Cultural Awareness: Part 1

The theme here is actually more about how Ecuadorians perceive themselves and the West (i.e.-me, America, Europe, etc.) than about my perception of them (which is abundantly clear in my observations).

Valentine's Day - You might have assumed that this day was solely for the West, seeing as it was Hallmark who marketed it to become what it has. Oddly, Dia de Amor (one of the names for it here) is MASSIVE. Literally every store redecorated in red. The mannequins were even dressed up in red clothes at the department and clothing stores. Every person, regardless of age, gender, or cultural affiliation, wore red for the whole day. I have never seen so many balloons, flowers (one of the biggest exports from Ecuador is roses to the States, Canada, and Europe so they are dirt cheap: $1/dozen), candy boxes, and random red and pink stuff. In Guayaquil (Ecuador's largest city with about 3.5 million people), they had so many people on the streets that night that the authorities had to stop all vehicle traffic. Who would have thought?

Food - Maria serves all sorts of different foods, and most of the time, it is something new. I don't mean entirely new like guinea pig, more like a new type of corn or bean, or a different way of preparing something. Also, I keep harping on the fact that fruit is so easily accessible and cheap here. Well eventually this led to some pointed questions. "Do you even have cows in America?" I explained that we had lots of cows. "Can you buy milk?" Yes, milk is very common and inexpensive AND PASTEURIZED (I didn't say this last part, but I get defensive and was pretty close. "How do you have corn and grains if no one can farm?" A very small percentage of people farm but they are more efficient and have larger yields (and because an agrarian society is one of the signs of poverty and underdevelopment...ok, so I left that out too). "We must be so much healthier here than in America." No, I explained that our life expectancy is at least 10 years higher than theirs. That concept didn't seem to get across, "but my parents are 83 and 84." I'm glad Segundo but that measure is an AVERAGE, not the limit! After another conversation discussing how large America was compared to Ecuador, they shot back: "So only people in certain places can eat fruit because the other places are too far?" No, once again, wrong. Everyone can buy fruit all year in all places.

Don't worry, I was more diplomatic than this, but it was a little frustrating getting beaten down about health and nutrition by people who die in their 60s, have endemic disease everywhere, have just released data about some of the fastest growing obesity rates in this hemisphere, and don't have safe water in half of the country!!!

Environment - Segundo asked me one day when I was going to come back to visit. My response was, "when will you visit me?" He explained that it wasn't safe and he wouldn't put his family in danger like that. I obviously asked him to elaborate. "Well, the air is full of contamination and smog is everywhere. In most places, you can't breathe. Then there's the water. So full of chemicals that most people have cancer. And the food, none of it is safe to eat because it is manufactured. Oh yeah, and there is trash that you have to maneuver through to walk in the streets." Where are you getting your information, I followed up with. "TV and movies, and sometimes the newspaper or news." I went into a lengthy explanation about skewed perspectives and propaganda. I also explained and purported that our water, air, food, and trash collection was far superior to anything they have here. Here, you can't flush your toilet paper. You have to throw it out. Don't ask me why, they have the same toilets we have (and here's a secret, I just flush most of the time anyways because I think it's awful to put used toilet paper in a bucket next to the toilet that gets cleaned once a month. When I asked for specific sources, his first response was "The Simpsons" !!!!!!!! Wow, combine that with news sources and a government that despise America and the West (for another blog, but they expelled the American ambassador last week, just as a bit of evidence).

Ok, I am going to have to divide this into two posts because I have to walk home in time for dinner.

Love A Very Proudly "Western" Citizen,
Kent