What I will miss

It was so strange for me to sit in bed today with my computer and realize that once again my time abroad is over. I feel a lot of emotions. I for such a long time longed to move to another country to live, work and learn and now the adventure I saved up and waited for is over. And in my almost 11 months here in Ecuador I have done so much living, working and learning. I have lived the ups and downs of my school, the ups and downs of the food and been welcomed into the culture and into so many people’s lives. My work has been extremely frustrating and difficult and extremely interesting and worthwhile all at the same. I have learned Spanish, about Ecuador and picked up some more ideas on how life can be. I have been fascinated by Ecuador’s trek towards development and modernization and I am excited for my students to be part of it. Ecuador is a beautiful and extremely tranquil country, which is also on fire with a lot of ambition and passion. I feel really lucky to have gotten to know it deeply. Even though at times I definitely complained that I wanted to leave and had frustrations I will look back at Ecuador extremely fondly and had an amazing time. As such there are a lot of things I will miss, though of course also certainly things I will not miss so much. Here is a brief list:  

 What I will miss:

My students, they made possible my birthday that included 4 different parties and 5 different cakes, they have been my salsa teachers, my informal Spanish tutors, my companions on trips through out the region, certainly my drinking buddies and my window into the country. We laughed a lot, though maybe they mostly were laughing at me and my teaching…

Some of my level 2 students at one of my birthday parties

My 7^th grade class at CISOL, a beautiful and insane group of students whose personal challenges I certainly can never fully understand.

The landscapes, especially the view from my school, this country is beautiful!

Spanish, but I am determined to keep practicing

Dancing, sure people dance in the US but its different than the salsa and reggatone craziness here, did I mention will miss hearing the same salsa and reggatone hits over and over again

My host family for their one of a kind quirkiness

Loja!!! For its parks, delicious tamales, walkable streets, friendly people, and passion for music

People’s warmness that you just feel so more deeply by the kisses on the cheek as hello and good-bye

Watching “Que Dice La Gente” (the Spanish language version of Family Feud) at 8:00pm after my classes, I really hope I get a station in Boston the shows it, I love that show

25 cent bus rides, $5 ecu-nail manicures, $10 salon hair cuts, 25 cent organic, locally sourced cups of coffee

Blackberry juice/Guava Jam/ Empanadas/ Papaya/Mangos/Horchata 

What I won’t miss:

The city bus, the bus drivers enjoy accelerating to a red light and then slamming on the breaks at the last second, honking at cars stopped at red light, swerving in traffic and in general creating a very stressful bus experience for me.

 Dogs: street dogs, guard dogs, you name it  

 The machos and their hissing, calls of “Hola,  mi reina,” and other such harassment. 

 Plain white rice everyday

 Pilsner, seriously the Ecuadorian people’s beer has little going for it

 Listening to my students’ excuses everyday for why they have to miss class or will miss class “Lo que paso es….” “Teacher por fav….”

 The post office people. Why is the post office always the most corrupt institution I encounter in developing countries? My guess is because they have something they know you want and thus have all the power.

Ecu-time: People are always late and plan nothing until the last minute. I love the spontaneity of life here, but it can be problematic when you are say trying to run a class and work with a large institution like the Universidad Nacional de Loja

So I guess that sort of sums it up. I wish, like always, I had written more while I was here… T-minus 5 days… USA here I come…

The trials and tribulations of trying to get some exercise

In coming here to Ecuador I knew full well I would probably faces complications that would make my regular routine of jogging a little difficult to stick to. I thought about whether I would simply feel too uncomfortable to go out and jog knowing the inevitable stares and whistles and wondered about how hard it would be to find a safe place to jog. When I first got to Quito I quickly discovered obstacle #1, altitude. When I arrived in Quito climbing a flight of stairs was enough to make me light headed and I just felt like I had no energy. Despite this I did try to get off to a good start exercising. I would get up at 6:00am and head out with my host dad Marco to do laps around the local park. And this was not just a simple jog, he was like a personal trainer barking out instructions at the start of each new lap. “On this one we will sprint half and walk half… on this one will speed walk…now jumping jacks,” etc, etc. It helped to get my lungs into shape and to feel good about being active while consuming a mountain of carbs every day. (i.e. rice, bread, potatoes, bananas, corn, yucca….)

