A lil bit of my world

In No Particular Order

Things I'll miss about Ecuador:
My host parents!
My host niece and nephew
My gringo friends
My Ecua-friends
Creative writing
Salsa
Mango sherbert, Guava jelly, Ají
Ecuafood in general
Fun clubs to go out to every weekend
Homework that is almost exclusively reading novels
Easy public transportation
Kissing hello/goodbye
Speaking lots of Spanish
Trips 1-2 times a month
$5/nite hostals, with breakfast
The mountains!
"nomás"
Rain putting me to sleep
10 text messages a day minimum
The hammock in our backyard


Things I'm looking forward to at home:
My parents
My sisters
My grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins (hope I get to see them all!)
Any of my friends still left in the KS area
The lovely people of First Menno
My pets
Mom's cooking
Driving
Hot tub
Talking on a cell phone, instead of just messaging
Seeing Le and Amanda, who are coming to visit me:)
Refreshing my ASL
Making money, instead of just spending it (if I find a job that is)
Being home for Father's Day
My birthday

I know it's a cliché, but it's true! I have barely a month left in Ecuador, and I still feel like I have tons to do.

Tonight Kathleen and I went to the opening of an international docu-film festival that will be going on all this week. There are some 67 films that will be shown, by directors from all over the world. My creative writing prof (who's great!) helped organize the whole thing and is really enthusiastic about it, so I think there are at least 5 films I'm going to try to go to.
To update on this week:
Thursday we all went out to La Bunga again, but this time, thankfully, I just met people who were fun to dance with, and not people who later called incessantly (that situation, by the way, was solved when my cell phone got lost/stolen in Canoa, so I have new number). We had a good time, and got home late, as usual.
Friday I just went to the gym in the evening (Kath, Ann, Raq, Liz and I have all been members of the same gym for the last month. Aerobics, woohoo!), then everyone was doing work or tired so we just chilled in our respective dwellings.
Saturday morning, Ann and Raq and Ann's dad (who was supposed to arrive Wed, but the airport was closed, because, you know, the government fell and all...) left for Baños. I was successfully unproductive for almost the entire day, so in the evening rewarded myself by going out. Kathleen was hanging out with Pablo, Liz wanted to stay in, so I went out with Andrés and Carolina, and 3 of their friends. A night speaking Spanish-- always a good thing! We went to a Brittish Pub, The Turtle's Head, and played darts, pool, etc. Then we headed down to Cumbayá for a bit, to Andrés house, to hang out. He has a huge, beautiful house, and something about it (maybe the crazy amount of cow knick-knacks in the kitchen? His mom's last name is Vaca) reminded me of houses in the U.S, so i got a little nostalgic. He also has reminders of TX A&M everywhere, including a miniature collie named Aggie, which reminded me of Jules, which made me get sentimental too. Haha, I was just a little senstive that evening I guess. I've started dreaming with people from the States again lately, a sure sign that my brain is preparing to go home, even if I can't quite believe it.
Sunday was lazy as usual, then in the evening Kathleen and I got together and made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and alfajores. Quite delicious!
Monday afternoon all the BCA kids met in the park by our program directors' house, each of us brought a snack of some kind (our cookies and alfajores were a total hit:D), and we had a surprise party for Nieves' birthday/ thank you party for both of them for being great. Nieves got teary when she saw us all waiting for her, singing "Happy Birthday." We each gave her a rose and a hug, and the standard kiss on the cheek, and she seemed touched. Yay, I love Kodak moments. "Can you imagine what it's like to have 31 children?" she said..so many to worry about! And she does worry about us just like a mom; we're so well taken care of. And in 2 weeks we're already going to have our big goodbye dinner, on May 13! It's a little sad already; the people in my group have been so fun to get to know.

Anyway, tomorrow I absolutely have to write the 5-10pg short story analysis I haven't been doing for a week and half, because Saturday morning Kathleen, Ann, Raq, Liz and I are going to Mindo for the weekend. It's a touristy little town with waterfalls and other fun stuff, a bit like Baños I think. Travis and I finally got ourselves organized too, so I know for sure now that I am going to Peru at the end of May, so excited! We'll be there from the 19th to the 27th, then I have to pack up, say goodbye, and head home June 1!

