My first week in Ecuador was incredibly exciting. I spent most of the week touring Quito with my program coordinator María and the 15 students from my program. In total there are 200 international students studying at USFQ this semester, the majority from US schools like UNC, Mizzou, DePaw, Oregon, etc. However, the students on my specific program are composed of 10 students from U of I and 5 from Penn State. This week we visited the Botanical gardens of Quito. Did you know that there are 2,000+ species of orchids in Ecuador?! The climate is always mild so they bloom year round. Also, the fruits here are absolutely delicious! They have 5 different types of bananas and dozens of other fruits that I have never seen before. My host sister was actually complaining how bad the fruit was when she visited the Caribbean... I think they are spoiled here because even the most unripe fruit is delicious. Ecuadorians should never try fruit in the US, lol.
We also visited La Casa de Cultura, the Museum of Anthropology in Quito, as well as the City Museum. This history of Ecuador and its people is very interesting because there were/still are so many indigenous groups in the region. Additionally, there was a large influence from the Incas and Spanish.
If you saw the pictures that I posted, then you know that Thursday I went to the colonial part of Quito. This part of town is absolutely beautiful with dozens of churches dating back 400 years. I visited several historic spots including the Church of St. Augustine, the Church of the Companía de Jesus, the Plaza of St. Francis, and Independence Plaza. St. Augustine is actually the site of Independence Hall where Ecuadorians signed their first Constitution in 1809. Independence plaza houses the Presidential Palace and marks the site where the exposition that discovered the Amazon River began. If you have time you should look up this story the exhibition started out with something like 900 people and ended with only 30 floating down the Amazon into the Atlantic. We also stopped in at the Quito Cultural Center to see a demonstration by traditional Andean dancers. Check out the album titled "Alisha arrives in Ecuador" to see a video of the dancers.
Last Friday we went to an Indigenous town a little ways outside Quito. The gap between rich and poor in Ecuador is very wide. It is surprising how I can go 20 minutes away from where I am living and find houses without running water. Poverty is most evident in indigenous communities, because the land is owned and governed by the community itself; therefore it receives little to no support from the Ecuadorian government. Lumbisí is where I plan to do most of my volunteer work while I am here. On Friday we visited a one room nursery school, a primary school of 300 students, a technical high school, and a home for the elderly. We spent our time talking to children and serving lunch to senior citizens. Once I know how much free time I will have with classes I am hoping to go back to the high school to teach English, Math, and Computers to students. What amazed me is how kind everyone is in this very tight knit community. Each one of the senior citizens thanked me for serving them lunch saying Le pargaré a Dios," which means "May God repay you."
