On my first night in Sangolqui I was lucky enough to arrive at the beginning of the annual festival of Maiz y Turismo(Corn and Tourism). This event began on a Friday night and lasted for the next five days. The climax of the first night was an amazing display of fireworks that took place at one of the city’s soccer stadiums. Canadian fireworks experts beware; if the type of display I saw ever catches on you may be soon out of a job. What occurred is without a doubt the most interesting and inventive fireworks display ever. In Canada we view fireworks as projectiles to be shot into the air and explode into many different colours and shapes. This display, in constrast, was centered around a several meter high metalic structure with hundreds of fireworks and firecracker attached to it. The object of the display was to set of the fireworks but at the same time have the structure collapse as this happened. What at first appeared to be a column, then collapsed into a star, and finally after wild shaking a few big projectiles, finally petered out. All of this was done in accompanyment to traditional music being pumped out on huge speakers. That was the first night.
Saturday morning begun with an endless parade down the main street. Bands palying in exquisite harmony, groups of cowboys on horseback, traditional dancers, some llamas, peoples of all kind, even a giant chicken advertising for McPollo marched on by. Meanwhile people watched from the roofs and sidewalks while vendors hawked food and drinks to everyone in sight. The majority of the parade was made up of men on horseback showing off their riding skils. As they rode by people from the sidewalks would continuously run up to them with cups of alcohol of all kinds and swap drinks with them. This may explain why the horses went mostly sideways instead of foreword although I expect that they might have had something to drink of their own. This mix of people on horesback in the middle of a modern city gave rise to an interesting clash of technology and culture. Having finished the parade and returning on a parallel street a man on horseback lost control of his horse and ended up leaving a huge mark on my the car of my host father. When my host brother confronted him about it the rider either didn´t notice or didn´t care and rode on. If two cars collide you can exchange insurace numbers and move on, but who would bother or even can carry insurance on a horse?
From the parade everyone then proceeded to the arena for an afternoon of racaus bullfighting. It is easy to see how the parade could logically progress to the bullfight. Ecuadorians usually eat a small breakfast consisting of coffee and maybe some bread or other pastry. On a mostly empty stomach they woudl then proceed to ride on horseback in the middle of a hot and sunny day for several hours. All of this was done in long pants, buttoned up shirts, ponchos, hats, and with scarfs around the neck. Add in the massive amounts alcohol and of course who wouldn´t be so drunk that they wouldn´t want to fight a bull? The bullfighting took place in a huge ring surrounded by a hastily built wooden structure held together with twine, wire, and ripped up tshirts. It would flatter this structure to say it looked like something designed by a group of totally plastered Civ. Engs. and found on the back of a napkin in the Bomber bathroom at closing time. Security issues thrown aside, we climbed up the shaky wooden ladder to the third story.
The bullfight in the ring resembled very much a game of soccer, long periods of inactivity followed by a few seconds of intense excitement. If right now you’re thinking of the bullfights in Spain with a lone man singlehandedly fighting a bull, then banish those thoughts from your mind. This event was a hodgepodge of competing interests with a bunch of amateur bullfighters cavorting around the ring. Clearly some of the parade riders had found their way to the ring as there were several people passed out on the ground apparently unaware that there was a made bull running around ready to spear anyone in his way. From my vantage point I could see three types of people in the ring. Some were on horseback who functioned roughly as “officials.” They kept things in order but also did their fair share of antagonizing the bull into running around the ring. There was another group who stood along the sides of the ring and while they did participate, they did not attack the bull and only jumped back into the stands when he came too close. Finally there were those who openly antagonized the bull, threw things at it, pulled at its tail, stabbed it with prongs, and waved red flags in its face. Those were the ones who faced the best chance of getting killed or seriously hurt, and many of them did. One man who decided to ride the bull fell off, and then was completely flipped in the air by the bull. As he lay on the ground he made the mistake of moving and the bull then threw him with his horns again. I didn´t see him die, but I heard later from another student that they saw someone almost die right in front of them.
The overwhelming majority of those involved in the bullfight were men, however a palpitable shock could be felt from the crowd when near the end a lone woman dared to enter the ring and face down the bull with her own cape. This caused a great amount of confusion among many people, in fact it went so much against the culture that many people present strongly disapproved.