This is a long 2-posts, but it's been an action-packed day, so it deserves it. Really.
A lil recent political history/background:
In '95, Vice President Alberto Dahik was charged with embezzlement of public funds by the Supreme Court, and fled to Costa Rica. According to http://www.edufuturo.com/educacion.php?c=1548, this crisis caused the Ecuadorian pueblo to suspect that serious corruption had overtaken the government.
In the next election, Abdalá Bucaram, a populist politician from the coast, won the presidency. By '97, however, the President of the Republic was deposed by a popular people's movement because of his corruption and his unconventional political style (he dubbed himself "El Loco," did a lot of screaming, and sang and danced at rock concerts, for example). He was eventually thrown out by a resolution in Congress that declared him "mentally incapacitated" and was exiled to Panamá. Before fleeing the country though, he closed all the banks and ran off with millions and millions of the people's savings.
The Vice President, a woman, assumed the presidency because of pressure from the United States to maintain "constitutional succession of power", but she was president for less than 48 hours. The congress passed a resolution to appoint Fabian Alarcon, the president of Congress, who they had originally favored for the presidency anyway, and he finished the term.
Jamil Mahuad was the next elected president, but Col. Lucio Gutierrez organized a military coup (the first military coup in Latin America in a decade) in 2000 to oust him because of his corruption as well. Mahuad's corruption and economic policies provoked a massive movement among the indigenous population especially, which helped provoke the coup. Lucio went to prison for his role in the overthrow, but he was seen as a force against dirty politics by the pueblo.
Mahuad's Vice President, Gustavo Noboa, assumed the presidency then in 2000, but was also quickly unpopular. The country was in the midst of one of its worst economic crises, made much worse by the policies/crimes of the previous presidents. Noboa adopted the dollar (I think, but it might have been under Mahuad still), replacing the national currency, the sucre, and while during his term the country did manage to recover some from the crisis, corruption was rampant in his administration, he was accused of appropriating public funds, and when his term was over, he was exiled to the Dominican Republic.
Then Sr. Lucio Gutierrez reappeared (after being released from prison), winning the election in 2003 on a platform of anti-corruption and support of the indigenous peoples/the poor. Unfortunately, he quickly followed the same pattern of so many other politicians, and barely escaped impeachment this November.
In December he fired the entire Supreme Court and replaced the judges with people sympathetic to his party, an obvious violation of the constitution. This caused huge protests throughout the country; I arrived just in time to see a lot of this situation developing. Eventually the government agreed to negotiate with the Congress in order to resolved the "Crisis of the Courts," but has done very little to change the situation since then. Things between citizens and the government have been tense since then, with intermittent citizen protests and general stubbornness on the part of the president.

Which brings us to the turning point of two weeks ago, the same day that the Pope died. In the midst of public outrage and indignation, Gutierrez absolved Dahik, Bucaram, and Noboa, allowing them to return to Ecuador! Bucaram was still leading the political party PRE from abroad, so his return was especially polemic. The idea that he could waltz back into the country and re-involve himself in national politics after his shameful presidency such a short time ago was altogether offensive to many many people. He does have a lot of popular support on the coast though, so there have been divisive debates between costal/central constituents. Bucaram is an entirely incendiary character in any case; in this majority Catholic country he went so far as to declare that the Pope had waited to die until Abdalá Bucaram could return to his homeland!
So 2 weekends ago BCA warned us not to travel because protestors might close the roads and we wouldn't be able to get back. There were protests and anti-protests, but not too much upheaval.

