Hello friends around the world,
This month has been very interesting, full of learning, adapting and changing. But unlike when people usually use words like "interesting" and "learning" experience, I've actually been pretty happy and having a pretty good time. I haven't been nearly as involved in meta-level activities, so this will be much more about the basics of life, because taken away from an environment where I am familiar and comfortable, the basics become much more interesting and difficult to manage.
Housing
I think one of the most interesting challenges or experiences I've had has been with housing. In Boston, housing was also a big concern much of the time, but in the end, I stayed with old friends early on, and in cooperative houses towards the end, with a few relatively uneventful couchsurfing experiences in between. Here on the other hand, I've been with couchsurfers the whole time, which has generally been great because any friends I have are people I've surfed with. Here is a general run down of how things have gone.
My first house was a large three condo complex of the extended family of a nineteen-year old. Highlights included interesting political conversations with his father and grandparents, a beautiful view of Quito, and his great grandmother screaming and groaning
incomprehensible things at random times of day and night. The next house was a family of a 23 year old woman who works in tourism. The most interesting element there was her sister's 4 year old son who was crazy (as I assume most 4 year olds are) and had a massive amount of energy. Both of those lifestyles were a little posh. I was told not to wash my plates because the person who comes to cook and clean will take care of it. In the second house, family time was often spent around a very large screen tv that was always on.
Things changed later. I went to a family of a 23 year old theater student, who is studying in Argentina but was back for break. It was one of the best couch surfing experiences I've had. They were of more modest means, which for me meant that the house and all of the interactions were much more comfortable. The parents, especially the mom, were adorable, loving, and took me in right away. I had many fun conversations with them about a slew of topic. Since there wasn't a paid cook, I also had an opportunity to cook myself, which they were so excited about that they tried to copy my noodles with veggie stir-fry, and later bought food for me to cook. The actual host, Wilmer, is very friendly and fun loving, and one of the few people I would honestly term as a friend here. We've had some chances to meet up and hang out since I left his house, and we had such a warm goodbye that I knew I would always be welcomed back if need be.
From there things started getting tricky. I was very proud of myself for being so well prepared and having all of my couches arranged well ahead of time, but one of the pitfalls of couchsurfing is the possibility of the unexpected. Usually I try to get a couch arranged two weeks in advance. At that time I make sure I have a phone number and that the dates are clear and confirmed. Then a few days before arriving, I ask for the address and figure out an exact time that is best for arrival. Early in the week I sent that inquiry to my fourth couch, but got no answer. The day before I was suppose to come to his house, I tried texting and calling. The person who picked up the phone couldn't understand what I was saying when I asked for the name of the person, until he finally got it and told me he left, and when I inquired when he would come back, he said he didn't know and that he left for the US for his parents (I later found out that his father passed away so he had to go immediately, but at the time I was quite upset because all of the sudden I was stuck without a place to stay). Luckily, I had just arranged the couch for the week after, and when I called, Danny, the host there, told me I could come a week earlier. All of the sudden, I only had a weeks worth of where to stay.
Staying at Danny's was ok at first. He was nice enough, and invited me along to meet up with some German friends of his who were visiting (although this was partially because one was an ex that he was getting back together with and he wanted me to distract the other one). But overall things were fine, until I discovered that the landlord doesn't allow couch surfers. Danny said this doesn't matter, that he never comes downstairs and that he usually doesn't say anything, but in fact, two days after arriving, the landlord saw me, got very upset, and told Danny I had to leave. So at 11 pm on Saturday night, I was told I needed to find a place to stay for Sunday. At this point Danny became a much less pleasant person. First, instead of spending his energy apologizing, trying to figure out ways to help me, or trying to figure out ways to make it up to me, he spent his time and energy reassuring me that this isn't his fault. Then, he originally told me that he wants me to leave at 6 am the following day. I told him if he makes me do that I will sit with my bags in front of his house because I have nowhere to go until I can start calling people and trying to find a place. He agreed to let me stay a bit later, but pressured constantly the next morning, asking every half an hour if I have found something. Then on the other hand, he was afraid his landlord would see me
for some reason, so I was confined to his room. And to top it all off, he asked to borrow $20 (after I had paid for $5 worth of food and buses the day before that he told me he would pay back). He told me he would pay me back the following day, which was a month ago. Since then I had to harass him endlessly over the phone and facebook to get any response form him. He told me to meet him near his work two weeks ago, although when I went he just came out to see me and tell me he didn't have the money, and that I should come the next day at midnight. I stupidly agreed and came the next day at midnight only to have him tell me once again that he didn't have the money and to meet him at noon the next day. When I met him earlier today He gave me $5 claiming that was all he had. I got very upset and started yelling which I am happy to say made him pretty uncomfortable. He said I can come by at midnight again, but I said before I go all the way down at midnight I want to call and make sure he has the money. I did call, and of course he didn't. I'm leaving Quito now, so this is where that story ends.
