Nancy Germeshausen Klavans Cultural Bridge Fellowship: Quito Summer 2006

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.
 Yesterday was my first day at work. I came in last week just to say hi to everyone and get acquainted with the area. Everyone is tremendously helpful and nice. Having worked at numerous jobs where barely anyone knows who i am when i arrive, it was an amazing surprise to see that everyone was expecting me and my desk, computer and phone were all already set up for me. Currently i am acquainting myself with the organization and reading the project proposal. Although in Spanish i manage to get through it slowly both relying on my previous French studies and Google language translation (what a God send). I will write a bit more about work this week when i get a full grasp of my role but for now i want to share some background on Ecuador and what i experienced being integrated in the culture over this week.
 

A bit of background on Ecuador and Quito. Ecuador is in Western South America bordering the Pacific Ocean at the equator between, Peru and Columbia.
Quito, the capital, is approximately 2,850meters above sea level. It is surrounded by many volcanoes and has the largest active volcano in the world Cotopaxi.  In fact I was told by Cris that the volcano is set to erupt every 100 years or so and we are right around that time know. But so far it is just spurting so it might pass without a big eruption.
 The country is amazing – although small (relatively the size of Nevada) it harbours so many different environments – highlands and dry weather, the amazon jungle, cloud forests, costal areas etc. Because of the because of the variety of environments in Ecuador the weather differs in each place. In Quito it is spring like weather pretty much year round. The mornings are cool (even know in the summer) at about 15 Celsius or lower but when the sun is out it is so strong (because we are right at the equator) that it warms up in the middle of the day. There is tropical weather along the coast, cooler in land and higher elevations and tropical Amazonian jungle weather inland
 

Economically Ecuador has gone through many cycles of growth and economic crises. In around 2000 the president (Mahaud at the time) announced that the economy would be dollarized. Although coups ensued with this announcement with the next few presidents this was actually carried out. This in fact does make Ecuador more expensive (´caro´) relative to other South American countries.
 Living with Cris´s family provides me with a chance to ask a ton of questions about Quito and Ecuador. A few of their stories: While reading many guide books many told me to visit the old city (´centro´) which is a UNESCO world Heritage site, but all made it explicitly clear not to visit them at night as it was quite dangerous. While speaking with Cris and her uncles and aunts they said that this was the case many years ago but now it is much better. The country has gone through many efforts to clean up unsafe areas and restore the tourism. The colonial city is truly incredible. The churches date back to the 16^th century.  
 

I was told that many people are roughly middle class in Quito, I would assume that as you travel out to more indigenous areas that might not be the case.  I hope to be able to get a better sense of this as I get to know the country more. Cris´s father is an electrical engineer and just returned from the jungle (l´Oriente) where he was managing projects to provide electricity to these remote areas, will hopefully share more stories with us. There is a possibility that we will be able to visit these areas and see the development projects as they happen on the ground.  
 Ecuadorians are proud and nationalistic people, as they should be. Their country has so much to offer and hopefully many more people will discover it.