Last Monday the mayors of Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca (the 3 biggest cities) called for a country-wide strike to take place on Wednesday. Gutierrez definitely felt the threat to his presidency, but still regarded it as a minority phenomenon. He paid for pro-government demonstrators, surrounded the Presidential Palace with military and police forces and holed up in his office. He's been paying for pro-government, anti-opposition commercials all month as well. Wednesday during the day we didn't go to class, but not a whole lot happened. The protests were fairly minimal, and the mayors were talking about a peaceful negotiation with the president to resolve the Court Crisis, even though the pueblo was calling for the president to step down. The politicians weren't exactly in sync with the people you could say. My Postmodern Lit prof said that he'd been really disappointed because it seemed like the pueblo hadn't turned out to protest for the integrity of their constitution. But then Wed. night, in an awesome demonstration of popular citizen's engagement, thousands of people spontaneously hit the streets to protest, in different neighborhoods all over the city, without the invocation of a single politician. It was pretty incredible! Raq, Daniel, Liz, Pablo, Kathleen, Ann, Miguel and I were walking back from a movie at around 11.30pm and we crossed paths with hundreds of people just going home from various street protests. All was pacifistic, the people were chanting, beating pots and pans, waving flags, singing, and demanding the renouncement of the president. Since the national strike mainly affected only public employees, it turned out people weren't indifferent, they just had to work! When they got home from their jobs, they were out making their voices heard. One radio station, Radio La Luna, seemed to be the only media outlet that was with the people, directing them to protest in specific places, giving people air time to denounce the government, etc. It really has been an impressively spontaneous popular movement. The after-work protests continued growing every night, with demonstrations occurring in Guayaquil and Cuenca this week too.
Friday Lucio finally agreed to dissolve the Supreme Court so that the Congress could start working on a process for appointing new, more impartial judges. It was kind of too little too late though; the pueblo was demanding a lot more justification at that point, and it didn't appease them. It more seemed like he was getting desperate and predicting his fall if he didn't act quickly. According to all international sources and the president himself, however, he would not consider renouncing, he'd finish his term and, in the case of the U.S., he'd continue negotiations with the White House to establish a (controversial) free trade agreement.
So Friday I left tranquila for the beach, and though someone did throw a rock through our bus window before we left Quito, I was more or less accustomed to the protests at this point. (They're mostly pacifistic, and not much different than the protests I've been to in Spain and the States). We heard that Gutierrez declared martial law in Quito Friday night though. Radio La Luna and TV Channel 6 were censored for several hours, but the head of the military said he wouldn't turn his forces against his own pueblo, there was a lot of international criticism for the move, and the protestors were just emboldened, so he withdrew the order after a few hours.
Sunday we called BCA and asked them if they thought it was too chaotic for us to come back to the beach (really, isn't it, shouldn't we stay here a few more days, huh??), but they said things were pretty calm and we should get back to Quito for class.
Monday, as I said, I skipped class cuz I was exhausted after the night bus; there were protests Monday night again.
Tuesday in my US-Latin American Relations class we talked about how protests of some 20,000 people in Quito wasn't enough to get rid of a president. When Bucaram was thrown out, there were protests of at least 100,000 people. Plus, the U.S. wants Lucio to stay in power because he's their friendliest ally in the free trade agreement negotiations in S.America. And, neither the Congress nor the armed forces were talking about deposing the president; they were all advocating more moderate approaches. After a week or so, we figured the protests would die down, the Congress would figure out something in regards to the Supreme Court, and Lucio would finish the 1.5 years he has left of his term.

And then came today...

that you read the posts below these pictures first, so that you better understand this series of photos

April 19, 5pm, Students from all of the Quito/surrounding-area universities head toward the Cruz del Papa for Tuesday's major march. High school and college students constituted a large part of the week's fervent protestors. (Foto: El Comercio)
 

April 19, 5pm, Thousands of demonstrators gather in the Cruz del Papa in Parque Carolina, to start a march towards the Presidential Palace and Congress 

April 20, morning, in Cumbayá, the people block the streets to prevent the arrival of pro-government groups, who were coming from the East towards Quito (Foto: El Comercio) 

April 20, mid-morning, Fransiscan monks in the Plaza Grande pray for tranquility for the country (Foto:Comercio) 

April 20, afternoon, Thousands of students present themselves at the Plaza Grande. In the picture, the moment when the military allows the demonstrators to enter the Plaza from Chile Street 

April 20, afternoon, Several demonstrators run across the runway to prevent any takeoffs from Aeropuerto Mariscal Sucre de Quito. (Foto: El Comercio)
 

April 20, Alfredo Palacio being sworn in as the new president of Ecuador (Foto: AP)
 

9 am: I wake up to the sounds of lots of honking, to the rhythm of the popular chant lately, "¡Lucio fuera, Lucio fuera!" (Out with Lucio!). I think "Wow, the people are out and active early today. Cool," and get in the shower.

