La Boda

On Oct. 29th, I had the great opportunity of attending my Cuencan "brother", Juan Pablo's, wedding. Juan Pablo and his new wife, Dani, have been together for 7 years, and are both some of the sweetest people I've meet here. Over the years, their families have become good friends, and the official joining of their lives was a beautiful thing!

Recognizing that every wedding is unique; I do not assume that every wedding in Ecuador will be just like this one, but there were a few customs practiced at this wedding which were new to me.
Just like many American weddings, the groom waited at the end of the aisle for the bride, who was accompanied by her dad. This wedding did not have a full wedding party; there was only a maid of honor who was followed by a few young flower girls and a ring bearer. Once the ceremony began, the bride and groom sat on a bench together facing the priest. They stood to say their vows, and they kissed to seal the deal. I wish I could have understood the vows! After the rings were exchanged they sat back down and a large rosary was placed around the two of them, I believe this was to symbolize togetherness.

After the wedding we headed to the reception, which was absolutely beautiful. To start, there was a table outside for appetizers. The bride, the groom, and their families stood together under a tent to receive congratulations and greet the guests. During dinner, the bride and groom came to each table to say hello to each guest. Although cake was served after dinner, there was not a cake-cutting ceremony. After everyone finished eating, the bride and groom had their first dance. Next, the close family joined in, and soon after, everyone was on the dance floor. It was really fun to dance at a South American wedding because everyone here knows how to salsa and dance in pairs. I learned a few dance moves, and thoroughly enjoyed myself while doing so!

My family: (left to right) Erika, Rosa, Christobal, Silvana, Juan Pablo (groom)



               

                 

A Day's Meal

Each morning I wake up to a latte and bread for breakfast. Sometimes I have had fruit, such as papaya, banana, or mandarins. Typically, there is marmalade served with bread, but I brought my host family some Ohio maple syrup (made locally in Medina), so we have been eating that with the bread in the mornings. Maple syrup is actually a local product to the temperate forest so many other places in the world do not have it. My madre here always tells me how much she likes it. She says, "Muy rico! Me Encanta!" :) I thought it was pretty funny that she simply ate it with bread rather than pancakes, french toast, or waffles, but I have grown to really like it with my morning bread!

At school, we have class from 8-10 am, and then take a half hour snack break. We always have our choice of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate, and fruit, bread, or crackers served with some type of jam. After our snack, we return to class until noon and then I usually go home for lunch.

Lunch at my house is vegetarian for me. Erika and Cristobal come home from school and work to eat. Sometimes my mom is home from work as well, but she is a massage therapist and travels to people's houses, so her presence depends on her day. Lunch is the largest meal of the day, and it is very common for the whole family to be at home to eat lunch.

My favorite meal includes avocado, scrambled eggs, red peppers, sliced cucumber, rice (of course), and a grilled plantain (YUM!). We also always have fresh juice with our meals, Rosa makes it in the blender herself! After the main dish we always have soup at my house. Mote is a popcorn-like grain that we often eat in our soup, or other times we actually put popcorn in our soup (which is something I will bring back to Ohio)! My favorite soup, and a very common soup in Ecuador, is a potato soup. My mom told me that she spent a year studying in Atlanta when she was young and the one thing she could not wait to get back to Ecuador for was the soup, or "La sopa"!

I have also eaten in a vegetarian restaurant near by my school a few times; each time I have tried a different dish, but they always cost about $1.80. For this price I am served a freshly squeezed juice, and plate piled with veggies and rice, literally too much food for me to finish. Price of eating out in Ecuador is one thing that I really appreciate! For $5 you can get a three course meal just about anywhere! Adjusting to $5 as a minimal price for food will be a little sad for me when I return to America.

Family in Cuenca

This past week we have settled down with host families in Cuenca. I live about a 20- 25 minute walk from my school, where I study Spanish. At my house, I live with my mom, Silvana, Cristobal (22), Juan Pablo (28), the housekeeper Rosa and her daughter Erika (9). Rosa has lived with Silvana for 9 years and is like a part of the family, comparable to Martha from the Brady Bunch.
The house is on the 2nd floor of a duplex, and is a humble size. There is a living/dining room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and 4 bedrooms spread out onto two levels. There is a gate to the driveway which is locked at night, a front door to the duplex, and another door to our house which is up three flights of stairs. This adds up to me needing to use 3 keys to get to into my house. The first thing I noticed when I came home for the first time was all of the paintings on the walls. The house is decorated with paintings done by Silvana, her mother, and Cristobal. Every home I have been in has original paintings on the walls, which is a part of the culture that I like very much.

Paintings by Cristobal and the Grandma

I love my house and family here. The only person in my family who speaks some English is my mother, but she only uses it when she needs me to understand her. I appreciate that because I really want to come home speaking fluent Spanish. I have a hard time understanding people when they talk at a normal rate, but I feel like I can usually get my point across when I am speaking. Our Spanish class is advancing quickly and I am picking up most of the stuff that I have forgotten in the past few years.

                             

painting by Grandma 

Each morning Rosa walks Erika to school. All schools here require a uniform. I have learned that uniforms are used to erase the presence of the wide variety of social classes in the schools. When I am doing my homework sometimes Rosa and Erika will proofread it for me, or at least answer my questions. Erika is learning English in her school, and I have also helped her with some vocab. Everyone in my home has made me feel very welcome, and it is great to be around such a loving and welcoming family!

