beautiful mindo and a couple of cuentos

this weekend, being perhaps the last free weekend i have here (the others will filled with pre-planned travel or service learning in ibarra), i wanted to do something super-fun, which was accomplished through a trip to mindo, a town three hours from quito. first traveling trip without the program! sat morning, bright and early, we took the bus to the mitad del mundo, the monument close to quito where the equator line is. we didn’t stop to take pictures, but it was the solstice, which means that at noon, we had no shadow. woot.
at mitad del mundo we changed to a bus that was already full, which meant we stood in the aisles for an hour. but “todo es adventura” as my host mom often says. we got dropped off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, with the exception of the “bienvenidos a mindo” sign. after a few puzzling moments, a guy offered his truck services to take us to the actual town a mile from the road. we ate some wonderful pizza, found a hostal, then negociated a three hour rafting trip.
rafting wasn’t exactly rafting, more like huge tubes tied together to form a boat, with two cute ecuadorian guides to maneuver us through the rapids. mindo was recently the site of the international rafting championships, and its not hard to believe. the rapids were at times pretty significant and tons of fun. and soooo beautiful! clear water, tons of black rocks, fog over the clifftops, tons of green vegetation and beautiful birds. it’s a real tragedy that i forgot my camera (but i plan on stealing friends pics and posting them when possible).
mindo is a cute little (though toursisty) town in which there are always people in the streets chatting, relaxing, watching the gente pass by. their park has separate bins for organic and inorganic garbage, how great in a country in which so far i’ve seen very little recycling.
the next day we slept in then went on a waterfalls tour. it began with a ride in a little cart that traveled across a valley (very, very far below us) on a cable. we were under the impression that the whole tour was in cart, so our feet in flip flops were not prepared for the steep, slick hiking trails from fall to fall. but how gorgeous they were! red ferns, natural springs...the place felt so rich and alive. and the scary type of rickety, swinging bridge with boards missing (the kind you see in the movies, with rushing water hundreds of feet below) were definitely present. “todo es adventura.”
we had purchased bus tickets for 2 pm, so we were rushing back, but ended up running a bit late. we asked the guides if we could cut the cable car line and they let us stand up in it with a couple of cute ecuadorian old couples. luckily, they offered to give us a ride down the hill for free, and even offered us delicious caramels! but once we got there, it was 2:10. we were hoping the bus was running on latin american time, but alas, it had already left, and all the other buses for the day were already full. gracias a Dios, a woman overheard us and let us know that she was taking a vanload of people back to quito and they were leaving right then. she was charging $4 a person (twice the cost of a bus ticket) but for the speed, lack of stopping, and guarantee that we would get home that day, it was quite a good deal. the whole trip, in fact, was wonderfully inexpensive...$40 covered everything! it was so wonderful to get out of the city again, and was all quite an adventure!

random note: right now, on ecuadorian radio, “the little drummer boy” is playing. i’ve always thought that the combination of songs on these stations was a bit crazy, especially regarding the random english songs ive never heard, but this takes the cake! que chistoso!
while we’re on the subject...: last sunday at mass, the Lord’s prayer was chanted to the tune of simon and garfunkel’s “sound of silence.” it took me so much by surprise that i couldn’t even focus on the prayer, only on the scenes from “the graduate” running through my head.

speaking of randomness: while running through the “park of the rights of women and children” near my house, i saw a guy training his huuuge dog to climb up the stairs and slide down a slide. he said he comes every day to teach the dog. i wish i’d had my camera!

and proof that it’s a small world: before the pepe romero concert, a couple friends and i were sitting in the café del teatro and an older ecuadorian woman asked if she could share our table since the place was crowded. we talked to her a bit and she asked where we were from. “oh texas? i graduated from the university of texas many years ago, with a latin american studies degree and concentration in history. i also lived in houston for a few years.” what are the chances? and the following day, i had an interview with a professor and i was telling her about myself, i told her i was in a small, very general liberal arts program at u.t. called plan ii, and she was like “wow, one of my best professor friends here at this university graduated from that program too” craziness!

thanks for your frequent emails and facebook messages, friends! take care!

im not at ut anymore

one week of real classes is complete. the first few days at puce (pontífica universidad católica de ecuador) was a reminder that i certainly was not at u.t. this semester. no online registration, no hyperlinks to campus building maps from my online schedule, but rather a semi-chaotic search for classrooms in a variety of buildings, professors that didnt show up for the first class or randomly changed the times of the classes without telling anyone, and classes closing and opening on a whim. buut, after several days of not having a clue of what was going on, i am now enrolled in 17 hours im finally assured that i am taking the following classes:

