In Cotacachi

Well, I know I´ve been horribly bad at keeping up with this, but I´m here in Cotacachi, a small indigenous town a few hours north of Quito, to start the internship part of my program. CIMAS took a big bus of us up here yesterday, along with a few people who are in nearby Otavalo and other points south, to meet our families. My mother, Digna, is a tiny indigenous woman with three daughters, Tamia, 15, Waita, 11 and Carin, 9. I´m probably butchering the spelling all of their names because they´re in Kichwa. Michita, our family coordinator, cautioned them all strongly not to speak Kichwa in front of us, but luckily the family speaks very good Spanish. There are a few people from my program nearby, but we´re all working different places and living in the sprawling communities outside of the "city," with the exception of my good friend Grace who will live in town.

My family, which also includes my father, Ernesto, who I met later last night, lives in Santa Barbara, a 20-minute walk from the city, in a tiny little house with a small farm where they grow vegetables and breed cuy (guinea pigs), a local delicacy. Since community tourism is a large part of the industry in this area, many families have constructed albergues (hotel-style rooms or lodges) either within or outside their own houses. I knew I would be staying in an albergue, which concerned some of the other girls here because they didn´t want to feel like a hotel guest separate from the family, and while it didn´t bother me at first, I was a little disappointed to mine was separate from the house (pictures soon). However, it is a very nice setup with a double bed, my own bedroom with hot water (my family was very proud of this point) and electricity, and I suppose it´s nice to have some extra privacy and amenities. I spent all afternoon playing cards with my sisters and teaching them to play Spoons, which they loved. We had a soup of some lettuce-type vegetable, chicken and potatoes, as well as mora (similar to blackberry/raspberry) juice, which is one of my favorites here. My parents are also very big on TV, which they have in one of the two bedrooms, and watching the news, which nice. Digna is also apparently the community treasurer and had to go to Ibarra, the province capital, to finalize paperwork for a new water line. And, to top it all of, President Correa will supposedly be here next weekend. So, yes, I really like my family so far.

As for work, I am working with the County Assembly (Asemblea Unidad Cantonal= which deals with a variety of community projects and seem to be fairly active with citizen participation and dialogue with regard to indigenous issues. Today, I typed up a speech to be given to indigenous youth and read a bunch of literature they´ve published. It was a little frustrating since I don´t think I´ll be able to actually work on anything until the leather festival (Cotacachi has a huge leather industry, as well) is over at the end of next week, but at least I can better acquaint myself with the organization in the meantime, the structure of which I don´t fully understand. I also feel a little awkward being there and having to introduce myself to every single person and feeling sort of purposeless, but it was only the first day.

The last few weeks have consisted of travel, writing final papers, a visit from Max, meeting my friends´ parents, a broken window in my house, and a long but fun spring break. I really do plan to write a longer update to add later, if only for myself. Please drop me a line sometime, I´m much better at personal e-mails and I can still receive snail mail, which of course is always lovely.

Futbol, la comida, el mercado, Baños, y San Valentin

Last Tuesday, shortly after I made my last blog post, I went to my first Latin American futbol game. I was excited for two reasons, one, because I just plain haven’t been to a ball game of any kind in a while and I love the atmosphere, and second, I knew it would be a good time judging from my experiences in the bars in Argentina last summer for the world cup. And we were not disappointed! We decided to play it safe, buy the more expensive tickets and sit in the “civilized” section, which was fun, but next time we want the cheap rowdy seats. That’s where all the cheering, chanting and enthusiasm was; and happily, Liga (the local club team) beat Paraguay in the Latin American intramural match.

On Wednesday, my friend Alex from Grinnell invited us to his house to have dinner with his family. His mother and siblings were so warm and welcoming and his nieces and nephews were adorable. The house was full of Grinnellians (plus honorary Grinnellian Grace) with Becka, Allie, and our friend Heather who is in Quito for the semester doing the IES program. We ate the literally sweetest meal I’ve had here, and probably in my life. Later, Kristin, a girl who is doing the yearlong version of the MSID program and a friend of Alex’s family, joined us and told us about her internship at Faro, a political group that sounds fascinating and would be my first choice of work were I to stay here for the summer. Alex’s mom also taught us my new favorite word in Spanish: refunfuñar, “to grumble.”