Although there was an obvious level of cruetly and stereotypic machochism to the event, I have to admit that it was a lot of fun. The bullfight was an event of collective community experience: when the bull charged everyone in the stadium felt a surge of emotion, together. When someone was hurt the pain was shared by all and the person was quickly pulled off by whoever was nearby. In an individualized North American culture, how often can we say we feel anything like this? How then would I rate the event? I was told that the following scale is used:
one killed= a bad day
two killed= so so
three killed= pretty damn good!
That being said, I’m glad I didn’t take up my friends offer to go into the ring. Eventhough my injury or death could have helped make the day better, I would much prefer being able to explore Ecuador in one piece!
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Arrival in Sangolqui
After spending a week in Quito doing orientation activities and getting all of our oficial documentation done, we finally packed up all our stuff and arrived in Sangolquí on the Friday. Our leaving Quito was like our arrival at the airport, we had to pile all of our stuff on to our bus, and even tie a bunch of it to the top because we had so little space. It was definetly an interesting group excerices getting all that stuff up, and then once arriving having to take it all down.
The ride to Sangolqui was very interesting and indicative of the urban nature of Ecuador. It reminded me a lot of my experience in Sri Lanka, technically we were leaving the city however we never once left an urban area as we were going there. We did however stay completely within the valley as we went which afforded us a great view of the city as we were leaving. There were also many chances to peer over the edge of a cliff a look down several meters below. All of this within an urban setting.
Our introduction to Sangolqui took place at the local army base. That was the only place in town that could accomodate the large number of people in our group and all the family members associated with us. At the army base we were introduced to our families, had dinner with them, and then did a presentation involving, dancing, music, and a little theatre. This event was of course dress up which allowed each person to show a side of themselves we might not have seen in the day to day.
Having prepared and practiced our presentation we then were all crowded into a side room where we waited for our families to arrive. This was by far the most stressful event we had been through so far. The only information we had about our family was a little slip of paper Maria had given us with the names of our family, nothing else. All of us stood in anticipation, waiting for our name to be called when we would then meet the strangers who we would be living with for the next four months. Finally my name was called and as I walked out to meet my family, was relieved that yes, they were human, and that despite my limited Spanish we could still communicate with each other.
A bit about my family: The parents are Ernesto, who owns a small shop in town, and his wife Alicia. They currently have two of their kids living with them Carlos and Alba, and a third German (pronounced Herman) who is married and has two kids. At their house they also have an adorable dog named Dana.
After we were served the meal and had a bit of time to chat with our host families it was time for us to do our presentation. To kick things off we started with a song by an Acadian artist named Cayouche called “C’est ca mon Acadie.” Jean-Charles(also on banjo), Tim and I sang the verses and we were joined by Jennifer and Natalie on the chorus. The song went something like this:
Driver dans derriere d’un pickup
Marcher toute nus dans la pluie
Allez me baigner dans un lac
C’est ca, mon Acadie
Il doit faire beau sur la cote ouest
Il doit faire chaude dans le prairies
A l’Ontario et au Quebec
Ca battre pas mon Acadie
After we had many more interesting things to present. There was a poem read in Hungarian, a song in Hebrew, two girls that did belly dancing, a Quebecois song in French, a skit about maple syrup, some line dancing, a group that sang Four Strong Winds, and probably a few other things that I now forget.
The most bizarre and abstract of our presentation was an interpretive dance that was meant to be a recreation of logging in British Columbia. Interestingly it was only the TRENT students who participated in this artistic creation. It began with some people spaced out on the stage curled up in little balls, then to the tune of some melancholy banjo music they slowly began to “grow.” Then two students one pretending to be a bear and another some sort of bird/moose? frolicked among the trees. But! Then entered two loggers and as they danced threw their arms out symbolically cutting down the trees and then pulling them back up to construct houses. Then the bear and the bird/moose reappeared throwing their limbs in frustration and then taking refuge in the only trees that were left. At least that’s what I think was happening, others may choose to differ with me. I’m not sure what sort of impact this had upon the community but they seem to have accepted us anyways so it can’t have made that bad an impression.