-national and international human rights from the perspective of gender (at puce)
-popular andean religious practices (at puce)
-spanish (at ies, my study abroad program)
-globalization and international relations (at ies, a very economics based class, which is tough, considering ive never even had economics in english yet at u.t.)
-service learning (at ies, where i will get to do 70 hours of service work, plus class once a week to discuss issues that we encounter in our service...i hope to travel to ibarra, a town 2.5 hrs away, to teach english for six weekends with an indigenous rights organization)

my classes are difficult because of the fact that they are very discussion based, and even in english classes i am not that much of a talker sometimes (for example, im not crazy about debates in any class, but a debate in globalization last thurs was nearly hell for me), so in spanish its going to be very tough. but i am really enjoying what im learning.
also, classes are two days a week in two hour blocks, which is looooong. but hopefully ill adjust. and im taking classes for 18 hours each week but only getting 15 hrs of credit... but no class on fridays! im super pumped about that.
another thing, in my two puce classes, there are only a total of 4 ecuadorian students, which is terribly disappointing. most of them i am taking with the same ies kids in my ies classes. and two of those 4 are adult women lawyers in my human rights class, who seem cool, but not exactly the key to getting into the social scene here...
but overall, classes are really interesting and i can´t wait to begin my service learning.

enough enough about classes. last weds i got free tickets to see pepe romero, a world famous spanish classical guitarrist, at the teatro sucre. a gorgeous, heavenly even, show in which pepe played more rapidly than i thought possible, on the neck of the guitar, while drumming a ritmo on the other side. so beautiful. and he encored 5 times! it was hilarious, he really looked like he enjoyed, like he was created for, what he was doing.
also attended last week was a ecuadorian jazz concert in the cute cafelibro and a rock concert to celebrate "un dia sin auto" (a day without a car) to celebrate biking. entonces, a week of looots of enjoyable music. this past weekend = a trip to mindo, a cute town 3 hours away, more on that to follow...

trip to atacames 12/9-15/9

quick observation: wow, today marks one month of my being here. im already 1/4 done! time flies...

also: new photos can be found here.

to celebrate the end of orientation and enjoy the last week before classes begin, the whole orientation group went to the beach at atacames, near esmereldas, on the northwest coast of ecuador, a 6 hour bus trip away.

seeing rural houses on stilts among jungle-like vegetation, afroecuadorians shooting the breeze with friends on stools and in hammocks in front of fruterias made me realize there is so much more to ecuador (perhaps a more real ecuador than the daily life i am currently experiencing…made me really wish i would have requested some other form of living experience? or in a city in a more rural area? but everything for a reason…) i am excited to get to know more of this beautiful country.

the beach was beautiful and peaceful; it was soooo nice to get out of the dirty, crowded city. we had a presentation on the preservation of mangroves by a group called FUNDECOL. mangroves are a type of ecosystem on the coast of ecuador. for many years, thousands of families were able to live in the mangroves as squatters and practice shrimp and oyster harvesting sustainably while making a living at it. then during the 1980s, shrimp companies came in, paid small sums to the squatters living there, cut down all the mangroves, and made shrimp farm pools. this has eliminated 80% of the mangroves in ecuador and severely reduced the populations of many plant and animal species in the area. and now the people have no work…they can be employed by the shrimp farms for a few months out of the year, for long days with little pay, but they are no longer able to subsist on this. the chemicals in the shrimp farm waters are also causing reproductive problems in women, who wade through them to find the shrimp. and when the pools become unproductive, the shrimp companies just abandon them, without replanting mangroves.

FUNDECOL is hosting a mangrove reforestation event next weekend in muisne in an abandoned shrimp farm, and i really want to go…i hope it works out.


we also went to the beach in muisne and it was covered in sandollars. we picked up tons! and we also rode in little ecological taxis (tricycle style). later went out to atacames for pizza and a night at the bar. the bar was right on the beach and had swings and hammocks! sitting in a hammock with a pina colada watching the ocean and listening to salsa was almost surreal and tons of fun.

on thursday i experienced my first ecuadorian bout with sickness (along with about 85% of the rest of our group). puking and fever while i could have been napping in the sand or swimming with the huge waves was not fun, but i’m sure it could have been worse…

we also had a conference with a group of afro-ecuadorian musicians who talked about their instruments, their history, their culture, and their current struggle for rights, basic things like a better education system in the area and running water in all homes, and representation in the government. it appears that this area of the country has really been abandoned by the government, and its really frustrating. most walls and poles here are covered with the colors and slogans of the fifteen different political parties with candidates in the elections that will take place on my birthday, but all of this is mostly meaningless in the lives of the people here. during the FUNDECOL presentation, someone asked if the group had shared their views with political candidates that had come to the area, and they were like, “well, no one has come here yet…”

a mural in musine promoting preservation of the environment.

this area, like so many others in the world, needs change, through hope and energy and hard work. Lord, help us.