We had a field trip on Thursday to Saquisili, a traditional market in a largely indigenous town a few hours away from Quito. In case anyone was curious, a pig in Ecuador costs about $40 and a horse $200. It was really interesting to see how farms are supplied and maintained in a culture that is foreign to me in so many ways. I told my friends about how Mom and Dad would always take me and Patrick to the country for what I now think of as “city kid country education” activities: picking out our pumpkins at pumpkin patches, “adopting” Squirmy the lamb. There was also a crafts market where I managed to get some good deals on jewelry and gifts – I’ve become proud of my bargaining skills in Spanish. A bit of trivia: markets are traditionally held on Thursdays for the same reason we always celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, because everyone needs to eat and buy their meat before fasting on Fridays the way Catholics did before Vatican II.

Our long weekend meant a trip to Baños! The town is named for its pools naturally heated by the nearby volcano. It’s small, but beautifully nestled between the mountains and attracts a fair amount of young travelers. The café where we had lunch when we arrived had a very multi-lingual lending library, a feature that was prevalent in most places we went. We ate and drank at Casa Hood, which is run by an American, several times throughout the weekend, due to its great happy hour deals, hearty breakfasts, and tasty cheap desserts.

I’ve been here almost a month and still can’t get over the fact that I’m surrounded by mountains all the time. The six of us girls went on hikes, horseback rides, and a bus ride to a cable car that took us across a gorge to a waterfall on the other side. I’m trying more physically adventurous things than I’m used to, but it’s all been a blast so far. My favorite so far is working up the courage to swing across a little mini-gorge when we got off the cable car, of which Becka took a video:

Can you tell I was terrified?

Basically, it was a fantastic weekend with a good group of people with whom I’m looking forward to traveling again for Carnaval next weekend, this time to the beach on the northern coast.

This week's been fairly mellow and filled with schoolwork, which has basically gone well thanks to our classes with my favorite professor, Juan Paz y Mino, who according to my host parents, is a fairly well renowned mind from la Universidad Catolica. On Tuesday, I had to prepare a typical Ecuadorian dish, so Consuelo, Marita and I made tamales. We had quite a feast the next day at school with everyone's "assignment," ranging from soup to empanadas to sugary green plantains and tres leches flan. The food here is a little bland, but I'm happy with it for the most part. I had an interesting discussion with my host family about what typical American food is, and thankfully I managed to come up with a few examples that weren't McDonalds and KFC. My host father explained how the Native Americans and the Irish (yes, he was convinced the Puritans were Irish and I didn't have the heart to correct him) came together to eat corn and turkey at the first Thanksgiving.

Speaking of holidays, Valentine's Day is just as big of a deal here if not bigger than it is in the US. First of all, it's so affectionate to begin with. I came home on Tuesday to Sol, who for all intents and purposes is my host sister-in-law, leaving a lily in a vase on my dresser. My mother wished me a happy day of "love and friendship," and thus it was. Since flowers are a local industry here, my friends and I decided to take advantage of the good prices and buy three dozen roses to distribute among the students, professors and staff members on our program. It felt like Valentine's Day in elementary school or the day before winter break in high school when I would run around just giving things to people.

The good mood was infectious and continued into the evening as Becka, Allie and I kept up two hours of Spanish conversation over a $3 meal at an Argentine restaurant in the Mariscal, where we later joined several of the girls on our program for free drinks at one of our new favorite bars. After a long day at school that concluded with a somewhat informal conversation with one of the CIMAS doctors we hadn't talked to before, I joined my sister Angelica for a mellow evening of watching TV.

My bus leaves in five hours, so I should get to bed! Luckily, with the right dose of Dramamine, I can sleep on the bus.

La farra, la familia, la escuela, la politica, el comunismo, el Teleferico,

Since last week (and I hope to update every Tuesday):

On Sunday, I woke up early after a tame night of listening to salsa music in an overpriced bar in the Mariscal Sucre district, aka the nightlife (or farra) area, aka Gringolandia, with around eight people from my program. I'd say it was a successful first night out. I met up with Allie, Becka and Becka's host mother to go to Quito Antiguo, the historical center. It was a beautiful day and we got to see several of the churches (more on this later).