After talking with my family for a bit more we decided to head back home. My house was not far from the army base but given that this was all happening at night I was completely disorientated on the way to the house. When we arrived home I was immediately shown to my room which was not to big, not to small and just off of the living room. I took a few minutes to unpack some of my stuff and then was then asked by my host brother and sister if I wanted to go out that night. I thought to myself, why not? To read about what happened see my next post!
The ride to Sangolqui was very interesting and indicative of the urban nature of Ecuador. It reminded me a lot of my experience in Sri Lanka, technically we were leaving the city however we never once left an urban area as we were going there. We did however stay completely within the valley as we went which afforded us a great view of the city as we were leaving. There were also many chances to peer over the edge of a cliff a look down several meters below. All of this within an urban setting.
Our introduction to Sangolqui took place at the local army base. That was the only place in town that could accomodate the large number of people in our group and all the family members associated with us. At the army base we were introduced to our families, had dinner with them, and then did a presentation involving, dancing, music, and a little theatre. This event was of course dress up which allowed each person to show a side of themselves we might not have seen in the day to day.
Having prepared and practiced our presentation we then were all crowded into a side room where we waited for our families to arrive. This was by far the most stressful event we had been through so far. The only information we had about our family was a little slip of paper Maria had given us with the names of our family, nothing else. All of us stood in anticipation, waiting for our name to be called when we would then meet the strangers who we would be living with for the next four months. Finally my name was called and as I walked out to meet my family, was relieved that yes, they were human, and that despite my limited Spanish we could still communicate with each other.
A bit about my family: The parents are Ernesto, who owns a small shop in town, and his wife Alicia. They currently have two of their kids living with them Carlos and Alba, and a third German (pronounced Herman) who is married and has two kids. At their house they also have an adorable dog named Dana.
After we were served the meal and had a bit of time to chat with our host families it was time for us to do our presentation. To kick things off we started with a song by an Acadian artist named Cayouche called “C’est ca mon Acadie.” Jean-Charles(also on banjo), Tim and I sang the verses and we were joined by Jennifer and Natalie on the chorus. The song went something like this:
Driver dans derriere d’un pickup
Marcher toute nus dans la pluie
Allez me baigner dans un lac
C’est ca, mon Acadie
Il doit faire beau sur la cote ouest
Il doit faire chaude dans le prairies
A l’Ontario et au Quebec
Ca battre pas mon Acadie
After we had many more interesting things to present. There was a poem read in Hungarian, a song in Hebrew, two girls that did belly dancing, a Quebecois song in French, a skit about maple syrup, some line dancing, a group that sang Four Strong Winds, and probably a few other things that I now forget.
The most bizarre and abstract of our presentation was an interpretive dance that was meant to be a recreation of logging in British Columbia. Interestingly it was only the TRENT students who participated in this artistic creation. It began with some people spaced out on the stage curled up in little balls, then to the tune of some melancholy banjo music they slowly began to “grow.” Then two students one pretending to be a bear and another some sort of bird/moose? frolicked among the trees. But! Then entered two loggers and as they danced threw their arms out symbolically cutting down the trees and then pulling them back up to construct houses. Then the bear and the bird/moose reappeared throwing their limbs in frustration and then taking refuge in the only trees that were left. At least that’s what I think was happening, others may choose to differ with me. I’m not sure what sort of impact this had upon the community but they seem to have accepted us anyways so it can’t have made that bad an impression.
After talking with my family for a bit more we decided to head back home. My house was not far from the army base but given that this was all happening at night I was completely disorientated on the way to the house. When we arrived home I was immediately shown to my room which was not to big, not to small and just off of the living room. I took a few minutes to unpack some of my stuff and then was then asked by my host brother and sister if I wanted to go out that night. I thought to myself, why not? To read about what happened see my next post!
Friday, September 15, 2006
A slightly more sober look at the first week
Arrival in Quito
Arriving off the plane in Quito we were immediately introduced to the collage of a country that is Ecuador. Huge tourist billboards juxtaposed pictures of the rocky Andes alongside the jungles of the Amazon. A huge tortoise from the Galapagos Islands finds itself next to a beaches from the main land coast. And that’s just the geography. Even though Ecuador is one of the smaller countries in South America it still boasts 17 indigenous languages, at least 17 political parties and 13,000 plant species(more than all of Europe combined).
