7.28.10 Agua Fria

This week I moved into my very own apartment and for the first time in my life I’m living completely solo. It’s fun shopping for plates and towels and things but also expensive (ok, not relatively, but on a Peace Corps salary- yes expensive) and lots of work. But as I’m settling in at the new place, I realized some things I take for granted, and especially in the last few days- water.

At my host family’s house, they have hot water in the showers. There’s some sort of dangerous looking device with electrical wires that heats up the water and it allows for pleasant, warm showers anytime you want. At my new house, showers go something like this: I avoid them in the mornings when it’s cooler (Ecuadorians are firm believers that if you bathe in cold water when there’s also cool weather, you’ll get instantly sick), after working all day, biking, walking around and sweating, afternoons are the perfect time for showers. Lately though I’ve been busy up until night time so am forced to take a shower at night when it’s also cooler. This leads to dreading turning on the water, standing as far away from it as possible in the shower for a good few minutes, mentally preparing myself and finally just going for it while thinking a string of curse words and washing very quickly. BUT I figure this is all for the best, I am a natural resources conservation volunteer after all. Cold showers lead to short showers, (or heck, skipping showering altogether- the best form of water conservation) and my hair has never been softer or shinier!

Water is definitely on my mind more frequently here than in the U.S. Water outages are common in Tena for a day, half-day at a time so it’s important to have buckets always collecting rain water or reserve stocks of water for washing dishes, laundry etc. when the tap water is out. Lately every water source in my house gets me thinking, how can I collect this extra water that’s going down the drain? because I never know when I’m going to need it. Some communities here rely completely on rain water for their source of potable water. Rain collection tanks with simple filter systems are common and an excellent alternative to drinking water from contaminated sources. So why not seek out those extra buckets you have lying around, line them up under your rain spouts and wash your car or water your plants or start taking bucket baths, how practical! (my bucket is collecting the water dripping from my new sink as I write this…)

7.13.10
A Lesson on Ecuadorian Amor

Inspired by a conversation with a man about three times my age yesterday, here’s a little insight for you all about love here in Ecuador.

I find it interesting that there are varying degrees of “singleness” here. When Americans say “single” it means they’re single- no spouse, no boyfriend/girlfriend, nada. Here there are three main words to describe your relationship status: soltero which means unmarried, comprometido means engaged and casado means married. There’s no word for “taken” as we say; no word for “in a relationship.” I find this interesting, paired with the fact that there’s a lot of infidelity here in Ecuador. It seems to leave a lot of gray area for when you’re first meeting a potential love interest. If you’re not married or engaged, you’re not really committed yet, so no need to mention a boyfriend or girlfriend right? I can’t tell if people are joking or not when they say, “no importa” if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend or “no importa” that there’s a huge age difference between the pursuer and the pursued.

While there are good Ecuadorian men here, I receive a lot of warnings to be careful. Young men especially have the reputation for being womanizers and weekly I hear stories about “committed” men being seen with other women. (To be fair, I also hear stories about women doing the same). My whole time here, I’ve been surrounded and living with single mothers. I’ve heard plenty of sad stories about fathers abandoning their kids (again to be fair, some about women too) but these women are strong, generous, caring women for it.

During Peace Corps training, one whole day was devoted to seminars about inter-cultural relationships. We were told that friendships only are very rare between males and females. Unless you’re hanging out in a large group, it’s very rare that males and female (of the same age mas o menos) hang out together. I learned quickly that this is true. If a male friend from the U.S. invited me to hang out, go on a day trip or out to eat, I would think nothing of it, happens all the time. Here you’re committing to something more if you agree to that first meeting (especially if it’s dancing- you might as well start picking out some baby names). This was a tough adjustment for me and it’s hard to explain to Ecuadorians that it’s different in the U.S. between male and female friends, they don’t really understand. While I feel these cultural boundaries are a little limiting in who I can and can’t be friends with, my new amigas are great and I often find myself part of fun, inter-generational groups of people rather than the homogenous group of twenty-somethings I’m used to, which is a change it seems I have no other choice than to get used to.

7.7.10 Planes, Trains & Automobiles (but really just automobiles…)

Generally, I’m not a big fan of cars. And other than the occasional taxi, I’m glad that they’re not an everday part of my life but I want to share some observations about driving here in Ecuador.

In America, using your horn is usually reserved for serious infractions or the occasional friendly greeting. Here horns are used constantly. The most common uses are to say: get out of the way! Or hello amigo! But cabs also honk at people loitering to ask if they need a cab, cars hundreds of feet behind me while biking honk to say “there’s a car very far behind you, watch out.” Honking is also of course, used for pretty girls, to get dogs and chickens out of the road, to wave to kids or to signal the arrival of the water tank delivery truck.

I found it highly ironic that as Peace Corps volunteers we were given all kinds of vaccines and preventative medicines but I am only able to fasten a seatbelt when riding in cars about 1% of the time. They simply are not used. I have not seen one child car seat yet in this country either. Babies and little kids are held on laps (I think most love the front seat view) and I’ve witnessed multiple women nursing babies while riding in the back of pick up trucks. Now while illegal in the United States, most volunteers will readily admit that riding in the back of pickups is one of their favorite things here (mine too). The best seat is on the outside edge of the truck bed while going fast on the highway, hopefully you can try it sometime in your life, just watch out for bugs and small pebbles in the eyes.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that traffic signals and signs are really just more of a suggestion than the law. Speed limits are up to the drivers really and rolling stops at stop signs are just fine. No passing zones don’t really apply when you have a slow bus in front of you and here you can make left turns on red. Cars also definitely do not yield to pedestrians or bikers. Looking both ways before crossing is a must.

Despite all this, I don’t see traffic accidents everyday, or hear about them all that often on the news. Drivers here also talk on their cell phones much less frequently than Americans, and they don’t eat while driving or apply their lipstick and other than big cities, roads are generally much less crowded. I’ve become much more relaxed about the seemingly lack of safety concerns while traveling in automobiles but still, anyday I’d prefer my bike…