Hi all! This is going to be kinda long, I have a lot to cover. I've been working at an organization called La Pastoral Migratoria (now that I think about it I'm not sure I know what it means, but it has something to do with migration and flocks). It's a Catholic organization that receives money from a whole bunch of mostly international sources to help both Colombian refugees and poor Ecuadorians. There are a lot of Colombians living in Ibarra, because it's the biggest city close to the border (about 2 hours away), and the conflict in Colombia is mostly concentrated in the South, close to Ecuador. Let me introduce you to the cast of characters I work with:
- La Hermana, a very jittery nun who has giant glasses that make her look like an alarmed bug. She's Brazilian, so her Spanish accent is super goofy sounding (certainly not more than mine, I'm sure, but still)
- Elisa, the social worker from Belgium who came here as a volunteer, feel in love with an Ecuadoran and moved back
- Yajaira, the pyschologist who shows up to work every day on her motorcycle in stiletto heels. She desperately tried to set me up with a friend of hers, which I was not having at all, so I told them I was in Quito last weekend to get out of a date. Then I saw him at a club that night. Whoops....
- Benicio, the world's most enthusiastic accountant who spent 10 minutes telling me how fulfilled he feels working here, and how his soul has awakened after working in a private business.
Basically, la Pastoral has a daycare for kids 1-5, and then an after school program for kids 6-12. They have a psychologist for trauma therapy, 2 social workers, 2 nuns, and a lawyer. All the services they give - childcare, legal, pyschiatric, food, temporary housing, etc - are free. It's a really cool organization.
I do really random stuff at the organization. When Elisa has somewhere to go, like a visit to a family, I follow her, which is really interesting - I've seem some incredibly desolate living situations. I've been working a lot with Yajaira, setting up workshops to give to different groups. I go to the afterschool help program, try to help basically illiterate kids with their homework, and play the "how do you say this in English?" game for hours. And I interview people, for the academic part of this month. Starting next weekend, I have to write a 30 page paper in Spanish about something pertaining to my experience. So, I've been interviewing Colombian refugees about their lives - why they left Colombia, what their life is like now, etc.
Last week we gave a workshop on "managing fear" to a group of people who live in a place called Vergèl, which is basically a housing project. Almost all these people are Colombian, all are extremely poor, and most have come from horribly traumatizing situations in Colombia. Last weekend, someone wrote a threat on the wall on the side of the building, something about "Colombian refugees...government informers...go home." Then, Monday night, someone threw an actual homemade bomb inside of the building. Aside from the accompanying emotional trauma, all were fine.
For those of you who don't know anything about the Colombian conflict, it's bastante complicado, as they say. It's basically the FARC, a guerrilla group that formed in the 1970's, fighting the Colombian government. There are also paramilitary squads, vigilante groups that were originallformed by landowners as protection against the FARC. Whatever it may have started out to be, the conflict has basically degenerated into narcotraffickers killing each other and civilians. Both FARC andthe paramilitary groups have been accused of horrible human rights abuses, and the Colombian government has been accused of ties to the paramilitaries.
US role: In 2000, Prez Clinton started Plan Colombia, which was basically a big aid package to the Colombian government to fight the "Drug War." The problem with it was that 7 out of 10 of every US dollar went to military and anti-narco practices, which put a lot of money in the hands of the army but did little to develop the country. The current president, Uribe, is one of the only Latin American leaders left with really good relations with the US.
Here are some of the stories I've heard from people:
- A woman who was kidnapped for 2 1/2 years with her husband, who was put through training to be a soldier for the guerillas while she was basically enslaved as a cook, cleaning lady, etc. They left their several month old son with a friend when they left, and when they came back, he was 3 and they had to get medical tests to prove that he was their son.
- A woman who fled the south to Medellin with her husband and 6 kids. They moved 5 times, each time being followed and receiving letters saying, "We know where your kids go to school. We have pictures of them. Leave here, or we will kill them." She burst into tears in my office when I asked her why she thought they were following her - they have no idea.