My time in Ecuador is being spent as part of the Trent in Ecuador part of the Trent in Ecuador program(TiE). This program consists of four month of studying International Development with Trent professors and four months working in a field placement. I am part of a group of 27 students, most from Trent, but some like me from other universities. For the first half of the program we will be living with host families in Sangolqui, a small town just outside of the capital Quito. The second phase of the program when we do our field placement could take place anywhere in the country. One thing our professors and coordinator have made clear is that we are not here to be tourists; we will be pushed hard and expected to learn.
Quito is a huge metropolitan area with all the amenities and services of any of the world’s major metropolitan centres. The influence of American culture is inescapable. Yankees and Red Soxs hats dot the heads of people from all walks of life. McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut are common sights on any street. Popping my head into a few street side video stores I was surprised to find Sponge Bob, Sesame Street, and Barney staring back at me. On our way to the hotel from the airport we were treated to a medley of Micheal Jackson’s greatest hits on a local radio station. Ecuador has even adopted the American dollar as its currency. On one occasion I was stopped by a man on the street distributing pamphlets from some health product. This product could be trusted, he assured me, because it was used in both New York and Los Angeles. Something tells me that in had been in either of those places, someone would have tried to sell me an exotic Ecuadorian drug.
Our first week in Quito has been a wild mix of orientation activities, some mishaps, and a little misfortune. We’ve seen many parts of historical Quito and picnicked a top a mountain at Itchimba Park. A minor error by a worker at the Ecuadorian Consulate in Canada has resulted in a bureaucratic nightmare for some of our group members trying to register their passports. When we arrived at one government office we were told that they had run out of one their forms and that we should come back two weeks later. In another incident three of our group members were robbed at gun point shortly after leaving a movie theatre. Fortunately none were hurt and they lost nothing important. One even had the sense of humor to suggest that they were “just collecting a gringo tax.”
Now that the week is almost over my anticipation for leaving Quito is growing. As exciting as Quito can be, there is a big city sameness to it that makes me feel like I’ve just gotten of the bus from Waterloo in Toronto. Crowded streets, the dominance of the car (in one week a saw only a handful of bikers), and that large number of tourists means that there are physical and cultural barriers that separate me from most Ecuadorians. Walking through town I feel as if to some people I’m seen only as a potential source of income. The sameness of Quito also has another effect. It’s as if right now we’re living in a cultural bubble, while the “real” Ecuador waits for us outside. In a way I think we’ve been sheltered from true culture shock by a “lack of culture shock the big city creates. Next time I’ll bring you stories from the real Ecuador.
Arriving off the plane in Quito we were immediately introduced to the collage of a country that is Ecuador. Huge tourist billboards juxtaposed pictures of the rocky Andes alongside the jungles of the Amazon. A huge tortoise from the Galapagos Islands finds itself next to a beaches from the main land coast. And that’s just the geography. Even though Ecuador is one of the smaller countries in South America it still boasts 17 indigenous languages, at least 17 political parties and 13,000 plant species(more than all of Europe combined).
My time in Ecuador is being spent as part of the Trent in Ecuador part of the Trent in Ecuador program(TiE). This program consists of four month of studying International Development with Trent professors and four months working in a field placement. I am part of a group of 27 students, most from Trent, but some like me from other universities. For the first half of the program we will be living with host families in Sangolqui, a small town just outside of the capital Quito. The second phase of the program when we do our field placement could take place anywhere in the country. One thing our professors and coordinator have made clear is that we are not here to be tourists; we will be pushed hard and expected to learn.
Quito is a huge metropolitan area with all the amenities and services of any of the world’s major metropolitan centres. The influence of American culture is inescapable. Yankees and Red Soxs hats dot the heads of people from all walks of life. McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut are common sights on any street. Popping my head into a few street side video stores I was surprised to find Sponge Bob, Sesame Street, and Barney staring back at me. On our way to the hotel from the airport we were treated to a medley of Micheal Jackson’s greatest hits on a local radio station. Ecuador has even adopted the American dollar as its currency. On one occasion I was stopped by a man on the street distributing pamphlets from some health product. This product could be trusted, he assured me, because it was used in both New York and Los Angeles. Something tells me that in had been in either of those places, someone would have tried to sell me an exotic Ecuadorian drug.
