Time flies when you’re having fun!

These past two weeks have flown by- with a trip to the coast, a visitor, midterms at the university, and elections these last few days have quickly passed.

With other international students from La Universidad Catolica, I traveled to Esmermaldas and Atacames- beautiful beach towns. My friends and I spent the weekend playing at the beach, soaking up (too much) sun, and eating our fill of seafood. I was stung by a jellyfish while swimming on Friday and learned that if you cover the sting in hot sand for fifteen minutes the swelling will stop. I sure wish my Cross Mark teammates and I would have known this while traveling in Brazil!

During our trip to the coast we also learned about the reduction of mangroves in the area in order to accommodate the shrimp exportation industry. In the 1990s between 80 and 90% of the existing mangroves were destroyed in order to use the coastal lands to build shrimp farms. As you can imagine this has brought a lot of economic growth to the area and country at the cost of losing ecologically diverse habitats and many family owned businesses. To say the least this was both a relaxing and eye-opening trip.

I returned from the beach last Sunday to meet my boyfriend, Brooks, at the airport. We enjoyed a great week together of site seeing in and around Quito. We enjoyed good conversation, good food, and time spent with my friends and host family. Friday and Saturday we visited Banos. This time Brooks joined me for more canyoning (repelling down waterfalls) and bridge jumping. Bridge jumping was a new experience for me. It’s a lot like bungee jumping though the cords aren’t elastic. Instead of bouncing after you jump you swing back and forth. This was an exhilarating experience and one that was well recommended by my friends. It was fun to serve as Brooks’ tour guide and translator for the week and I realized that I have already learned a lot by living here in Ecuador this past month. My only complaint about Brooks’ visit: the time went by too fast.

Sunday was Election Day for the new Constitutional Assembly. The Constitutional Assembly is comprised of 130 representatives whose job it will be to write the new constitution. This will be the nation’s 20^th Constitution! It has been interesting to learn of the voting process here- voting is required of everyone 18 years and older. There seems to be little voter consciousness perhaps because voting is required and also that there are over 1,196 names on the ballot here in the province of Pinchincha. In the national election there are 26 parties represented and in the regional elections there are 34 parties represented. I have found that few people seek to educate themselves on the voting process, parties, and candidates themselves. The ballots have the candidates’ name and party affiliation as well as a photo of the candidate. Even my host mom has admitted to voting for people solely based on their looks. It was interesting to go to the polls with her today and witness the voting process. My host sister, Caro, worked at the polls- her name was drawn in a lottery and she counted votes throughout Sunday evening.

This is an interesting assembly as it will review the previous constitutions and be rewritten within the next six months! Also, the Constitutional Assembly is granted more power than even President Correa. However his party won more than 61% of the votes and will be well represented in the assembly. There are 24 National Representatives, 6 Representatives from the Exterior (4 from Spain and 2 from the U.S.), and 100 Provincial Representatives (14 coming from Pinchincha- the province in which Quito is located). The streets have been filled with propaganda for the last month- and especially this last week; trucks blaring loud advertisements, cars donning flags and posters of various candidates, billboards and bumper stickers, and students bearing t-shirts and flags. There have been some demonstrations- mostly peaceful and consisting of dancing and fireworks. This is an interesting time to be in Ecuador!

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