"Why couldn´t I have been named Bob or Jose?" and Zancos

So after two weeks in my internship, my kids´largest problem seems to be not that they have an American volunteer, or that they have a 6´4" volunteer, or even that they have a volunteer with mediocre Spanish. No, by far the largest hurdle so far has been having a volunteer named ¨Nate¨. The first day I tried to make my name Spanish-friendly and introduced myself as "Naughtawn (which has been successful in the past), but I was apparently misunderstood and my names at Sol de Primavera range from Nata, to Nat, to Natalie (because there´s a girl named "Natalie" there who goes by Natal). The result of this madness is that the kids love yelling my name at all times, both because "nata" is a word for a milk drink here and because they know they can absolutely massacre my name and I´ll respond. Fortunately I work with a French volunteer named Maud, so I´m not alone in my name-insecurities.

This week I´ve really started to bond with some of the kids and figure out how to work with the more difficult ones. I gave my first stilt-walking (zancos) lessons and the kids seemed to decide that if they could entrust their lives with me, I was worthy of their good graces in all areas of the program. This week saw another momentous occasion when Julio (the biggest trouble-maker who always speaks in a whiny voice so I can never understand him and who I had never seen smile or laugh) finally smiled at me and gave me a big double-high-five after we went for a bike ride. I´m still not sure what I´m supposed to do there exactly and maybe 4 months of playing chess and breaking up fights is what´s needed but I feel like I should have a project with a tangible result for my time here. The kids see a stream of volunteers going through the foundation and while I´m sure that we all help in our own ways, I need to find a way to contribute something longer lasting. This week I also need to turn in my proposal for my independent study project. I´m planning on studying how different forms of education in the city (public, private, Catholic, indigenous) affect identification as "indigenous" and what the indigenous community wants from their education system (be it complete integration or cultural autonomy). I have a sneaking suspicion this topic is a little ambitious for my time here but I´ll try my best. The project culminates with a paper and oral presentation, I´m going to try and write the 20-page paper in Spanish but we´ll see how that goes...

This week I also met my host-dad for the first time as he has been away on business in Bolivia for a month. He´s a really, really interesting man and it´s been fun getting to know him the past few days. He´s really into indigenous culture, speaks Quichua fluently, and works with a global organization that works to preserve the indigenous lifestyle and agriculture. Despite being a little intimidated sometimes, I´ve bonded with him over teasing Charo and I feel comfortable around him already.

This week my program went on a little field trip to a community in southern Quito that is working on creating a society based on indigenous communal societies (and communism a little bit too). They have their own schools which have gardens which feed the parents who constructed the schools and other self-sustaining elements. It was pretty interesting and ended up being a beautiful, rainy day walking through reclaimed parks and school grounds.

This week was also the last week before the assembly elections held tomorrow. The outcome of the election will very seriously determine the future direction of the country as this assembly will be charged with writing a new national constitution. The city has been absolutely covered with political slogans, campaign fiestas, and propaganda for the whole month. There have been tons of political demonstrations and when I got home on Wednesday (the last day of campaigning), I could turn 360 degrees in the plaza and see a continuous sea of political supporters and candidates. The sheer numbers of the election are mind-boggling: there are 26 national parties, each with 24 candidates for the national assembly and each voter votes for 24 candidates. The ballot also includes the provincial assemblies(of which there are 14 seats in Pichincha) and a few other positions. It´s anticipated that it will take each person at least 8 minutes to vote. Also voting is obligatory in Ecuador, meaning that if you don´t vote you pay a fine and (according to some of my sources) could have trouble getting loans/leaving the country. Because of the obligatory vote (I guess), it was illegal to sell or consume alcohol in all of Ecuador from Friday to Sunday, apparently with the idea that sober voters are better voters. Entire parts of the city are closed as a result (namely La Mariscal, the tourist center and home to most good bars and dance clubs) and I´ve heard several disgruntled tourists complaining about the lack of nightlife this weekend. All in all, it´s been an absolutely insane week politically-speaking. I´m planning on posting tomorrow with all of the exciting events of the day and with some pictures. ¡Hasta mañana!

Coming tomorrow: THE ELECTIONS, meeting President Correa, and my brother-in-law