So this one time, when I met the president of Ecuador...

As part of my program, we are studying the indigenous language of Kichwa, spoken by over 2 million people in the Andean region. Due to the large number of Kichwa speakers in Ecuador, every one of President Correa's speeches are translated from Spanish into Kichwa. Our Kichwa teacher, Jose Maldonado, is the official translator for the president. When he is not teaching us, he travels with the pres around the country translating his speeches.
Jose is quite the cool teacher. he's been teaching Kichwa for years, and knows his stuff. He jokes around with us and we really feel a strong connection to him. When he asks us, "Kanka casadochu kanki?" or, "are you married?" and we answer "Mana, nukaka mana casadochu kani." or (no, I am not married) he says "Kanka inteligentemi kani!" or "You're intelligent!" That's the type of silly humor Jose uses in class. Cool dude.
So tonight, the pres was speaking at the Presidential palace here in Quito. Jose invited us all to come and see him speak and meet him afterwards. We arrived at the presidential palace at 3pm, copies of passports in hand, and went through security.
A cool Ecuadorian flag in the lobby of the palace
The presidential sword. Badass.

The presidential sash. It reads "My power is in the Constitution."
Kickin it with the presidential Security

Me and my security pass for clearance into the presidential palace

So this turned out to be a press conference. Apparently he has them rather frequently, because, for two hours, he talked about his activities in the last week. Well, he went to Cuenca to discuss indigenous rights. Then he was in Quito designing "Plan Ecuador" his master plan to solve the shaky relations with Colombia and the narco trafficking that takes place on the border. He's not a great speaker, but it was still interesting to listen to him speak.
So finally, Jose introduces us to the audience. We all say "Imanalla" which means hello. Jose and the president (who speaks a decent amount of kichwa) have a little conversation. Just as he does in class, Jose is joking around with the president, in the middle of the press conference!!!
He asks the pres, how the wife is doing, how are the kids, etc... the pres, just like us, messes up a little bit but Jose gently corrects him. The pres asks what school we are from, and Jose answers "Pitzer." The pres says, with confusion, "Pizza?" The audience, also confused, looks back at us for clarification. We yell out, "Pitzer!!" again. Way to represent our school in front of the president!!
After the press conference, we go up to the podium to meet the man himself. He's pretty big dude!! I'd say, a good 6'2 210. And a nice guy as well. He asks us how we like Ecuador, how we like Jose, and how long we're here. At the same time, he was trying to leave rather early as it was his anniversary.
The man himself.

President Correa is a rather controversial figure as well. Nicknamed "little Chavez," (a reference to Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela,) Correa is known for his leftist socialist policies. The rich, such as my host family, despise him. He was the architect behind the 2008 Constitution that was just ratified. Among the articles, is the legalization of gay marriage and abortion, mandatory education of Kichwa in primary school, and an extension of the presidential powers and term from 4 to 6 years....
So, after the press conference, we invite Jose out to dinner. We go to this cool little street in the Centro Historico called La Ronda. Over dinner, we discuss our trip to Maachu Pichu next week, in which Jose will be joining us. We joke about drinking Pisco Sours, the national drink of Peru, and hiking the Inca trail hungover.
Me and Jose on La Ronda street after dinner
The crew and Jose after dinner

So thats my adventure with the president of Ecuador. Next chapter: Josh goes to Cuzco, Lima, and Maachu Pichu. Until then, "Kayakaman!!" (Bye!! in Kichwa)

My Community Service

As part of my study-abroad program, every student is required to do at least 3 hours a week of community service at a site of their choosing. The sites range from public hospitals to homeless shelters. I chose to work at a guardaria, or a public after school daycare. I work at a guardaria in Toctioco, a poor neighborhood in southern Quito. I go every Thursday from 1pm to 6pm and play with the kids and help them with their homework. I work with kids between the ages of 5 and 12, and a majority of them are Afro Ecuadorian or Indigenous. Toctioco is notorious for drugs and prostitution, and these kids grow up with the harsh realities of these byproducts of poverty. However, as you can tell from the pictures, they seem rather content with their humble lifestyles. Which is a lesson in it of itself.
To get to my community service, I take two busses for a total of 1 hour one way. My second bus winds up a steep mountain side in southern Quito. Below is a photo of the street that my guardaria is on.