Our first week in Quito has been a wild mix of orientation activities, some mishaps, and a little misfortune. We’ve seen many parts of historical Quito and picnicked a top a mountain at Itchimba Park. A minor error by a worker at the Ecuadorian Consulate in Canada has resulted in a bureaucratic nightmare for some of our group members trying to register their passports. When we arrived at one government office we were told that they had run out of one their forms and that we should come back two weeks later. In another incident three of our group members were robbed at gun point shortly after leaving a movie theatre. Fortunately none were hurt and they lost nothing important. One even had the sense of humor to suggest that they were “just collecting a gringo tax.”
Now that the week is almost over my anticipation for leaving Quito is growing. As exciting as Quito can be, there is a big city sameness to it that makes me feel like I’ve just gotten of the bus from Waterloo in Toronto. Crowded streets, the dominance of the car (in one week a saw only a handful of bikers), and that large number of tourists means that there are physical and cultural barriers that separate me from most Ecuadorians. Walking through town I feel as if to some people I’m seen only as a potential source of income. The sameness of Quito also has another effect. It’s as if right now we’re living in a cultural bubble, while the “real” Ecuador waits for us outside. In a way I think we’ve been sheltered from true culture shock by a “lack of culture shock the big city creates. Next time I’ll bring you stories from the real Ecuador.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Arrival in Ecuador
Hello Everyone,
This message is coming to you straight from Ecuador, at zero latitude and high altitutde!
For those of you who I haven’t contacted yet, yes! I have arrived safely in Ecuador. Our trip by plane went off without only a few minor disturbances and nothing that was really troublesome at all. I think I need mention only a few things. First of all when I arrived at the airport in Toronto I found out that one of my bags was 10 lbs. overweight, even though I’d taken out quite a few things the night before. Fortunately for me Jennifer showed up right after I did and because she was so smart and had packed lightly was able to take a few of my items.(Next time I’ll know not to bring so many books!) When being scanned by American security leaving Toronto they actually asked us to take off our shoes!(Pardon the smell…) Our flight to Miami went fine but we had a little trouble leaving. Some passengers who had had their luggage loaded on the plane did not make it to our flight. As a result all the luggage had to be unloaded and for security reasons the missing people’s luggage was removed. I also had fun living through American Airlines new "no vegetarian meals" policy(all terrorists are vegetarians you know). Besides that everything else went fine and we all arrived safely in Quito.
At the airport our group coordinator Maria met us and loaded us all onto a huge bus that took us to our small hotel. Oddly enough the drive to the hotel, which was at night, reminded me very much of arriving in Colombo. I guess it was the all the small shops, painted advertisements, and the feeling of being in a new place. The bus driver had the radio tuned to a station that did a medley of Micheal Jackson songs(influence of American culture?) Once in the hotel everyone collapsed from exhaustion.
Before I begin telling you about this awesome adventure that I’m about to undertake, I think it would be a good idea to lay out some of the basics of this program so that everyone can understand what is going on. My exchange to Ecuador is part of the program Trent in Ecuador(TIE) which is an 8 month work and study program. For the first four months I will be in a small town 30-45 minutes outside of Quito known as Sangolqui. I will be staying in a host family and all taking classes in a small school building that Trent has set up specifically for this program. Our professors all have their PhDs from universities in North America and Europe and are very knowledgeable in their field. I will be taking courses in community development, Andean culture, economy, and history, Spanish, as well as having a seminar on Ecuadorian politics. All of this has been approved by Waterloo(after having meetings with about half the administration) so I will be getting credits for what I do. In the second half of the program we do a work placement which could happen anywhere in Ecuador. As of right now I don’t know for sure what I’ll be doing on where I’ll be working although after my first brainstorming session with Maria it seems that there is a lot to be done in ecological restoration and ecotourism.