When I got to nature-loving, but conservative, Loja I found there are several parks great for jogging, but that the shorts I brought with me would never see the light of day unless I really wanted to stand out and sort of make a scene. I myself am now totally taken aback whenever I see a woman here in shorts or a skirt that falls above the knee. I soon quickly learned that an average jog in the park would also involve lots of interactions with four-legged friends of all kinds. I have been chased by dogs, turned a corner on the trail to see a horse trotting my direction, and have tip-toed around grazing bulls. One of my compatriots has recounted twice being chased by a llama left untied by its owner. The humans I have encountered in the parks from the stumbling drunks to the city’s park maintenance people have proved to be pretty harmless, except for that one flashing incident, which I won’t elaborate on.

I recently stopped just jogging in the confines of the parks and took to the streets. It has its ups and downs, the stares are there, as is the ever lurking concern that a guard dog will come running out of a house gate that has been left ajar. I dodge cars that have no concern for pedestrians and cringe every time I have go past a construction sight, a car yard full of mechanics or any other place where I am likely to hear shouts of, “Hola, Reina.” But at the same time as I jog out on the road I always feel like I am getting more intimately acquainted with the city. As I jog along the Rio Zamora I come in contact with indigenous women washing their clothes in the river, speed walkers emulating Ecuadorian Olympic hero Jefferson Perez, and gaggles of elementary school girls in their uniforms complete with plaid skirts and knee socks. As I jog amongst Lojanos going about their daily lives I start to think about the complexities of this city such as when I see the wide variety of houses from sprawling compounds to shacks on the hill with tin roofs. I see women walking home from the market and carrying babies, while I see a lot of men engulfed in intense ecu-volly matches and or out washing their buses or taxis. I have discovered some more hidden parts of the city, like a dirt path that leads to a popular swimming hole and the city jail on the edge of town where eager family members line up to visit their loved ones.

My running career has been rather active since I have been here. When things are all said and done here I will have run three races. The huge Nike 10K in Quito, a nighttime 8K in Loja that was May 22 and a 15K in Quito coming up on June 4. The recent 8K was an interesting cultural experience in itself. There were two starting lines: one for the women’s 8K race and one for the men’s 10K. In the women’s race we were a small crowd of maybe 40 people, not so many for Loja’s annual race, for which they even closed a part of the main freeway running through the city. It was a fun race though organized by the military base in Loja and money raised with entry fees went to a foundation for handicapped children. Here is a picture from the finish line of the race under the glow of the city’s Cathedral.

Loja´s Cathedral all lit up at the finish line

Witnessing a guinea pig feast

So there is probably a chance you have heard that a traditional food here in the Ecuadorian sierra is a nice roasted guinea pig, locally called cuy. I have seen them around roasting whole. But I finally had a face to face encounter with a cuy when a friend came to visit from the coast and decided that while she was in Loja, a key cuy consuming locale, she wanted to try some. There was no way I was actually going to dig in, but I had to witness and document. Here are some pictures, looks just delicious doesn’t it…. Note the claws and teeth. It of course had to be accompanied by the Ecuadorian people’s beer: Pilsner.

The fangs were too much...

The remains after Irena (pictured) Becky and Lisa went to work on the cuy

Another election

So today is Election Day in Ecuador. Today, people will be voting for president, representatives for the national assembly, provincial governors, mayors and city council people. The last few weeks have been a non-stop campaign fest, which has felt more intense than anything I have seen in the US. Sure in the US there are yard signs, bumper stickers and campaign buttons and but all over Loja people have 10 foot banners outside their houses, they have painted the sides of their trucks and their houses, people are standing on every corner handing out information about the candidates. I don’t think recently I have seen a single commercial that wasn’t a campaign commercial. My guess is that perhaps the reason for such a barrage of campaign advertising is that there are so many candidates for every slot. With a huge array of political parties: right wing parties, workers’ parties, communist parties, environmental parties, etc it seems to take a lot of work to get noticed and stand out amongst the crowd.    

 

But all campaigning had to stop by Thursday at midnight, as did all public alcohol consumption. So this weekend all bars will closed be and any public display of drunkenness will result in arrest. I have discussed with some other people my thoughts on why they ban alcohol during elections, certainly the benefits are that people can make their choices with a clear head and people being sober undoubtedly can prevent the inevitable rioting that seems to accompany elections here. Lots of people are concerned about corruption in the election so I think no matter what the outcome somebody will be crying foul. So we shall see what transpires.

