APDH, Tour of El centro historico, and Guguas de pan

I would like to start with a few WTF moments I've had this past week, hope you like them they are quite funny now that I look back at them:

1. During the tour of Old Quito my eyes were a little irritated so I took my contacts off, next day I go to the doctor’s because my eyes hurt and are still red and I am told I have BOTH eyes infected...wtf!
2. On Friday I go to my Gender and Society class thinking I am going to take a quiz, when the girl next to me asks me if I am ready to take the examen parcial ( mid-semester exam)...wtf!
3. Friday night was a failure, one of our friends never showed up (we were going to celebrate her birthday) and then Hannah and I go into a club called Blues something because we think some of our new friends are there...we pay $2 to get in, and then call the girls only to find out we are in the WRONG Blues club...wtf!
4.  I was on the Ecovia (bus/trolley thing) on my way to my ICRP when this couple gets right infront of me and start a MAJOR PDA session, and mind you its crowded and I can't move, and then they wouldn't move so I missed my stop and had to get off 2 stops later...wtf!

October 20^th:

I went to APDH to start my ICRP and it was great!! The people there are so cool and enthusiastic about having me there, they even gave me a bracelet to welcome me into their family. One of the first things we did was go over the hours I was going to do and filled out an agreement for my program. Then Anaite was like “tienes algo para escribir?” and then she told me to make her a spreadsheet and then an itinerary (and dictated things she wanted on each) …needless to say I felt a tad overwhelmed. Then she took me to the volunteer desk and I went straight to work. However, at one point (while waiting for a page to load) I felt like I was in the right place and feeling like this was going to be a great experience. I mean when I think about some of the projects she wants me to do, which involve doing a presentation for the organization and writing an article for the next issue of their magazine, it all sounds so cool, but also carries a lot of responsibilities. I will keep you updated as to how day two goes, here is the website in case anyone is interested in checking them out: http://www.apdh.ec/

Later on that day…


View of El Palacio Presidencial ontop of
La Catedral Metropolitana. 

Originally I was signed up to go on a tour of old Quito, or Centro historico, at night on September 30^th but that was canceled because of the protests that were going on, aka attempted coup e’tait. So, we had it rescheduled and it was GREAT!!! I feel like I’ve gone to a lot of cool places in Ecuador, but I forget that there is so much to do here in the city. El centro historic is so cool, and it was great having a guide to tell us the story behind the churches and the architecture of everything. We even got some VIP treatment by going into churches during closing hours and we were escorted around by 5 policemen who frequently stopped traffic for us. Here are some interesting facts of the tour (in no specific order):

• On the top of the La Catedral Metropolitana there is a roster and our guide told us that it was something that the Spaniards brought with them, and that the roster is suppose to call in people to mass (specifially for Christmas mass), he also said something about how men usually give their respect to the roster right before serenading a girl (for good luck).

• There was a point when our guide told us that there were things he couldn’t say, but that he did want to say something now because we were alone, he said something about the bad rep. that the church has had in the past and about the politics behind past bishops, like Gabriel Garcia Moreno. He made Ecuador a better place but he was known as a tyrant because he imprisoned and/or kill those that were against him. He also gave the church a lot of power, and supported them in everyway he could.

This is a monument dedicated to the heroes that fought for the independence of the Ecuador
from the Spaniards in the battle of August 10, 1809.



These are figures of animals, which were the Gods of the indigenous and
was a way for them to put a little bit of thier own beliefs into this new religion
that they were being submitted into beliving by the Spaniards.



• Oh and underground of the two churches we went into there were underground tombs, we got to go under and see them in La iglesia de San Agustin

• La iglesia de San Agustin had a few interesting legends, one of them was this legend of how the church was made. As the story goes there was an indigenous man named Cantuña who was told to build a chapel before sunrise the next day. There was no way he was going to finish, and then the devil appears to him in the shape of an old man and makes a deal with him, he would help build the chapel but the man had to put ALL of the rocks into place and in return Cantuña would have to give him his soul. Cantuña makes the deal, but gets the last rock and engraves in it a phrase saying “he who carries this rock acknowledges that God is better than he is” (or something like that) and so refuses to carry it out of pride. Hence Cantuña was able to stay with his soul and there is a place in the church where you can see that there is a rock missing.