9.30: When I get out, Yoli tells me that there's lots of commotion outside and I won't be able to go to the university. I'm thinking she's being overly-concerned (I live the closest of all the BCArs; I only have to take one bus after all). I send a text message to Raq, "Did you make it to USFQ okay? There's a lot going on by my house so I don't know if I can get there." Response: "Don't come. I'm stuck here." So I pop outside to check it out, and see that the 8 lanes of the intersection, Eloy Alfaro and Granados, are completely blocked off. Construction workers have dumped piles of gravel or boards or whatever else in the road. People are gathered in the center chanting, waving flags, listening to the radio, burning tires, etc. Many are chanting "¡Yo también soy forajido/a!" (Monday Lucio called the people protesting in front of his house "forajidos," a strong insult that roughly translates to "delinquent," but the people quickly turned the insult into a badge of honor= "I'm also a forajido/a!".) So I'm not going to school then, I think; there's no way for the buses to get there. I come back inside, and begin the day's marathon of news watching.

News:

• A Chilean journalist, 50yo, who'd lived in Quito for some 30 years, died at the hospital Eugenio Espejo last night, from respiratory failure caused by tear gas.
• The government is bringing charterbuses full of people from the coastal and eastern provinces to defend the government. 43 buses are arriving from the province of Esmeraldas alone; the pro-government "forces" are carrying boards and other homemade arms
• The people of Quito have blocked off entrances all over the city to prevent the invasion of Quito
• Military forces are flying into the airport to defend the president against the at-present peaceful protesting citizens
• The police are protecting the pro-government "invaders," though the police that are speaking on the radio deny any favoritism and claim to only be protecting social order

11.30 am: I decide to go take pictures of the historical happenings. I borrow my host parents' camera, buy some film, and head to Eloy and Granados. I'm taking pictures when I hear someone yell "¡Americana!" It catches me off-guard b/c no one has really taken notice of me, but it turns out it's just Andrés, a guy from a couple of my classes. He also couldn't get to the university, so just joined his fellow Quiteños to set up roadblocks. We chat until someone in a truck carrying more tires informs people that buses are entering unobstructed through a nearby little town. They head out to try to fix that. I continue down Granados, checking out the crazy traffic situation, when I run into Andrea and Beth, 2 BCA'rs also out to take pictures. We walk down Granados together, then head to my house for bit as it starts to rain.

....Wow, that sucks. I had almost the whole day described for y'all, but I went to save the post and half of it somehow got lost. I don't have the energy to re-write it, so here's the summary:

Despite my professor's claims that 30,000 people protesting in Quito, when the military and the Congress were advocating moderate positions, was not in any way enough to depose a president, Lucio fell.

• First the head of the national police renounces in protest of government-sponsored police repression of the demonstrators.
• Lucio meets with the US Ambassador, but the Embassy doesn't comment on the reasons, but says the US remains in favor of a peaceful and democratic resolution for Ecuador ( I am reminded of my US-LatAm Relations prof's comments that "democracy" for the US has historically meant stability and elections every four years, not "unstable" popular movements that disrupt this process, even if these movements involve massive participation by the people)
• Then the Congress passes a resolution to fire the President of the Congress.

As protests mounted and became more fervent, I still couldn't quite believe that a president could fall so quickly. But there it was,

• At around 2pm, the Congress passes a 62-0 resolution declaring that Lucio had "abandoned his responsibilities as president of the republic" (or something like that by translation), and effectively declares him no longer president.
• Lucio proclaims that he was still the acting president and that he counts with the support of the armed forces.
• The head of the armed forces promptly declares that the military is withdrawing its support in light of the chaos the president is causing and the clear will of the people

I ran outside then to see if everyone is celebrating, but I think the radio is a little behind the TV and no one seems to know yet. I run into Miguel (the German guy), who had also been unable to get to school. He says Ann had gone to USFQ as far as he knew though, but it seems the people are letting some cars pass into Quito by then. I am completely incredulous about the whole situation still. My padres and their sons are super excited-- ¡La victoria del pueblo! I go back inside in time to get a call from Kathleen, who calls to share the "Can you believe we're witnessing this?!"-sensation with me.

