Thanksgiving in the Equator, el zoologico y el censo.

November 25th:

Hannah, one of the planners of this incredible
dinner, moi, and Jamie in the background
doing something crazy as usual.

There is no denying that I was sorta dreading Thanksgiving becuase I was not going be spending it with my family in the States, but thanks to all of the wonderful people that organized and assigned everyone something to cook, bake, or buy this was one of the most memorable Thanksgivings I've ever had...I even baked!! Granted it was hard to be focused in class becuase I was thinking about all the amazing food I was going to have, and when people asked why I wasn't eating lunch I had to explain that it was a strategdy to make room for dinner :) No worries though, I did have snacks throughout the day. I baked the pastel de tres leches the night before with Sarvie and my host mom. I am going to be real though, she did most of the doing, but Sarvie and I did help (whenever she let us that is). I had a big group project that day so I was running from one place to the other; left school around 16h15 and then got to my house around 17h15, and then started to get ready. We had instructions to come with our dish, $5 for wine, towel and swim suits (there was an option to get into the pool) and to come dressed up. Before I go on I would like to give a shout-out to Alana and her amazing family for hosting us and letting us all come over and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Seeing as this was a special event I decided to go all out, I curled my hair, but on my boots and nice skirt and I was ready for this dinner. The food was great! I have to give it up to Hannah and Nick for thier wonderful job with the turkey...or should I say turkeies, that they cooked. However, what really did it for me was the fact that we were all together, our little K- family totally made me feel nice and at home as soon as I walked into the room.



 Friends + Food + Dancing = Unforgettable night!

 November 27th:

Due to the census that occurred Nov. 28th we had to be in the house all of Sunday so we decided to not travel and attempt to do homework. However, I've been wanting to go to the zoo so Hannah, Sarvie, and I went to the Zoologico on Saturday, which ended up being a greater mission to get to than I had anticipated. At the end we got there, only after taking a taxi, 3 buses, and then getting on a taxi-truck.

This is the biggest turtle I've ever seen!

   

Oso de anteojos.

November 28th:

The next day I was home all day due to the immobilization decree what was in effect from 7h00 to 17h00, airplanes didn't take off, public transportation wasn't operating, and there was also a Dry Act all weekend that prohibited the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages. If you violated any of these you were taken to jail and fined, the military was everywhere making sure people were not drinking, I was actually out with some friends having dinner when a policeman came in with a camera crew and asked us if we were drinking and then and we told him we were not, but he looked around the table and then when he saw our table clear of any sort of drinks left, but not without telling us (in English) "Don't drink". My host sister and I decided to make it a Harry Potter marathon, but we only got to see two of them due to the fact that my host dad wanted to see his novelas. We were finally surveyed around 15h00 by two middle schoolers. There was one question that sparked some controversey, the question asked what culture the individual associate with, and the options were white, indigenous, mestizo, black, or other. People understood this to be a question about your race and although most Eucadorians are mestizos many of them shun their indigenous or black roots so there were many who said that they were white. This has been an ongoing problem in Ecuador everytime that they do the census. Another problem is the fact that there are people that live in very remote areas of the country, and in order to get an accuarate count of the population the president was sending officials to these remote areas where sometimes they had to go by boat to these communities. Something that the upper class and top-middle class feared was saying the real number of rooms they had because they fear that Correa might want to do something like Chavez has done in Venezuela and that is to put squatters into homes that have guest rooms, or rooms that are not being used. Here is a link if you want to read a little more about what Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101108/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_venezuela_expropriation.

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.