This is the hill I climb every Thursday to get to my guardaria.
A beautiful view from the Guardaria, with the soccer field to the right.

Interestingly enough, in Ecuador, the poor live on the hillsides. Unlike the US, where views are prized and usually up the value of real-estate, hills like the previous picture are more of a burden. (understandably so, as cars have a very difficult time ascending those hills). That hill is mild compared to most in this neighborhood. Therefore, the flats are the chosen location of the wealthy.
Toctoico and the soccer field, taken from the eastern fence of the guardaria.

Another fantastic view from the guardaria

The Panecillo, A giant statue of the Virgin Mary. Visible from the playground of my guardaria.

The facility, by American standards, is extremely underfunded. As you can tell from the pictures, the facility is older and under supplied. There are stray dogs that run around the facility unattended. Organized activities are sparse due to the lack of funding. However, lunch and a snack is provided every day. And the food is good. So good that I opt out of eating lunch at home just so I could share it with the kids at work. Again, none of this seems to phase the kids.
The sala, or the main room where the kids do their homework.
This is the playground where the kids play. The soccer field is to the left.

The art room.

"Chaypi," as the kids call him. Chaypi is the resident stray dog that lives at the Guardaria. Strays are a huge problem in Toctoico as well as the rest of South America.
For fun, the boys throw rocks at Chaypi in order for him to chase them around the playgound. I was appalled at this, as the employees seemed to do nothing to stop it. One day, Chaypi had enough, and actually bit one of the children. The only reprimand by the staff was to put the dog outside. Talk about a different way of growing up.
My guardaria is part of a larger government system that provides subsidized after school programs for needy families. Most of these guardarias are in poorer neighborhoods like Toctoico, and due to socio-economic trends, institutionalized racism, and unstable government, a majority of the lower class has been consolidated into Afro Ecuadorians and Indigenous peoples. As a result, that demographic is primarily served by the public guardarias. Nonetheless, these kids seem very content with their lives. They are really glad to have volunteers like me who care about them. judging from the pictures, it's hard not to care about these little guys.



Me being goofy. Apparently the kid on the right thinks i'm crazy.

I taught the kids how to throw up a "peace sign."
The trend caught on.

Snack time!! Today was watermelon.

Hello? Are you there?

These two kids are inseperable.
mudballs from hell. I warned them if they dared throw one at me, there would be retaliation beyond their wildest dreams. The minute I turned my back, I got pelted with three.
Da homies.

study time!
Evelyn, the lady, who runs the guardaria.



The dining room. The kids are holding roses that they just made out of construction paper

One event in particular really made an impact on me. About two weeks ago, while I was working, I heard a few kids yelling about something. I ran over to investigate, only to find that about 4 police officers were searching a group of men on the soccer field that is adjacent to the guardaria. I asked the kids what was going on, and they casually told me "The police are searching for drugs. Those are drug dealers." None of the kids seemed phased by the incident, and none of the employees of the guardaria tried to shelter them from the incident. Judging from their reactions, it seemed as if that happened on a regular basis. It was a reality check for me to say the least.

Rio Bamba and Cuenca

This past friday was a national holiday in Ecuador. I don't know which holiday or why we had it off, but we did. And since I don't have class on Thursdays and my class on Friday was canceled, I had a long weekend. So a couple of friends and I decided to travel to the towns of Rio Bamba and Cuenca this weekend.
We hopped on a bus in Quito on Thursday morning, and 4 hours later, we arrived in the town of Rio Bamba. Rio Bamba isn't really that special. Although it's a substantial town of about 50,000 people, there isn't really that much to do.


