It's hard work to live here (not for me, just in general)

The prices in Ecuador are said to be cheap. For this reason, and all of it´s natural wonders, like the fact that it is .19% of the earth with 10% of the worlds rain forest and larger diversity of animal species than anywhere in the world (just a fun fact), it is a popular tourist destination. It can usually be assumed in countries like this that tourists think it is cheap, but the people who actually live here think it is average priced and generally enjoy a lower level of economic satisfaction. This not as true here as I thought it would be, at least for many things.

The first day I arrived we went to the grocery store and I was surprised to find out that things cost about the same. Ok... for me it was nice because it wasn't a shock and they use the dollar, so it was really easy. It is important to note that we went to the grocery store. I thought this was normal and that everyone bought their food there, but what I found out is that grocery stores are only for middle class people and above. This was a very confusing idea. If you don´t buy your food at a grocery store where do you buy it? The answer is you buy meat, fruits and veggies in the markets, and bread at the bakery. There are markets all over town that have an abundance of fruit, milk products, meat and other kitchen staples. Might I add here that there is also no refrigeration in the markets, but that is for later discussion. There are bakeries all over the place that have every variety of bread you could want, and they smell delicious. There are also small tiendas, or stores, on every corner where you can find whatever you didn't find at the market. The prices at the markets are in fact inexpensive. For $10 we can buy enough fruits and for juice, salads, side dishes, to snack on and use in desserts for a family of four and 3 students for a week. That`s all the fresh stuff for 7 people for a week. The same thing with bread, for a week from the bakery maybe 6 to 7 dollars worth of bread. Conclusion, the food in the market is cheap.

The problem is that the food in the market is not necessarily safe. Remembering the lack of refrigeration, one would not be jumping to buy meat from this locale, nor dairy products. And although their views on what needs and does not need to be refrigerated differ greatly from mine, my family here agrees that this is not the place to purchase these things, so they buy them at the grocery store. In the grocery store they might pay $1.50 for a pint of milk, $1.50 for a dozen eggs and maybe $6-7 for a good amount of meat, a couple bucks for a thing of soda, $3.50 for a block of cheese. These prices to me are pretty normal, but now we get to the tricky part.

I think the grocery store prices are normal and the markets are cheap but... I come from a country where the poverty income line is $10,800, and a college educated person can generally find a job with a starting salary of $25,000 and above. To give you a little perspective, this means that if I had a job that paid $25,000 annually, I would have about $2,000 a month. And a single person just at the poverty line makes about $900 a month. Considering these facts, and the fact that Ecuador is generally "poorer" than the US, I would guess that average Ecuadorian has an average monthly salary around our poverty level. You will be surprised to know that the average salary is not even close. On average here an educated person working 8 hours a day 5 or 6 days a week makes $500 dollars a month, and that's a good salary. A woman who is a maid/cook for a family (which almost all families who can afford it have, including mine) makes $300 a month, and that is considered sufficient.

This is shocking considering the prices of things here. The supermarket prices are almost the same as in the States, apartments cost at the cheapest $150-200 a month and one you'd actually want to live in costs about $500 a month, clothes are much more expensive because they're all imported, cars as well. It just doesn't add up. There is no way that you could even live on this salary. I don't know if minimum wage exists here, but if it does it is very poorly calculated.

Since the salaries are so low the people generally have a couple jobs. This confused me very much when I got here and a person would tell me that he was a professor, but also worked for the water company, or that a person was an editor at a magazine and also worked freelance as well as being a professor, or that a person worked in the bank during the week and had another job in the evenings and weekends. In the US this is not at all uncommon for younger people to have multiple jobs before they are stable in one job, and it is also common for people without a college education because it is a necessity. The confusing part wasn't the issue of multiple jobs, but more the fact that these are well-educated people. All of the people I'm referring to here have college degrees and many of them have master's degrees from here or have studied abroad for their master's. The idea that an educated person has to work this much for so little pay is hard for me to wrap my head around. I can only imagine how difficult it is for the less-educated and privileged to live here.

Las fotos! Nos olvidamos, otra vez!!

I'm not a big picture taker to start with, and in addition my camera has sand in it from the beach and now doesn't work. So that leads us to the point we're at now, where I have very few photos of this beautiful country and my new friends and family. Luckily Hernán, my host brother, is forcing me to take pictures and even bringing the camera along for me since I always forget it. (Sometimes semi-intentionally because I prefer to fully take in my surroundings instead of viewing them through a 1/4 inch viewfinder. I wouldn't make a very good photographer, good thing I studied International Affairs these are much better observed with a wider lens anyway.)

Anyway... here are some photos of the amazing views from a couple of our car trips, a few pictures of the people here and our trans-national St. Patty's Day celebration. There's even a couple photos with me actually in them, because I didn't have any before and they told me a better take some or no one would believe I was actually here :)

Oh, and don't worry about the camera. I have a camera care plan and it will be as good as new as soon as it can make it's way to Best Buy, which is anytime after April 24.

Note: On St. Patty's Day in the States we drink Irish Car Bombs, which are Guinness with Bailey's and here the best we could find was a dark German brew and a Bailey's knockoff, not at all Irish, but it worked.