Luckily, because I had sent out so many requests before, I had the phone numbers for two people who said they could host me, whom I told I didn't need a place anymore. I tried calling them once it got late enough in the morning, and pretty soon got a hold of Rafa, who told me I could come to the house that day, although only in the evening. Rafa's house was a completely different experience. It was a "rocker house" as he described it, and every one there was a musician or visual artist. they were all very into hard rock, heavy metal, and punk. The owner of the place has a rehearsal room in the back and bands would come at various times to practice there. The living room, where I slept, often had various people there, and if people were there, someone was smoking marijuana. I actually got word from another couch surfer my first day there telling me I could crash at his place, until it turned out it was someone else living in the house. Staying at Rafa's was great because no one felt responsible for me, so I didn't feel like a burden. It was a very relaxing and independent stay. The tricky part was that everyone kept odd schedules and they were not all sure of their schedules before hand, so almost every single day I found myself locked out of the house, waiting for periods that varied from five minutes to two hours. Another fun quirk about the house was that the main water pipe was leaking, so they would turn off all the water for the house if they were not using it, which is not as fun as it sounds when you wake up in the middle of the night with food poisoning. Another great thing about Rafa's is that I found my next couch through him. I had a couch confirmed at the beginning of the week, and was waiting to hear back with things like phone number, clarification of dates, etc. I sent new messages several times, but only heard back after leaving Rafa's house. So I ended up not having anything lined up at the end of my week once again. Luckily Rafa has some friends who live very close and who host couch surfers. I'd actually been trying to get in touch with Javier, one of the people who live there, but his phone was turned off (I later found out he was on a trip in Colombia). But one day when I was locked out I showed up at Javier and Chloe's house to wait and asked Chloe if I could come stay for a week starting the next day. She thought it was funny that the other house was sending surfers to them, but she didn't have any big problems with it. So that's where I am now.
Being here has been great. I have my own set of keys, which is amazingly liberating. Javier, Chloe, and Pablo are interesting, laid back, and very friendly. It's easy to get some quite peaceful alone time, but at the same time, we eat many meals together and get to have all sorts of fun conversations. One day we discussed drug policy reform for two to three hours. Chloe is from New Zealand, doing her masters thesis here, so if it's just the two of us we speak English, which has also been very interesting and very different. We do a lot of communal cooking, and I've won their graces by doing things like baking cakes, cleaning the kitchen, and building some small shelves for extra storage in their kitchen. I also started a project of building some hanging space for laundry, which took longer than expected. One thing led to another and I was invited to stay/kind of just stayed longer. I'll end up spending three weeks here by the time I leave Quito, which is really nice because the place really feels likes home.
And another random fun thing, couch surfers from Russia who surfed at the same place I did in Lima came and stayed with Javi and Chloe for a few days. Small world.
Part of the adventure has been the quirks in housing. For example, houses here (at least the ones I've been in here), don't have heating, or cooling, or insulation. Most aren't even fully connected between the roof and wall. For this reason, Quito is actually cold. Those of you with below 0 weather probably laugh at the idea that Quito is cold, since it never really drops below 40 here. But the thing is, a day with a high in the low 60s and a low in the low 40s means the house is in the mid 50s the whole day. And in many ways, being stuck in mid 50s the whole day is a very different experience of cold than having your room be warm and stepping into freezing weather whenever you have to go somewhere. This is especially true because another fun thing here is that hardly any houses have satisfactory hot showers. The water is usually between cool to lukewarm, and that's only with awful water pressure. Which is especially hard when then room is 60 degrees. The only good shower I've had was in the house where the water was always turned off. But luckily I have warm clothing.
Food
Dealing with food here has been completely different than in Boston because there is no Food not Bombs here, which means that I am actually buying and choosing my food. I was fed by the first few families I stayed with, but in the past months I've been buying more or less all of my food. I'm still trying to be vegetarian in my purchases, which is not particularly easy here except for when I cook for myself. For a while I was living almost entirely on bread and bananas. There are a lot of bakeries here that sell cheap bread, and bananas are extremely cheap, and much tastier than in the US. In some place I could get a big bunch of bananas for about 3 cents a piece. I don't think it did very good things for my digestive system though, especially when I was up to 15-20 bananas a day.