For lunch, the entire family was over at my house, mainly Consuelo's side. I tried to keep up with the huge crowd and the Spanish, but mostly I found it easier to play with the kids, including AnaPaola, my four-year-old "niece," who I'd become good friends with on Friday after meeting her parents (my "sister" and "brother-in-law," who happens to come from a Shuar indigenous background) and brother. One funny coincidence was that Jimmy, a "cousin," had picked up our CIMAS group from the airport last weekend and is the boyfriend of Dr. Suarez's daughter. It was all good practice, although a bit much for my first weekend in Quito, and I ended up slipping out the door to meet Becka and Allie at Honey Honey, an overpriced cafe a few blocks from my house, after being walked by Consuelo, her mother, and another young "cousin," of course.

The following morning, after trying to convince Consuelo that I was perfectly capable of walking the half-hour to CIMAS myself, I decided to just let my mama be my mama and let us have some bonding time if if would make her feel better to accompany me. All of our families are very protective of us, particularly the girls, and we're told to always take taxis in groups, and never to walk alone or ride the bus after dark, but this was broad daylight. I tried to explain that I was used to walking, cities, and public transportation (having ridden the subway to preschool and been raised by parents who never drove to work), but Quito certainly is a different world. Pedestrians, we were told in the fist material we ever received, do not have the right of way, to say the very least. Our somewhat macabre joke is not to become a blue heart in the street, which are painted onto the pavement at points where people have been killed by oncoming cars, of which we've seen a small handful already.

That day, we had an amazing lecture on Ecuador's recent political economy, which has been shaky in recent years but people find great hope in Rafael Correa, the new left-wing president. Profesor Paz y Mino, a lawyer and political/historian type and my favorite professor at the moment, pointed out that Ecuador is a pais full of contradictions: it is beautiful and geographically and biologicially diverse, not to mention fairly peacefully culturally diverse - Correa even speaks Kichwa (more on this below). Despite its eight governments in the last ten years, the political instability hasn't turned into violence: the key word in civil unrest, as I kept pointing out to people like Dad and Mr. Drillings before I left, is civil. The economy is now dollarized and while cheap, it certainly isn't even the cheapest in Latin America (Argentina easily beats Ecuador's prices) and they export plenty of goods like oil, flowers, seafoood, and bananas; Colombians and Peruvians emigrate here because salaries are better. However, Ecuadorians also tend to immigrate to Spain or los EEUU, in fact, money from expats is the #2 source of income here. It will be interesting to see how Correa evolves as the great white hope of Latin American leftism as he's trying to be everybody's friend, from Castro to Chavez to Bush. He has so much popular support that even Congress can't override him for fear of an uprising. But plenty of people are still suspicious. "In this country," Consuelo said to me, "we are used to being deceived by the government. What you think you're fighting for, or who you think you're fighting with, isn't always what you think." On my first night, Angelica told me she was also concerned about the future of Ecuador if Correa goes the way of Lula or Evo Morales. "Michele Bachelet is a good socialist," she said, "and she isn't alienating anyone. If we seem too communist, all the rich will leave for Spain or the United States and we'll have nothing." Which I certainly don't disagree with. Part of the reason I came here (and to Argentina as well) was to try to understand the politics from an actual Latin American perspective, since so much of the structure and issues are different from ours.

We then had our first discussion-style classes on our pre-departure readings about globalization, development, culture, communication, adaptation, the development industry, and Ecuador in general, which I think sums up our course material for the first half of the semester. A brief word about the class structure: we are technically taking three classes during the first seven weeks of the semester and then the internship during the final six counts as the fourth. However, "development theory" and "Ecuador as a case study" have clearly melded into one and we have a revolving door of Ecuadorian professors from a variety of disciplines. Ruth Gordillo, whose background is in philosophy, helped moderate a dicussion that was eye-opening for the first day. Surprisingly, I found myself defending and at the very least trying to explain American cultural values of capitalism, free-market economies, the "freedom to choose," and neoliberalism. While I, and I'm sure many of the other students, found her stubborn and opinionated, I think it will be a good challenge for me to think about where I stand on some of these issues both as an American and a quasi-socalist Latin Americanist (and not a cultural fetishist as we discussed in a later class). I even felt okay about presenting my topic in front of her and the whole class, which usually makes me pretty nervous.

