A new location for the new year

Here is just a quick update. I "donated" 30$ to Ecuador trying to get a visa. It didn't work so I bought a ticket for Lima, Peru for the 2nd of January. I will be in the highland city of Haunacayo, volunteering at an orphanage above the city of 350,000 folks. It seems like a reasonable organization, (Mosoq Ayllu) & doesn't charge more than room & board. Although they are not involved in microfinance, they said they would be happy to assist me in locating microfinance in Hanacayo. Yeah!
Right now I am frantically gathering last minute things together before everything is shut for the new year celebrations. Who knows how many days that will last.
I wish everyone a great new year!

in the news...

So, I have been recuperating from my illness by eating lots of fresh fruit, juice and soup. today i tried a soup with chicken & cows feet plus liver- real healthy and although i didnt try the chicken feet the cow was delicious!
Lately i have been trying to concentrate on turning my spanish into something useful. I read the papers here and go to class with articles that i want to discuss knowledgeably. i try to keep up a daily diologue in Spanish about politics here in Quito and whatever else keeps the conversation heated and interesting. i now have a conversational partner- english for spanish with an ecuadorian who enjoys politics. this is a good opportunity, becuase i can ask a longterm Quito resident for info and opinion.

I have discovered from the local paper that Libya, Iran and Russia are all making friends with
Ecuador. President Correa just visited Iran- who is lending money and technology to Ecuador for securing the Columbian boarder and then Correa popped in to visit Gaddafi, to express his admiration for his political career. Interesting yes? My profesor commented that these relations will be good for Ecuador- Libya has oil, so does Ecuador. She views this as a possible new aliance that can strengthen Ecuador. It does appear that Correa is rapidly shifting the country left, opposing privatization, and doing a lot of social spending. He is also known and criticized for having a quick temper, and being really good looking. Quitenos say that his volitile personality makes him untrustworthy with political decisions and several have commented that he was elected over a better qualified encumbant, based on his looks. Well, the voting process is never perfect.

Other news here: relations with Brazil have been strained due to corrupt Brasilian contstruction firms. one, Odebrecht, built a hydroelectric plant last year with money lent to Ecuador from a development bank in Brasil. the plant was built poorly and the Odebrecht spent some time fixing it. Now it is fine, but the incident amplified tensions caused by on-going problems with Brasilian companies that have overcharged for shoddy work. Not only have I read about this, but I know a Brasiliano who worked on that project. the result was that Correa kicked out all Brasilan construction companies, leaving 3500 Brasilian workers jobless and several projects on hold. however, this week diologue has reopened.

To illustrate the logic of the government here, Ecuador is due to make a foreign debt payment in 2012 of 30.6 million (out of 680million) , but Correa has declared the debt illigitamate, becuase the previous government had aquirred the money and misappropriated it. well, in the same time frame, Ecuador just bought some huge airplane for some amount similar to the debt payment.

Here is another example. Recently the constitution was revised and that means that all sorts of bureaucratic mayhem has ensued. for example, when i left for Ecuador all official websites indicated that obtaining a tourist visa was as simple as paying $30 dolars. I have recently learned that these websites are pathetically behind in current information and that in the last few months, regulations and laws on immigration and all visas have changed sporatically.

For me this has manifested as running around to all sort of offices with officials holding differing opinions. then there are the rumors and tall tales of people successfully gaining visas, or that crossing the Colombian boarder works, mixed with scary accounts of huge fines, extortion, and unsafe boarders- and not because of FARC or drugtrafficing.
okay- so here is my situation. I need just a little more time. I want to investigate the flower-trade in Ecuador, workers conditions, wages, export. I can sort of speak Spanish now so its possible, with a native Spanish-speaking friend to interview people. find microfinance in the city ect. But, my visa expires on the 2nd of January. between after xmas and the new year is a really hectic time to travel. and i dont want to up and scram out of Ecuador without checking out topics and territory a little more.

