May 3rd 2010
I cannot believe that as I write this I have four days left of my program. (That does not mean only four more days in Ecuador THANK GOD!) This week is all about finishing my monografia… my 25 page paper on a theme of my choice somehow related to development and my internship. I chose to write about the relationship between caja comunitarias de mujeres and coopertivas (small community banks of women and cooperatives), the objectives and problems with this system and if indeed it is supported by the popular finance system within Ecuador.
Before my internship I knew very little about the soldiery economy, popular finance, micro credit and I didn’t even know what a caja was… If you speak Spanish you can take a look at my monografia when I get back or feel free to ask me, because I find the topic fascinating and would love to talk about it.
Its so strange being back in Quito after living in such a small community for 6 weeks. Leaving my community was SO hard.
A quick snapshot of the past few weeks in La Calera, Cotacachi….
The other night I got home from work and there were a bunch of women in my house and more bread and potatoes that you can even imagine… the whole couch was just full of bread and they still weren’t done… so I helped them make bread for about another hour and then we started putting the baskets together, pineapples, platanoes, potatoes, chickens, cuys (guinea pig), beer, soda… just mountains of food… Finally after asking several people I figured out what was going on… Rodrigo’s (my dad) brother who is currently living in the U.S. wants to get married so we had to go ask the permission of his girlfriends parents… hence all the food.. it’s kind of like a bribe I guess…
We didn’t leave until almost ten because part of the strategy is you have to go and surprise them when they’re already sleeping…Apparently sometimes you have to wait all night if they say no at first… luckily we were all invited in pretty promptly after the initial meeting with the grandparents…and the daughters parents.
Then the dad of the girlfriend begins passing out shots of whiskey one person at a time and everyone starts talking very seriously in kitchwa… in fact the whole ceremony was in kitchwa… after some more conversations, some serious, some ending in laughter (not really sure what they were about) they started passing out plates of food (note this after I have stuffed my face while making bread for the previous 3 hours) I ate half of a potatoe and couldn’t do anymore until Marcielo, my uncle, kept urging me to try the cuy… so I did it I tried a small piece of guinea pig….
Finally, the last week, were able to get off work early enough to join the soccer game (this happens every day around 5pm) .. normally when we would got home they would have already started so we would just go for a short run and play with the little kids… which don’t get me wrong was really fun… but playing with the big people was a LOT more fun…
It’s just so hard to leave right when I’m starting get past all the language and cultural barriers and really get to know some of these people…
I truly loved it there but it was so much easier to leave knowing that I am going back in 2 weeks to visit everyone.... So ...there was some glitch in the computer system and I was able to switch my plane ticket for free! So I am now staying until the end of May now which I am thrilled about it (especially because I have no job Im going back for… if anyone has any ideas let me know)! I am going to travel with Kelly for a week, I am not really sure what were going to do… we want to do Peru but I have not looked into cost and after losing my wallet and credit card and breaking my computer in the past two weeks money is kind of tight. So who knows where we’ll end up… then out of blue on the 14th JOAN BENNETT is coming to Ecuador! Never saw that one coming… so I am trying to come up with some plans for her…I am most excited to take her to visit my family and work in Cotacachi…mom hope your practicing your Spanish because neither of my families speak a word of English… and all the guys at my work wanted you to know you will be meeting your future son-in-laws...
So a few… “what the heck I’m almost done with the semester” reflections:
-material things=not important… I mean this one I knew but not until I had my wallet stolen with a bunch of money did I realize and materialize it(no pun intended)… true it was bummer but really I don’t care that much, it’s just money (and my really awesome Ecuador student id card… more sad about that than my credit card ha) but at the end of the day… it doesn’t change my life… its not a person… just a thing
-be open with people… my host mom in Cotacachi was so open with me about everything and it helped our relationship grow so much… she told me the good, bad and the ugly about her life without hesitation and I learned so much from her
-people are people everywhere… yes I understood this before… but not until I sat down with some of friends… who are my exact age but I have grown up in a different world than me, did I realize yes we have a TON of differences but we are so much more similar than I realized
-chicken = way chewy than I remember
-I love the braid on boys
-I will REALLY miss seeing volcanoes and mountains every single day.
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