Cooking has been a lot of fun when I've had the chance. Wilmer's family was extremely excited about my pasta and stir-fry vegetables. They were all a little confused about why there was no meat in it. But something interesting that I realized is that it was very novel because it was really dry. Most of the food here is dripping, either as a soup, or with some sauce, or with beans or lentils that have been cooked to the point of being soupy. When Wilmer's mom tried to copy my stir-fry she did something with the sauce or the oil so it was once again drippy. Cooking at Javier and Chloe's has been fun because we do a lot of communal meals. Luckily Chloe is vegetarian so all communal meals have no meat, and there has been the extra challenge of her being gluten intolerant so no pasta or soy sauce. But it's actually given the opportunity to do some more exploratory cooking. Roasts, mujadara, the famous Chinese egg and tomato, and other random combinations. I got to do a lot of experimental cooking at FNB, but there it was always based on using what was about to rot or whatever was in front of me, where as here I have to think about it and pick something up at the store. I've also been on a bit of a cake baking binge (with gluten free flour) which has been a ton of fun, especially with some of the cheap and delicious fruit you can buy here. My favorite so far has been maracuya cake.
Transportation
Despite the warnings, I've been biking around everywhere in Quito. It's actually a lot more common than I originally thought. There is one big street with a bike lane, although sometimes it's more of a hassle than riding on the road. But I see other bike commuters out every day. Weaving through traffic is the same as anywhere else, and Boston traffic was crazy enough that there really hasn't been that much adjustment. Cars here are a little bit crazier and less predictable, but once I got used to reading traffic patterns here and maneuvering in harmony with the way they move, it hasn't been a problem, The biggest problem with bike commuting is that if I end up getting stuck behind a vehicle, it is probably a bus, because they are wide enough that I often can't get around them. And the buses here emit a foul black plume of smoke every time they start up, so on most journeys, I am likely to take a deep breath of that vile pollution, meaning I often finish with a scratchy throat and sometimes soar eyes.
The other difficulty is riding up the hills, depending on where I go. Quito lies in a valley in the Andes There is a stretch between downtown and the airport that's decently wide that is fairly flat, and luckily most things I ever go to are in this stretch. However occasionally I venture beyond, and I've had several hosts who live up on one of the hills. They are treacherous, steep, and long, and I ride up them with a shitty mountain bike. One host lived in a sub division called Pinar Alto, which was up on ridiculous hills. This meant there was a beautiful view from his living room, but I got really close to passing out the one time I tried to go up to his house with my bike.
Health
I have been pretty healthy overall during my time here considering my unbalanced diet and lack of caution with food cleanliness. I had a fever my first weekend here, and for the first month I had weird stomach aches at unexpected times. I think that may have actually been caused by the three-year expired peanut butter I had from Boston, but there is no way of knowing. For the past few weeks I've had almost no problems with that though.
The most interesting part has been my saga with my teeth. While I was in Boston I went to a routine teeth cleaning where they found I had two cavities, and so I got them filled. Just to give some contrast, that was two appointments, that after insurance that I can only afford because I get it through my parents, cost around $250. Despite the marvels of privatized healthcare, the dentist clearly didn't do a good job because I had pain where the fillings were (I did not have any pain while I had the cavities). After it persisted for about two weeks I called, and they told me to wait until a month passed and check in again. I did so, this time calling from Peru, and they said the fillings must not have been put in very well, something about being to high or not being sealed well (I know nothing about dentistry). So I had to find a dentist once I got to Quito.
I put it off at first, but finally I talked to WIlmer who told me there was a subsidized community clinic just down the street. Unlike popular images of more socialist health care, there was almost no wait, and the dentist was friendly and much less stressed out than the one in Boston. She took out the filing and put in m temporary. Unfortunately, the pain did not go away. The process continued over the course of a month, where I had to go back to this clinic 6 times which was really close to one couch surfers house but about 8 miles from where I was living most of that time, and I had to go to a separate x-ray clinic. We never really figured out what the problem was, but eventually she just redid the fillings. My teeth still don't feel at 100% but I'm hoping it's just part of the healing process.