 

Now President Rafeal Correa looks like he is probably going cruise to a reelection which would be very significant at this time in the country’s history because just in the period between now and 1997 the country has had 10 presidents, several which were ousted by citizens revolts. Being a crony of Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, etc I can’t imagine he is the most attractive candidate from a US political perspective. But nationally he has delivered with a lot of social programs and his dedication to reducing poverty. Correa’s competition includes a previous president Lucio Gutierrez (who was ousted by a popular revolt and who I believe has the nickname “Lucio Sucio” and I just don´t see how someone like that makes their way back to successfully campaign for a second shot..)  and Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador’s Banana Czar, whose banana fortune makes him the country’s richest man. He is a right wing candidate running for president for the fourth time. 

 

Another interesting fact about Ecuadorian elections in that with the new constitution that was voted in in October the voting age is now 16.

 

Here is a great article talking more about this election.  

 

Also here are some pictures I took this week of the campaign madness.

 

The man himself, President Rafael Correa

 

I just love that not only the walls are covered in posters, but this guy also decorated his cement mixer!

The belated post about fanesca

This should have been put up weeks ago, I apologize, but I still want to make sure everyone gets to hear all about the great Ecuadorian tradition that is fanesca, complete with photos of my Good Friday fanesca. So here is my tale of the fanesca, enjoy!

“Have you ever eaten fanesca?” My host mom asked me one day at lunch. I had never heard of such a thing so of course I replied, “No, I haven’t.” Then her face lit up as she explained just how “rica” this traditional Ecuadorian dish, eaten typically during Holy Week, is. I have to admit though when she first explained it, it was hard to get excited. My “extranjero” friends and I always half joke, half complain, that Ecuadorian food is nothing but carbs upon carbs. A lunch might consist of rice, corn and potatoes, or rice, yucca and bananas or my personal favorite: rice AND pasta. And fanesca just seemed to be the dish that sort of brings all the starchy foods I commonly eat together in one large 12 grain feast. Fanesca is a thick, creamy soup, like a chowder, that includes beans, lentils, corn, potatoes, peas, fava beans and dried fish, to name just a few of the ingredients. It is then garnished with fried bananas, mini empanadas and hard-boiled eggs. As a meat-free soup, and one that maybe supplies a day’s worth of calories in one bowl, it certainly fits the needs of a hearty Good Friday meal. (It is Catholic tradition to abstain from eating meat during all Fridays of Lent, but this of course is especially important during Holy Week).

In my house, however, we did not have to wait until Good Friday to get the fanesca fix for the year. My host mom proclaimed on a recent Saturday night that we were eating fanesca the next day for lunch so she could try out her recipe before the big day, when it would need to be just perfect. She spent Saturday night putting out the beans, lentils and peas to soak, shredding sambo, a type of squash that adds to the thickness of the broth and just getting all her ingredients in order. The next day at 3:30pm it was finally ready. Seeming eager to get some fanesca early my host mom’s mother, two sisters and one brother showed also to partake in the sampling. “Do you like it?” they kept asking. I smiled yes as my belly filled with cream and I brushed aside bones and strange looking fish chunks. While it certainly was not bad, I could not fathom how everyone else managed to go back for a second bowl when I was busting at the seams after half. As I stared at my bowl thinking, “If you go for big spoonfuls it is only about four more bites, you have room for four more bites!” my host mom shouted over, “You know this has peanut butter in it too!” Peanut butter?! I guess maybe that explains some about the extra heavy nature of this dish. I did make it through my bowl, and then the subsequent one for dinner and the one that was unfrozen for lunch on Tuesday. Each time I was presented with fanesca I learned a little more about the dish, “Do you know a bowl like this of fanesca costs $8.00 in Quito?” my host mom said once. I will admit that considering the number of ingredients, the labor, how filling it is and pure fanaticism Ecuadorians have for the dish, it seems like a fairly reasonable price

It is worth mentioning that Good Friday is definitely not the only Catholic holiday where traditional food seems to come out in a big way here, at home and as a money making opportunity. For All Saints’ Day there was the barrage of colada morada. It is a hot, thick purple beverage that appears to be made with lots of fruit, sugar and spices. It is like a warm blackberry, cinnamon and nutmeg laden, smoothie with some chunks of peach, strawberry and apple floating in it for extra fruitiness. On the week before All Saints’ Day the whole Central Plaza here in Loja was lined with women selling colada morada from giant caldrons bubbling on hot plates. My host father’s mother even sent in the mail, from Quito, a 5-liter water jug full of colada morada. All I could think is, “I understand that Grandma’s colada is always the best colada, but are we sure that it is still good?” I hear my host mom say over and over again that this Grandma’s fanesca is the best fanesca, but if I see a giant, warm, creamy jug of fanesca arrive in the mail I may finally have to draw the line.