rants and the trip to Pasachoa

So its been awhile since i wrote. and now i am going to have to catch up in installments. today i am a little frustrated feeling. i have just spent a week and a half ill with bacterial infection and parasites. i have learned how fragile and dangerous it can be to just eat whatever, drink whatever. i simply have tried to eat cheap and at everyday restaurants. i cook at home as well, but here i am, after a month of feeling tired and wondering if my enemia had reasserted itself, depleted from bugs in my stomach! so yes, immobility, and the scariness of illness have left me feeling like i am falling behind. i have to recapture momentum.
i plan to secure some contact in Peru for volunteer work after the holidays and to spend december volunteering here in quito. i am not ready to leave here yet. its been good to absorb one place and practice spanish. im going to back up and tell some stories but first i just want to comment how difficult it is for me to assimilate a new language! i have learned the grammar, but my ears and tongue are still stupid! it comes in waves. one day i will feel pretty capable, the next retarded. and its a struggle to find new spanish speaking individuals to speak with. its necessary to practice everyday outside of class but this can be difficult. okay, thats my rant. now to Pasachoa....
over a month ago 3 women friends and i went to hike one of ecuadors national forests. a cloud forest no less- full of hundreds of bird species and cloaked in fog. we left with minimum money, food and equipment with the idea that it was an overnight trip. we descoverd that national parks charge a premium to foreigners, something not listed in my guide book, and overall, the caretakers showed some animosity towards our presence there- i have no idea why.
so we planned to rise early and begin our assent towards a lookout a couple thousand feet higher than quito (numbers later) that would take about 8 hours round trip. but, becuase it was still light, we decided on a short loop hike for the afternoon. we had about two and a half hours until dark and i thought well, this could be interesting. we started through a meadow and up into bamboo forest with bird calls all around, bromelaids (tropical plants) perched on trees and stunning views across gorges than ran steeply down. it was cloudy and had obviously been raining a lot recently. the trials were muddy, slippery but not at all unmanagable if your from the northwest. i felt right at home and slopped up the trail, enjoying being out of the bus exhaust and in the quiet. we passed a sign that indidated our half way mark and walked onward. the trail began to angle down and this is where the adventures begin.
my hiking partners hailed from Paris, London, and somewhere in Australia- some not exactly versed in the ways of mud and fuana. slipping and falling, injuring knees, trembling and wet, oh, and some laughter, my friends discovered the unpredictable side of tourism. nature is wild and doesnt care about you or whether you get good pictures or not. the journey became stressful and as the light began to dwindle, fear. however, i am not afraid of the dark or navigating through the forest, only of people.
then a strange thing happened: we rounded a corner and came upon a wailing little girl and her giant german shepard, standing in the trail. luckily, one member could speak excellent spanish and was able to ask what the matter was. apparently, this tiny child of like 6 or so was separated from her uncle and was told to go to a certain place to meet him if she got lost. the direction was back towards the forest and she was terrified. we convinced her to come with us so we could call someone. this took half and hour or so and now it was pretty dark. we reached the meadow from where we had begun and at that point we heard someone calling for the girl. another camper helped us call the man´s name, backtracking, trying to hear how far away he was. we called, "Lucho!" for 20 minutes or so and then suddenly a man on horseback appeared, smiling. he didnt say anything, nor did Monica, the little girl, but silently climbed onto the horse behind him and off they went into the night.
on the return home, some of my comrades felt that the man was rude for not saying thank you. this really frustrated me. i was just sick of every action thats taken by an ecuadorian that is not exactly the same response as a westerner being attributed to some character flaw. indeed i have learned more about judgementalism, racism and how narrowmindedness prevails among well educated, sane westerners than i ever cared to intimately know!
the stereotypes of the "other" as lazy, using and dishonest seems to still find a foothold and i have talked with people a lot about this, both with ecuadorians and tourists. there is no good reason for it. its just too easy to point rather than consider the position and conditions from which another person is acting. this topic encompasses the questions of whether immigrants should learn the language of their host country, why they dont actually learn and whether they feel compelled to do so and for what reasons; do hostfamilies actually need the money they earn from homestays or are they just after a higher living standard and is this somehow dishonest- should they instead only be concerned with facilitating a cultural exchange; do ecuadorian women seek foreigners for marriage as a way to better their lives; and does machismoism effect the wellbeing of women and limit their opportunities towards education, work and self betterment.
yes, there is more to be said about the elections in the US, opinions on Correa and the revisions of the Ecuadorian Constitution, economics and my visits to Centro Historico and the amazing Basilica there, but in bites.

