For Paula Fury, it’s a jungle out there — literally.

Fury, a 1991 MCHS graduate, has lived and worked in Ecuador for the past two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Presently on leave from her position as agribusiness volunteer coordinator in the capital city of Quito, Fury described her experience as life-altering.

Fury’s original assignment was to the jungle village of Yatuvi, in the Bolivar province of Ecuador. When she arrived, she was new at speaking Spanish, and her knowledge of the culture had been supplied by a three-month-long immersion program. She was four hours from the nearest Peace Corps volunteer, and thousands of miles from home.

She threw herself into the main goal of the Peace Corps organization: to create a sustainable project to benefit the host village. In this case, Fury combined banana stalks with the artistic skills of the Yatuvi women. The women, who call themselves the Tesoras del Ecuador (Treasures of Ecuador), grind the dead banana stalks with bond paper to make cards for sale on the world market.

The project, Fury reported, has been a success so far. Thanks to donations and card purchases last year — many from the Cortez area — the women were able to purchase an industrial-strength blender to more efficiently process the stalks. The profit from the cards, which are relatively inexpensive to U.S. citizens, make a tremendous difference in the quality of life in the mostly agrarian settlement.

Despite the successes that have mitigated a grim economic picture for this corner of Ecuador, Fury remains worried.

"I want them to be independent...I know people love the cards," she said, but her primary focus is for the women to be able to continue in her absence. "I am afraid when I leave, we’re going to lose everything."

Presently, the operation relies on Fury for translation purposes, for arranging Internet access in the settlement closest to Yatuvi, and for distribution of the product. Right now, the cards, as well as the decorated boxes the women have begun making, are distributed in the United States through Fury’s friends and her mother, Dorothea.

"The biggest stumbling block is the market," Fury said. What she needs most of all, she explained, is a permanent marketing structure, either an individual or company to act as the middleman for the Yatuvi women.

For all the hardship, there were many intangible rewards that Fury said made the experience extraordinarily worthwhile. Fury has had the opportunity to travel all over Ecuador (with the exception of areas the Peace Corps has deemed unsafe), and to view wildlife.

One of her fondest memories is of an adventure that began in her "lawn." While "mowing" it — with a machete — she spotted an unusual snake. A neighbor observed her snapping a picture, and a few days later, eagerly pointed out a tree sloth.

"I thought since you like to take pictures, you should get a picture of that," he said. She did.

She was struck most by the generosity and acceptance of the people of Yatuvi, who treated her like family. At first, the villagers were astonished that she would come so far alone, and jokingly asked her, "Why doesn’t your family like you?" On the whole, there was a level of protectiveness that left her feeling "totally safe."

As much as Fury had to adjust, so did the people of Yatuvi. This often took the form of amusing misunderstandings. In America, for instance, one would dump a load of laundry in the washer without a second thought. In Yatuvi, washing is done by hand, in the river. Fury recounted that even tiny girls were experts at washing clothes, and that her first attempts provoked a lot of curiosity.

" ‘What’s the matter with her?’ the girls asked about me. ‘She’s a grown-up and she can’t wash clothes!’"

From these "cultural" incidents, to developing a viable economic project and learning to take the bats living in her kitchen in stride, Fury had two years most people can only dream about. "It’s a beautiful culture," she said.

Now, there is a new adjustment for Fury, who swapped her jungle existence for life in the high mountains of Quito. Her present position is to "serve as a link between the office and volunteers" in the field. Fury estimated there were about 150 Peace Corps volunteers in Ecuador, and meeting the needs of approximately one-fifth of them is her job. It’s a tall order, but Fury seems to thrive on the challenge. That’s not surprising, considering what the past two years trained her for.