• 2.30pm, The protestors are allowed to enter Independence Plaza, and gather around the Presidential Palace to wait for Lucio and call for all the congressmen to renounce as well
• Lucio leaves the Palace in helicopter, heading for the airport. He boards a small plane and tries to flee for either Panama or Venezuela. Around 1000 "Forajidos" are blocking the runways and he is unable to take off. He is detained by the military.
• A government minister declared that Bucaram, Gutierrez, and
• Alberto Palacio, the doctor appointed VP by Lucio, but who quickly became disillusioned with the president's broken promises and became a strong critic of the government, is sworn in as the new president. He is unable to leave his office however, which is surrounded by protestors. The broadcaster from Radio La Luna is called on to mediate so Palacio may assume his responsibilities
• There's a fire in the Ministry of Social Welfare, where government employees were earlier firing at protestors with a pistol and throwing rocks. One woman, disoriented b/c of the smoke, falls from the 2nd story and suffered fatal head injuries. It's the 3rd death since yesterday.
• Protestors detain Congressman Dávila and pressure him to sign a spontaneous renouncement of his position. Other congressman claim to be willing to step down as well. The people want a clean slate, a new start to the country's politics

4ish pm: Yoli calls her sister Alicia, who is an assistant for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and who is likely out of a job as of today. Alicia was in her office collecting her things at the moment, and couldn't talk. The doorbell rings, and Raquel has made it back. The buses couldn't get all the way here, so she had to walk about 2 miles in the rain, but she's fine. She's spent the day with Liz and Ann at the university, staying tuned to the news. We hang out for a bit, then head over to see Kathleen and take a walk around the city. We meet up with Ann at the nearest mall, which is closed, but it's raining steadily and we're cold, so we just go for donuts and coffee/milk(in my case). Ann's dad is supposed to get here tonight to visit for a week, but the airport's closed so she doesn't know if he'll be able to come. At around 6pm, we head back to our houses. Traffic is still backed up in our area, but things are starting to circulate normally and the neighborhood's pretty calm. The weather seems appropriate (a ridiculously coincidental and dramatic clap of thunder cracked outside right about the time it was announced that the Congress was deposing the President). The news is still on when I get to the house of course.

• Military forces have surrounded Bucaram's residence in Guayaquil. It turns out later that he is not there. His whereabouts are unknown, but it is assumed he escaped through Esmeraldas to return to Panama
• There have been 4 deaths since Tuesday nite: The Chilean journalist, the woman from Social Welfare, a 28yo woman from the coast who was here to support the president but fell in front of and was then run over by a military vehicle, and a high school boy who fell from the truck he was riding in and was hit by a car. There are other injuries from tear gas asphyxiation and minor falls or lacerations. The people are chanting "Lucio asesino" in response to these deaths (Lucio the murderer).
• Lucio has retreated to the Brazilian embassy; the Brazilian government seems to have agreed to grant him diplomatic asylum
• The Vice President, who has had a very low profile, seems like he might actually make a really decent president. It would be great to see that this effort in fact resulted in positive change, instead of more of the same. He is holding long press conferences to try to pacify the pueblo and make his intentions known. He plans to hold "popular assemblies" (direct translation) in order to discuss the future political structure of the country. The people are sick of partisan and self-interested politicians, so his civil/doctor status is a plus. There is also a strike that's been going on for months among public practice doctors, so his help could be very timely in resolving that issue. He used to be the Minister of the Dept of Health as well.
• The fate of the Supreme Court and the Congress is still up in the air

So, this has been a very interesting moment to be in Ecuador. I'm glad I could witness it, and in some way participate (if only as an observer) in a quite impressive feat-- a nation that refused to accept the behavior of its leaders, came together, especially in the capital city, and resisted ambivilence in Congress, pressure from the United States, and repression from the government in order to pacifically remove its President. While I of course appreciate the political stability in the US, I also appreciate the amount of impact the people's voice really has here. Hopefully, things do change for the better, because having a new president every two years is not exactly healthy, I don't imagine, for a country's progress, but that's the news for you all. Any comments, corrections, etc (from my Ecuadorian friends especially!) would be great; these are my outsider's-not-completely-informed-nor-sociologically-versed impressions, and your opinions would be helpful.

It's still raining.