October 23^rd:

My host dad, Jorge, had a conference/exhibition and I was invited to go check it out, I roamed around for about 45 minutes and had a lot of fun looking at the different booths. Afterwords I left to go have dinner at Iggy’s house, which was sooo much fun. We had dinner, and then went to the roof to look at the city lights, walked to a Colombian panaderia but the men working there were a little sketchy…but good night overall. J

October 24^th:

My host family took me to a family friend’s house for dinner and some pan de guguas y colada morada which is a bread in the shape of a baby (and some cheese in the middle) and this warm drink that is a mix of strawberries and other fruits and lots of herbs.

October 25^th:

I went to APDH for my second day of volunteer and was given an assignment: read up on plurinacionalidad and the writings of Boaventura de sousa santos and write resumes of his writings. So I did, people kept coming in and out and got to meet all of the other volunteers and next thing I know it’s time to go home. I say it was another good day at APDH, I get to go back on Wednesday and I hope to have something to show Anaite by then. 

Viaje a la costa y otras cosas :)



The place where we stayed was an ecological station.

 October 8th:

What’s better than having to wake up at 5:45 am on Friday after a late night out ? Nothing. We had to wake up nice and early to go to the coast, which was about an 8 hour bus ride (I slept through most of it). We stopped in Atacames to eat some food, which was… well it was sorta a bad experience for me (and my friend Dita). We thought we would share our food, I was going to get pasta with mariscos and she was going to get ceviche because we both hadn’t eaten it yet. The ceviche was good, but we had no idea that the pasta with fish was going to be so massive! And that it was going to have soo many baby squids!! We both sorta lost our apitite after we saw them…and did I mention that there were not one, not two, but three HUGE shrimps. Well I love seafood, but this…this was something that I had never experienced in my life and has made me think twice about seafood. Well after this interesting lunch Dita and I felt a little down, so we went on a hunt for ice cream, which we were able to find, praise the lord. We arrived at our site and the first thing we saw was mud, and more mud and then muddddddd. We were then told that we needed rubber boots because of all the mud we would be walking through...oh yeaa we came during wet season is what we were told, a fact that would have been good to know BEFORE we got there. About 45 minutes later we changed into our shorts, and boots ( they had to lend me some) and off we were to go see the near by town called Bunche. The town is pretty small and pretty poor, most people there live from what they farm and our guide, Andres, explained that this was due to the shrimp bust that really hit the people there and in the surrounding areas. After that pleasant walk we went to the beach, got in, threw mud all over the place, and then headed back to the site. We shower, had dinner with all these German volunteers that were also staying at the biological site, and then headed off to see the very anticipated Ecuador vs. Colombia partido. In case you didn’t know Ecuadorians (I am generalizing) don’t really like Colombians, because the thought is that they bring a lot of the violence over to Ecuador. Well we saw some of the first half and then the Germans came over and invited us to their bonfire, and so we left the game and went to chill by the beach with Germans around a bonfire and then went to sleep.

On our way to the monkeys.

October 9^th:
Once again we had to wake up at 5:45 am, but we were all soo excited to go see monkeys!! We got into a motorboat and went to go see monkey, mangroves, and learn about king tides, the life cycle of shrimps, mangroves and other interesting things about the shrimp farm industry and how the 1989 shrimp bust gravely effected Ecuador’s economy and the lives of the people in these areas. Then we came back to the bus, changed into our bathing suits, had trouble getting the bus driver to leave so we could change (he ended up staying in…) and then got into another boat and went to the island of Muisne. We had dinner and then got into the water and although there was no sun, we had a great time at the beach and some people played soccer with the locals. After words we went to this bar/marimba presentation which was fine, they even asked some of us to dance with them, and then they went to change for the second dance. And this is when things got interesting. The girls came out with short skirts and little tops, and when they started dancing it was pretty sexual and of course I would get picked to dance this one and not the first one. Well it actually wasn’t too bad, we were all laughing until the little 7-year-old boy tells me to get down and lay there. All the girls sort of just looked at each other, and then slowly went down. Once I saw the little boy get down and crawl towards me I laid down and covered my eyes, because I had seen what was going to do down (he was directly on top of me doing a thrusting movement). We all experienced a little cultural shock that night. However, Andres had told us that the number of teenage pregnancy was high here because of the lack of education, but he also pointed out that education was free but most of the people there didn’t really see it’s value. Yeah they could go to school, but then if they wanted to go to college they would have to leave and go to a big city, but how could they pay for that? They couldn’t. So why waste time learning, when they could be helping around the house, get a job, and wait until they meet a guy and reproduce. It was a different side of Ecuador that I value because up till this point we have been in the big city.