The US vs. Ecuador

So everyone here wants to visit the US. Many want to live there. And, in fact, many do live there. New York City has the 3rd largest Ecuadorian population in the world. There's Quito, Guayaquil and then New York City ranking highest in Ecuadorian citizens. Here they refer to it as a country within a city, a miniature Ecuador moved about 4,000 miles to the north and lacking beaches, bananas and all kinds of other cool stuff. There's so many Ecuadorians there you could move there and not have to interact with anyone except people of your own nationality. Whenever someone asks me about where I live they always ask if it's close to NYC. "No, it's almost on the other coast," I tell them, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean anything. It's completely fair that they are not familiar with the US in the same way that I am not extremely well versed on their country. What interests me the most is the fact that there is an entire country that has an image of my country consisting of only one city. It reminds me of how important it is, for those who have the means and the ability, to learn about the world, to become cultured and not to depend on what they think they know about other places. Even more important is that people are educated and that a government works to improve the lives and minds of the citizens.

I've noticed since I've been here that I know more about basic science, weather, biology and physical health than the average bear. It is true that I am college educated, but on the same hand, so are many of my friends here and I seem to know things that they think are fascinating, and I think are normal because I learned them in grade school. One thing that I think is particularly interesting is that first day of spring is approaching (this Saturday), which I learned long ago is the day that the sun is directly on the equator, 12 hours of daylight and of night...so on and so forth. So yesterday, where we are, was the day in which the sun was directly above our latitude on it's approach to the equator. "The day without shadows" is what they called it here. Pretty cool that the sun was right above us, although in all honesty I forgot to look for the shadows. Anyway, the point is my family told me this day was yesterday and that the scientist thought it was supposed to be the 13th or the 15th but they we're mistaken and it was actually the 16th. 'Mistaken?' I was thinking... I mean, it possible that they were mistaken, but these things are pretty dependable. My entire life we have known which day is the first day of spring, that things change and there is leap year, how the length of days works... I was under the impression that these things are pretty much figured out. We were talking about this whole "phenomenon" of the sun being right above us and I was telling them about how this has significance where I'm from too and I was about to explain when they were like, "You mean the sun is right over your city too? On the same day?" Oye! No, that doesn't even make any sense. I continued explaining, but the lack of this scientific concept really surprised me. The thing is not that the scientists were mistaken, it's that these things are not well understood here, and I'm guess from this that they are not taught these things in school. To me this is kind of crazy. I learned in 6th or 7th grade how these things work and these people are still confused. Please note that I am not at all saying that they are ignorant or uneducated. What I am saying, is that the education system is completely different and things like this really make me appreciate the fact that I was educated in the United States where, for all the criticism and its problems, the education system is, in my opinion, really good. There have been all kinds of other things that have made me think, "Really? Didn't your learn that in school?" I can't remember them now, but it is really interesting.

Being from the United States and having been to college, having been exposed to many ideas, having spend a good amount of time around young liberal people I will honestly say that I have criticized many things about my own country. The goal of our criticisms as young people is to breakdown what we see and seek solutions that we can put in place when we're in charge. All we really want is a better ways to do things, but what is hard to realize when you are within a society your whole life is how good you really do have it and how well things really do function. Stepping out of that for a few months, having my college education under my belt, a desire to find out more about the world, and enough understanding to absorb and analyze what I see, has, up till now, served me very well.

I have every intention of updating this more often and lots of things to tell, but somehow the Ecuadorian pace of life is getting to me. ¨Mañana..." we say, everything can wait until tomorrow. And that's the way it really works here. Everyone says that, and everyone waits. They even have a single word for the English phrase "you're taking forever..." or they add no and it means "it won't take very long". It's ironic and very telling, I think, that they have a single word to describe "taking FOREVER...". It must be because it's a word that serves an important purpose.

It makes a lot of sense because everything is slow. Service at restaurants, for example. They don't depend on tips here, and in fact no one really tips, so there's no reason to hurry up for your customers. They are late for everything, parties, any type of social event, dinners. The other week we went to a birthday/graduation party and the time was set for 1pm to 3pm. It was a semi-formal event with a sit down lunch and so I assumed everyone would be on time because of the nature of the party. Boy was I wrong. The guests trickled in from about 1:30 until the last ones arrived at 2:45 with no excuse as to why they were so late, and we ate a little after 3. It's very strange to me that being two hours late for a party is completely acceptable, especially when everyone is waiting to eat. The same thing happened when I was supposed to do something with my friend the other day and she told me she'd come by at 6:30. I was all ready to go.... and at 8pm there she was. Then we picked up another friend, went back to my house, had a snack, talked a bit and about 9 we went to do what we were going to do at 6:30. I'm more or less getting used to it, I don't think I'll every really be used to it, but now I just assume all our plans will take place an hour after the time they told me we were going to do something.

The fact that there really is no schedule makes life a little easier, I suppose, but it also explains why the government and banks and everything else don't seem to work quite as they should. Also... my host family told me if I think life here moves at a slow pace I should have seen it fifteen years ago. Interesting...

"What does your house look like?"

I already knew when I got here that the mail system was not nearly as time-effective as that of the United States, and my dad's letter proved it when it arrived about 14 days after he sent it. This wasn't really of concern to me, as I didn't have urgent business or anything, but I thought I'd inquire about how it works just so I'd know.

They don't have house numbers nor do they have zip codes. "How does it function?" you ask... Well, if the bank, for example, wants to deliver something to you (your bank statement, maybe...) they call you on the phone, tell you they have something for you, and ask what your address is. Sounds simple enough, but most people don't have house numbers anywhere on the house and lots of them don't even know their house number, so they also ask what your house looks like so they will be able to find it. I though this was hilarious when I heard it. To get something delivered you have to describe the color, size, how many floors, that there are usually 2 cars, etc. Apparently it usually takes about two or three times of the bank calling to get the stuff to you, about two weeks. If you had a bill I would just hope they'd start the delivery process two weeks before it was due!