- A woman who worked for narcotraffickers that think she wronged them, and now want to kill her (or at least scare her). They followed her to Ibarra and beat her up in her house. She wants to leave with her 2 children, move somewhere more anonymous in Ecuador, but she's under investigation. The place she works was robbed, and because she's the only Colombian who works there, they assume she did it.
The night that I had that last conversation, I talked to my host brother and mother about how dangerous Ecuador has become in recent years. To Ecuadorans, the reason has to be the influx of Colombians. The discrimination against Colombian refugees here is just as bad, if not more blatant, than US discrimination against Mexican immigrants. I sat here at the table as two wonderful, well-educated people (who, over the years, have had 15 host students, most of whom worked at this same organization) tell me that Colombians are thieves, they're the reason Ecuador isn't safe, they're responsible for 70% of crime in the country (the last official figure I saw was 3%). It was really mind-blowing.
Other than work, I do absolutely nothing. There's no one else from my program anywhere near me, and I work 8:30 to 5:30 every day, and I go to bed at about 9. In a lot of ways it's good - it's been really relaxing, I've had lots of time to concentrate on what I'm here to do, and I've been practicing my Spanish a shit ton -but I'm really looking forward to seeing all my friends again. I just have to write this goddamn paper first....
And then there's my living situation - the family is great, but the house is fucking full of children. There's one little girl who lives in my house, and 2 other kids who live in the same yard in the house right behind. For those of you that know how I feel about kids, you can imagine how much I enjoy this. The girl who lives with me cries constantly (I'm only home and awake for an aggregate 4 hours a day, and I witness her crying at least 2 or 3 times every day), and the teeny one who lives in the back is a little thief who just steals everything she can get her hands on when she walks into a room. It's just not my bag. Fortunately, I won't be home a lot this week.
That's about all I can handle right now. I can't believe this semester is almost over - I have one week left of work, then I have a week(ish) to write my paper, then I go back to Quito for a week, and ya llegan mis padres (and then my parents are already here). ¡Que tan rapido pasa el tiempo!
love,
Alice
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
When the lights go out...
So it´s been a little over a week. I´ve been quite busy since I leave Quito for a month today (eek!) Here are a few things:
1. Quito´s electricity runs on hydroelectric power from a water reserve in the Oriente (Amazon). Unfortunately, since it hasn´t been raining there recently, there is a huge power shortage in Quito. What they do to solve this is turn different grids off in a rotating order - so there are parts of the city that don´t have power at all times. This includes things like streetlights, so traffic is totally crazy. It also includes internet cafes when people are trying to register for classes. Yesterday I was out running errands, sat down to register at 3pm my time, and at 2:56 the power for the whole grid goes out. I had to book it about a mile to find somewhere with power. Fortunately, abroaders register first, so it worked out just fine.
This example contributes to the idea that we in the developed world (problematic term, but you know what I mean) have become increasingly removed from our environment. We are only very affected by environmental events when they´re pretty huge - snowstorm, hurricane, drought. But when there´s a drought, either in our country or another, we still go on eating. One thing I really noticed on the coast is that they are completely interdependant on the land - if there isn´t fish, or if it stops raining like it did 10 years ago, people go hungry. People´s lives are threatened. Even Quito is affected by environmental changes - and Quito is certainly not the country. It´s a bustling city with a transportation system, malls, gay bars and KFCs. But it still stops when it doesn´t rain in the Oriente. We have become so good at trying to harness nature and bend it to our will, that we have lost a lot of interconnectedness with it.
2. Something pretty unfortunate happened this week. Last weekend was Día de los Difuntos, or Day of the Dead, which is a 4 day weekend in which all of Quito seems to go out of town and the city is totally dead. My friend Carl was coming home from being out of town on Sunday, right in the middle of the feriado (holiday), and got off the trolley at a bad stop. He got into a (registered - the ones they tell you to make sure you get into) cab, and the cabbie proceeded to pick up 2 other guys and the 3 tried to rob him. They put a gun to his head, threatened his life, demanded that he give them all of his money and valuables. However, Carl had already been robbed of his camera and sunglasses on the bus on Saturday, and had only $5 after the long weekend. Eventually, when they decided that he really didn´t have anything, they maced him, threw him out of the car and took his shoes.
