Tosagua: the "Heart of Manabi"

One of three places Habitat for Humanity builds in Ecuador is the town of "Tosagua", named for its annual flooding, in the coastal-plain, and agricultural center of the province of "Manabi."

It is nick-named the "Heart of Manabi" because it is not only located in the center of the province, the people also assured our volunteers that the residents of Manabi have the biggest, and most open hearts~!

In late November the new Global Village Coordinator, Daniel, and I, supported a Global village team to work on two houses in Tosagua. I was quite excited to visit and construct in Manabi for a week and a half, not only because it was a new region of Ecuador to explore, but also because the interim Habitat Director is from the province, and he never misses an opportunity to talk it up: the "rich" food, the climate, the people, and the lifestyle!

So-- I was excited to eat the best ceviche and fruits, experience the richest weather, meet the "most macho" men and "most beautiful" women, and experience the laid-back and friendly way of life. I must say that I was not disappointed!

Here's two kids swimming in the river, they really wanted their pictures taken as I walked over a bridge nearby. Each afternoon, many Tosagua residents would enjoy a river dip. The river was also a common place to see people washing clothes.

The only let-down was the brown and dry landscape...away from the river basin. Manabi is a very agricultural province, but the rainy season starts now, in January! When the rainy season starts, everything turns green in a matter of weeks.

Here's a photo of a typical Manabi house: raised on stilts, made of flattened bamboo, and with a tin roof. This one is in fairly good shape. The typical lifespan of a bamboo house is 6-8 years, after which families often start "patching" with whatever materials are available. Many Habitat families are replacing dilapidated bamboo house, which have been used well beyond their lifespan (see future Guayaquil entry for an example), with concrete houses (the one pictured above, however, is in good shape).

The town's people were all extremely welcoming, and the kids were quite curious about the group of foreigners. However we were not the first of our kind- Habitat has built approximately 40 houses in the town and groups of volunteers , from both Ecuador (mostly Quito) and other countries have frequently visited as volunteers.

Several of the families living in finished Habitat homes invited us into their homes, upon initial site of us, because they were so proud of their living quarters and wanted to show the volunteers what they would be building that week. Here is the entrance first house that Habitat built in Tosagua, one of the Global Village volunteers (Colleen), and the house owner and her sister.

I had been told that the town of Tosagua was a tranquil and mellow type of place...HA.

We happened to arrive the week during which all possible festivities seemed to be taking place:

• The "Juegos Cantonales" (province-wide games featuring primary school athletes from each "canton", similar to a county, held approximately every 15 years in Manabi)
• The town "Fiestas" (annual),
  
• The national elections (every four years),
  
• The local "Saint's Day" (annual and correlates with the town fiestas)
• and ....we celebrated the US national holiday, Thanksgiving!

Whew. It turned into a crazy week! Here's the Ferris wheel and its side-kick, set up for the town's fiestas.
Here is one of the local sports centers, painted to welcome all the young athletes and their coaches into town: "21st School Sports Games- Welcome!"
Here's the "Gusanito", "Little Worm" that ran amok every night through the dirt roads of Tosagua. He is a definite recipe for whiplash!

The town of Tosagua was very, very welcoming to the Global Village group, and I think every resident knew we had arrived within the first afternoon of our time there!

This group made friends with everyone, from store owners, to the salsa dancing 9 year old neighbor, to the town's firemen, to a band practicing down the street, gaggles of children and some local politicians. Actually... our "chofer" (van driver in this case) was also a town councilman:-)- Here's one of his election signs, he is the one in the middle.


The town was small and we were able to walk everywhere: from our hotel to the work site, from the habitat office to any store, from the "cabinas" (phone booths) to the open-air market... to the ice cream store...etc. However, don't try to use the Internet there: there are much better things to do with you time than count the number of times you loose your connection!