Orientation

I don't remember exactly where I left off but...

Orientation consisted of a few speakers..all very funny and a guided tour of the place. The first speaker, the founder of the University is known to just ramble on and on about whatever he feels like talking about. When he started talking about the economic state of Ecuador he made clear a difference between poor and underdeveloped. Ecuador, he says is very poor, but also very rich. They have a lot of resources, but don’t know what to do with him. He gave an example by pulling out his cell phone and calling his friend..yea, so I was a little lost at this point, but he was funny. He also told us not to ‘Be Americans who make a big deal out of everything.’ I’ve already figured out what he meant by that. I tend to get very tense when I am late or when something goes wrong with a class schedule, etc. In Ecuador: ‘todo bien’ everything is always fine. I arrive late, ‘No te preocupes chica..’ Don’t worry about it. No one is uptight and things just flow. From the Crazy traffic (loquisimo) to bargaining prices of food, people make their own rules and just live how they feel like living.

There was also a presentation on the Political history of Ecuador… an astonishing 11 presidents since 1996 and a people who overthrow them constantly. Health, culture, tour and we were off.

Luckily I made friends with a few people and was invited to join them for lunch. The two boys who are from Ecuador took us to a local restaurant that is suppose to be the ‘best’ in Cuybayá. I had potato soup with ‘aguacates’ avocados and fried corn..and of course plantains. (My mamí makes the BEST ‘batido de platanos’ banana milkshake I’ve ever had every morning for breakfast). Diego and Leonardo, our Ecuadorian friends and guides for the afternoon helped us order and then we took the bus back to the school. We returned to Quito ‘juntos’ together and parted ways at our various stops. Leonardo, who I think was a bit worried about me making it all the way home, made sure that I would send him a text and let him know I got their safely. As hard as we may try, gringos always look a little confused or lost. My mother calls me her ‘hijita gringita’ ..basically her little white daughter. It makes me laugh.

This morning I got up early to meet a friend, Cristina, who was going to take me to a small indigenous community where I might do my service work. I was suspose to meet her in front of the University..aparently easier said than done. I got on the bus that says, ‘SOLCA’ like I am suspose to but 30 mins later…still nothing looked familiar. Turns out there are two different buses that are marked with SOLCA that go completely different ways. None of the buses have numbers so you just have to read all of the words on the front while it is wizzing by you trying to figure out if you should get on. Anways, I was late but I eventually found my way. Cristina, her little 12 year old brother Alex and I hopped on yet another bus so that she could show me the way to Lumbisí a little further past cuybayá.


Lumbisí is a pueblito of mostly indeginous people that live in a community functioning like its very own small country. It is very hard to describe it in English so please forgive me as I try to give you a snapshot of the morning. When you step off the bus and look at the area you see mountains, dirt paths, rotting building and people. The land in Lumbisí is not owned officially by anyone so everyone takes pride in cleaning up and doing things that benefit the community as a whole. For the past three days there have been fiestas in the streets and so when we arrived this morning there were people sweeping up trash and many others passed out on the sidewalk. As we passed ‘una anciana’, and elderly woman, on the sidewalk sitting in the sun next to a man lying seemingly dead (although probably just extremely ‘borracho’ drunk) Cristina asked if we could help her to her house. The ancianos in Lumbisí are not taken care of at all and basically this women could have just sat on the street for days. Just as we were about to help her up her daughter came around the corner and started yelling at us. She said to basically ‘mind our own business.’ The problem, Cristina says, is that these people, who don’t like to be referred to as ‘indigenous,’ think that any notion of help is a symbol that they are worth less than other people. Even though Cristina only wants to help and do what she can to love these people that are mal treated, many feel degraded and have to much honor to accept much of anything. Without anywhere to put their identity, and no one to take care of them these ancianos drink all of the time and end up on the streets. Cristina says that she can never talk to one of the old ladies without tearing up.

We buy her a bottle of water and continue on…

Cristina is amazing. She is the director of a Foundation ‘FEVI’ that serves this very poor community as well as a night student at the University. She has a great sense of humor, a huge heart for the people she works with and time for everyone. FEVI has several projects in Lumbisí, one of which is a house for ‘los ancianos’ the elderly. FEVI also recently built a small school with two classrooms in which they plan to start English classes for the Children. This is where I come into play. Basically the teachers need assistants to help with the childcare in the morning and the English lessons. There is also a greenhouse and garden that Cristina has started to provide food for the kids. She is full of ideas like getting local ‘Panadarias’ Bread shops to donate old bread which can be pounded into grain and used in cooking. Everywhere we walked she was fixing a wobbly step, picking up trash, helping people and yet still talking to me about everything there is to do. ‘Plata y gente’ She says, ‘Money and People’ is what they need. They are desperate for volunteers and money. In fact, they require the volunteers now to pay 20 dollars a month to help with expenses. Her vision is beautiful and talking to her I felt more at home than I have in this country so far. I understood her pain, her desperate desire to help and the unavoidable lack of resources.

Most of the students at USFQ are very well off and come from families in Quito that have plenty of money. Many of these kids have no idea that in their very own country, 15 minutes down the road from their very own school, there are children that search through the garbage cans for food and ancianas that are dying in the street. As we talked and thought about ways to get more students involved, ideas ( probably too big for me to be having) were running through my head. I begin work on Monday. It’s about an hour bus ride to arrive at 7:30…too bad coffee is no where to be found.