A really cool mountain from the streets of Rio Bamba. We got to see it more up close and personal on our train ride.


Except the train. Which is like the only reason to go to Rio Bamba. Back in the late 1800's, then president Eloy Alfaro built a giant train system from Quito down to Guayaquil, about 1,500 miles worth of track. Part of the route went through the "Nariz del Diablo," or "Devils Nose." The Devils Nose is a giant mountain range that separated the two cities. The Catholic Church said it was impossible to build through yet with the help of an American construction company, the route was completed. Sadly, the route has fallen into disrepair and no longer runs. But the small part on the "Devils Nose" still works, taking thousands of tourists through its treacherous tracks every year. And you can ride on the roof!! So We boarded the roof of the train at 7am sharp on Friday morning in Rio Bamba. For the next 5 hours, we drove through breathtaking countryside, viewing locals working on their farms and cruising through small towns. We would wave to people as we would pass, and vendors would come and sell us goods from the side of the road. It was really cool being on the roof as we we interacted with locals.



A cool cemetary from the roof of our train
Another view from the train


The roof of the train at a pitstop in the small town of Alausi. The reddish things are cushions that we sat on.

Small children. Picture taken from the roof of our passing train.

Finally, we reached the infamous "Devils Nose." And boy, is it massive. In order to descend the mountain side, the train literally goes on switchbacks. The train descends, then flattens out. Once the whole train is flat on the side of the mountain, the conductor switches the track and train goes down the second switchback until it reaches the bottom.

Right before the Devil's Nose
A crazy drop off on the Devils Nose as seen from the edge of our train.One of the switchbacks on the Devils Nose. The train was on the track seen in the background. But the train flattened out and switched tracks to the track in the foreground

The Nariz del Diablo.

Me with the Nariz del Diablo behind me

Finally, we reached the small town of Alausi. There is where we got off the train. We boarded a bus bound for Cuenca, another 4 hours south.
This was a really really tiring bus ride. I got up at 630 that morning to sit on a train roof for like 5 hours, only to board another bus for 4 more hours. Finally, we arrived in Cuenca at around 8pm on Friday night.

Our $12 dollar a night hotel room in Cuenca. (I shared it with my buddy, and it worked out to $6 dollars a night)

We chose to go to Cuenca because it is famous for it's colonial architecture and clean, friendly atmosphere. Being 9 hours south of Quito, I wanted to make sure that it was a destination worth going to. Wow. It was amazing. that night, we turned in early so we could explore the next day.
Saturday morning we woke up at 830 and started exploring. I was immediately taken aback by the sheer beauty of the colonial Spanish buildings. I never thought that imperialism and mass genocide could be so beautiful!!




One of the many beautiful churches in Cuenca.
Another church in Cuenca

A cool doorway

A river scene in Cuenca

Antiquity and Modernity

We went to a museum of contemporary art and viewed some cool stuff. What was more impressive to me was the building that housed the art. Check out the photo because words really can't do it much justice.
The entrance to the Museum of Modern Art

After that, we wandered around the city and stumbled upon an outdoor market. Vendors from all around the region were selling fresh meats, fruits and vegetables. You could buy pig hearts, cow intestines, fish guts, and fruits of every size and color imaginable. I bought a pork sausage. As I ate it, I stared at the head of pig that I was currently eating.
The fruit market

MOO!!!

That night, we stumbled upon a really cool church. Like one of many that we saw, but we happened to walk in right before Saturday night mass was starting. So, we decided to attend Mass. I didn't really know what I was doing, but the church itself was beautiful enough to stay. And I even took comunion. (I think that's what it's called.) Anyways, I ate the body of Christ and prayed. I know, I'm a good Jew.... Right after, we hit the bars. Feeling religously pure and renewed, I proceeded to drink myself to oblivion.
We woke up Sunday morning relatively early. We then boarded a bus back to Quito. 9 1/2 hours later, I finally arrived home. Total damage for the entire weekend, including room and board and all traveling expenses: $105.50.