We have also started Spanish class, which is more structured. There are seven girls in my section, taught by a serious but friendly woman named Cristina. We also had a day with another professor who taught us, among other things, the influence of the Kichwa language in the Andean region. Kichwa, or Quichua, is different from the Quechua spoken in Peru. I was really surprised to learn that exclamations such as "ayayay" come from Kichwa, as well as words I had already heard my upper-class mestiza family use, such as ñaña for "sister," "guagua" for "baby," and "achachay" when it's cold. My family and friends here laugh when I try to use them, but Ecuadorians do, so why not?

Okay, enough of the acadmemic stuff. We returned to el centro historico with school on Friday, and at the Basilica del Voto Nacional, I climbed some of the highest towers in Latin America.

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Basilica del Voto Nacional in "Old Town," or el Centro Historico.


The whole MSID Spring '07 group inside.


The Virgin of Quito, visible from many points.
Quito is obviously a mountainous city, and a long one, but it's not very wide: from the valley you're always surrounded by mountains.


Local schoolchildren whose teachers guided them in an impromptu musical performance for us. Possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen.

On Friday, Grinnellians Becka, Allie, Alex and our Minnesotan friend Grace decided to just get pizza and a beer in Allie/Becka's neighborhood (fairly close to mine) and watch a movie. It was very college: squeezing five people into a small bedroom onto one bed to watch a DVD on a computer sitting on a chair. Walk the Line, as well as the company, were a familiar escape from a tiring week.

On Saturday, I attempted a run to the nearest centro comercial (mall) for a few extra passport photos and light grocery shopping. I love being outside here, particularly in the mornings. Obviously, it's warmer here than anywhere I'd be in the US now (60-70 degrees during the day), nowhere near as humid as DC summer, and despite being so close to the clouds, it's just sunny enough. However, the hills are a bit much after walking up and down them all week, so I think I'll need to plan for a more flat area next time. Really, though, after climbing the Basilica, hiking in the mountains, and just getting around Quito, a person's feet get tired.



Later that afternoon, Grace, Allie and I went to the TeleferiQo, a tourist attraction that takes you up Pichincha, the mountain I see every morning on my walk to school, in a gondola. The view from the was spectacular, albeit freezing, and I felt like we were on top of the world.


The top of Pichincha.

I tried falafel that night and we bar-hopped in Gringolandia again for a little while. We got hungry a little after midnight, and tried to get a snack from a well-known $1-pizza place. They were out for the night, and after we pouted and asked the girl working if she knew of another place with cheap pizza, she looked quickly over her shoulder and grabbed my friend Kim's hand, leading us half a block down the street to a slightly more dubious establishment. Nevertheless, we got our pizza and even managed to get asked to dance in the 10 minutes we were there.

A few of us ventured back to the Mariscal to do homework and eventually watch the Superbowl. I like the Mariscal for its great prices, ethnic food, and farra, but I hope in the coming weekends we can try a slightly less gringo-y area to hang out.

This morning, classes revolved around indigenous communities, first a lecture about Spanish conquest, then an overview of the various groups and traditions from an Otavalena, or woman from Otavalo, one of the well-known indigenous cities in the sierra (same region as Quito, the other two are the coast and the oriente, or eastern jungle). It was interesting to me because my internship will most likely deal with citizen participation/dialogue in an indigenous community, which I've started to get arranged and hope to finalize soon.

I've worried a little about feeling lonely at my internship site, particularly if it's in a small town (which MSID encourages and I ultimately know is the best thing). But luckily, the town where Emilia, the internship coordinator, was pushing me to go, will likely have two other girls from my program. I still don't know what I'll be doing over the summer, whether I'll be in DC or Ecuador, but the people at CIMAS are wonderfully helpful and I hope to pursue my options more seriously soon.

We'll also be traveling soon! We have a few long weekends coming up, the second of which is Carnaval, the huge pre-Lent celebration. I'm really excited for Lent, Semana Santa (Holy Week), and Easter here. Sadly, I haven't been to Mass yet, but there are a few other Catholic girls here (as well as my family) so I hope to explore the many churches here soon.

