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.