Ecuador is Free!

Today is the 200th anniversary of Ecuador declaring independence. Most of the celebrations were last night, and the nine of us gringos were there to celebrate with them (until bedtime, at least). It was certainly an experience. We made it to Plaza Grande about 6:45. Plaza Grande was the original seat of the empire in Ecuador; on two sides it has the Cathedral and the President’s house. The national symphony started playing about 7. Then, about half an hour later, the music stopped and the crowd turned towards the presidential house. Rafeal Carrea came out and waved to cheers around 7:30 or so. Due to dumb luck, we were about 50 feet from where he was on the balcony. We were all pretty impressed with the lack of (visible) security for a head of state. It was the closest I have been to any head of state thus far. Carrea disappeared about as quickly as he showed up, and we decided it was time to go get some food. After working our way to one corner of the plaza, we realized that the police had barricaded a walkway off, blocking the crowd on either side. I am easily a foot (or more) taller then the typical Ecuadorian and probably have 50 pounds on most of them. So, for the whole night, as the crowds pushed some of the smaller girls in the group around like sea weed, these people bounced off me. It was kind of funny, and really nice to be able to maintain eye contact with our group all the time.

But regardless of how impervious I am to an Ecuadorian crowd, we had a police barricade in front of us and a seething mass of people pushing in from behind. About here in the night was my first real experience with a ladron (thief) in Ecuador. Sure, on the Ecovia (major north-south bus route in Quito) I have felt hands for my pockets, but that’s life on the Ecovia. A full 20% of riders on the Ecovia are pick-pocketed (so I heard from my host family). That’s one reason why I always have my hand in my front pocket over my wallet. Well, I guess that’s the only reason I do that. Luckily, by law it is not a robbery unless they take more than $500. I’m not sure if that means that I should be carrying a lot more money so I can report it if something happens, or just watch my pockets closely. But last night, an old man and his wife were acting weird and really pushing into us, and I looked down and my bag had been cut. There is a 4 inch incision on the side. My initial reaction was to pull my bag up over my head and tell Erik, who has actually had a bag cut on the Ecovia, exactly that. The old man and his wife disappeared. I did notice he had a broken finger, which is interesting, because I’m pretty sure if I ever catch a thief with their hand in my bag/pocket I’m also going to try to break their hand. This is a country where rural justice for thieves still includes burning. Luckily, all I had in the bag was an alpaca hat, a water bottle, and my rain jacket, none of which were stolen. I’ll take it to our favorite seamstress today to get it repaired; it will probably cost about $.50. Mike, on the other hand, was carrying Sarah’s purse under his jacket and came away from the same crowd with a big cut in his rain jacket. Again, nothing was stolen. The rain jacket isn’t in great shape though, and I hear they are a real necessity during rainy season.

But the crowd wasn’t a total waste. After standing there for a little while, Carrea came right down the steps and through the tunnel in the crowd and up onto the stage for the bicentennial. Haley, towards the front of the group, was in hand-shaking distance from el presidente. Pretty good proximity to Ecuador’s head of state two times on the same night for dumb luck, huh?

So what else has been going on, other than too much for me to blog as regularly as expected?

Well, the second to last night of my home stay we had an incredible, and deep, talk at dinner. I got to learn a lot about the family’s history. I mentioned in an earlier post that the house I was in for my language stay is huge and beautiful. The family has been in that house for almost 46 years. That means they moved in when this (La Floresta) was “North Quito,” the rich and exclusive neighborhood. This is back when the Mariscol (Gringolandia, one of the bigger tourist districts in Quito and where our language school is located) was a mostly residential area. But by far the thing I can’t wrap my head around is the simple fact that Eulalia’s grandfather on her dad’s side was the military dictator of Ecuador for about 3 months back whenever. His name was Emelio (something) Ramirez. Simply mind-blowing.

While we are on the subject of our rich and powerful friends in Ecuador, I should probably mention Wendy. Wendy is from the US, but married an Ecuadorian husband after college. They live down the block from where our library is in Rumiloma. Their house is about 200 years old, and only one of 3 haciendas left in the area. They have 2 polo fields and 30+ horses for polo that they keep in their stables. Wendy and her three sons (well two, the middle son was still at summer camp in the Bahamas) had us over for lunch and were super welcoming. It is incredible that this hacienda is in between our bus stop and the library.

Language school is over and we have all moved into the house. There are currently 15 of us, which makes space tight and meals big, but it has been great so far. All the old PDs are starting to trickle out this week though, which I’m sure will be weird and sad. They are about the only other people we have had to talk English to for a month. We cook a big family dinner every night but Saturday. Vegetables are cheap here and we eat a lot of them. I’ve already lost 10 pounds. I’m sure once those parasites kick in I’ll be wearing my old suit from high school in no time. The walls are indeed paper-thin in this house. It’s a good thing I’m a heavy sleeper.

The whole month of August is mostly scheduled with summer camp. Last week and this week is the Jovenes camp (teens). Turnout has been low, but I think the girls who are coming are having a lot of fun. The next two weeks will be for kids age 5-12. Seth and Dana planned the Jovenes camp, we just show up in the mornings. However, MPIE PD ’10 is in charge of the kid’s camp; we are planning this week. We also have the library open in the afternoons. I have played Monopoly every time I have been in the library. Some of the other PD’s have also put a lot of work into sorting and entering all the donated books we recently got, which is great. Ecuadorians don’t read much currently (a confession from our Ecuadorian friend Jorge) but some have started, at least. I tried helping with this project, but found myself on a bean bag reading Clifford the Big Red Dog en Espanol (more or less my reading level).

Most of the jobs have been divvied up at this point. I am officially in charge on Microfinance and small business classes (with Erik), the community survey database, program metrics (to measure effectiveness of our programs and measure other parts of life), I’m the finance chair for the house, and I take out the trash. I’m also in charge of children’s art. Surprised? Well, all the other stuff is up my alley as far as personal aspirations go. I like art and can remember plenty of kid’s projects. Also, art was one of our most popular programs last year, and no one else was really interested in continuing it. In addition, (and the reason I was most interested in doing it) the kids have very few other creative outlets. Copying the work of a neighbor is something I will have to look out for, and Holly suggests I do not actually leave the example out otherwise it will get copied too. But, in six months Holly said she saw a lot of improvement in the kids’ willingness to express themselves creatively and a lot of enthusiasm for the class in general, which may very well be much needed break from working with all the adults in EPV, the micro financing coop we work with.

Chao,

Chet

Song of the Blog: “16 Military Wives,” by The Decemberists