Hilary Mayhew, Reporting, Quito, Ecuador, April 20, 2005
;)

Back from the beach, which was a blast! I went with people that have been mentioned seldom so far on this blog cuz I don't see them as often, tho they're lots of fun, the list being: Joe, Jenna, Hannah (4 out of 5 of the Goshenites:) ), Christine, Alicia, Abby (not with BCA, but went to Galapagos with us), and Christy, Laurel, Anna ( also not in BCA). We chilled, swam, bodysurfed, sunned, ate, danced, met some crazy gringo sailers who live on their boats for years at a time, and some um, interesting South Americans, like the Brazilian guy who's a salsa and merengue instructor in NYC, as well as a stripper. (We met lots of "normal" very nice people too, well, not that the sailers and the stripper were't nice). We made it back in plenty of time for classes, but I crashed after I showered and ended up skipping the 2 classes I have Mondays. Oh well...

Quito to Canoa 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to GRANDPA and IAN!
I'm a couple days early, but I won't be here this weekend, so I wanted to tell you have a great day and I'm thinking about you, Love you!

On another note, I'm leaving in about an hour to go to Canoa, which is supposed to be a gorgeous beach in northern Ecuador, in the providence of Manabí (also home to what is considered Ecuador's best cuisine, seafood, yum!). Map included for you, of course. I think it's about an 6hr bus ride and we're taking a nite bus back Sunday night, to arrive Monday morning just in time for classes! That should be interesting...

Last night was fun, to change the subject again. Raq, Kathleen, Ann, Liz, Bethany (another BCAr), Pablo (the Chilean), and I all went to a tango concert. It was in Teatro Bolivar, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was the theater's 72nd anniversary, tho 6 years ago there was a fire that nearly destroyed it. Apparently, the Pizza Hut next door had a gas leak which sparked the blaze, but our friendly Kansas-founded pizza place has til now refused to pay for the damages. Nice. So instead they're restoring lil by lil and taking donations for events like the one we went to, which was great! My camera is still out of comission, so I don't have pictures, but I'll try to find one maybe. Anyway, it was about two hours of live tango music, with a couple that danced every few numbers (I want to learn tango next, it's so dramatic), and the audience knew a lot of the classics so everyone sang along.

In other news, Ann and Raq are more or less dating the German (Miguel) and the Chilean (Daniel), while Kathleen and I are both avoiding the calls of the guys we met at La Bunga last week, haha. And in other other news, the political situation here is very interesting right now; the people are calling for the president to step down and there are massive protests in front of the Congress and the Supreme Court every night. I don't have time to elaborate at the moment, but here's a link that gives a brief synopsis http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/04/15/ecuador.congress.reut/index.html
First, I have to give a disclaimer about the fairly exasperating tone of this article though, which is apprently written mainly to assuage the fears of people worried about their South American investments (after all, why else should we be concerned about the political happenings in a 3rd world country??:P). It gives basic information about the situation though, and if I can I'll try to give a more, I don't know, human portrait of what's going on when I get back. From my own brief persective, I think the mobilization of so many people across the country in order to produce political change in a corrupt government is really encouraging. Right, more later, I'm off to Canoa!

I said I'd add more pictures once I got some from Liz and Kathleen, so here they are!

More Baños pictures too!..How sexy is that bike helmet and the broken sunglasses, eh?

Bikers triumphant: Liz & Raquel

More playin in the waterfalls

We don't look like we're having fun do we?

A facial expression can mean so many things...(front of Pailón del Diablo)

Snackin after the ride/hike..mango smoothies!

Natural beauty

Post-ride, pre-wading (a lil too cold to swim)

Liz likes giraffes:)

Lookin a little disillusioned on top of the mountain where we can't see the volcano, because it's cloudy and rainy and we're tired and hungry, and are we leaving soon?

hey but at least these kids are cool



This is completely unrelated to Baños; I don't even know where Liz saw this mural, but I liked it 

So does anyone remember that trip to a famous indigenous market place I took with BCA back in January? No? Well, you can go back to my Jan 21 post to check it out if you like, cuz I finally got around to copying some of Kathleen's and Liz's pictures from the semester, and I have new sights to share!

Playing soccer with the girls from the musician's family 

View on the way to Otavalo 

 

Alicia, chillin at the hostal 

Joe's fashion statement 

Market colors I 

Market colors II 

 

Food at the marketplace