near death-by-gas-leak and blood soup

note: this entry written on 9/9
this week was the last week of orientation language and culture classes. i think i’m going to miss our good little discussions in them. but it does feel nice to have final exams and papers out of the way. i wrote my final papers on graffiti here and on the effects of plan colombia on ecuador. if you’d like to discuss, just ask :)

after class on friday, i received the best haircut of my life, and all for the low, low price of only $8.50, which included wash, my-hair-is-real-dry-but-especially-here-in-these-mountains leave-in treatment, and semi-style. i pretty much let the haircutter have his way, which i appreciate because i don’t like making those type of hair decisions (and plus i couldn’t understand most of his questions anyway!) but it turned out nicely.

then we had a “cocktail de bienvenida” at the university with our families to celebrate the end of classes. drinks, appetizers, and three hours of dancing. and i actually enjoyed it! and we went out clubbing later, and i actually enjoyed that too! (though i could’ve done without the strobe light and frequent reggaeton).
yesterday marked the first day that i tried an authentic ecuadorian dish and hated it. caldo de pata (cow foot soup) was greasy and included actual cows feet with hair and hoof still attached. i hope that i didn’t offend my family, but i really just couldn’t do it… (and since then i’ve also tried caldo de sangre...thats right, blood soup... same gross texture of gross meats, same greasiness, just this time with the raw flavor of blood mixed in!)

yesterday also marked perhaps my nearest brush with death while here, and in a way no one would have expected. my sis and i were cooking eggplant parmesan for the family with the help of their gas oven. at one point, i began to smell gas, but thought “oh, its probably just the way their oven is…” and by the time that i began to feel dizzy and sleepy, my sis was like “omg” (or the spanish equivalent) “do you smell gas?” the light had gone out in the oven and had probably been escaping for about 20 mins. which was especially dangerous because we had a fire going on the stove. thank God we didn’t explode!

hanging out with my sis and her ecuadorian friends is interesting. the guys are so laid back. i feel like i’m in a latin american film while with them (apologies if that sounded terribly cheesy). and they like to drive around aimlessly a lot, which made me slightly nostalgic for high school… (ha! but seriously, its kind of fun)
last night i saw “que tan lejos,” a new ecuadorian film, with them. it was so typical ecuadorian. all the ecuadorians were laughing at tons of “dichos” that i only partially understood. but i really hope it comes to the u.s. so i can watch it with you, friends, and show you a bit of typical ecuador.

and today brings a fiesta with family friends in which we will eat barbequed sheep. mmmmm. more later, have a good one, friends!

a few observations on topics of daily life:

traffic— is crazy! i’m definitely more afraid of being hit by a car than by being robbed. constantly i have to carefully watch the street when i cross. and no need to cross at the crosswalk, anything goes here! and during morning and evening hours, traffic is comes to nearly a standstill, with many impatient honks and drivers trying to squeeze by one another.

the amount of food— everyone eats so much here! i am usually full about halfway through any meal. but plates and plates of food continue to be placed in front of me. and the family is constantly snacking too! about 45 mins before lunch on sunday we stopped for ice cream, then bought these huge empanadas, then had the usual three course sunday lunch. i don’t understand how the ecuadorians can eat so much!

prices— are much different than the u.s. buses across town cost a mere $.25, a taxi ride at night (when prices increase) never costs more than $4, and i’ve yet to pay more than $2.50. you can get a traditional and relatively decent three course lunch for $1.50, and when i have cravings for pizza, i can get a huge, mouth-watering slice of pizza, two slices of garlic bread, and a coke at pizza planet for $1.50 too. the other night at a very cute italian restaurant, i got a huge plate of pasta and a glass of wine for $4. however, clothing in the mall (most all imported from u.s. or colombian companies) is crazy expensive and there are never sales. even things like shampoo, imported from the u.s., cost about $2 than they would in the u.s.

graffiti— unlike the u.s., where graffiti is mostly about gang signs, and is assumed to be written by lesser-educated persons, all the graffiti here is political and social. on nearly every corner there are clever quips condemning TLC, a trade agreement with the u.s., or OXY, a u.s. oil company. the graffiti by the airport is in english, so that the author’s sentiments can be understood by those from the country it is often speaking against. there is also quite a bit of gay rights support graffiti as well as commentary about neighboring countries. i love this popular form of expression.

my first protest— on sat. there was a lot of traffic on part of the city tour because one of the main roads was closed due to several burning tires in the middle. one neighborhood was protesting because there are some prostitutes who worked in the historical district downtown but are being moved to a house in this neighborhood. (prostitution is legal here). the neighborhood believes that with the prostitutes will come drugs and crime, so they were handing out literature against the move. i find it very interesting that the first protest i have seen here has been more of a “family values” issue rather than justice or civil rights.

