Hello All! So last update I gave, the country of Ecuador was literally and figuratively "up in flames" with protests and roadblocks all over the country with strong movements from the indigenous group Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE).
Or in English, The Confederations of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador. If you would like to read more on the indigenous movement that took place over the last few weeks, feel free to check out this link
(https://www.amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/ecuador-historic-indigenous-mobilization-photos/?fbclid=IwAR3_pmeckqDgojXPGScLQ9GiOzcl8U6HtOfGtRAt0Cj8hBh9s_lMQVuUmBo). However, to sum things up, after an increase in protestors commuting to Quito (many indigenous walked and/or hitchhiked due to the road blocks throughout the country), on Sunday October 13th the president came to an agreement with the CONAIE to reverse the measure previously made that took away gasoline subsidies (govt pays for a portion of the gas prices here) , therefore increasing cost of transportation and cost of goods, which would have a major effect on the lower-class populations here in Ecuador. The president is now working with the CONAIE and people of Ecuador to come to an agreement on different changes that can be made to help Ecuador get out of it's large debt it is in with other countries, specifically China.
What I did during the "paro:"
With increased strikes last week, all Peace Corps Volunteers continued to be on "standfast," part of our Emergency Action Plan that states we are unable to leave our site due to safety reasons. And my work office, the municipio, went on strike starting last Wednesday, thus I didnt have work after Tuesday of last week. At first it was a nice break, but also with schools cancelled on a national level, we weren't even able to give our charlas at schools for our program we have recently started, Cómo Planear Mi Vida. Prior to this last week I hadn't been stressed much since I was in Baños where you couldn't tell much that we were being affected, however after being back in my small town, the mercados were starting to run out of fresh food, and more road blocks were put up, so no one could get in or out of the main "urban" area here. Thankfully we still had access to one of the local rivers and were able to enjoy one of our days there.
It was nice being off work for a bit but there's only so much one can do in a small town without leaving, and not knowing how long the paro would last, definitely started getting stressed as our town had no ATM and I was low on cash, and the fresh produce was running out. However, trying to cope with everything going on, I had went out for a walk last Friday and ran into a family from Argentina who is traveling via motorhome all the way from Córdoba, Argentina to Alaska.
I almost kept walking, but saw that on the back of their motorhome they had written "Argentina/Alaska," so I stopped to ask them if that's where they were heading, and that I was from Alaska. They ended up inviting me to sit down, it was a hot sunny day, and I had not much going on, so joined them by their motorhome and sipped on one of the classic Argentinan drinks for a hot day, called tereré. While sitting and sipping on Tereré, I learned about the family, their trip and their motivation. They were taking 2-2.5 years off to do this trip from Argentina to Alaska. The family consisted of a young married couple (Cecilia and Gustavo) and their two kids (Luzi and Agustín). The couple had each worked since they were young and worked their way up the ladder to be financially well off and had gone through some tough times as well. Ultimately, the couple decided that despite being successful with their work, they didn't have enough time to enjoy their family and were always busy working. They had money, but material things no longer brought them happiness. Ultimately, they decided they were missing something in life, they weren't
genuinely happy, and wanted to find that happiness by taking on the world and traveling in their old motorhome that they bought with all their necessary goods inside. The family sold their house, and all the belongings they wouldn't need- Cecilia told me she worked at a bank for 18 years and had 40 different pairs of high-heels, and sold them all. There was stuff they didn't even know they had that they sold. Using this money, they bought land and built 8 apartments (Gustavo owned a construction business), which is how they can afford to be on this trip for two plus years. It took about two whole years top plan and prepare for their trip, and they left January 30th and have so far visited Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru and are now en route from Ecuador to Colombia.
After sharing their story with me, knowing that there were road blocks, I invited the family over to my host family's house to use the wifi and shower. We ended up chatting some more that night and on Saturday, the roadblocks continued, so they were unable to leave again. So, we planned to have an asado (grill/bbq) at my house. The family grilled chicken and made salad and delicious desserts and we hung out at the house, cooked, ate, and chatted some more. Sunday, there were still no changes in the status of the government, keeping myself and the Argentinan family from being able to leave from Arosemena. We shared another lovely lunch together, and luckily my brothers truck was fixed this day and we were able to go bathe in one of the rivers in the communities we had access to. It was super nice to get out of the house. All the meanwhile at 3pm the president and the indigenous people were starting negotiations. And thankfully, later that night we found out that they government had come to an agreement with the indigenous and the paro was officially over. We celebrated our last day with the Argentinans Monday, Cecilia made us lunch and they later headed out on their adventure through Ecuador and up towards Colombia.
Back to Work:
I finally got back to work on Tuesday given that things were back to normal. It was nice to be back in the groove of things and we went right back into full swing with our charlas at the schools for our Cómo Planear Mi Vida project. This week was our first week where we had all 6 schools we would be traveling to so it was quite a busy week, but it's nice to get out of the office and into the communities! This week we talked about Gender roles and self esteem in the schools, as well as just introducing our program to the newer schools we were starting at! Overall, it seems to be going well- we have a range of different age groups from 7-10 years old to 14-18 years old, so will be a good challenge to learn to adjust our talks and activities to each age group! Hoping to eventually be able to start gardens at each of the schools we are visiting since in the communities they don't have much access to fresh fruit or vegetables apart from plantains and yucca.
Juegos Municipales (Municipal Games)
This week was the start of Juegos Municipales at my job. In Ecuador, it's part of their culture to have "games" or "tournaments" involving the whole organization or work place, create teams, and compete against one another. During our training in Quito, we had a mock games where we created teams within our PC group and had a soccer tournament. Here, it was exactly the same! Each womens team has a male representative (el padrino) and each mens team has a women representative (la madrina). To commence the start of the games, we had a parade (desfile) of the teams marching into the football/soccer stadium with our uniforms and posters/signs with our team names decorated. After everyone is in the stadium, the madrina and padrino of each team gives an inspirational speech having something to do with sportsmanship.
I forgot to mention, the madrina and padrino have to dress very elegant, because the best dressed and person with the best speech "wins" madrina or padrino of all the teams, and will be the one to pass out medals at the closing ceremony.
My site mate, Mary, was a madrina and won! Woo! Also included in the ceremony is the singing of the Ecuadorian national anthem as well as swearing in, reciting the honor code (or something), promising to be a good sport etc. Thus, this week we started the
competition between teams playing soccer, other sports we will eventually play include basketball and volleyball. Here volleyball is more of a mens sport, they oddly use a soccer ball to play, and it's 3v3. There weren't enough womens teams signed up for volleyball, so I'll be playing with one of the guys teams since I didn't want to miss out! It's been fun to participate in our little tournament since we live in a pretty small town with not much going on, so it's been a nice way to further participate in the community events and get to know people who work in my building better :)
Fun Fact of the Week:
Ecuador's national currency is the US Dollar.
Disclaimer: “The content of this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or the Ecuadorian Government.”