Painting by Silvana

In my room, done by Grandma

Religion

Quito, Otavalo, Baños, and Cuenca are well known cities with larger populations than the other places I have traveled to, Intag and Yasuní. All of the larger cities or towns have multiple parks, churches, and statues. The Catholic religion is widespread through Ecuador. Many popular cities have a large virgin angel watching over it, as seen above (in Quito). One of the most beautiful things that I have seen this far, is "La Compañía" which was a Catholic church in Quito who's interior was completely plated in gold leaves. The extravagance of the church was used to draw interest from the indigenous to join the religion.

 The spread of European religions is arguably the first form of globalization, and has historically been extremely influencial in many cultures. In Ecuador, many rights such as those to housing and voting were stripped from those who did not claim themselves as Catholic.  Today in Cuenca, 80% of the population is Catholic. To emphasize the prominence of the religion,  I can think of 4 different churches within a five minute walk from my school (two are pictured below). Furthermore, Cuenca has 52 churches, one for every week of the year.

Many streets in the city of Cuenca are named after a saint, and there are many statues of saints around the city. Although the Catholic church wanted indigenous members, they discriminated against them even if they joined the religion. The white church, pictured above on the right, has a large area outside of the front door; this was an area dedicated for the indigenous to worship, as they were not aloud to go inside. It is especially interesting to me to learn the history of the spread of religion. The history of converting indigenous Ecuadorians to the Catholic religion reminds me of our own history of converting American slaves to Christianity. I realize this is a touchy subject, so all I want to say is that each of these groups of people were pulled from their way of life into the "White Man's" civilization and given an entirely new outlook on the world and our relation to it.  

Catholicism has even spread to remote places of Ecuador. For example, Junin is small village in the cloud forest which we visited. It was about a three hour bus ride through the mountains from Quito. The last hour of travel was on a dirt road which was pretty sketchy at some points to say the least. The village is so small and underdeveloped that it doesn't even have streets, but smack dab in the middle of it is a Catholic church. Although I don't necessarily agree with Euro-centrism changing the core beliefs of ancient culture, I believe the unification of religion can be a good thing because it unifies the country.

Traveling through Ecuador

In the past two weeks, I have seen a variety of cultures here in Ecuador. I have stayed in Quito, Intag, Otavalo, Yasuní National Park, Baños, and Cuenca. On the map, these cities are spread out through most of Ecuador and have quite a few differences. I have gathered from observations, that in every town we have visited there are two obvious classes of people: modern people and the indigenous. Indigenous people seem to have remained away from the eurocentric values that have reached most societies. They dress in classic attire; the color of the outfit depends on their origin. For the most part, a dark skirt, white blouse, colored scarf, and a long braided hair describes the indigenous woman.  Male attire is similar replacing the skirt with slacks, but altogether the indigenous people are easy to recognize because their clothes do not conform to the modern world. Although they do not socially conform to globalization, they are not untouched by the evolution of technology and communication. The expansion of cities has effected the simple life of indigenous Ecuadorians by taking their land and polluting the environment, which in turn, has pulled them into the world of the American dollar (the currency of Ecuador). Many indigenous Ecuadorians make their living by selling food and hand-crafted goods on the streets and in the markets. Some of these goods are hand-woven baskets, hand-carved instruments, hammocks, jewelry and alpaca scarves, blankets, ponchos, and sweaters. Although very crafty, some of the indigenous people of Ecuador seem to be the poorest class of people in the places I have traveled to.

The urban, middle class seems to be quite similar to Americans. Adults work during the week; people like to go out dancing on the weekends, and many people use Facebook. My generation is glued to their cell phones, and children watch the same cartoons, translated to Spanish. From our modern culture I remember seeing: Barney, Spongebob, Woody the Woodpecker, Lion King, the Little Mermaid, Puma, Fox Racing, Abercrombie, Nike, Adidas, Coca Cola, and Nestle. American music is also popular here, I have heard a variety of music ranging from the Beatles to Taylor Swift. Other than American music, reggaton is very popular, which is Spanish music with a dance beat.

Although the houses in the rural cities seem torn apart, there are not many social differences from the people that I have had a chance to interact with and the people in America. I think the relation of modern Americans with Native Americans and modern Ecuadorians with indigenous Ecuadorians is similar. Each group of natives has had their land taken which forces them to comply with modernization. They both also stay true to their traditional attire and use their artisans as their source of income rather than getting a nine to five.   

       

Quito and Equator

              

hotel view

Cathedral

President's Estate

Center of Quito: Lion, Cormorant, and Warrior.

                


 


  



   


Some fun facts and interesting things experienced at the equator:

Observed N. of the equator, water drains CCW, -why we get hurricanes in the northern hemisphere

S. of the equator, water drains CW, why they get typhoons!

Directly on the equator, water does not spin down the drain.

I balanced an egg on a nail, directly on the equator, earning a certificate!

enjoy the pictures, more to come!

Preface to Discussion of Globalization:

As a part of my travels in Ecuador, studied globalization. The concept of globalization deals with the increasing inter-connectedness of our world. This connectedness includes economic, cultural, and social influences from America onto lesser developed countries. In America we all know that we get our resources from all over the world, but rarely consider the effects that this has on other countries and cultures. Ecuador, as well as many other countries, has been effected culturally and ecologically by globalization. My blog will tend to come back to this concept of globalization as I reflect and relate my travel experiences to the class, and as I recognize some  first-hand effects of euro-centralism in this small Latin American country.