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!