I also hope to go dancing for real sometime soon. Angelica introduced me to her best friend Bianca, who of course was incredibly nice to me despite the fact that I am a foreigner (both culturally and socially, to her), and they offered to take me out sometime. I'm very lucky to have a "sister" close to my age, and since her semester ends soon we'll hopefully get to spend more time together.

If you've made it this far, you're wonderful and thank you - words can't express how much support from everyone at home means to me. As is my tradition, I'll reward you with a few funny quotes from the viaje so far:

Dr. Suarez, our program director: How was your trip? Was the hotel nice?
Cory: Yeah, but there were a lot of bugs.
Dr. Suarez: Oh, those came for free.

Emilia: Have I already introduced the professor to you? Does anyone know his name?
Cory: Dr. Fantastico.

[While playing a vocabulary game, I am to use the Spanish word for "walls" in a sentence and my classmates are supposed to guess what it is]
Me: The ... here are white.
Everyone: Gringos!

"Yo soy (Elea)nor(a). Soy una chica loca y rubia. Busco un hombre que juege aljedrez y escuche rap." - Kim's imitation of what my personal ad would be in a Spanish excercise about the subjunctive. [I'm Nora and I am a crazy blond girl. I'm looking for a man who plays chess and listens to rap.]

Check here for more of my pictures: http://www.grinnellgallery.com/viewAlbums.do?uid=c15434df04e064320104e80640eb001d

I'm here and alive, I swear.

Thanks to all of you for your writing back and sending love in many forms. Sorry I've been out of touch lately. In addition to arriving in Quito and spending a few days at an orientation retreat in the mountains (slash jungle), I'm still getting the hang of being here, which includes internet access and making phone calls. In many ways, I feel like I'm on another planet from the States.

I felt much better after checking my bags at the airport, and even more so once I got to Houston and saw the other Grinnellians on the trip, who have been great to have around (Becka, Alex, Phoebe, Allie, Sarah, and another Nora, for future reference). After we landed, I felt a little light-headed because of the altitude, but nothing as scary as I'd thought. Customs were a breeze and after everyone had gotten their luggage, we were taken by bus to a hotel in what I now know to be a popular, albeit touristy, night-life area.

We went out to an empty karaoke bar for some brief bonding. After our orientation, first few days at CIMAS, and a Saturday night out, so far I've been nothing but impressed by the combination of friendliness and commitment I've seen from the 24 kids on this trip. Maybe it's a Midwestern thing, maybe it helps that I knew a few people going in, but so far I'm very happy with my companeros.

I should back-track a little. CIMAS stands for Centro de Investigaciones del Medio Ambiente and is a public health/environmental nonprofit agency where the MSID program is hosted. The director, Dr. Jose Suarez, went to school in the States and has a relationship with a few American universities that have programs in Ecuador. The staff are incredibly kind and helpful; the women call us their guaguas, or children. I'm reminded of all the nannies, Latina teachers, and mothers of friends from my childhood. We started classes today Spanish, globalization/development theory, Ecuador as a case study), and I think it's going to be fairly serious, not to mention in Spanish, but really interesting and with a lot of group work.

As for my family, I really like them. The parents, Danilo (officially Carlos) and Consuelo Jaramillo are in their forties and are what I would guess to be upper-middle class based on his line of work (a plastics factory), the fact that she doesn't, and the traditionally upper-class northern Quito neighborhood. This was a surprise considering MSID's goals, but it certainly makes them no less warm and of course it's nice to have a few extra amenities: for example, the "apartment" is probably bigger than Nana and Papa's house, they own three cars, they don't lack for any American-style electrical appliances, and they have a maid. Angelica, my "sister," is 20 and studying law and human rights, and is a bit of an opinionated firecracker, to her mother's occasional dismay. It's nice to have someone around who's my age and has similar interests, and we've already had some good conversations about socialism, Latin American politics, and other girlier things. They've hosted many students before (CIMAS also has an intense screening process), including one who overlaps with me now, so I have a little trouble getting my bearings in terms of where my being part of the family stops and independence begins, but it hasn't caused any problems so far.


