in one day, but I didn't think that this posting should be with the other one. This posting is about being responcible to your body. I take this very seriously. Being the new year, Rob, Rachelle and I felt, we would start the New Year with a good and thorough cleanse. I like to do at least one type of body (internal) cleanse per year. I have done many of them, but shockingly, last year, we found, what many people think also, is probably one of the most thorough and gentle. I don't like to push products, so to if you want to know the cleanse we used, you will have to ask me by e-mail. Needless to say, it is not always what you use but the fact that you are taking responcibility for what has gone in and be darn sure it makes its way back out, that counts. On this clease, there is a one week prep, with herbs, the second week is a juice fast with herbs and a clay/herb mix. This is the second time doing this cleanse, I thought the first was good but this one was shocking. I decided that instead of just juicing I would eat high water content veggies. Now how do I express this without getting vulgar or gross. Welllll, it is the outvalve for food that we are talking about here, so I will try and be frank and still maintain decorum. ... I hope. Let me just say that the material that came out and I am glad that it is out, I am happy to say good bye to. Last time I said I removed living cancer and this time, whatever came out was about 7 times the volume of last time. I honestly did not think it would be possible to have this kind of experience and the content and size of the material either.
I have this philosophy about what this material is...... Everyone knows that we shed our skin, now you have to realize that skin/epithileal tissue is in the intestines too, with similar cell structure, depending on where in the intestines it is. If you have eaten welll, anything, I am sure there is always some residue left in certain areas in the intestines. As these residues build up they cover the shedding skin which now can't be shed properly as it is coated with material that either could not pass or glued itself to the wall. What a cleanse like it did does, is it pulls away the coating and also the unshed tissue away from the wall and you can easily pass it. What shocked me is the volume, color and size. This material feels different than the regular passing in that, it feels like you are passing latex rubber, and when you do your "paper work" there is nothing on the paper. Of course, because you feel things that are happening are different, you can't help but check to see what is going on. Curiosity nailed the cat. The material I shed was flesh tone in color or in some spots shriveled and black and you could see depending on where in the system you shed it from, there were even more different shapes and colors. We called it anal aliens, with fondness, as we are glad to see it leave and not return. Rob and Rachelle did not have as an extreme reaction that I did, but they also fasted, I didn't , I ate high water, high fiber foods in very small quantities with the powders and herbs.
Here is the real shocker, the amount I think I passed in total was probably about 15 ft. No kidding, please remember I do not like to exaggerate and nor do I lie.... so.... Oddly enough my system feels alot different and I feel like my guts are different, it feels like they were stretched and now they are coming back into a different shape. I feel a bit tender but it feels like I need to be sure be gentle to it and watch what goes in.
I also think that when you have emotional stuff, and experiences, you store it in different areas of the body, and I have always felt that the intestines were a weak spot for me. So.... using that philosophy, I am glad to let go of the past both physically and emotionally. So here's cheers to you if you cleanse and here's hope for those who don't, to consider letting go of that which does not serve you by being responcible to your body and start realizing how much you can do by taking care of your self through proper eating and cleansing.