The next morning we were treated to a breakfast by the hotel. Cereals of all kinds, even more fruits, eggs as you wanted them, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, it was truly a meal to be remembered. I savored every bit of it knowing that this might be the last time I would get a meal like this for a while. Afterwards we sat down with Maria and Carmen who is one of our professors but because of the large number of people this year (27 participants) has also taken on some of the coordinator duties. Maria and Carmen shared a lot their experiences from previous programs and basically laid down all the ground rules and expectations for us. I have to say that perhaps it was bit too much for our first day in Ecuador but it was good to get that all out on the table. In a way it was like everything they told us in Canada World Youth so I wasn’t too shocked or overly concerned. With that out of the way we can now focus on the enjoying the exchange.
The highlight of the first night was the amazing sing along that took place on the terrace of our hotel. Tim and Jean-Charles both brought copies of the book "Rise Up Singing" which has just about every folk/pop song that you would every want to sing, organized by category(ex: Sea and Sailors, Love, Hard Times and Troubles) and with an artist and song title index. We spent a good two or three hours singing everything from the Beatles, to Stan Rogers, to Arlo Guthrie, to Bob Marley. It was fabulous. Jean Charles brought along his banjo which added a lot to the atmosphere.
As a side note Jean Charles and I have unintentionally pulled several hilarious puns in the last few days. We’ve been sharing the same room so one of us always has the key or doesn’t and has to get it from the other. The first pun occurred because some of the French speaking people in our group where talking and when they were done I came up to Jean-Charles and said "key." Having just been speaking French he thought I said "qui" as in "who." At the sing-along that night another pun occurred. Jean-Charles was leaving for bed and so came up to me with his banjo and said "key." Thinking that he wanted to follow along in the song we were playing I responded "it’s in G." My apologies to everyone. (For those of you who can’t stand bad puns I won’t tell you about my pun at the airport where upon reweighing my bags because they were too heavy the last time and having reduced my weight I said to the attendant, "I’ve changed my ways(weighs).")
Sunday morning we were allowed to relax and do our own thing. After another quick orientation meeting we jumped on our bus again and did a tour of old Quito. We saw churches, historical buildings, street performers, and even someone getting robbed right in front of us! I guess there is safety in numbers. Afterwards we went up Itchimbia which is one of the mountains surrounding Quito. From there we were given an amazing view of the city to go along with the lunch we had bought. The strangest thing was seeing how Quito is actually made up of blocks of houses that are all the same colour. The whole city was dotted with splotches of green, red,blue, yellow, orange, and more. Hopefully I will have some pictures coming for you soon.
Sunday night I had what I think was a small case of altitude sickness. Either that or their was something in the food that we had at a Mongolian Grill (I had no idea Genghis Khan pursued his conquests so far) in Gringolandia (a very touristy and sometimes overpriced area in Quito, we only went because we had no food and all the other places were closed on Sunday night). After we got back from the restaurant I got a headache that just knocked me out completely for the rest of the night. I slept it off though and felt good enough the next morning to write this. Today we are getting some of our official documentation done and then are going to visit some of the Universities of Quito.
Goodbye until next time, stay tuned!
This message is coming to you straight from Ecuador, at zero latitude and high altitutde!
For those of you who I haven’t contacted yet, yes! I have arrived safely in Ecuador. Our trip by plane went off without only a few minor disturbances and nothing that was really troublesome at all. I think I need mention only a few things. First of all when I arrived at the airport in Toronto I found out that one of my bags was 10 lbs. overweight, even though I’d taken out quite a few things the night before. Fortunately for me Jennifer showed up right after I did and because she was so smart and had packed lightly was able to take a few of my items.(Next time I’ll know not to bring so many books!) When being scanned by American security leaving Toronto they actually asked us to take off our shoes!(Pardon the smell…) Our flight to Miami went fine but we had a little trouble leaving. Some passengers who had had their luggage loaded on the plane did not make it to our flight. As a result all the luggage had to be unloaded and for security reasons the missing people’s luggage was removed. I also had fun living through American Airlines new "no vegetarian meals" policy(all terrorists are vegetarians you know). Besides that everything else went fine and we all arrived safely in Quito.
At the airport our group coordinator Maria met us and loaded us all onto a huge bus that took us to our small hotel. Oddly enough the drive to the hotel, which was at night, reminded me very much of arriving in Colombo. I guess it was the all the small shops, painted advertisements, and the feeling of being in a new place. The bus driver had the radio tuned to a station that did a medley of Micheal Jackson songs(influence of American culture?) Once in the hotel everyone collapsed from exhaustion.