MONKEYS!! They actually started to throw their fisis at us...that's when we
decided that we should leave.



These were some of the illegal shrimp farms that we had to walk through to go see the monkeys.

Jameson and I after we had some more breakfast on some beach.

Jamie and Scott on a triciolo in Muisne.



The first presentation of Marimba was really cool.




This girl was the best, she knew how to dance sooo well...I was a tade jealous.

 October 10^th :

One of many pictures we took.

Woke up, ate, and then got on the bus. Now I know it took us about 8 hours to get to Esmeraldas (the region) but it took us about 12 hours to get back to Quito, no joke. In part if was because we kept stopping to get snacks, buy souvenirs in Atacames, food, and bathroom breaks. About 2/3 of the way back we sorta went wild on the bus, and started taking pictures, playing games, and sticking our heads out of the windows. This is more or less around the time that we decided we were close like a family but cooler, hence we became a band! Oh yea, we are tight like una familia but we rock like a band ;) I tried to do some reading, and I was half successful. Anywho once I got home I skyped with my parents, showered, and then hit the sack.

October 13^th:

Elizabeth and Malcolm blowing thier candle!



Well this was Malcolm and Elizabeth’s 21^st cumpleanos!! We decided to go to a Mexican restaurant in El mariscal aka Plaza fosh then went out to dance. We went to El Bungalow and the bouncers were like, “its ladies night” which apparently meant we got in for free, drink were free until 10pm, and we could go to the dance floor. The guys on the other hand, had to go in threw another door, and wait upstiars until 10pm when they were allowed to join the ladies on the dance floor. This was a good night, and the birthday people seemed to have had a great time J

Ummm foood and friends!!



Oh I forgot to mention that I cut my hair!!!!

Me and the birthday boy!!

October 14^th:



I went to go see the office of an organization where I think I am going to do my Integrative Cultural Research Project (ICRP) called Asamblea permanente de derechos humanos (APDH) and the people there were super excited to have me, it also helped that they had a Geneva (a girl from kalamazoo) volunteer there and she did a lot for the organization. I had talked to Geneva and when I told them about that they were like “ you know her? Ahhh that’s good to know” and so I think I definitely have an “in”. I then went to classes until 5pm and then came home ate, and slept until 6am the next day.

October 15^th:



I went to go visit another organization called Fundacion regional de asesoria en derechos humanos, but the people there weren’t as thrilled to see me, and we tried to see if there was enough work for me there and she said she was going to e-mail me and let me know. The next day I check my e-mail and she sent an e-mail saying she didn’t think she had enough time to “train” me and that she would need me to help out with more hours starting this month, but seeing as I still have classes to do I don’t think its going to work out with them. This was another chill night, we went to el mariscal but just chilled at a swarma place and then went home.

Coup d’état? Concert, soccer game, and Papallacta…all in one week!

September 30th:

On Thursday I woke up, went to class but then round 11am we were told that classes had been canceled due to protests that were gong on in Quito. At first I thought I sort of thought it was a joke, but once I saw students running out of their classrooms I got my things and began to worry a little. I found my friend Sarvie and we went to go talk to the director of our program (Tania). Here is what she told us:

a) the police and military (except the air force) were protesting

b) the reason they were mad was because of a new law that went into effect last night that said that the police and military were no longer gong to get bonuses when they got promoted