dios de los muertos

It is the tradition in ecuador that on the day of the dead, everybody consumes a drink called colada molada- which is like a blackberry smoothy but served warm and the little bread boys are called guagua. everybody loves the morada and everywhere i went during the week, people insist that you partake. it is delicious!

i went with my professor on sunday to an indigenous cemetary and learned from a speaker there that the deep purple color of the morada represents the dark color of the dead´s blood, while eating the bread reminds the circle of life& death- nourishment provided by pachamama (earth) and the returned to pachamama when we die.
i found out when we got there that in fact this was not where any of my professor´s relatives were burried and i was concerned that i might offend by entering the cemetary. my professor assured, oh no, it is completely acceptable. still, i hesitated, and crept in.
there were a handful of other westerners there with expensive cameras and an news team. it gave me an overwelming sense of unease that while people are trying to morn and carry on with there way of life, they are a curiousity to outsiders and are somehow tolerated. i dont know really what people there thought, but i never felt hostility from any one.
and, as i write this and wish to describe what it was like, i feel a little like i have taken something without asking. this happens to me quite often, and i feel that it is inevitable as people from different cultures interact, each side seeing only the superficial or straight-up assumtions. i am very aware in each interaction that involves money, or being in a public place that many people see me as only a source of money, or as a symbol of an unfair disparity between themselves and white, western people. i do talk about this with ecuadorians and other westerners, which sparks some quite heated conversations, leading back to history, economics and belief systems.
okay- back the cemetary: directly up the stairs is a large painting of jesus with a tablecloth on the ground many plates of food, flowers, drinks, plants on it. a band was warming up playing on electric guitar an iggy pop song, just adding to the surreal emotions of the day. the graves are placed quite close, somethimes without a decernable path between. the name-stones were mostly concrete crosses covered in white tiles. roses, calla lilies and shiny papered wreaths cover the grave places.
families are busy cleaning the graves, afterwards they share a meal with the dead. children run around and there is a constant flow of people moving about, visiting, talking, listening to music. a man was talking to his dead relative, gesturing with his hands towards the ground, and i thought god, ive got to get out of here, i dont belong here, this is not personal for me. i gestured to my teacher towards the entry and we began to pick our way between graves and clusters of people. at one point the path was unclear. it was obvious we would have to walk over some graves. this really distressed me. i thought this just tops it off. i had been thinking about how at home dead are not talked about and was remembering my grandfather, and others that are gone to me and i felt sad and teary that at home we do not celebrate or acknowledge the dead.
i sucked it up and stepped in the same path as a man in front of me and crossed over several graves. there was a traffic jam of people and i was standing, wanting to leave, but not wanting to run away and the feeling of tears in my eyes because i hated the feeling of not being able to express to the people arround me that i meant no disresect. two grandmothers passed in front of me carrying immense packs and when i looked up a man held out a pan de way-way to me. i looked at him like, are you sure? and he held the bread out closer. i took it and said thank you and he said it all with his eyes.

dios de los muertos

pasachoa, outside the cloud forest

moring in otovalo

because everything is sooo new...

i just wanted to start a bulleted list of dumb things that i like or notice. here it is:

