1) While talking to my host dad about Rafael Correa’s administration,
which he was highly critical of, he tells me, “I’m not a capitalist or
anything. It’s not like I’m far right.” I love so much that in his mind, being
center-of-the-road means not being a capitalist, like that’s a common sense
thing that people take for granted.
2) In Intag, we stayed on a nature reserve which has nice but rustic
accommodations, including composting pit toilets outside. This led me to
reflect on the fact that in most countries in the world, people lack access to
clean drinking water, whereas in the US, we shit in clean drinking water. At
the very least, it seems like we should design homes to have greywater
recycling, so your sinks/showers drain into your toilet.
3) My host family would be considered middle or upper middle class by
American standards, and certainly upper class by Ecuadorian standards. However,
they don’t have a dishwasher or washing machine. According to my academic
directors, people often don’t trust that washing machines actually clean
clothes better than hand washing (though my family takes their clothes to a laundromat).
I wonder if those appliances aren’t available, are too expensive to be
practical, or simply aren’t viewed as even remotely necessary (or some
combination).
4) Most of my extended host family has gone to private school, and thus
speaks English fluently or close. Today, I met my mom’s niece, who’s already
being taught English in school (she’s 6). Even in public schools, English
instruction is part of the official curriculum, though it’s often not taught or
not taught well, depending on the school. Still, it seems that here, one of the
functions of an elite education is learning a foreign language well. In the US,
this hardly seems prioritized. I’m sure more affluent people are more likely to
learn a second language in school, but it seems like “elite” American schools
are more likely to focus on business things, economics or maybe good science
education. To me, this is a shame, though it’s also reflective of the fact that
English is increasingly becoming the lingua franca of the world, particularly
for science and technology.
5) I was showing my host mom pictures of me and my family, including
some from my high school graduation. She looked at the pictures, looked at me
and said, “Oh, you’re fatter now.” I love that in this culture, fat is just a
trait like any other—your hair is brown, you have green eyes, and you’re gordita. Having some extra fat on your
body isn’t a national emergency like it is in the States.
6) The Ecuadorian constitution (re-written in 2008) is one of the
coolest governing documents in the world. It states that people have a right to
food sovereignty, nature has rights, people have the right to a “good life”
(this is stated in Kichwa, one of the indigenous languages of Ecuador), and
that Ecuador is a GMO-free country. In practice, however, very little of this
is enforced and Correa’s government is extremely pro-extraction.
7) Quito has its share of beggars and people hawking various food items
in the street, but it also has a more enterprising sector which makes its
living by performing circus arts at major intersections. I’ve seen fire
twirlers, jugglers and acrobats making human pyramids in the middle of the
street while traffic is stopped.
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