Volunteering
My volunteer experience here has been far less exciting than most of my experiences in the past. My work with Biciacción has been amazingly uninspiring. Good days were when they didn't have anything for me to do and I got to mess around the computer, ok days were when they asked me to translate documents from English to Spanish, which I knew they would probably never use, and bad days were when they had me do some pointless arduous job outside. The most frustrating was a recent assignment to sand rusty metal poles for a canopy. Not only was it gross and tiring, but it was really unnecessary and time consuming. I brought up the idea of using a grinder, which most bike shops have. They claimed they already asked around everywhere, but that no one had one. I found that hard to believe, so I did my own investigatory work, and found that the bike shop that we work with most often and have set discounts at, and which is more or less across the street from us did in fact have a grinder. They did not have a metal brush wheel though, which is necessary to buff the metal as opposed to making holes in it. When I brought this up and recommended we buy a wheel and use their grinder (this would mean doing the job ten times as fast and getting much cleaner results) they said they don't have the money, even though they didn't have any idea how much it would cost. That kind of bullshit really annoys me. If they were to say "no, we're doing it by hand, and if you don't like it, deal with it" that would be one thing. But lying to me about looking for an electric grinder and then not willing to spend a few dollars on a tool to get better results and save a lot of time and energy is just disrespectful. And that's actually been the biggest problem working there. I don't mind not having work, having pointless work, or having work that I don't like, but my main motivation of volunteering there was to have good connections with people, and to do so through doing acts that are helpful to the community. Instead I'm not helping the community, and I'm surrounded by annoying people that I don't really like and who seem to have no respect for me, my skills, or my time. I won't miss my time in that office.
In contrast, I started volunteering at a human rights organization about a month ago and that has been much better. My work is still mostly useless, but at least it's not frustrating, and I get to learn a lot about human rights work around the world while doing it. But also, the structure was to give me a laundry list of much more work than I could ever finish, and then just have me do whatever I can. One really fun thing is that this organization is really well connected, so I get forwarded invitations to cool events happening all over Quito all the time, which has been fun extra enrichment. The most important thing has been that the people have been great and much more fun to work with. We have friendly conversations, and they try to include me and even ask my opinion regarding most of the work they do. They approach me with respect, and seem to be excited to have me here, even if I'm not doing anything all that useful for them. They invite me to join them for all of their meetings outside the office, even if there is nothing I can contribute, just so I can watch and learn.
The best part of my volunteer was a trip I was sent on. Last weekend there was a film festival about indigenous rights in the Amazon, run by an organization call Pachamama. CSMM, the organization I'm working with, and Pachamama, have a good relationship, and the work CSMM has been doing most recently related a lot to the idea of plurinationality, which is the umbrella idea behind a lot of indigenous work in Ecuador right now. So they sent me to the festival to distribute materials, and while the festival was a little weak, it was fun go on an excursion, and the Pachamama people were excellent travel companions, full of interesting stories.
I was suppose to go on a bike trip to the beach with Biciacción for this weekend, but not surprisingly they didn't recruit enough people to sign up, so the trip was canceled last minute. I'm a little bummed about the missed opportunity, but instead I'm going with Chloe to visit a friend of hers who is volunteering on a sustainable farm project in the jungle near the coast.
Observations on Ecuadorian Culture and Being a Foreigner
Hanging out in Ecuador for two months doesn't make me an expert on Ecuadorian culture in any sense, but I have had some of my own personal experiences which shed some light. There is of course the famous Ecuador time, where everyone is late almost all the time to almost everything. This has actually not been that difficult for me to get used to, because as long as I'm expecting people to come late, it doesn't bother me when they do. The only time this turned out really poorly was when I was suppose to meet a friend at a street corner at 8. I arrived about 15 minutes early, but after biking through a torrential downpour so I was soaking wet and cold, and she didn't show up until after 8:30.
That situation brings up another interesting difficulty I've had. People here seem extremely resistant to giving clear directions, an address, or specifics of where anything is. When you ask someone where something is, they will usually point and say "over there". If you ask more specifically they might say something like "it's close", or "only five blocks". Never "go straight until you hit this street, then turn left and go three blocks". It's virtually impossible to get clear instructions that will get you all the way to where yo need to go. Then I've found that people are extremely resistant to giving addresses. I've had several instances where I've had to ask couchsurfers many times what their address is, and they either still don't tell me or they finally relent. Most people insist on giving me some intersection and having me call when I get there. For example when I had to wait for my friend in the rain for 45 minutes, it was because she wouldn't tell me the address of another friends' house where we were going, so I had to wait at the street corner so she could show me where the house is.
And planning on calling someone is tough because of the very weird phone culture I've run into here. Almost everyone has a prepaid phone plan, so they have to buy minutes. My instinct is to buy a good chunk of minutes, and every time I get kind of low, to recharge, and that way to always be able to use my phone. That is not the prevailing philosophy here. People are constantly out of credit. And not just young people who may not have as much money. People in their 30s who work at the various NGOs I've worked with have asked to borrow my phone several times because they're out of credit (although people who work at NGOs probably barely have any money either). Then the culture around answering phones is very perplexing. On the one hand, I've had more problems here than anywhere ever before with people not answering the phone when I call them. On the other hand, people seem willing to answer their phones in any situation. During a personal conversation it's a given, but people answer their phones and have full conversations during important business meetings and inside movie theaters.
