Doug and Dude

Doug and Dude

We drew team partners out of the hat and mine happened to be Doug DeVries, our team leader. I was just fine with that, and I think Doug was too, because you see we are both graduates of Washington State University in Pullman, in fact both products of the fraternity system there (for better or for worse). We roomed together and worked in partnership throughout the mission.

Doug and I with our Cougar colors on

Since Doug was finishing at WSU about the time I started we didn't know each other back then, longer ago than we both care to admit. But Cougar connections are very strong and we found a lot to talk about from our respective college days in the Palouse. Even so, I think Doug got a little impatient with me at times as, being more of a words guy, my mechanical aptitude for engineering stove pipes and stuff just doesn't come as naturally to me as that of Doug. Doug is a hard-charging sales leader, typically tops among his peers in his company, which sells second-hand shipping containers to assorted markets around the world. I found him to be a very focused individual and eager to get things done. In addition  he was a fine team leader.

So here I was, fumbling along fairly competently, I thought, with our local guide BearnaBay (shout the Bay part and you'll do just fine) and Hands for Peacemaking worker Dahgo.

On the third morning we met our match in Dude.

Dude owns property deep in the lower basin below Xoxlac. One slide like the one that dropped off half the town in 1994 and Dude's house, yard and cornfield would be toast. Dude was all smiles as we arrived and, remarkably, even had all the pieces laid out and had one leg bolted to the firebox already.

Dude and his family

Dude both watched and helped and we had his family's stove installed in record time. We did the typical blessing ceremony and said our goodbyes but, to our delight, Dude followed us up to the next house. He was simply amazing. Even though he didn't know a lick of English, he knew the next steps instantly. BearnaBay, whom we found out was the village leader, was okay and certainly did his job, but Dude outshined him from the start. If we merely thought we needed a pencil, Dude would be standing there with a pencil. If we needed to know the best way to attack the horizontal pipe through the eve, Dude would gesture a way. Things just went better with Dude. He was, as Doug said, Dude. Not The Dude. Just Dude.

Dude muttered something to me just as we were doing the fourth house of the morning and was gone. Doug said, "where's Dude?" and I told him he just walked away. Doug was clearly sad.

So we had lunch and puttered the afternoon away without Dude. On our final hut of the day, we ran into a situation with dead drill batteries where I would have to hike back up the hill with a board and drill a six-inch hole through it. Dahgo had to show me the way and assist at the top. So that left Doug alone with BearnaBay. Just as we were walking toward the trail, there was Dude. Doug told me later he walked in, tin-snips in hand just in time to cut the roof.

I came back with the board, we installed it, the job was done and we walked on. We gave Dude a knife as a token of our appreciation.

At the closing ceremony Dude showed up again.  We learned he had also assisted Steve Drury and John Kirk. We found out then his real name is Roberto. No matter, Dude is Dude.

"I miss Dude," Doug stated forelornely, even long after we left Xoxlac.

Dude was everywhere