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A Buff Life – Adventure, Service, Empathy, Courage, Hard Work and Humor…
A surf town that is dirt poor is probably an oxymoron, but it’s the best way to describe Canoa, a wide spot on a forgotten road 40 miles south of the equator in Ecuador. Young surfers from Australia, New Zealand and all over Europe share the beach and the waves with local fishermen, who painstakingly wrestle their heavy pangas through the sand to high ground each night. Just beyond the sand, there is a row of eclectic three-story wood and bamboo hostels with names like Coco Loco, Baloo and La Vista where you can share a room, enjoy a warm shower and get breakfast every morning for just 60 dollars a week.
There is a mellowness and gentleness that permeates through this town of twelve hundred, and it has transferred into the newly arrived surf culture as well. Territoriality and competitive behavior don’t show up and there is a collective feeling that there is room for everyone here. The waves are long and consistent and the empty beaches go on for miles.
Sitting so close to the middle of the earth, the temperature varies more between night and day than it does between winter and summer. Cold is not a concept that’s understood beneath the eight-sided palm structures called ramadas that dot the beaches. The only changes to the luscious summer warmth come from gentle puffs of ocean breezes.
Although there are probably 20 places to eat in town, an open-air beach restaurant called Bambu is the town’s social center. Built by a Dutchman and his Ecuadorian wife 15 years ago, Bambu is the perfect place to hang out and face the sunsets while nestled next to the greenery of the river. The restaurant tables are dug into the sand, covered with conch shells and interspersed with groups of hammocks strung in the shapes of stars, triangles and circles. It takes most of us gringos only minutes to realize that this unusual setup is actually the only way to truly enjoy a hammock. The conversations are lively as you sit and swing, or you can lay back and just listen while gently rocking in the soft sea breeze.
This place is a far cry from Pearl Street or the Hill, but it was here, among the hammocks and conch shells, that we met Carrie Gibaldo (EnvsSt ’06) and Emily Fahle (A&S ex’04), two former CU students who have achieved “Buff Life” status by combining adventure and service with strong shots of courage, empathy and humor. At the time, they were both working at Canoa’s only bilingual elementary school, a job that neither woman had trained for nor expected when they first ventured to Ecuador.
Carrie graduated cum laude from environmental studies. She talks about spending her life in Boulder, studying, collecting samples, snowboarding much as she could and working with Ed Von Bleichert (EnvsSt’94) in the Facilities Management office to implement sustainable cleaning products on campus. She was one to keep the rebellious campus spirit alive and proudly told us about her hard work with CoPIRG protesting unlabeled genetically engineered food at local supermarkets, including one protest so large it shut down the King Soopers at 30th and Arapahoe for a short time.
Carrie came down to South America for the simplest of reasons—she wanted to polish her Spanish language skills and Ecuador was the cheapest ticket around. She met Emily while working as a volunteer at an organic farm and preserve called Rio Muchacho, about a half hour north of Canoa on the highway that leads to the Columbian border.
Emily was also a Buff. She spent two defining years at CU, loving Hallet Hall and many snowboarding adventures. For her junior year, seeking a more international experience, Emily headed back home to the East Coast to the completely overseas curriculum of the Quaker-led Friends World College. Upon graduation, she headed south Peru and Bolivia. After a while though, the freezing temperatures of the Andes left Emily craving warmth. Through the backpackers grapevine she heard about the warm water and beauty of Ecuador’s Pacific coast. She landed in Canoa by chance and met Jimmy Byrd, an expat who had been living in the area for ten years. The town’s leaders, in hopes starting a private school to improve the educational opportunities for their local children, had recently approached Jimmy asking if he could spearhead such an effort. Wanting to make a difference in their newfound community, Jimmy and Emily decided to take on the project.
A year later, the first classrooms were ready to go. Emily, in her brief weekend encounter with Carrie, had convinced the environmental science buff to join her in the school’s inaugural year. Teaming up with two local women, Yessinia Paz and Betty Gomez, they provided education, leadership and care for local kids at Canoa’s first and only bilingual elementary school, La Escuela Bilingue Los Algarrobos.
Their efforts fulfilled a critical need for the town that is at the cusp of significant economic change. However, the journey has been full of obstacles. School supplies are practically nonexistent, and training and mentorship possibilities are few and far between. The kindergarten kids are not used to sitting down, listening, sharing or saying please and thank you. Many of them aren’t even familiar with Spanish, the language in which they are taught for half of each day.
As is always true, patience, hard work, caring and sincerity pay off and it’s obvious as we visit that the children and their parents love the young women trying to make a difference in their lives. Even the most rambunctious of the lot cling to their teachers at the end of the day, not wanting to leave. They love to practice their English in town, saying “hello” to everyone they see while walking down the street with smiles spread wide across their faces. In the evenings you can find moms and dads outside on the streets with their little ones, all of them practicing the latest English homework. They recognize the language’s growing importance in their lives.
Meanwhile Carrie and Emily dream wistfully about how easy it would be to get things done if they just had a Target store nearby. Paid practically nothing ($150 a month last year), their work is a labor of love and commitment, a gift to the world from two former CU students living a true Buff Life of adventure, service, empathy, humor and courage.
You can take a look at their school and the excitement and challenge of their Buff Lives at the school’s website www.jamesdeanbyrdescuela.org
Finishing this story, we contacted Carrie to find out where she was now and how she was doing. Her reply…
It was great to hear from you, I have wondered over the course of time whether or not you decided to go forward with a story related to the school – I am glad to hear that you have. As you know now, I did indeed leave Canoa upon the kindergarten’s graduation at the end of the school year, but only after much heavy-hearted, personal debate. In the end, it was just too overwhelming to try to support myself on such a meager salary and no savings. I was heart-broken to have to leave but still hope to return soon, and I continue to be involved in the school from afar.
Leaving itself was a nightmare, as after a year of working at the school I no longer had near enough money to just fly home. I ended up meeting a woman who needed help on her sailboat and sailed with her to Panama. We hit storms on the way and it turned out to be an adventure I will never forget; sixteen days on the open sea – what an experience! From Panama, I was able to find my way to Costa Rica and then a very cheap flight home. I worked briefly at Eldora ski resort and then came back to my previous job in Montana at Glacier National Park. The season in the park flew by and ended in October. I decided to “winter” in Montana and I am currently working in a group home for severely emotionally disturbed teenage girls. It is great to be working with people again and I enjoy it immensely, but without a doubt plan to return to Canoa as soon as possible. I miss the kids terribly.
Carrie