* most days at 3 oclock it rains for a good 4-5 hours
* i have met only one other american, everybody is from europe and they we dont speak the the same english. i have learned words like- tat, half 8, popping your cloggs, dodgy, tosser, uni, tube pronounced like tchoob...
*fumey air 24 hours a day
*hardly anyone i have met knows anything about eduador´s history or politics
* reggaeton is the equivelant of gangsta rap
* rarely has anyone been inpatient with my slow and basic spanish
* i love the blasting of, blowing the speakers out music that resounds from tiendas and public transportation
*one day after school Anna y yo went to the supermarket. on the way there was a torential downpour started and i slipped on tile and fell flat on my ---. by the time we crossed the street we were drenched. we caught a cap out and the cabbie played john lee hooker and the blues sounded sooo good- it felt like my senses had suddenly become enhanced. i welled up with emotion.
* as a low-lander, altitude adjustment has taken ages. until recently, everyday had been a fight for clarity. i have been in a perpetual mental haze, foggy and processing thoughts took a bit of exertion. on and off my eyes are irritated, and seem to strain. in the morning walking to school my stomach feels like led. digestion is slowed, apparently. a few times i have delt with splitting headaches. i got a bad cold and with the help of grapeseed extract, whiskey with cinnamon, honey & lime and lots of coca tea- i have finally adjusted and the last couple of days, i am gaining energy and my happy meter is way up.
* exactly now, immagration police came into the internet cafe and asked me for my identification and date of arrival. good golly! its a bit of an adrenalin rush! i was thinking, my god, if my copied passport isnt good enough and they haul me away would they let me pee first? all´s well though!

2 weels in...

This weekend i got out of the city and bussed to Otavalo, a large town oh, 2 1/2 hours from quito to see one of the best markets around. i instantly relaxed as i took in the open space of arid highlands. the mountains are impressive in their youth- high peaked, volcanic, lacking trees but with small patches of agriculture clinging high above the roads and towns. There was sun breaking through the usual persistent grey, and the beauty of the greeness distracted me from the careening mountain pass driving and, unbelievalby, our bus was drafting the bus in front of us.
Otavalo feels small, even cozy and easy to navigate. my weekend partner, Anna of London and i found a good-n-cheap hostel for the night and explored the streets and drank some damn good mojitos. by 5am the vendors are setting up in the streets and the sounds of music and scuffle easily reached our room above. for breakfast i found a REAL cup of coffee from ground beans and it tasted like heaven. what is called coffee is most often instant coffee, and not strong, even in Quito.
i had decided before hand to look for woven textiles, and paintings in miniature in the theme of ecuadorian life and myth with trains riding across open sky and broken bells with people climbing out all with cotopaxi in the background. In the throngs of people, and i might add, not many tourists, i wandered, taking in the colors, patterns, smells, variety of goods, food, feeling excited, happy, taking it in. i learned to barter. i met many friendly open people with easy smiles and indulged in super touristy food of pizza- which was extraordinary, as well as hand squeezed orange juice. i was impressed by the diversity and beauty of traditional dress. some women wear white, lacy blouses with black wool across the shoulder and as a skirt. others a variation with turquoise velvet or valour across the shoulder. lovely.
there is more, but my computador is being finicky and i happen to be fairly tired at the moment of reasons to be explained later...chow!

daily impressions

The city is indeed scary. I have not walked around by myself yet, and in some areas you have to take a taxi where ever you go & be home before dark which is 630 here. at home everything has bars on it, my teacher has a gaurd dog and this is new to me- shards of glass glued to the top of every wall and partition even along beautiful buildings. in the Mariscal district, also known as Gringolandia, there are cops that look like militiary and security guards at the entrances to fancy stores and supermarkets. Even though I have seen scetchy people, I have felt confident in being able to get around safely. And, now that its 10 days in, I am much more comforable and relaxed.