There is no denying that here in Loja, and perhaps throughout Ecuador, that tradition is of the utmost importance. A Holy Week could not pass without fanesca, just like a day could not pass without the whole family coming together for lunch or a stomachache be treated with anything but the oregano tea that people have sworn by for centuries. I think one of the greatest things about living in a country for a year and with a host family is that you get to see a whole year´s worth of holidays and traditions and experience them in a family. That opportunity, even if it involves bowls and bowls of fishy stew, is one of the things that makes our experience as year-long volunteers so much what richer than what we could ever get in even the longest of backpacking trips.  

MMM giant pot of creamy fanesca, plus the fixings of mini empanadas and hard boiled eggs, ready for consumption

My bowl of fanesca, hiding below the top layer is lots of corn, peas, beans, lentils, and dried fish, one bowl like this and you are set for the day, if not two

Palm Sunday in Cuenca

Palm Sunday was quite a happening in Cuenca, which is a beautiful colonial city known for its Catholic traditions and celebrations.  The streets near the main Cathedral were lined with women making elaborate sculptures out of palms, baskets out of palms, etc. I snapped a bunch of pictures on Sunday, so enjoy!

Women lined the Cathedral making beautiful art with palms and flowers, as it got later in the morning it seemed they couldn't keep up with the demand for their crafts

 

A closer look at some of the palm art/ sculptures for sale

 

People were lined up outside a church listening to Palm Sunday mass, Catholic churches here are often so packed that it is standing room only

 

One thing you can do with your palms certainly is to wack your little sister,

You know you are not at a suburban US elementary school when…

So as I mentioned before I volunteer at an alternative school in Loja. The school basically aims to cater to children who they know are at high risk for dropping out and to create an environment that understands and meets the needs of these kids and allows them to succeed. One thing they do that is different from regular schools is they get the Ministry of Health to bring in dentists once a year. The dentists have been at the school for at least the last three weeks, first doing consultations with all the kids and now sticking around until they get every last cavity filled and every other problem fixed.

Today when I was in the seventh grade class that I volunteer in once a week I learned that the health monitoring they do for the kids goes well beyond just checking their teeth. At 10:00am when I was about to leave the class a woman came in with a bag full of receptacles that I recognized very clearly from our talk during WorldTeach orientation with the Peace Corps nurse as something I hoped to never have to use. It was a bag full of containers for poop samples. Stool samples are typically collected here to check to see if you have a worm, parasite, amoeba or any other sort of exciting critter in your system. She explained to the kids that tonight they were to go hope and collect a sample to bring back to school tomorrow, Friday, because some sort of medical professionals would be coming in next week to look over the samples and see which kids need medicine to clean out their systems, so to speak. So while I understand this probably is very necessary because the poor children in this school may not have access to perfectly clean water and thus have worms, the thought this process just made me want to vomit. Can you imagine hundreds of kids showing up at school in the morning with a little container of poop in their backpacks! All I can say is God Bless the people who are involved in this whole process, because certainly it is important for the health of these kids, but I am pretty sure if I had to either collect or examine I would not make it.      

No class tomorrow teacher, por fa!!!

I write this blog as I watch the Ecuador- Paraguay soccer game. I should be teaching right now as it is 4:45pm on a Wednesday, but as I learned quickly in class Tuesday I would not have had much of an audience. All my students begged and pleaded not to have class and probably despite my decision would not have showed up anyway. I in the end did decide to cancel class because of what I remember from my experience in Senegal. During the Africa Cup children would be sent home from school for the game and people in my office would stealthily sneak out right at the right moment to catch the game in the afternoon. So since I have seen schools and businesses halted for soccer before I decided it was legit. I have learned that more or less once you step out of the United States people live and breathe for their soccer team. On the radio here in Ecuador leading up to the soccer game you hear messages about how all Ecuadorians must come together in common and love and pride for their team. That is complimented by messages of “Si se puede!”