Talk with you all later
Robin

Life, the Universe, and everything

Hi there:
Well, Christmas and New Years came and went. We stayed in Banos for Christmas and had Christmas turkey with the works. It was a bit of a strange day as it was Rachelles Birthday too, and she decided to go water rafting and hanging out with friends. So in reality we had Christmas the next day and carried on from there. It didn't really feel like Christmas, and I don't mean because of the lack of snow, it was more that Christmas was different because a certain someone is now 17 and that changes quite a bit. It was still good just very different. We decided we had had enough of Banos and required a bit of a change, and went to the coast. We took the long way down and went through Latacunga. This is the first time I actually saw the poor side of Ecuador. Here there were sheep and llamas being herded and the life was much more basic. There were thatched huts to live in and begging on the side of the road. But the scenery was fantastic. What the pictures are like in scotland. On the side of the roads too, was a thing called beaute. It is the celebration of the old widow. This is where the men dress up as women, begging for whatever they can get. It is a tradition here that the men can have one day to be women, in sexy black clothes and saunter around. It is kind of bizarre really, if you don't give something they can do the Halloween thing and play tricks on you. So the bus we were on was stopped with rope crossing it and so on, all in good fun. We went to Bahia it took 5 bus changes and about 12 hours, yuck. Bahia is a city where the cruise liners used to port, but, as the bay became wealthier, the farmers stripped more of the mountains to make farms and down washed the land into the bay. Now the cruise liners go elsewhere. It is sad really you can see that it was once a prospering place but now it has a different flavor. A friend of ours has a hostel there and that is where we met up with a friend of ours from Canada who came to spend Christmas with us. He took an earlier departure and was waiting for us with cold beer. I have to say, I forgot how hot it can be on the coast. After all the hoopla about how dangerous Bahia was, we felt quite comfortable to walk around at night on the beach with no problems. It was all very nice. And of course very refreshing to be close to the sea. While we were there, they were getting ready for New Years. This meant parades and so on. We were told that we might not be able to get to have rooms with out reservations, but we wanted to keep moving on to explore sooooo we took our chances and never had a problem getting a room. Next stop, we had to cross the bay and then catch a bus to Canoa, ( for all the hoopla about Canoa being a cool destination, I fail to see why. It was like the Baha in Mexico, dead and desserty and very f----ing Nice place to stop and have cerviche but not more thank you. Soooo, we carried on to Pernales, which is another city of questionable destinations. I was told by one of the local not to go out at night because it was dangerous. So dinner was good in one of the resturants by the sea. I saw wonderful waves and great looking for shells. The hotel sucked. The beds were way hard. Soooo, we carried on and went over close to the beach by bus and ended in a little town where the guys finagled with the small boatmen while having a beer. We took about an hour to get to a beach town calle Monpiche. WOW. This is a fabulous little place, it is one of the few undiscovered beaches that still has its jungle growing close to the beach. We stayed here and rented a Cabana by the sea. The shells were nice and because it was New Years, we fortunately found this little place. We walked and met some friends from Banos (unplanned, but fortunate) who had brought some kids with them. Our kids hung with their kids and it was great. Dane had cashed in on his last years birthday present promise of a body board, and surfed and even went horse back riding with the other kids. Rachelle made friends with a couple of boys and well you know how girls are at this age...... So in total we spent 3 days there, including "New Years". The amazing thing about New Years on the coast is that the other close towns are celebrating tooo. This means at the stroke of 12, all the cities had their fireworks too. They don't go cheap on their fireworks either. We could see at least 5 other cities/towns from Monpiche and that was very cool seeing them light up and all by the ocean. We did however find on place to have good filtered coffee, the coastal people love Nescafe,,,,, yuck. Overall it was nice. Feeling the pressure of Rachelle not completeing her schooling we left and went to Atacames. Now here is another town, I simply don't understand. The beach is calm and white sanded and you can walk forever, but it is a city. I found it rather yucky and it is another town that I would not call one of my chosen destinations. We had cerviche there too, and I started to notice a rumbly in my tumbly. Oh Oh.
We stayed one day in Atacames and parted ways with Hank (he went to Columbia) and we organized going on a Coache Cama. A bus with seats that can tilt back to almost be a bed. Had good potencial right. Okey dokey, first things first remember my tumbly, and I am getting a bit anxious. But before much of that happened, on fellow started doing the green face thing and ralphed right on Rob. Fortunately, it was only Coconut, that had just met his lips before he boarded the bus. It could have been alot worse. I am starting to feel the pressure rise, when the rain came down. I got up from the window seat to check out the bathroom. Soooo Rob took my seat and waited for my return, from a very smelly bathroom, which was directly behind us, another yuck. So I sit back down nervously, when rain starts coming through the windows and gets Rob soaking wet. Poor guy, it was hard to find humor with all the goings on. Needless to say, I did not sleep on the bus and was sooooo glad to get off and go home. The bus literally stopped outside our door, so we didn't even have to walk far. Overall, I am glad we went to the coast it was great and within 5 weeks we will go again, as a send off for Rob for he returns to Canada in 6 weeks. Hard to beleive.
The workers have been still going like made on the house, and are doing a great job. But I do have to say, it is better if you are a man, they listen better than they do to women. So that means no work will be done while Rob is away, and I have to say that makes me happy.
Soooo, talk to you all later
Robin