After six nights in the very rainy rain forest, Beth and I are back in the less rainy city of Quito.We have concluded that the organization we are working for (Eco-Volunteer UP, which seems to be comprised only of a woman and her husband) is mostly a scamming agency.Although they seem genuine and are very friendly, the $504 dollars each we paid for 10 days of "rain forest conservation" and four days of trips to different places in Ecuador seems to be going mostly in their pockets.During the five days we worked in the Cloud Forest we dug a trench and painted about 10 signs with phrases such as "bano/toilet," "cabanas/cabins," "no arrojar basura/please don't litter."We also made a very treacherous hour-long hike up hill each day to go into the town of Las Tolas to visit the local Artisans (who make all of their art out of natural materials such as seeds and wood) to help them practice English (they have been the only English speaking people other than the woman who runs the program that we have met so far).We also had the very strange, yet amusing opportunity to attend the 15th birthday celebration of the niece of the artisan family, which is a very big deal in the Latino culture.This celebration consisted of a long Catholic church service in Spanish (not my favorite thing) followed by a fiesta.During this fiesta we had the chance to break a roasted pig that was sitting in a cement kitchen with no refrigerator into pieces after washing our hands in dirty water, as well as see such sights as a 15 year old girl dressed in an elaborate pink gown (that resembled a Disney princess' gown) have her cousin strip her of a garter belt as her hands were held out in a Christ-like position while she screamed and the crowd of family and friends hooted and hollered (after which the same thing was done to her two younger sisters).There were also games such as guess what color/animal/number the birthday girl is thinking of (which I somehow won and them had to stand in front of everyone while a young boy then slipped the garter belt over my tall muddy boots and only to my leg while I almost died of embarrassment) and pop the balloon, then follow the instructions on a rolled up piece of paper inside (instructing such acts as pole dancing with a broom, drawing numbers with one's ass, purposing to the birthday-girl, and other surprisingly provocative acts).In short, I'm not certain how all of this amounts to saving the rainforest.

Beth and I decided that we'd rather not spend another five days eating bland food that was making us sick, not being able to communicate with the family on who's land we were staying, hiking our asses off in the rain, and not saving the rain forest, so we told the family we were ill (which turned out to be true… maybe that's what I get for sort of lying) and needed to go to the city for some medicine (I have been living on a steady cocktail of Immodium and TUMS).Upon returning to Quito we called the volunteer coordinator and asked to be placed in the orphanage here in Quito for our final few days of volunteering and she said it would be no problem.Today when she picked us up, she took us across town to a daycare for wealthy kids, saying that there were already enough volunteers at the orphanage.Our time at the daycare was nothing but awkward, as it was very well staffed and no one there spoke a word of English.We felt uncomfortable and in the way and the staff didn't seem to know what to do with us.We left at lunch time and decided not to go back.We'll spend the next two days exploring Quito and attempting to get rid of my diarrhea before going on the trips starting Saturday.Next week we are hoping to take a bus to the coast to get some sun on the beaches (we're the whitest people around) for our final week here.

I hope to post some photos very soon.