the view of cuba— last weekend on the radio, there was a series of interviews from cubans and others about cuba in celebration of fidel’s 80th birthday. they spoke of how equal everyone was, how everyone could walk the beaches at night without fear of being robbed, and how everyone has equal access to wonderful healthcare. and of course, im sure they wouldn’t have any anti-fidel cubans in the interview, but still, it was such an interesting change from the view of the u.s. and ex-pats in miami. and, come to find out, my sis has a lot of admiration for cuba and it’s system. we were able to have some really interesting conversation about the state of the world.

a little anecdote about inequality— last weekend at the country house, as we were all admiring the new house for the guinea pigs in the backyard, complete with cement blocks, several rooms, and a bamboo-style roof, the housekeeper for that house said, “oh, the guinea pigs live better than i do!” and, though i know nothing of her house, its not too hard for me to believe.

one of the many effects of foreign debt— in class we learned that ecuador has to pay 45% of its yearly budget in foreign debt. the law mandates that 30% of the budget be dedicated to education, but because 45% is dedicated to paying off the debt, in reality, only 15% of the budget is dedicated to education. for this reason, many schools on the coast have buildings without roofs and one teacher for five grades. in additions, kids who go to public school are asked to pay $25 to offset costs of running the school, even though the school should be free. this is one of the main reasons why 600,000 kids don’t go to school here (although its mandatory), and that’s a huge number for a country of just less than 13 million people.

one of the many effects of dollarization— in 2000, ecuador changed currency from the sucre to the u.s. dollar, after a series of financial crisis. this has changed the country quite a bit, but one of the things that struck me the most during our class discussion: the effect this change had on people who are illiterate. the value of the sucre was marked by different colors, so people who didn’t understand the writing on the bills could memorize the significance of the colors. but each of the dollars look fairly similar to one another, and to someone who knows nothing of u.s. history, the presidents surely all look the same on the bills. because of this, soon after the change there were many stories of people paying with $10 instead of $1 and being taken advantage of.

al fin, a couple of silly stories— (1) when trying to say “brother” in kichwa the other day (many kichwa words have been incorporated into spanish here, due to the large indigenous popluation), i accidentally said the kichwa word for “shit.” luckily, i was promptly corrected by my father to save me from any further embarrassment.
(2) the first day i took the bus to the university alone, it didn’t stop where i thought it would’ve. (the system to signify that you want to stop on the buses here is to just get up and pay the guy standing in the front). i asked about being dropped off immediately, was misunderstood, and was dropped off about .5 mi from the university. instead of waiting for the next bus going the opposite direction, i thought i could just walk faster. but i ended up getting severely lost, walking about 2 miles out of the way, and being 30 mins late for class. i have since learned to be much more aggressive when trying to get off the bus!

here begins an attempt to blog more frequently...

for today, only a short list of what ive been doing lately. social commentary and more to follow...

hombres en escena--a dance show in the casa de la cultura that was all contemporary dance and all men. it was very artsy, downright strange at times, but very creative and enjoyable. it was supposed to be about men enjoying dancing without sexual orientation being an issue. (which is awesome, here, where there is quite a bit of descrimination against homosexuals. and also quite a bit of of support for them on the walls of graffiti, which i find so interesting!) also here was free canalazo, a famous ecuadorian alcoholic drink. it was strong, but good, and tasted like a weak apple cider.

ocho y media--a theatre here with a cute little bar. the theatre specializes in latin american, german, and indie films. and the theatres themselves have a big open area with pillows in front of the screen if people want to sit on the floor!

various delicious italian and other restaurants in la mariscal, the "gringo" area of town...

la compania church, part of the city tour.

another city tour which included a climb inside the virgin of quito on a hill overlooking the city (like a mini little statue of liberty, with religious significance) and the museum of the city (which i found interesting but very eurocentric in my opinion), and a delicious traditional ecuadorian lunch at a hacienda outside the city which included:
--so much orange and blackberry juice
--shrimp ceviche with popcorn and roasted corn
--cheese empanadas
--chicken, a potato and cheese pancake, lettuce and avacado salad, and a hominy side-dish, complete with aji (my new favorite hotsauce)
--figs with a suguary syrup and a mild cheese!!

a pardoy of shakespeare's "the tempest"--at a theatre near my house, where all the actors wore clown-like outfits...complete with tons of cheesy latin american humor (of which i probably only understood about 1/3, but it was hilarious nonetheless)

la carolina park--with museums, botanical gardens, a reptile house, paddle boats, miniature horse rentals, tons of soccer fields, and even some americans that play ultimate frisbee

mass in a gothic style cathedral. and i actually understood about 90% of the very well-spoken homily!

shopping in the el ejido park, where artists showcase their work, and the artisans market, filled with souveniers and other goodies. im sporting some ecuadorian pants from there as we speak...

more to come, i hope. this week is the last week of orientation classes, which means 2 final papers, a final quiz, and a very important final test! its going to be busy, but after that comes a beach trip in esmereldas!

que les vayan bien!