Obviously, this really shook all of us - Carl wasn´t hurt, beyond the blinding pain of being maced, but it was a reminder that we really are living in a dangerous country. However, there are a couple of things he could´ve done better - he shouldn´t have been alone, in that part of town, with his backpack, on that holiday weekend. Anyway, I don´t say that to scare you guys, but it was a pretty big event of the week.
3. Another unfortunate thing of a different magnitude - all my mosquito bites from the coast are infected. Gross. I´m also probably going to get malaria because I keep forgetting to take my medicine.
4. I leave for my ISP (Independant Study Project) today! I really can´t believe it. I´m really excited - my plan (certain to change, like all plans in Ecuador) is to record the life histories of the refugees I meet there. However, I´m also super nervous - to be doing something totally on my own, with none of my buddies there, to be speaking Spanish all day, to be trying to do research to write a 30 page paper (in Spanish). I know I´m going to be totally fine and have a great experience, but I think I´ll also experience loneliness and difficulty. But anyway. Here we go!
Love,
Alice
1. Quito´s electricity runs on hydroelectric power from a water reserve in the Oriente (Amazon). Unfortunately, since it hasn´t been raining there recently, there is a huge power shortage in Quito. What they do to solve this is turn different grids off in a rotating order - so there are parts of the city that don´t have power at all times. This includes things like streetlights, so traffic is totally crazy. It also includes internet cafes when people are trying to register for classes. Yesterday I was out running errands, sat down to register at 3pm my time, and at 2:56 the power for the whole grid goes out. I had to book it about a mile to find somewhere with power. Fortunately, abroaders register first, so it worked out just fine.
This example contributes to the idea that we in the developed world (problematic term, but you know what I mean) have become increasingly removed from our environment. We are only very affected by environmental events when they´re pretty huge - snowstorm, hurricane, drought. But when there´s a drought, either in our country or another, we still go on eating. One thing I really noticed on the coast is that they are completely interdependant on the land - if there isn´t fish, or if it stops raining like it did 10 years ago, people go hungry. People´s lives are threatened. Even Quito is affected by environmental changes - and Quito is certainly not the country. It´s a bustling city with a transportation system, malls, gay bars and KFCs. But it still stops when it doesn´t rain in the Oriente. We have become so good at trying to harness nature and bend it to our will, that we have lost a lot of interconnectedness with it.
2. Something pretty unfortunate happened this week. Last weekend was Día de los Difuntos, or Day of the Dead, which is a 4 day weekend in which all of Quito seems to go out of town and the city is totally dead. My friend Carl was coming home from being out of town on Sunday, right in the middle of the feriado (holiday), and got off the trolley at a bad stop. He got into a (registered - the ones they tell you to make sure you get into) cab, and the cabbie proceeded to pick up 2 other guys and the 3 tried to rob him. They put a gun to his head, threatened his life, demanded that he give them all of his money and valuables. However, Carl had already been robbed of his camera and sunglasses on the bus on Saturday, and had only $5 after the long weekend. Eventually, when they decided that he really didn´t have anything, they maced him, threw him out of the car and took his shoes.
Obviously, this really shook all of us - Carl wasn´t hurt, beyond the blinding pain of being maced, but it was a reminder that we really are living in a dangerous country. However, there are a couple of things he could´ve done better - he shouldn´t have been alone, in that part of town, with his backpack, on that holiday weekend. Anyway, I don´t say that to scare you guys, but it was a pretty big event of the week.
3. Another unfortunate thing of a different magnitude - all my mosquito bites from the coast are infected. Gross. I´m also probably going to get malaria because I keep forgetting to take my medicine.
4. I leave for my ISP (Independant Study Project) today! I really can´t believe it. I´m really excited - my plan (certain to change, like all plans in Ecuador) is to record the life histories of the refugees I meet there. However, I´m also super nervous - to be doing something totally on my own, with none of my buddies there, to be speaking Spanish all day, to be trying to do research to write a 30 page paper (in Spanish). I know I´m going to be totally fine and have a great experience, but I think I´ll also experience loneliness and difficulty. But anyway. Here we go!
Love,
Alice
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