Though at the same time I get the feeling that Ecuadorians have a difficult relationship with their soccer team. On Sunday there was the Ecuador vs. Brazil game. Ecuador had possession of the ball at least 70% of time, had about 20 corner kicks and maybe just as many free kicks from areas right outside the box. In the end they only managed to pull off a 1-1 tie. Brazil scored first too, by the way, on an effortless looking break away, so it was almost tragic. But even more disappointing was the Paraguay game. Ecuador playing at home in Quito had a lot of great shots and again possession of the ball the majority of time. In the second half they managed to go up 1-0 off a beautiful corner kick that got headed in. They managed to stay strong the rest of the half until past the 45:00 minute mark when the game was into the extra penalty/injury time. With ten seconds left the Paraguay team got the ball into the center and executed a great shot on goal. The stadium went silent, all the announcer could say is “we had the victory in our hands!” Basically what he wanted to say is I think, “Oh my goodness they blew it!” 10 seconds from victory and instead ended up with a tie. As these two games were World Cup Qualifying games and Ecuador has been right on the bubble of making it in I think losing those points that could have come from two wins instead of two ties may come to make all the difference.

I also I have to say that being from Seattle I can relate to what the Ecuadorian soccer fans are going through, we also know a thing or two about teams blowing it when it counts, right?

You never know…

This week due to there being a lot of incidents where I stopped and thought to myself, “You just never know what is going to happen here,” I figured it would be interesting to log these types of things I witness in an average week that likely would not come up in the United States. Sometimes the things I see that make me stop and think are purely comical and sometimes they are rather depressing. The linking factor in all these incidents though is that it is always a clear reminder that I am not in Seattle anymore…   

 

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Pretty much every Sunday I go to church with my host family. For one, I am always taken aback by how crowded the church is. In the US where surely the Catholic Church is losing attendance, but well also being kept afloat by the growing Latino population, it is interesting to me to always go into church here to find it absolutely overflowing with people. There are always people standing in the aisles and in the back. The theme of the day’s mass also got me thinking because it was International Women’s Day. An important day that from what I can remember goes off with very little mention in the US. But here in Ecuador where the Virgin is an extraordinarily important figure in the church I wasn’t surprised that the priest brought up the holiday and talked about the important role of women in society and within the church. But then the moment that really brought me down to earth and reminded of where I was, was when a man crippled man came into the church and started going pew to pew asking for money. Then on the way out there was a blind man, a husband and wife with their sick son in a wheel chair and others all asking for money and support. Clearly the Catholic faith calls us to give to the poor and sick among us, but I think rarely in the US are we confronted so intensely with the realities of poverty right at the church steps. It was a really intense moment for me to really reflect on the world around me and my position in it.      

 

 

Monday, March 9, 2009. 9:30am

So I was walking to my school to talk with the Director when I heard a very loud squawking and I looked up an see on someone’s roof a giant macaw with red, blue and yellow feathers, with a nice long tail just wandering around the roof. So I think to myself, “That has to be a pet.” While there are certainly macaws in the surrounding areas would one really come into the city of Loja? But at the same time would someone really let their pet macaw perch up on the electricity pole like that? Weird….

This is what the bird I sighted looked like

 

Tuesday, March 10, 2009. 10:00am

I am walking to my friend Lisa’s house, which is only about a 3 minute walk away. I cross the street and naturally there are two guys, probably twenty years-old, friends I assume, just standing at the tree right on the edge of the sidewalk, causally just peeing on the tree together and carrying on a conversation.

 

Thursday, March 12, 2009. 9:15pm

I am having a conversation with friend Becky. She recently started dating an Ecuadorian dude who was in one of her classes last semester. They started hanging out before our vacation and things have, well, developed. Little did she know this guy took their first interaction outside of class very seriously and decided that was their anniversary. He came to her the other day with a mug he made that said “Happy 1^st  Month Anniversary!” (In Spanish though, of course.) Becky very taken aback by such activity that would be very uncharacteristic of an American dude and could only say things like “I had no idea it is our anniversary,” or “I didn’t know we had been a couple for a month.” The poor guy was a little heart broken. How could Becky not take their one month anniversary seriously?

 

Friday March 13, 2009. 9:00am

Aw a walk through the market. A classic locale for, “You just never know,” incidents. Oh look that lady has a chicken in her purse. And they just stopped on the side of the road so the chicken can eat some dried corn from a zip lock bag. It’s a good size chicken, I can’t help but think it is going to probably be sold today and on someone’s table in time for Saturday almuerzo.

 

Saturday March 14, 2008. 12:30pm

Becky and I are walking to the bus stop from the Plaza de la Independencia in the center of Loja, when I have an all too frequent sighting, a young man a sleep in the middle of the sidewalk. Well more accurately would be to say a young man passed out in the middle of the sidewalk. See these are not homeless people like we may see in the US sleeping on the sidewalk. These are fashionably dressed, clean men who in their incredibly drunken state have passed on the street and are undisturbed by the people, cars, whatever swirling around them. I have seen similar men passed out on stairs, in people’s driveways and in grassy patches on the side of the road. I also see them stumble through traffic and in front of buses. People say Loja has a problem with alcoholism, friends that is not difficult to see. I will mention that when I was in Tokyo if I was up early say on a Saturday morning I would see the same, men in suits passed out in doorways, etc. There are a lot of disturbing things about these sighting: the frequency certainly, the fact that they are just left there for hours undisturbed and just how drunk are you in the morning that you can sleep like that on the sidewalk….

 

So what will this week bring? Vamos a ver!

 

Ecuador would be an excellent place to film the next ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’

For those of you not familiar with the…uh.. brilliant film Drop Dead Gorgeous it is a mockumentary about a small town Minnesota beauty pageant. It follows the preparations of the competitors leading up to the pageant and then the pageant itself. In Ecuador there is no shortage of beauty pageants and hopeful young ladies who would like to be the next Reina and I am sure it would all make for a great film.  See here it is not that there is just a Miss Loja pageant. There is a “Miss” of every entity you can think of. Every high school and college has a pageant. The television station and tennis club have a Reina, as do all the banks, and countless other businesses. It is hard for me to understand exactly what it means to be Miss Banco de Loja or Miss EcoTel (Loja’s TV Station), but they exist.

I got my own first hand look at one of these pageants recently when my school, the Instituto de Idiomas of the the Universidad Nacional de Loja had the Miss Instituto de Idiomas Pageant. There were about 10 candidates who competed in first a casual wear round, then an evening wear round and last the question round. During the question round the candidates answered questions such as “To you, what is peace,” and To you, what is love?”

After those three rounds they named five finalists and moved on to a second question round. This final question was the same for all candidates relevant to the Institute. They had to explain as Reina what they would do get people in Loja excited about learning foreign languages and to see the importance of learning a foreign language.

In the end the winner was an English student named Jessica Castro. She also happened to definitely be the most confident of the bunch and had the largest cheering section. What she will do during her reign for the Institute I am unsure, but it seems it is all set-up for her to be a spokesperson and PR figure. (Also did I mention the pageant was a Friday and classes were canceled that day? Maybe so the candidates could have enough time to prepare?) 

The other interesting I thing I saw recently was when the candidates for Miss Ecuador came to Loja last week. I was walking through the main part of town when I came to a big crowd of children waiting on the sides of the streets like they were waiting for a parade. It was soon I realized that they had been taken out of school to see the parade of the Miss Ecuador candidates. There were lots of signs welcoming Thanya Roman, the candidate from the province of Loja. (She her great website here) It seemed through out the week there were events through out town where people could go the candidates and hear them talk about their platforms and see them pose in there best evening wear. It´s like they are running for president or something, incredible that there is such a build up to the pageant.

I also of course can’t help but wonder what young girls are learning from all this. Since it seems the most celebrated women in Ecuador and the most accessible way you can be to treated like a celebrity, and well feel special, is by being a beauty queen. It seems all these businesses and schools that are taking a young girl who was judged on her worth by how she looked in evening wear to be their symbol are just contributing to a huge objectifaction  of women. I realize that in the US as well the beauty pageant circuit is alive and well, but the prominence of the Reinas here on the news and just around town easily dwarfs anything you ever see in the US. I of course wrote a previous post about my observations of gender roles here and how I think Ecuador is a few decades behind the US when it comes gender empowerment, but I am not sure if that is exactly what to contribute the execessive beauty pageants too.

Ecuador played host to the Miss Universe pageant in 2004, maybe that selection was because it is well known that Ecuadorians are crazy for pageants and surely would pack the house…. Regardless it is a very interesting part of the culture here and I think will continue to be a little taken aback by just how many pageants and reinas there are.

Children eagerly waiting for the arrival of Miss Loja