Friday, October 16, 2009
Living the dream...
Taita Imbabura (The big volcano near Ibarra)I am living COMPLETELY on my own! Woop woop! For the first time in my life, I'm living on my own, renting on my own, and essentially, I'm on my own all the time! There have been great things about it - the independence, privacy, the ability to cook and eat whatever and whenever I want!, to arrange everything how I want it. However, there are also a lot of disadvantages to it - I have to buy all these things for it that I'll have for only a year (fridge, mattress, baskets, shelves, etc.), I have to constantly clean, and well, I'm also on my own for most of the time! But it's definitely been a great experience so far. It's definitely not ready yet to show pictures of the apt, but I wanted to share some pictures of the view I have from the roof.
Cayambe, another volcano visible from the roof.
Some hills and houses.
More houses and some views of the rest of Ibarra.
Cotacachi. She is the wife of Imbabura. When there is snow on the top, they say that Taita Imbabura has visited her in the night...Saturday, October 10, 2009
Rain, Rain, Go Away...
WAIT! Please come rains!
Now is about the time that the rainy season begins in Ibarra. Well, I´ve heard that it used to start in September, but now we expect the rains to come more near the end of October. Either way, it´s been really dry in Ibarra and no rain. Summers here are dry and really sunny and Ibarra is the epitome of this. Beautifully sunny days with temperatures in the 70s (sometimes getting in the 80s when the sun is really strong). While I relish this, it has been so dry here that all the vegetation has turned yellow and there is dust flying all over the wind. I know that a lot of people are wishing for rain. I can tell by the charred mountainsides all around Ibarra and the ever present plumes of smoke. Many people who live in the Campo (countryside), think that if you burn the mountainsides, the smoke will go up in the sky and cause rain. So, everywhere in Ibarra and around has been burning recently. It´s really unfortunate and sad. So.... Rain, please come soon!
Now is about the time that the rainy season begins in Ibarra. Well, I´ve heard that it used to start in September, but now we expect the rains to come more near the end of October. Either way, it´s been really dry in Ibarra and no rain. Summers here are dry and really sunny and Ibarra is the epitome of this. Beautifully sunny days with temperatures in the 70s (sometimes getting in the 80s when the sun is really strong). While I relish this, it has been so dry here that all the vegetation has turned yellow and there is dust flying all over the wind. I know that a lot of people are wishing for rain. I can tell by the charred mountainsides all around Ibarra and the ever present plumes of smoke. Many people who live in the Campo (countryside), think that if you burn the mountainsides, the smoke will go up in the sky and cause rain. So, everywhere in Ibarra and around has been burning recently. It´s really unfortunate and sad. So.... Rain, please come soon!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
A Regime Change.
In June, right before I left Ibarra, there was an election for Mayor of Ibarra. The two main opponents were Jorge Martinez (a member of Rafael Correa´s political party) and Pablo Jurado (the current Mayor at the time). Martinez won by a large margin and it seemed everyone was happy.
Well, not so many people are happy now. I have to admit, maybe there was corruption in the government with the previous mayor, but things ran so much smoother! For example, parking was regulated. Now it is not, and traffic is horrible (at least this is what I´ve heard from people in Ibarra). And before, our director, who we call Doctora, was solely in charge of CECAMI with our ever wonderful secretary, Martha. Yes, they had lots of free time and did wash their cars, do online shopping, and put on makeup during office hours. Buuuut, CECAMI was organized, coordinated, and ran well! Now, it´s chaos! The Doctora has been put in charge of Human Resources within the City Hall and CECAMI! And Martha is always with her. We have a new secretary, Lupe, who never does her work. This resulted in not even knowing who was signed up for classes nor which classes I would have for the first day of classes. Literally, there were a bunch of students for Intermediate III and Advanced III waiting outside the office and they didn´t do anything! I took them into my room and told them that I didn´t know which levels I was going to teach, so lets just play some games! Absolutely inefficient. I´ve decided now that I will teach Basic I and Advanced III - completely opposite classes, which means twice the amount of work for me. And now I hear we don´t have money to buy a big bottle of water for the office so we will have to buy that ourselves and that we might be paid later. It´s just crazy!
I think that Ecuador is far different than the US in terms of politics. Here, you really feel the changes at an individual level when there is a political party change. In the States, I feel that usually when a new politician comes to power, no one feels a difference. Maybe that´s why people here are so politically active and people in the US are mainly pretty politically apathetic.
Well, not so many people are happy now. I have to admit, maybe there was corruption in the government with the previous mayor, but things ran so much smoother! For example, parking was regulated. Now it is not, and traffic is horrible (at least this is what I´ve heard from people in Ibarra). And before, our director, who we call Doctora, was solely in charge of CECAMI with our ever wonderful secretary, Martha. Yes, they had lots of free time and did wash their cars, do online shopping, and put on makeup during office hours. Buuuut, CECAMI was organized, coordinated, and ran well! Now, it´s chaos! The Doctora has been put in charge of Human Resources within the City Hall and CECAMI! And Martha is always with her. We have a new secretary, Lupe, who never does her work. This resulted in not even knowing who was signed up for classes nor which classes I would have for the first day of classes. Literally, there were a bunch of students for Intermediate III and Advanced III waiting outside the office and they didn´t do anything! I took them into my room and told them that I didn´t know which levels I was going to teach, so lets just play some games! Absolutely inefficient. I´ve decided now that I will teach Basic I and Advanced III - completely opposite classes, which means twice the amount of work for me. And now I hear we don´t have money to buy a big bottle of water for the office so we will have to buy that ourselves and that we might be paid later. It´s just crazy!
I think that Ecuador is far different than the US in terms of politics. Here, you really feel the changes at an individual level when there is a political party change. In the States, I feel that usually when a new politician comes to power, no one feels a difference. Maybe that´s why people here are so politically active and people in the US are mainly pretty politically apathetic.
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