c) that Quito could be in a state of chaos

d) that we should go home in Group asap

So here we are in a group ready to go to Quito when another director told us that ALL international students were NOT allowed to leave campus. We were told that riots were breaking out, stores being broken into, and that the police was demanding that the president void the law. As we had lunch on campus we were also looking at the news and I admit that when I saw President Correa being hit by tear gas and being pushed and shoved I was definitely concerned. Well we were told that we could go home around 3ish. On my way home I stopped by Sarvie's house, her host mom informed me that a state of emergency had just been declared and that I should probably go home sooner rather than later. Once I got home I sat by the TV with my host sister and it seemed like things were a lot worse in Guayaquil. I remember watching a news channel and then the news caster telling us that police men ontop of Pichincha and trying to cut the signal of the station, which they were successful at doing. (Late the police said that they did this because only one side of the story was being reported).Things got tense at night while the military (about 700 soldiers) was trying to rescue the president (the police say that they never had him as a hostage) because it was during this mission that bullets started to go off like fireworks on the 4th of July. No joke. I remember my host brother telling me we could hear the fireworks and I gave him a "don’t exaggerate" face and we muted the TV and sure enough we could hear the gunshots! Well we could see the police firing at the military and vise versa, it was so surreal for me. And then, we see a person go down, and we were all like, "ummm is he ducking? wait...he isn't moving...oh crap is he ok?!" and then police surrounding him and carrying him away. Well as of today (Oct. 3, 2010) there are 8 reported deaths and about 100 were wounded. The president was then taken to the palacio de corondelet (presidential palace)  where he gave a speech condemned the police and military (some were with him, and some were against him) for acting the way they did. He said that it was a sad day, and that those behind this failed coup are going to be punished.  So here is what I know now:

a) that the bonus cuts were happening in order to fund other civil services

b) instead of the police getting a bonus for Christmas, having a child (host dad told me this one), being in serves for x amount of time, etc. they were going to get a higher salary instead of getting a bonus  

c) the country is divided, some think that President Correa had no business going into the protest on Thursday while others think that this is the only government that has done a lot to get the country into shape

d) there are people who believe that this was NOT an attempted coup, that the police were just showing their dislike of the new law vs. those (Correa believes this one) that think that this was an attempted coup orchestrated by  ex president Lucio Guttierez  

e) in the new constitution that was voted by Ecuadorians in 2000 the president has the power of dismantaling the Asamblea nacional (their congress) which would give him control of the country, and then have reelections for the asamblea and he is saying he doesn't want to do this but that if he has to, in order to get the country back into control, he will....

President being rescued/taken from el hospital de la policia

Well tomorrow is another day in Quito, classes are going to resume and I can't wait to hear what people think of this situation at school (most people there dislike Correa). Oh, I almost forgot about the other stuff that I did this week, here is a quick summary:

September 25th:



Glow sticks? check, tickets? Check :)



Well we decided to go to this techno concert, the headliner was Paul Oakenfold! I am not going to lie...I didn't know who he was, but he was amazing!! On top of that we were pretty close, the lighting, the people, and of course the music was great, I danced the WhoLe time. However, we couldn't buy drinks...okay they were selling small cups of water for 50 cents but that’s a rip off, a whole bottle is like 30 cents here. But, I can't complain too much...

September 29th:

I decided that I HAD to go see a soccer game, so I grabbed my host brother and called a couple friends and went to go see La liga (Quito's team, like the Chicago's Chicago fire) vs barcelona. I knew we were in the fan section, but I did not know it was going to get intense, there were random mosh pitchs that were started, fireworks exploding over our heads, some beer thrown into the air, drums, and of course the chanting that went on throughout the whooooole game. However, Quito won 4-0 and we were all super happy.



Grant, me and Jameson in the fan section :)





My host brother Cristian and host cousin.



October 1st:

SOo we were advised to stay in and cancel all travels on Thursday, but after the president was rescued and the military and police seemed to go back to work we thought we might wait until the next day and decide whether to go though with our plans or not. Once I woke up my host mom told me that all the stores were reopened and that the police was back to work, and that she thought it was safe for me to go travel. Calls were made (including our program director) and it was decided that we would go, but with the condition of paying for a private buseta to take us there and bring us back (total of $10). So by 3:30pm we were in Cumbaya and on our way to Papallacta. Once we got there we relaxed, got into the termal water and then had dinner, and hit the termal water again....it was great!! After experiencing a possible coup, Papallacta was exactly what we all needed. Here are a couple pics of our relaxing weekend:  



Dinner was great, expensivish...but worth it.



Ahhhh my girls...