Before I begin telling you about this awesome adventure that I’m about to undertake, I think it would be a good idea to lay out some of the basics of this program so that everyone can understand what is going on. My exchange to Ecuador is part of the program Trent in Ecuador(TIE) which is an 8 month work and study program. For the first four months I will be in a small town 30-45 minutes outside of Quito known as Sangolqui. I will be staying in a host family and all taking classes in a small school building that Trent has set up specifically for this program. Our professors all have their PhDs from universities in North America and Europe and are very knowledgeable in their field. I will be taking courses in community development, Andean culture, economy, and history, Spanish, as well as having a seminar on Ecuadorian politics. All of this has been approved by Waterloo(after having meetings with about half the administration) so I will be getting credits for what I do. In the second half of the program we do a work placement which could happen anywhere in Ecuador. As of right now I don’t know for sure what I’ll be doing on where I’ll be working although after my first brainstorming session with Maria it seems that there is a lot to be done in ecological restoration and ecotourism.
The next morning we were treated to a breakfast by the hotel. Cereals of all kinds, even more fruits, eggs as you wanted them, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, it was truly a meal to be remembered. I savored every bit of it knowing that this might be the last time I would get a meal like this for a while. Afterwards we sat down with Maria and Carmen who is one of our professors but because of the large number of people this year (27 participants) has also taken on some of the coordinator duties. Maria and Carmen shared a lot their experiences from previous programs and basically laid down all the ground rules and expectations for us. I have to say that perhaps it was bit too much for our first day in Ecuador but it was good to get that all out on the table. In a way it was like everything they told us in Canada World Youth so I wasn’t too shocked or overly concerned. With that out of the way we can now focus on the enjoying the exchange.
The highlight of the first night was the amazing sing along that took place on the terrace of our hotel. Tim and Jean-Charles both brought copies of the book "Rise Up Singing" which has just about every folk/pop song that you would every want to sing, organized by category(ex: Sea and Sailors, Love, Hard Times and Troubles) and with an artist and song title index. We spent a good two or three hours singing everything from the Beatles, to Stan Rogers, to Arlo Guthrie, to Bob Marley. It was fabulous. Jean Charles brought along his banjo which added a lot to the atmosphere.
As a side note Jean Charles and I have unintentionally pulled several hilarious puns in the last few days. We’ve been sharing the same room so one of us always has the key or doesn’t and has to get it from the other. The first pun occurred because some of the French speaking people in our group where talking and when they were done I came up to Jean-Charles and said "key." Having just been speaking French he thought I said "qui" as in "who." At the sing-along that night another pun occurred. Jean-Charles was leaving for bed and so came up to me with his banjo and said "key." Thinking that he wanted to follow along in the song we were playing I responded "it’s in G." My apologies to everyone. (For those of you who can’t stand bad puns I won’t tell you about my pun at the airport where upon reweighing my bags because they were too heavy the last time and having reduced my weight I said to the attendant, "I’ve changed my ways(weighs).")
Sunday morning we were allowed to relax and do our own thing. After another quick orientation meeting we jumped on our bus again and did a tour of old Quito. We saw churches, historical buildings, street performers, and even someone getting robbed right in front of us! I guess there is safety in numbers. Afterwards we went up Itchimbia which is one of the mountains surrounding Quito. From there we were given an amazing view of the city to go along with the lunch we had bought. The strangest thing was seeing how Quito is actually made up of blocks of houses that are all the same colour. The whole city was dotted with splotches of green, red,blue, yellow, orange, and more. Hopefully I will have some pictures coming for you soon.
Sunday night I had what I think was a small case of altitude sickness. Either that or their was something in the food that we had at a Mongolian Grill (I had no idea Genghis Khan pursued his conquests so far) in Gringolandia (a very touristy and sometimes overpriced area in Quito, we only went because we had no food and all the other places were closed on Sunday night). After we got back from the restaurant I got a headache that just knocked me out completely for the rest of the night. I slept it off though and felt good enough the next morning to write this. Today we are getting some of our official documentation done and then are going to visit some of the Universities of Quito.
Goodbye until next time, stay tuned!
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