Ecuador, Pt. 1

Pictures will come later, when I have the time. First comes what pictures (at least what my pictures) cannot describe: the quirks of Ecuador. First and formost is the greetings. As John so aptly stated, ¨The greetings are just so real here.¨Men always shake hands when exchanging greetings and any other greeting the participants kiss the cheek of their friend. At first, when I didn´t know the people I was greeting, this was quite the barrage of affection, although I have come to enjoy these little greetings with various strange women. The second most important thing is the toilet paper. In Ecuador, as in all of South America, basically, the plumbing is not built to process the paper. Therefore all toilet paper goes in the trash. It honestly doesn´t smell bad, once everything dries out. And you must resist any temptation to drink the water that comes out of the tap. It is good for washing, not for drinking. Put it under a microscope and you can see al lthe fun little microbes floating about. Yum! The last little quirk that I consider worth typing is that Ecuadorians are very focused on looking good. This is all fine and dandy, except that this doesn´t stop in the household. Unless you are in your room with the door closed, you are fully dressed and (this infuriates me) wearing shoes.

To get to and from school and anywhere in town we take busses. These are a trip. The drivers are nuts, which is a blast (some of my peers disagree), the busses are more often than not completely packed, and street merchants are constantly hopping on and off pedaling their wares. I finally got the opportunity this morning to ride in a packed bus, only fitting by hanging my heels out the open door and hanging on for dear life. This particular bus driver was mighty impressive because I believe he was the most agressive driver on the road, a mighty impressive feat in Quito, where they obay stop lights (loosly) and consider that enough. In the evenining, with the best of the traffic, the street performers are in full swing. There are jugglers, some much better than others, fire breathers, dancers and poyers (I am not sure what people who do poy are called). The poverty rate is incredibly high, something like 70% of the country is under the poverty line. This results in high levels of crime (not often violent, just some harmless muggings and pickpocketing and general theivery) and a heartbreaking number of children working on the streets. Many children, easily under 12, jump on busses to sell fruit or candy or stickers and many others sit on boxes waiting for someone with shiny shoes to ask for shinier ones.

Here in the Andes carbs are a big deal. I have yet to have a meal without bread, rice or potatoes, usually with some combination of the above. There is not much fare for vegitarians as rice and potatoes are the only really regularly occuring veggies. Breakfast isn´t a big deal, maybe some toast and a shake. Lunch is huge, often enough to tide me till the next morning, with a snack, of course. Dinner is usually very similar to lunch in quality, not quantity, as it is usually what was left over.

So far, so good. I´ll get pictures up eventually.