This weekend i went with los grupos de estudienates to see la mitad del mundo, the actual ecuador which is not actual, but some french (?) guy thought it was and built a large monument with a red brick line. the thing itself was boring but getting there was fun. the bus trip took over an hour, with me standing and holding for dear life onto the bar above me. people can get off or on at will and when the bus stops its a jolt that nearly sends you into the person in front of you. the bus door is left open the whole time and barely stops to let people on. i watched with great apprehension as grandma´s and disabled ladies and small children struggled against the force of the bus to get on and not be swept under the wheels of the open door. one lady i gave my seat to because i feared for her life.

so we arrived in one peice and decided to hire a truck to take us to a crater in the mountains with some farming below. it wasn´t very impressive, since i had recently seen into the crater of mt. st. helens, and i was a little bored, but the truck ride itself was fun. it was nice to be out of the city and see green steeply peaked mountains, with slides and outcroppings of houses and buildings below.

the redeeming portion of the trip was going to the REAL ecuator which is said to be scientifically proven, with GPS. they had stuffed and jarred animals, snakes, the parasite that crawls up your private parts in the water, cuy- guinea pigs- alive- and i watched the water in the sink flow 2 different directions only 12 feet or so away from each side of the ecuator.

Eating dinner at my teacher´s house has become an event that i look forward to. the table is set beautifully with home-blended juice, tea, water, and the food is so delicious. my teacher often cooks traditional and regional favorite dishes and explains us the history or nutritious properties ect. of the dish. I am eating very healthfully. one of my favorite dishes is made with green bananas, shrimp and topped with cheese, smothered in white sause- sort of a lasagna. there is always a salad or fresh vegetable and lots of fruit as well.
I really enjoy sitting with a family to eat; it is very enjoyable to practice my spanish explaining the days events and to share with this family.
after dinner, we sit for awhile and drink tea and often my teacher´s papa explains events and decribes places that he deems as important to anna and i. he told us the story of how the banks were stealing and the prezident did nothing,this leading to extreme inflation with 1 us dollar equaling 25000 sucre. this event lead to the decision to change the national dollar from the sucre to the us dollar. I call him profesor Pepe.

¡Si se puede! Ecuador plays Chile

Sunday was the world cup qualifier game between chile and ecuador. we left at 12 and the game started at 5. why did we leave so early? the director of the school who had found us tickets wanted to get the best seats possible. so we sat in a row- all seven students, me next to my friend from australia, and she and i ordered gigantic bottles of pilsener, the official, and as far as i can tell the only beer in ecuador.

it was really an eye full. vendors are allowed to serve beer that they carry in a bag with cups and a container of ice, which you need- becuase its cheap beer its awful when its tepid; women and children carry boxes of cigarettes sold as singles, half or whole boxes along with candy and toys all together. the best are papas y fritas- home made potato chips with a tiny twisted bag of salt. also, similar to corn nuts but indigenous corn thats very big is served with salsa lime and chile; hot potatoes and sauce and cold hotdogs.
no bottles made of glass except for the vendors are allowed in the stadium for fear that people will throw them at the opposing team!

oh and umbrellas! in the morning it was very hot and by half past 1 it was raining and this didn´t stop for the rest of the night. so we sat and drank, like everybody else, to try to ignore the very cold and wet, numb fingered situation; and vendors sell peices of plastic for a quarter and ponchos, umbrellas. the whole scene was brilliant- a packed stadium of colored umbrellas and the mountains filled with black clouds and mist behind.

here´s what else: many cops in riot gear line the field. when the game finally began people threw roles of toilet paper and let off fire works and fire extinguishers and chanted and screamed- "si se puede" yes we can! which, by this time people have been getting drunk for 4 hours and have been singing national pride songs and the small group of chileans try to sing the rest of the stadium whistles so loud you cant hear them sing.

also the insults were great! when the chilean players are introduced one at a time, the whole stadium cries "hijos de puta!", after each one and when a chilean player got hurt and was rolling on the ground in agony, a woman screamed- he acts just like a little girl! and everybody laughed. oh and the guys in front of us were buying smuggled in cheap liqour and everytime anything exciting happened they would look back at us to be sure we were enjoying it as much as they were.

