Halfway Point

Can’t believe I have less than a month left in Ecuador…!

It was also interesting to see how academic events are structured here. The event, of course, started on “la hora ecuatoriana” (Ecuadorian time), which, unlike Bryn Mawr time (where events start 10 minutes after their scheduled start time), can range anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. The question and answer portion at the end of the panel was also structured a bit differently than what I’m used to. Instead of answering each question after it’s asked, the moderator fields 3-4 questions from the audience and then allows the panelists each to respond to different aspects of those questions. I found it to be a bit confusing, as not all of the questions were addressed by the panelists and there didn’t seem to be a logical structure that the panelists were following in answering the questions. As I was walking out after the panel, I was approached by someone who looked to be my age asking me where I was from. I think I probably rolled my eyes, as I’ve become so tired of being approached by people (especially men) here who can obviously tell that I’m not Ecuadorian. After explaining where I was from and what I was doing in Ecuador, I asked if he was a student at FLACSO. Turns out he was actually Spanish and in Quito for the summer for an internship. We ended up going out for a bite to eat and discovered that we both have similar interests, and as we are both visitors in Quito, made plans for later in the week.

I don’t know any Americans here in Ecuador, so my 4^th of July was relatively quiet. I returned to FLACSO for the presentation of a book titled “21^st Century Rural Ecuador”. This event started a grand 40 minutes late, but was neat in that it had a wide range of panelists, including the Ecuadorian Minister of Agriculture, the President of an Indigenous organization and a representative from a women’s rights group. They also gave us a free copy of the book at the end of the event, so I’m excited to begin skimming through it to see if it has any information that can be of use in my research.

That night, I was able to watch a spectacular fireworks display from my balcony. I’m assuming it was probably a production of the US Embassy here in Quito, but I have no idea. Happy belated birthday, America! US-Ecuadorian relations are a bit tense at the moment (Ecuador hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for example, this past January, and is also debating granting asylum to WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange), but people here, in my opinion, have a generally favorable view of Americans (just not our Government). 

4th of July fireworks

Carefully balanced fruit

On Saturday afternoon (which was gorgeously sunny and a good 82 degrees warm), I did some exploring around the neighborhood, including walking through the nearby German cemetery. Why there’s a German cemetery here, I have no idea. It was gorgeous, however, with each person having their own mini-garden along with their tombstone. I also went for a $6 pedicure, and I think that the woman had never seen feet my size before!

A gorgeous tombstone in the German cemetery

Sunflowers

Mini-gardens

I ventured up to Yunguilla on Sunday afternoon to watch my friends play soccer (they won 4-2) and spend time with the community. I went to one of the community’s corporation meetings, which in typical Ecuadorian fashion lasted more than two hours and was completely disorganized (everyone speaks at the same time, there’s no agenda, etc.). They’re always fun, though, because I love seeing how things work in other places and what the rationale is behind the corporation’s various decisions (i.e. how to make the marmalade better, whether they should continue making cheeses, whether they need more administrative support so that things can run more smoothly, etc.).

Yunguilla

My new friend!

I barely slept on Sunday night because of the crazy roosters, but enjoyed spending time with my friend’s mom on Monday morning sorting beans and listening to her stories. I asked her about el buen vivir, and while she’s generally supportive of President Correa, I don’t think she really had an understanding of what it was in terms of the 2008 Constitution. She’s one of the kindest people, and while she’s the same age as my Mom, she looks much older, partially because she’s raised nine kids, but also because of the manual labor she does every day. It’s truly incredible to think of all the work the women in rural Ecuador do each day. They clean the house, they cook (when I woke up at 7am on Monday morning, she had already made potato and yucca soup), they hand wash all of the family’s clothing, they tend to the animals (in this family’s case, this includes guinea pigs, chickens and pigs, as well as the random dogs and cats) and they plant and harvest food. She mentioned that one British tourist who stayed with their family a couple of years ago had told her that in the UK, they bought soup in cans at the grocery store. To her, this was unimaginable. Yes, she’s seen soup in cans before, but she just couldn’t believe that it was healthy for those cans to sit on the grocery store shelves for months because they contained vegetables, and in some cases, meat. I had to agree – it’s a bit absurd when you think about the chemicals required to keep food like that edible for so long. It’s hard though, because with the way our society is set-up, not everyone has time to grow their own vegetables and raise their own chickens, yet alone prepare fresh soup several times a week. As I ate my bread and fresh Yunguilla marmalade for breakfast this morning back in Quito, I thought about how great it was that I knew exactly where those chigualcan fruits (there should be a picture of them somewhere on my blog from last summer) had been grown and that I knew the women who had prepared this marmalade. It made my food taste so much better, and I wish I could say that I knew where everything I eat comes from, but alas I’ll have to settle for working on that as I return to the States in August.

My friend's house

This poor little guy got stepped on by a big rooster and so my friend's family was taking care of him

Yunguilla :)

Tonight I’m off to see “The Fog of War”, a documentary about former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. And then tomorrow evening, my parents arrive! Their flight is scheduled to arrive at 6:30pm, so hopefully they’ll be able to get a good view of the mountains as their plane descends before the sun sets. We have plans to explore Quito, celebrate our birthdays (my Mom’s is the 12^th and mine is the 13^th), travel to Yunguilla and shop at the largest indigenous market in South America in Otovalo. Should be a good time, with me playing tour guide/translator for the 9 days they’re here! Hope everyone is well! -Maggie

And my weekly food picture: A white carrot (not a parsnip) fried thing that I made