Que Raro...

Today has been one of those weird days.
Apparently it’s the anniversary of the falling of the Berlin wall, something I didn’t know until someone explained that’s why there’s a giant cardboard wall in front of our school. There was also some sort of fair thing in one of the open areas, but I wasn’t sure what that was about. Rumors say Finance class? Then there were also several wall-length banners declaring the horrors of communism and several holocausts due to them (Stalin, Ho Chi Min, Mao, etc). Still some confusion.
My house, during my absence this weekend, also got Christmasfied, tree and all. I think it’s a little early, but that’s just me.
To top it all off, today I find out (via facebook no less) that my house at home in Hawaii got broken into over the weekend. Needless to say, I was mildly upset this afternoon. I just find it cruelly ironic that my house in my super safe subdivision got robbed before me, in a developing country, in a city with “critical level danger”, where I am clearly in the vulnerable minority. I’m incredibly grateful that nothing happened to anyone.
It’s also kind of frustrating to be so far away from the people you care about, especially when they’re in trouble or something. This is always the case though, even when I’m in Kalamazoo. One of my biggest fears is that something will happen when I'm somewhere else far away (Hawaii, Michigan, Ecuador, wherever). It’s one of the drawbacks to going on far away adventures, that you leave important people behind, but that’s the risk I guess I chose to take. Again though, I’m glad that everyone is ok and safe and I haven’t had any sort of these distance problems so far.
I’m also still exhausted, despite going to sleep at 930 last night after getting home from the coast, so maybe that explains it all? Maybe a nap will solve my problems, I find that usually helps make weird things go away ;-P

Sin electricidad

35% of Ecuador´s energy comes from hydroelectric energy (the rest is mostly petróleo) from one energy station in the south by Cuenca. It is now the rainy season, usually starting in Octubre, and despite my original posts about crazy Quito storms, it hasn´t really rained since. Due to this lack off rainfall, the country is cutting back on its energy usages until it rains again. Hence, scheduled regional power cuts have begun. They usually tell you ahead of time and they only last for a few hours in each area, although these cuttings are nation-wide. This isn´t a new thing, apparently it´s been going on for the past 15 years or so. In any case, I woke up to no electricity (had fried bread for breakfast, which was interesting, because we couldn´t use our toaster) and now there´s no energy on campus (although they have generators to keep most of the university running). It´s not really that much of a problem, just sort of a hassle. The biggest problem, however, are the roads. In case you didn´t know, Ecuadorians only follow road rules when it´s convenient. Now imagine this semi-anarchist system lacking traffic lights. Yeah, things just got a bit crazier. Oh well, it´s just another one of those "sooo Ecua" moments.

Valora la communicacion

I did my first real class-speaking in Spanish today! I had to do a presentation in Human Ecology on the article we read for class today and summarize and everything for the rest of the class. I was ridiculously nervous, not because of the article itself but because of the whole ‘presenting in Spanish to Spanish speakers’ part. The article covered the anthropology and study of environmentalism and ecological anthropology, both things I am knowledgeable about and could discuss for hours on end.
In the end, I pulled it off, more or less. I’m not sure how clear I was with my ideas, but it got across somehow. If you know me at all, you’ll know that I’m a bit disorganized with my thoughts (mildly… hehe) in English, so I’m not sure at all how I sounded in Spanish, but whatever, I think it worked more or less.
I was talking to Tor today about the frustration about transmitting ideas and the incredible amount of frustration we encounter when we want to express an idea, but are simply held back by the language barrier. In my Human Ecology class, we’re talking about things I’ve studied before in my awesome Religion and Environmental Ethics class and tons of other settings as well. I could discuss each of these topics for HOURS on end, but am reduced to about a 4th grade level of language and I’m sure it sounds like my intelligence goes with it. It’s frustrating to know that I am an intelligent being but simply don’t have the means to express my thoughts. It’s also humbling to really appreciate my native language and the freedom that language gives you. To be completely understood and to be able to use exactly the word I want is so liberating, I never knew I could feel this way about language.
I would love to strike up a conversation with some of the Ecuadorians in my Human Ecology class about environmentalism and sustainability and the differences between Ecuador and the United States, but also the similarities, especially with other tropical places like Hawaii. However, I am incredibly intimidated by them (for more than just the language reason) and feel like having such a philosophical discussion like that is far beyond my ability. For instance I tried to summarize “ecofeminism” in a few words during my presentation today and that in itself was difficult. This is the same topic that I have literally had very extended discussions about, but just trying to say one simple sentence about it was a struggle for me.
On the other hand, to be able to communicate in Spanish is incredibly rewarding for me. To have discussions and conversations with my madre and other peoples’ familias is so rewarding for me. I love the ease with which I can converse with my madre most days and how I can understand my professors and everything. I feel like it has opened up so many doors for me (both literal and figurative as I had to ask someone on my street to unlock the gate for me the other day….) and I love being able to access this whole other world I couldn’t before.
As I’m learning daily, language is an amazing gift and those who study it and control it have an incredible amount of power and opportunity. Communication is one of the main aspects of culture, as I’ve learned, to be without it is incredibly difficult, and when you have access to it, it is just a freeing and… I don’t even know how to explain it, but it’s so rewarding and liberating in terms of personal power and independence.

Burocracia

I've had a few run-ins with Ecuadorian bureaucracy, and let me just say that it makes the state of Hawaii look like a smooth running machine. So far, we've had trouble with our visas and censos, and the process it took to deal with both of these was quite frustrating. The first problem was that our visas were incorrectly issued by the consulate in Chicago way back in May so they were set to expire in December (not ok when every is supposed to stay till Feb). Thus 5 of us students and one of our program directors had to go to the office to get them all extended. The reason why this is silly/confusing is because each person can only work with 5 visas at a time, so for a group of 30 of us, we needed 6 ppl instead of just our program director doing all 30 at once. This limit doesn't really make sense to me, plus then we had to wait for forever in the office itself.

Second run-in was this morning when I woke up at 6am to go to get my censo. Getting up so early is not fun on a Saturday, but necessary here apparently. The censo is basically you getting legally registered in the country and they give you an ID to carry. It must be done by the first 30 days of being in Ecuador (or pay a fine between $20-$2000), so ours had to be done by Monday. A bunch of us went after class yesterday only to find out that the office only does 30 censos each day. Why? I don't know. I know for a fact that they have more migrants than that, but whatever, again, Ecuadorian beauracratic silliness. So we were turned down yesterday afternoon and told to come back tomorrow. So there we were, at 730am on a Saturday, a group of about 12 Kalamazoo students, standing in front of the immigration building. Luckily, we all managed to get our censos today and didn't have to come back on Monday.
Still, the bureacratic nonsense is ridiculous. A few of us didn't have manilla envelopes (blue manilla folders instead) and they refused to use them. I'm sure this is how they make their profits: by forcing unknowing gringos to buy $0.50 manilla envelopes instead of using the perfectly fine other ones they bring with them. All in all, frustrating, but bareable.

Today the national Ecuadorian futbol (soccer) team plays Colombia, so everyone is wearing their jerseys and it's pretty cool. Hopefully we'll get to watch it on a tv or something (the game is in Colombia). Every single individual in this country is excited, not even joking. Should be a fun day, although I think I may need a nap to make up for the morning before getting in on all the excitement.

Clases

Registering for classes has now made me want to put my head in the wall. At this point I've given up and decided that whatever, I'll deal with it when I get down there.
I sense much frustation in upcoming months with Ecuadorian time, language barriers, and general confusion. Oh boy...