The President and the Party

It constantly amazes me how quickly time is passing here, when I read past blog entries (even those from this past Saturday) I have to take a minute to remember I´ve only been here 5 weeks...absolutely insane. I especially have to remind myself of this when I see American or German tourists trying to navigate the city or haggle in a market. I´m still in the stage where I chastise myself after I think, "amateurs"...but only after.

This weekend marked the passing of the elections (and by extension, the prohibition). It was a really cool day, the president was driving around the city with a huge caravan of candidates from his party and every time he went up my street Charo would run out onto the balcony and scream her support. Juan Carlos laughed but rolled his eyes. Speaking of the president, my family and I went out to lunch on Saturday morning and as we were walking to the bus my host-sister Lucila yelled, "Mami, el presidente!" Sure enough, President Correa was coming out of a restaurant talking to a reporter (I like to think he was talking about why Happy Panda was his favorite Chinese restaurant but it was more likely about the elections). It was seriously only Correa´s family, my family, and this reporter on street. Charo of course ran over to him and jumped up and down behind the reporter´s camera, all the while yelling, "Get the camera! Get the camera!"...Correa is much more of a rockstar for Charo than a political figure. Correa gave Charo a hug and remembered her from a function a couple weeks ago. I was about 8 feet away from the president the day before elections...amazing. As the president drove away the reporter filmed our family waving enthusiastically, we didn´t know the station but apparently I was on Ecuadorian national news.

Anyway, as I´ve mentioned, voting is obligatory in Ecuador so the country more or less came to a complete halt on Sunday. I went with my brother to vote in the Valle de los Chillos, where my family lived for several years. The streets were full of people walked to the polls and on the way Juan Car ran into 4 of his best friends, Quito really is a small town of 2 million. The voting process itself was intense: two ballots the size of table cloths, hundreds upon hundreds of candidates with their pictures, and soldiers with machine guns at every polling entrance. At the end of the day, President Correa´s Lista 35 Pais party was handed a very clear majority in the asemblea. The offical results won´t be announced for 15-20 days but this means that when Ecuadorians return to the polls in 6 months they will be voting to ratify a much more liberal, economically/socially/environmentally progressive constitution. Very exciting.

After voting my brother and I met up with Paula, his girlfriend, and went out to lunch and to a market. I´m not even going to say anything about the market because the pictures speak for themselves ssooo well, but it was really fun seeing where Juan Car and Paula grew up, we went to their favorite ice cream place and Paula´s new, beautiful house (w/ a trampoline, I was so pleased).

--You should also probably know that as I´ve been writing this I´ve been making dinner and dancing around my living room while listening to the Almost Famous soundtrack. This in itself is hardly noteworthy, but as I was dancing I happened to look out the window and my neighbor across the street waved and smiled. Apparently the whole family was watching me dance as a kind of dinner theater--

Last night we had a birthday party for my host dad and had a great dinner with all of the family and our neighbors, Nury and 4-year-old Eric. Eric is extremely precocious and had everyone laughing/scolding all night long. I´ve also been teaching Charo how to use Skype to talk to her daughter in Texas and at one point she was talking to Rosie on the computer, answering her cellphone in the other ear, and playing music on my ipod. The family loved it and took several pictures, any time Charo handles technology is a momentous one. Afterward we watched a short film Juan Car is submitting to a film festival here in Quito...very very cool.

My internship continues to go well, since his first smile yesterday, Julio has been a relative joy ("absolute" is pushing it quite a bit). Through the combination of teaching him how to ride a bike and walk stilts in two days, he´s become my best friend. He´s still in a fight every 30 minutes, but they´re easier to break up and he doesn´t walk away cursing at me in his mumbling Spanish. Today was a pretty rewarding one (rewarding definitely implies difficulties, only difficulties overcome). I had stilts lessons and tutoring all morning and then in the afternoon I went with Myriam to play with the little kids in El Placer. There were lots of kids there and one mentally handicapped man who I´ve seen begging in Plaza Grande. It was a really interesting/difficult afternoon because we were teaching 6-year-olds and a 30-year-old how to play the game Memory at the same time. On the walk home the air was unusually clear and I could see the whole city unfolding to the south and Cotopaxi looming in the distance...quite the way to end the day.

Also, check out the newly posted pictures...more coming soon. Love to all.

Coming soon: Mindo, Feria de Artesenias with my kids, and Anna´s birthday