Ecuador won with one goal and when it happened everybody suddenly stood up and jumped in unison and congradulated eachother shaking hands and giving eachother drinks! it was great and much more entertaining than football at home.

at the end though i was very wet and tired and barely could stay awake for dinner.
ecuador is mi pais!

first days in quito continued...

As i walked the feeling that i was out of place grew. i am a tall white woman with westerner´s travel clothes and the slow walk of some one not acclimatized to altitude. as each person passed, i filled in the blanks of what they might thinkof me. A girl came up to us in the market and asked for money while we were purchasing something. I didn´t know what to do! I didn´t want to be seen as simply somebody with riches falling out of my pockets, nor did I want to deny a child. I decided on ¨saying, "no gracias" because i need time to think this through.
The next evening I lay in bed awake, taking in my situation: i felt a great weight and responsibility to jump to my task of discovering microfinance within the city, gathering information and contacts. but, reality had to settle in. Part of me is frustrated, but the situation is that I need to speak better, take time to learn Spanish, learn how to navigate a city, which I havn´t done before, find my feet belonging to the ground and get comfortable before that other stuff can take place.
After discussing this with the other Anna and my friends via email, I feel better. I have a purpose here and can relaxe and enjoy what I can- delicious food, good company, futbol, adventures on buses, and conversation with my household and teacher about politics and life in ecuador.

first days in quito

hello all,
its ten days past my arrival in Quito, but i will do my best to recall my first impressions here. I must begin by telling about my departure from Miami: my two best friends drove me to the airport and wished me goodbye with tears and hugs at the security line. It took effort to keep from gushing tears, but I allowed a few to fall as I boarded the plane. I actually looked back, at what i don´t know, in the breeze-way leading to the plane. it was a gut reaction- the oh my god, this is real, and i am very alone!
I sat in the company of a bunch of Evangelical missionaries on my way to Quito, grimacing at their happy-go-lucky attitude about traveling to another country. I felt somber and wanted peace and quiete to take it all in, but I wasn´t spared. Luckily, I had a window seat and I concentrated on looking at the great blue water below, thinking, Cuba is somewhere down there, and that, really, its not all that far in hours from home to Ecuador. At the same time, i felt the sensation of my bellingham umbelical cord being stretched as the view of water went on and on.
I arrived at night, and the lights of the city are patterned in oblongs and swirls more than in a grid form, which you expect. i thought, this place is huge, what have i got myself into? I felt the altitude difference right away; i had no option of being hasty. I had to walk slowly, my ears feeling pressure, my feet floating. And there was my teacher with my name on a sign and felt reassured and liked her right away.
She had hired a friend to taxi us to her home and when we arrived i met her mother, father, nephew who stays with her part-time and yes, another Anna from London. what a good sign of luck is that! I ate some food and drank tea, trying to stay lucid and answer questions in my simple spanish and explain what the ALG was to the other Anna. my senses were overwhelmed and i just wanted to go to bed. it was even effort to understand english that first night. when i went to bed, i couldn´t believe how loud the traffic noise was from inside the house. how do people carry on their normal lives? i wondered. it can be so loud that you have to talk louder to be heard at the dinner table. Of course, now, i am adjusted and can sleep fairly well through the night.
I was told that night that my teacher could not provide language lessons for a couple of weeks so did i want to attend language school down the street with the other anna. of course, i agreed. I wanted to get busy right away and not have time to get overwhelmed. the following day i began, after having one day to sleep in.
School is excellenct since each student gets a teacher to themselves and you have the opportunity to practice speaking and reviewing grammar. In this short time I feel that my speaking has improved rapidly.
After that first lesson the other Anna and I explored a public market for a few items and took in the city. In some places the steets and sidewalks are in disrepair and you have to watch where you are going- randomly, there will be a whole filled with stagnant water, big enough for a child to fall into that just shows up in the middle of the side walk. Its just one more thing to watch out for besides motorcycles on the sidewalk, whizzing buses and that sometimes the lines in the road mean nothing to drivers.
That first walk down a broken street brought on all the unknowns to mind and the sense of vulnerability: