The following story is about one of the more intense things i have ever witnessed…

So the ¨team¨ headed to Santa Elena to give some Charlas (informative talks). A woman from a neighboring town was to give one on improving family dynamics, a dude was to teach the people how to make gardens and compost, and I was to give a nutrition charla…ie why having a garden would be beneficial. We show up, and as usually no one wanted to come to the charla, so we went around town and attempted to drag the people out of their houses. House to house, shack to shack, person to person…until we hit the jackpot. There were like 30 people crammed into this one room shack. Then we entered, and saw an unconscious guy vomiting and moaning in pain. One woman was supporting him and holding his hair back, and another one was rubbing water on his chest and hair.

Turns out, he had drank a cup of Barbasco cocktail. Barbasco is a poisonous root the Shuar use to fish. They toss the root into the water, and all the fish in the area float to the surface. ¨Did he drink it by accident?¨, I asked. Nope, woman problems. So this guy had tried to commit suicide, and I was witnessing the aftermath, and the community trying to save his life. Luckily, this community was the closet indigenous village to Guayzimi, so an ambulance (pickup truck) was only about half an hour away. A doctor came, put in an iv, and induced more vomiting. The guy recovered, thank god. But when he started to regain conscious, he began weaping and moaning, and everyone started yelling at him. ¨Why the hell would you drink fish poison?¨ Luckily, the doctor was the man, and told them that the physical sickness needed treatment first, and that the patient really didn´t need to be yelled at right then. But you just know that he´s going to get harassed by everyone in the village for the rest of his life. I´m guessing they don´t have the best understanding of mental health issues in the indigenous communities, and the implications of an attempted suicide are most likely poorly understood. Combine that with the fact that this is undoubtedly the most eventful thing thing that has happened in a while, and that the only thing to do at night is to sit around and gossip, and the poor guy is never going to live this down…which won´t help his depression.

My junior year of College I took a class about Feminist Bioethics, taught by a woman named Julia Pedroni. I needed a ¨writing intensive¨ course to fulfill a requirement, and this was the only class that fit my schedule. Plus, my friend Louisa was in the class, and she jokingly told me that a class about feminism would be a great way to meet girls…which turned out to be true enough. I sat next to some smarty pants named Emily who I would always ask what the readings were about before class started. I think that really impressed her.

In all seriousness, I learned a lot in the class. In a class that regularly discussed things like the philosophical implications of vaginal reconstructive surgery with a bunch of girls and one guy, I got used to being out of my comfort zone…which has been helpful down here. I also learned a lot about women’s medical issues that I would have never even thought about otherwise, which will probably end up being more valuable than two semesters of organic chemistry if I end up being a doctor. Now, If I’m part of a situation that propagates a double standard for woman and men, I think WWJD (what would Julia do?).

This happens frequently in Ecuador, a particularly machismo society. Guayzimi just had a 5 day fiesta celebrating the anniversary of when it officially became a city…21 years and still going strong. The first day, they crowned a reina (queen) of the city. It was one of the most gender (and culturally) biased things I have ever seen. WWJD? She´d probably write up a philosophical discussion.

So here goes, if you´re interested.

First of all, they had some really messed up ways to deal with multiculturalism. They had separate (but equal…) competitions for a mestiza, shuar, and saraguro queen. The competition for the mestizos was basically soft core (and underage, mind you) porn while the competition for the indigenous crown was like a trip to epcot. The mestizos got to go on stage twice, once wearing rediclous bikinis and once wearing the most extravagant evening dresses you´ve ever seen. The indigenous went on stage once wearing modest indigenous garb. The mestizos enterered through a smoke screen and walked around seductively, while the indigenous entered to traditional music and danced. The mestizos wore so much makeup they looked like hookers, while the indeginous didn´t wear any. The mestizos were nothing more than a parody of westernized female image, while the indigenous girls were parodying ther culture from earlier years.

So that was ridiculous…to me anyway. Especially because the MC tried to play it off like this was good for the culture. They are a multicultural nation, so why not have a queen from every ethnicity? Imagine in the states not having a Miss Florida and Miss California, but rather a Miss White, Miss Black, Miss Asian, Miss whatever… that would be absurd.

So they have some cultural issues, but those were overshadowed by the obvious (again, to me) gender issues. The fact that the mestizos were so sexualized made it hard for me to watch. Admittedly, there was a time when I truly enjoyed looking at half naked 16 year old girls. But that was when I was 16. Everyone else seemed to really love it. People made signs and cheered. The mother of the winning mom bragged to me as a soccer mom would brag if her daughter had scored the winning goal in a championship game.

In Latin America, a woman´s place is in the bed and in the kitchen, so they definitely had these poor girls trained for the bed part. In a Shuar household, a major part of the woman´s daily duties is to cook Chicha, which is always prepared by women and served to men…the women never actually drink it. To make the drink, they chew up the ingredients before spitting them into the pot to be cooked… So they literally get a taste of this male power symbol, but never actually get to consume it. One of the Shuar girls did a dance where she cerimoniusly carried a bowl of chichi to a male counterpart, thus completing the bed and kitchen service motif in the pageant. When I pointed out the symbolism to Corrie, a female volunteer who had come for the festivities, she laughed and said, ¨I think you´re reading too much into this.¨

I disagree. I think everyone else wasn´t reading enough into the situation. It´s this kind of crap that contributes to my host parents not letting my host sisters leave the house for fear of them getting pregnant. Literally, they can´t leave the house. If they need to do a favor for their parents like buy eggs, the dad will say, ¨You have 10 minutes. 5 for walking to a from the store, and 5 to buy the eggs.¨ And he’s not an ass, he’s actually a really good guy, but he has reason. The culture here is such that 16 year old girls are fair game to dirty old men. I´ve seen it, both figuratively in pageants and literally in the streets, and it´s disgusting.

Ok, I realize that initially my blog posts where whiney, and i made it seem that i had a pretty bad lot. While at first it was difficult to get used to a (slightly) less comfortable life, I now realize what an unreasonable wimp I was being. Seriously, it´s ridiculous.

Here´s why. Ecuador is arguably the best place in the world to get placed in the Peace Corps. The only down side is that its sometimes called ¨the posh corps¨ because life here is so much easier than, say, Botswana. Some of the city volunteers have amazing pads… about on par with what I would hope for in an apartment my first year out of college. My site is one of the least posh sites, but I still have running water, electricity, and I cook with a stove. So within my group of Ecuador PC friends, I get props for being slightly more hardcore than them, but I still have all the creature comforts that volunteers in other countries don´t. Also, Ecuador is a huge tourist destination. It´s nice to look forward to being able to get away and do some really cool things. For example, last month I went white water rafting for a huge volunteer Halloween party, and the weekend after thanksgiving I have to choose between going to the beach and going to Vilcabamba, basically the fountain of youth where everyone lives to be 100 ´cause life is so good there. (also, speaking of Posh Corps, we have TWO volunteers in Vilcabamba for some reason…). I decided to go to the beach, the deal breaker being my friends parents gave him a free week at a time share beach condo, and the fact that Vilcabamba is a lot closer to my site (7 hours versus 18) so i´ll have more chances to go there.

So yeah, don´t feel sorry for me. Ecuador is sweet. On top of being in the best country ever for Peace Corps, I´m in one of the best sites in Ecuador. The rainforest is sweet, just awesome. The weather is great…I live in an endless summer. It rains a lot, but its worth it because it gives birth to so much cool vegetation, not to mention rainbows. While it would be cool to live in the mountains, living in cold weather with no hot water or central heat really sucks, so I have the sierra kids beat there. And the beach is cool, but it’s a lot hotter than here, and the cities on the beach can be pretty violent. Contrast that to my site, which is probably the most relaxed, safe place i´ll ever live in.

And the size is perfect, too. At 1,500 people, its big enough to have all the necisities, but small enough so that I know a ton of people, which is really cool.

The downsides kind of suck right now, but will actually be better for me in the long run. No phone or e-mail is a bummer, but it forces me to be independent and talk to people here. Plus, I didn´t sign up for the Peace Corps to surf the net or chat on the phone…The fact that almost all the other volunteers can is kind of ridiculous. The isolation can be a downer at times, not going to lie. In the Peace Corps literature, it says that they usually try to cluster volunteers, but in extreme cases the nearest volunteer may be a couple hours away… which basically describes my site. But again, it forces me to hang out with locals and make friends here, which i´ve done.

Another downside is quite frankly ridiculous that I can even list it as a downside. I have a really tough time finding work. The organization I work with is really well organized, and provide a lot of services. Whenever I have an idea to improve life in the indigenous villages, the director is always like…yeah where going to do that next week. So right now I feel a bit worthless. But the upside is that I get paid the same no matter what, and the Peace Corps actually anticipates lack of work and tells us not to get discouraged. Some people take a year or longer the actually do anything, and some people never actually get anything done…which is totally ok. The Peace Corps has three goals, only one of which is to help the people here. The other two deal with intercultural exchange, so just by being here and learning I’m being productive…in a way. Plus, if I can´t find work it just means I chill in ¨The Ecological Paradise of Ecuador¨, which is Guayzimi´s tagline. Still, it bugs me not being productive…i´ve always been so type A.

So yeah, Basically I´m one of the luckiest people ever. I live in one of the most beautiful places ever, I get to talk to really nice people and play sports all the time, and my only job is to help people however I feel like…or at least try. The only downsides seem ridiculous when compared to everyone losing their livilyhood in the states right now (another reason why I´m lucky…now is a really good time for Americans who would otherwise need to look for work to be volunteering overseas).

So for all of you who think I’m doing something selfless and challenging and altruistic, stop it. This place rocks, and I’m having a blast.