Beyond observations of Ecuadorian culture itself, it's been very informative to observe my interactions with Ecuadorians. My experience in China remains the most prominent memory of of being a foreigner and speaking a foreign language, but the experience here is very different than it was in China. In China, every interaction with a stranger was a novelty and a surprise for them. They all smiled at the white guy speaking Chinese, and there was always a "oh wow, your Chinese is so good", me not understanding what they are saying, them not understanding what I'm saying, or often all three. On the other hand, the majority of my interactions with Ecuadorians here that I don't know are very normal. I can't say they are the same as locals' experiences, but there is nothing that I notice that highlights the fact that I'm a foreigner. Shop owners are not surprised by my Spanish, and don't make efforts to explain things differently to me, assuming that I'll just be able to understand. I figure because there are many more foreigners who speak excellent Spanish in Quito than there are foreigners who speak even somewhat good Chinese in most places in China means that me speaking ok Spanish here is not at all surprising. I'd say the only time I really get the weird face is when I go to a restaurant and ask for an almuerzo (lunch which consists of soup and a plate with rice, meat, and some other things) but I always ask for no soup and an egg instead of the meat. I think for them this is akin to someone going McDonald's and asking for a burger without the meat or the bun.
Being Happy with Time to Myself
A big adjustment here has been having a lot of free time and not having nearly as many friends or as much of a community. It's been a little different ever since I've lived with Javi, Chloe, and Pablo since I hang out with them a lot, but in general I have a lot of time to myself. The first few weeks this was making me very lonely. But I learned to enjoy the time and use it for reading, movies, or just spacing out. When I started out I said that in many ways this is an experiment in finding, building, and integrating with community, but that for those times when I am not successful, it will be a time for exploring being alone and learning to be ok with that. I'm happy to say that in Quito I've had a fair amount of success with the latter. I've definitely found friends here, and I think part of my improved mood is because I have a few nights or afternoons every week where I get to hang out with people. But overall I've had a lot more time alone, and I've enjoyed it.
Random Thoughts
I'd say one of the best things I've done for my travel life is learn German. German has come to serve me so many times in so many ways. It turns out that there are a lot of Germans, and even more German speakers traveling around all over the place, and they are also some of the cooler travelers around. Also, speaking German at the conversational level is rare enough that greeting a German speaker in German and asking them where they are from is usually all you need to win their confidence and strike up a good conversation. My best friends in Beijing were German students studying there, and that's exactly how I met them. And here I've had a few great conversations and interactions thanks to German skills. Highly recommended travel tip.
Also if you are looking for good movies to watch, I highly recommend watching Miyazaki films. In case you haven't heard of him, he does Japanese animated films, but they have amazing characters, beautiful imagination, and often large topics in the background such as war, nuclear proliferation, and environmental conservation. And he has a tendency of creating strong, independent female characters, which is always refreshing and not nearly common enough. If you have sometime I suggest looking some of them movies up. I know you can find many of them on stagevu.
Thoughts about the Future
My time in Quito is nearing it's end. I'm leaving on Monday or Tuesday and moving onward. I have very few set plans, in part because of future unknowns, and in part because I like to keep things open. Here is my general outline of what I will probably be trying to do in the next year:
For the last week of February, I'll be traveling from Quito to Santiago, stopping in Chiclayo, Peru to visit a friend, and in La Paz
Spend March in Santiago
First half of April, visit Buenos Aires
Second half of April, bus up to northern Colombia and take a series of boats into Panama
First half of May, spend time in Panama, visiting Cañazas where I did my AMIGOS project and the host family I stayed with there
Second half of May and early June, bus up to Kalamazoo, hopefully in time for graduation
Mid June, spend time in Kalamazoo and leave for Boston
Late June, July and Early August, spend time in Boston until my Birthright flight from New York or Philadelphia. I won't know my actual flight time until sometime in March, so from here things get even hazier.
Once I leave on my birthright trip, I plan on staying in Israel for about three months, and then trying to find water passage to southeast Asia to eventually make it to Thailand and spend some time in Chiang Mai. After that, I have no idea.
That's all that comes to mind right now. Good luck with whatever you are doing, and for those of you in the north, I hope you're surviving winter in these last stretches.
