Intro to Ibarra

This past Saturday, Kane, Amy and I met each other, host families in tow, in the middle of downtown Quito. It was a great idea, in theory, to meet in the middle of the city since Amy and Kane lived to the north and I lived in the south. However, we quickly realized that none of the buses from the center of town were leaving for a number of hours, so our families literally drove us to the main highway and abruptly pulled over to the right side of the road. They then proceeded to flag down tour buses who would fling our luggage under the hatch while we jumped on. Apparently this is normal procedure here because the bus company seemed more than happy to oblige. I waived to the toyota corolla filled with the people who had been my family for the month of September (mamita, papito, eddie, dorita, and kevin), and thought of how lucky I had been to share their lives.

About 3 hours later as the bus pulled up to the Ibarra stop, I immediately sense that my next family experience would be a very different one. As I walked through the small city, I saw posters of my host-father's face plastered on billboards and store windows. He is a local businessman and is running for concejal in the coming October 15th elections. From what I can understand, concejal is the representative for the city of Ibarra in the provincial representation of the Imbabura province. Ecuador's political system has been historically inefficient and problematic, leading to the creation of more than 30 established political parties. Ecuador has also had 10 presidents in the past 8 years- not a good record considering each term should be 4-years long. Although these turnovers have been peaceful oustings of what the people consider "corrupt" politicians, as a whole the people have lost much faith in politics altogether. The coming elections (from the president all the way down to local representatives) are extremely important to the country's development because peaceful elections and a functional democracy indicate economic stability. Economic stability clears the way for any international investors that may be considering taking stock in Ecua-businesses and more businesses means more jobs for struggling workers. Tomorrow will be my second day of school and so I will be distributing propaganda to my students in hopes that they will vote for my host "papa". I really do think he's a stand-up guy. I've noticed that despite his high-profile role in the community, he treats everyone he encounters with compassion and respect, from our house employee to the fruit-seller at the local market. I 'll make sure to let you know how it goes on the 16th of October.


On another note, have I mentioned that a blown-up picture of me reading a English book in the CECAMI classroom is the front page of the brochures and banners that are distributed to the entire province? I seriously am the WT/CECAMI poster child if you can believe it. I was told that our director "hand picked" the photo himself. Good thing I laughed at his joke about sleeping with your professor. I'll make sure to bring a few back, Mom, so you can include them in your scrapbook.