The front of the duplex where I live.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the family dynamic is the absence of the younger son, also called Danilo, and instead the presence of his seventeen-year-old girlfriend Sol and their two-month-old daughter Valentina. Sol is treated like exactly like part of the family, as though she were an additional sister (even to the point of having her friends over to the house), but lives at home with her own family and is finishing high school by correspondence. From what I understand, Danilo is studying economics in Spain and has been for a while, in order to better be able to provide for the family when he returns. The Jaramillos also have an older daughter, Adrianita, who is 25 and lives separately with her husband and three children (you do the math). The whole extended family, who are obviously very close, was here yesterday with many young mothers with guaguas and fairly frank conversation about them. They are Catholic, which I thought would translate to mean more conservative about things like teen pregnancy and "illegitimate" children, but it is a fairly pro-baby culture and people start families early. I haven't even seen much evidence of machismo from the men, who seem like nothing but involved fathers, grandfathers, brothers and cousins. Another interesting observation is a lack of infant car seats. You would think in the age of globalization, such an important piece of technology for a culture that obviously cares a lot about their children would reach those members who are most likely to have access to them.

As for Ecuador itself? Well, our orientation was a two-day trip up the mountains north of Quito (above the equator, if you can imagine that), which was gorgeous and reminded me a little of the Sound of Music. We stayed at an eco-hotel sort of place in a little town called San Miguel de Los Bancos, which was literally on top of a mountain. We went on hikes through the rainforest (I'm so not nature girl, but I'm trying), swam in a river, and milked cows. I kept saying it felt like summer camp and our CIMAS chaperones, Emilia and Michita, felt like the counselors. Anyway, it was beautiful and a great way to get to know people.


On the way there.


The river where we cooled off.


Pathetically trying to milk a cow.


This is me on a street near CIMAS, and you can see the mountain Pichincha, visible from almost everywhere, in the background.

Yes, Quito is very hilly and is in some ways a very developed city and in some ways, not. Regardless, wherever you go, there is a view the mountains, which is the highlight so far for me and you certainly can't beat the weather. We went to Old Town yesterday, which was gorgeous in a very European way. It hasn't been too difficult to get around so far and transportation is cheap. A bunch of us went to listen to live salsa music at a bar in the Mariscal Sucre neighborhood (aforementioned touristy area) on Saturday night, which was fun, too. The food is really good, though. Small portions, of course, but thank God they don't eat as late as in Argentina. There's a lot of soup, empanadas (mostly made with green plantains, which ends up tasting more like cheese), and delicious fruit I've never even heard of before. No ceviche yet, but I did eat what was clearly a fish at orientation.

So, despite being in a new place with a different language and being outside my comfort zone, I would say I'm having a great time with no major worries so far. I´ve even started vaguely looking into plans for the summer here, but nothing too detailed yet as I´ve also started hearing some things from the places I´ve applied at home. Mostly, it's amazing to know that I've been waiting to be here for so long and I finally am. I'm a gringa, I stick out, people call me Norita - it's for real now and so far I love it.

One final observation: there are no decent Spanish equivalents for the words "awkward" or "sketchy." We find this to be a great problem.

Pictures here for now, I'm trying to find a better way to post them: http://grinnell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007532&l=e9689&id=22500005

Host family!

The information about my Quito family just arrived from MSID. My parents are Carlos, 46, and Consuelo, 42, a housekeeper. They have a daughter, Angelica, 20, and a son, Danilo, 18, both of whom are students.

I'm excited and scared all at once. These are real people whose real home I will be living in for at least two months. The kids are almost exactly my and Patrick's age, the parents only slightly younger than my own.

I wonder what type of neighborhood "Quito Tenis" is. I wonder how far I'll be from school or my American friends. I wonder what type of relationship I'll have with them. People say this could be the best part of the semester and I hope it is. I want to live with new and different people who still feel like family, since I've realized just in the past 24 hours how much I'm going to miss my own.

First post

"Life has a way of teaching us. Life has a way of confusing us. Life has a way of changing us. Life has a way of surprising us. Life has a way of hurting us. Life has a way of curing us. Life has a way of inspiring us." - Y Tu Mama También

Ecuador in 6 days and so much (shopping, paperwork, errands, reading, packing) to do! People keep asking me if I'm nervous or excited and of course I have moments of both in the midst of preparations.

My good friend Amy came to visit this weekend and we went to the Museum of the American Indian, which indigenous groups from South America. We saw a movie that was, in part, about a Quechua community with gorgeous shots of the Andes. I can't believe that by this time next week I'll be in a new country in a completely different world.