Nancy Germeshausen Klavans Cultural Bridge Fellowship: Quito Summer 2006

Ecuador is a country with 22 provinces and each one quite different from the other. And everyone here is so excited to show you their country. Nathalie (my boss) had generously offered to take me to the coast on the weekend to show me a different aspect from the highlands and to get a sense of what their various projects are on the ground. I hope to go to one of coastal cities, Guayaquil, next week to see some of the field work. She was excited to have me head to the coast on the weekend as that truly would show me and have me immerse more into the culture of Ecuador.

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I haven’t had the chance to detail my work so far. As I mentioned on one of my earlier blogs, I am working on research of social inclusion in education for immigrant children. E-dúcate had bid for the project as an educational consultancy focusing on development and is now in the beginning stages of developing a strategic plan for developing a policy re: social inclusion.

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One of the main missions I had in coming to Ecuador was to not only work in a grassroots organization but to also try to absorb and understand and live the life of an Ecuadorian as best as I could. Bahar, my friend who is here from George Washington University working at El Baca Ortiz a government pediatrics hospital had the same sentiments. We could have easily taken cabs daily to and from work but it is not what is done here. Our first experience in taking the bus was when our host family Cris (by the way check out where she works it is very cool and she does some incredible work for Ecuador and eco tourism http://www.ecuadornatureexpeditions.com) and her mother decided to take us to the center that I talked about in my last blog. Being with Ecuadorians I wanted to blend in as much as possible and yes the height may be a bit of a detractor but as we ventured more and more I realized that there really is a variety of looks in Quito (so maybe i don´t stand out that much).
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Over the last week i have had the chance to meet many Ecuadorians through the family i am staying with. Although few speak English i find that i am able to keep up with only an occasional head turn to my host sister Cris to ask for a translation. Getting first hand anecdotes of the economic, geographic and political situation in Ecuador has been incredible. I doubt that if i stayed in a hotel i would have had the same experience at all.
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Day 3 in Quito has been great. I already find my spanish getting better. The family we live with is wonderful. The mom does not speak english but somehow i manage to understand about 75% of what she is saying. We manage to discuss politics and learn all about Ecuador.

While walking around yesterday i couldn´t help but notice how warm the people are. They are very helpful in giving directions. Generally it seems that most people are among the middle class level. It will be interesting to see if that perception changes once i start working. I did manage to stop in to the office where iwill work on Friday afternoon. I met the Vice President who gave me a tour of the office. It seems that their work is quite strong in Quito and i look forward to contributing during my time here.

While discussing politics i was intrigued by the fact that Ecuador has had 6 presidents over the last 10 years. As Cris, the lady who i organized our home stay with, told us the people of Ecuador and in particular Quito are organized and so whenever they feel a president is not living up to what they feel they should be doing the organize for change.

Hopefully by Monday i will be able to write more about my work experience and understand this wonderous country more

Till next time…

I think the best decision i made in coming to ecuador was my living arrangements. After mulling over various options including living in the touristy areas, i opted for a family home that is close to the airport. Filled with thoughts of sleepless nights listening to airplanes flying over top i was pleasantly suprised.

My friend Bahar had managed to get a placement in Ecuador working in a hospital here which was great. So when we were deciding where to live it was not such a problem to live a bit further away. We opted to stay at a house where we could be fully integrated into ecuadorian culture. Although a bit pricier it was a safer bet than the core of the city.

A long delay in miami got us into quito around midnight. So when we woke up today we were excited to get a chance to explore, since i might not have as much time to do that when work starts on Monday. The first stop was Baca Ortiz, a poor pediatric hospital in the heart of Marsical Sucre. On the drive down, the city reminded me a bit of places like saudi, kenya and lebanon. Not because they are architecturally similar in the least but more because in all those places, advertising is so huge and prominent. We dorve down the mountain to see signs of KFC, ALLEGRA OR DOMINO PIZZA. Quito is visibly quite poor yet very colourful. From where we live the whole city looks like it is resting at the edge of a mountain with spots of blue, yellow and orange. 

The people have a distinctive look to them for sure..Bahar and i might be able to blend in Italy, Spain or other latin countries but here we are not only about 4 to 6 inches taller but our facial features are quite different. Most people have a strong indigenous look.

When we arrived at the Baca Ortiz, it was obvious from the enterance that this was a very understaffed pediatric hospital. There were streams of children filling the waiting room hoping for a chance to be seen by the doctor. It seems that volunteers come through here quite often as the director knew the proces that bahar needed to follow to become registered there.  I hope to go in to work with her at least once during our stay here to get an impression of the health care system.

Right now we were walking around trying sort out possibly taking spanish classes, finding a way to get phones. We have been repeatedly warned of the increasing crime here both petty and more serious. We are quite cautious and defintely don´t plan on going out alone at night.

Tomorrow we will be shown around more by our hosts but i look forward to starting my work on monday.

till then…..

I am on my final leg of preparations before heading out to Quito. At this point all i have left to do is pack and get on the plane. I am finiding myself going through what my friend Serah went through when she was heading out to Afghanistan. THe petty thoughts – how much spanish do i need to know? Can i take taxis or buses or walk everywhere? What about phones?

I have travelled a ton and each time these thoughts fill my mind in an effort to try and plan everything but each time i realize quickly how these things all sort themsevles out once i arrive. I am tremendously excited about being able to integrate into the culture rather than go on ‘vacation’ for a week or two. Having been in New York for 6 weeks has allowed me to integrate in the culture here – both at work at the UN and as part of Manhattan. Spending 6 weeks at the UN allowed me to get to know people, get involved and be in the midst of the worlds events. Being at security council meetings this last week while the lebanese crisis was erupting and listnening to my colleagues mull over what to do next was what an internship should be about. I didn’t necessarily have a job during the crisis but i always felt involved as my department – political affairs- was leading the mediation efforts globally. Being able to listen, observe and even contribute my middle east experience was the point of the internship. It is those 6 weeks that help you integrate.

I look forward to doing the same in Quito. Working with the organization i am working with will give me a much more grassroots and hands on experience of what it is like to truly integrate into the local culutre. I hope to write by end of week if i can get online. If not i will write it and send it later when i am online

till then….

I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by. I only have two more weeks before i head to Quito on my adventure there.

I think i finally have finalized my housing situation. Prior to going i had thought that living expenses would be cheap and yes they are but with increasing problems (from what the locals there have told me) with crime i was strongly urged to secure housing that was in a hotel rather than a hostel and to avoid the old city for living.

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Simultaneously while i am interning at the UN i am also eagerly planning my trip to Quito to work for www.e-ducate.org.

I have been emailing with the director and her team to coordinate my living arrangements and travel there. Along with all the excitment comes a bit of angst over what is to come. I have been hearing more and more about the safety issues in Ecuador. Although known for its beauty and warm people there are also stories of robbery and criminal behavior. Read the rest of this entry »

Being an intern at the UN has its many perks but one big down is the limitation that dreaded brown pass creates. The number of times we had tried to get by the security guards to get into a meeting is one too many. However, when the chance came to watch a private viewing of a new movie called Encounter Point, i jumped on the chance.

The documentary tracks the lives of a few palestinian and israeli peacebuilders who are working together to try and generate a strong movement towards non-violent means to resolve the conflict. The two main people they follwed in the movie were Ali – after having been shot by an israeli settler Ali went to Saudi for treatment only to find out his brother was killed by an israeli solider and later spent many years in prison. The second main character was Robi – a breaved mother who’s son was a soldier protecting a settlement and was killed by a sniper in 2002. Read the rest of this entry »