Building a Traditional Amazonian Kichwa Diet Hut or “choza”

Project Description

Plants are the most available medicines to indigenous peoples in the Amazon jungle, and the knowledge of where they grow, how to harvest them, and how to prepare them as medicine has been common knowledge for almost all adult members of traditional Amazonian societies. Those who hold the specific and advanced knowledge of plants and healing are shamans or medicine men, and the elder women of indigenous communities. Not only do these elders prescribe certain plants for healing certain ailments, but also they almost always include a specific diet as part of the healing remedy. In many Amazonian traditions a diet hut is built for the specialized purpose of ingesting medicinal plants while maintaining a regimented diet or complete fast. Although diets, (dietas), are essential components to traditional Amazonian medicine systems, the practice of dietas within indigenous cultures is being lost by younger generations who have opted to adapt their life ways to a more progressive globalized reality.

Currently, as an ADP student I am working closely with an academic mentor Didier Lacaze, a man of French descent who has lived in South America for the past 25 years studying traditional medicines of the Amazon. A knowledgeable plant medicine healer in his own right, Didier Lacaze has been the founder and director of PROMETRA for the past 15 years, an organization that promotes intercultural health programs between institutions and practitioners of western medical science and indigenous communities who maintain their traditional Amazonian medicine ways. While many traditional indigenous medicine practices are no longer being transmitted from generation to generation, PROMETRA works in the Ecuadorian provinces of Napo and Pastaza alongside active members of the Kichwa, Shuar, and Shiwiar indigenous communities to support the re-valuation and re-vitalization of their indigenous medicine practices.

This project proposal is a funding request to build a traditional Kichwa diet hut ,“choza”, on a two-acre parcel of land owned by Didier Lacaze. The construction of the diet hut will serve a multitude of purposes in the short and long term:

1. This project will be a unique experiential education opportunity for me to learn how to build a traditional style dieta lodge. This will include learning how to weave the roof out of the paja poquillo plant fiber, building the wall out of the local chonta wood or bamboo, as well as using other locally harvested sustainable materials for constructing the choza. The dieta hut will become a space for me to study about traditional diet practices, as well as to undergo a pair of 2-4 day long diets under the strict supervision of my mentor Didier Lacaze.

2. The dieta hut will be built on Didier Lacaze’s land with the help of his indigenous Kichwa in-laws from the pueblo of Canelos. This activity will promote inter-cultural exchange and collaboration. In the future, Didier Lacaze will use the choza as a demonstrative model to educate students, apprentices, and patients from diverse cultural backgrounds about the importance of dietas and diet huts in traditional Amazonian medicine practices. The hut will be made open to Didier’s Kichwa in-laws and extended family that are from the pueblo of Canelos.

3. A photo-log will document the building of the diet hut, and will serve as an archive of natural building techniques known and practiced by the Kichwa people. This documentation will also be made available to future Kichwa generations, so that they can access information on their traditional building styles if for some reason it becomes lost.

4. The project is a strong example of Prescott College’s mission of supporting students to participate in international cross-cultural experiential learning. Also, the choza project can serve as an example of an innovative self-directed student project for Prescott College’s ADP program.

Diet Hut Design, Timeline, & Locations of Purchased Materials:

Design: Because of the heavy amounts of rain in the Ecuadorian jungle, as well as the slope of the building site, the structure will be elevated off of the ground with the foundation posts set in concrete. The entire choza, with exception of the floor, will be constructed without using nails. Local fibers will be gathered to tie all beams and main structural elements of the choza together. The roof will be hand-woven from the Paja Toquillo leaf, and the foundation posts as well as walls will be made from the local chonta wood, which a durable fast growing and sustainably harvestable wood species. All other building materials will be made from local bamboo.

Timeline: The project can be completed in 5 days between 2 paid workers and volunteer labor.

Where Materials will be Purchased - All Materials will be purchased in Puyo Ecuador, and will be transported using Didier Laczae’s truck. The only exception will be the purchase of the Paja Toquillo leaf fiber for the construction of the roof, which will be bought in Canelos, roughly a 1½ hr drive from Puyo. The fiber will be transported by truck to Puyo in large bundles.

Budget:

             Item                                   Quantity                              Cost per Unit ($)                    Total Cost ($)

***Note: Additional funding outside of the SUB will cover all costs highlighted in yellow.

***Note: The construction of the choza will not serve as a personal lodging site. My housing is being fully provided for by Fundacion Runa, an Ecuadorian based NGO that I work for.  Additionally, Ecuador has a currency in US dollars and so the budget matches the expenses of all in country costs.

Other Funding Requests:

            I have requested funding from private family donors and friends, who have pledged $300 to the project completion provided I receive full funding from SUB. I will have $200 of my personal money on reserve in case I have largely underestimated my budget costs. Dider Lacaze nor his organization PROMETRA have any spare money to donate to this particular project. Didier’s offer of the land, his free consultations on how to build the choza, and his Kichwa community contacts are his contributions to the project. I have not requested funding from Fundacion Runa or other organizations with which I am affiliated due to already having sent extensive proposal outlines for other ongoing projects that I am working on in Ecuador.