Epilogue

“Travel does what good novelists also do          

to the life of everyday, placing it like a

picture in a frame or a gem in its setting,

so that the intrinsic qualities are made more

clear. Travel does this with the very stuff

that everyday life is made of, giving to it

the sharp contour and meaning of art.”

--Freya Stark

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

 Learn as if you were to live forever.”

--Mahatma Gandhi

There is so much I will be bringing back with me, and most of it is internal. The knowledge I've gained here will help me with my future career in business because I will be more sensitive to cultural differences. I don't want to walk away looking back. I want to walk away looking towards the future, focusing on what I am taking away from Ecuador. There will be things I leave behind, material things, but hopefully I have left behind something of myself. I will most definitely be sad to leave my host family. My host mom had a little going away present for me. It was earrings, because she remembered I didn't have any. The little things are the things I will remember, but the big things will shape my life. I feel blessed to have been able to visit such an amazing place. The Amazon was a place I used to daydream about in school. I would say, "one day I'm going there." Now I have been there. It is an amazing feeling. Swimming with a sea lion in the Galapagos was a dream come true as well. The feeling of elation that accompanies knowing you've done these things is incredible. It isn't all flowers and warm fuzzies, but the rough spots are the ones you learn from. I will continually be learning from my experience in Ecuador.

--Jen

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
 --Dr. Seuss

Social Strata

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by 

demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, 

worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that 

if we try and understand each other,

we may even become friends.” – Maya Angelou

So, today our housekeeper Rosalita called me to lunch, “Señorita!” as she always does. I walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. While I was watching her prepare the plates of food I was thinking. I was pondering the Ecuadorian culture’s social stratification. At first, having a housekeeper just seemed strange and foreign. As with many other things in Cuenca, I did adjust to it. It was only now that I was really sitting and thinking about it, that I realized the vast majority of housekeepers are indigenous women. It seems demeaning, not because the housekeeper position is demeaning, but because indigenous women in Ecuador are still at a disadvantage. The situation sort of parallels the United States after slavery was abolished. The slaves were free, but many were kept on as housekeepers or field workers. They were considered second-class citizens. In Ecuador, the indigenous were not enslaved, but they are still considered second-class citizens. It had just dawned on me that this was the case. All of this time I have been adjusting and becoming acclimated to life in Ecuador, never giving real thought to the position of the indigenous. When we first arrived, it was almost a novelty to see the indigenous dressed traditionally. We were tourists, fascinated by new things. Later, we became accustomed to having a housekeeper do the laundry, clean, and cook. I wonder how many of the students gave thought to the position the indigenous were stuck in. It doesn’t help that many of the indigenous cannot read or write. I’m unsure of how many have the opportunity to obtain an education. I know there are social development programs addressing these issues, but the mindset of the mestizo culture has not changed. I love Rosalita to death. She is an absolute sweetheart. It was very awkward at first, to allow her to do things I am accustomed to doing, but she wanted to do them. She was compelled to take the dirty dishes out of my hand. It seems as if the caste-like social system is formed from both sides, from the mestizo and from the indigenous. The indigenous are so used to things being this way that they reinforce the divide. It isn’t a very rigid structure, but it definitely appears to be here.

Roller Coaster Ride

“Once you have traveled, the voyage

never ends, but is played out over and 
over again in the quietest chambers.

The mind can never break off from the journey.”
–Pat Conroy 

I think I have reached the final stop on the I'm-ready-to-go-home bus! I didn’t quite expect this when we left Ohio; then again there have been a lot of things I didn’t expect. The stress of travel is by far the most disconcerting. It makes you feel uprooted and unstable, going from place to place. While Cuenca has been a fairly stable location, it still isn't home. This whole trip has knocked me off balance a bit, as it has everyone else in the group. It’s much like a roller coaster ride. There is a big hill at the beginning that scares you half to death. I was definitely scared half to death when we were getting ready to leave. I’m actually always scared on the way up the hill. The clicking of the car on the rails as it climbs higher and higher terrifies me. However, I do enjoy the way down. The thrill of the height and the speed with which you fly down the hill makes it exciting. I was definitely excited when we were traveling on the first part of the trip. The ventures to the cloud forest and the rainforest were amazing, but the time goes by so fast!

I think this trip is like the Magnum roller coaster at Cedar Point Amusement Park. Most coasters have one big hill at the beginning and that’s it. That is the biggest thrill. The Magnum is a favorite coaster of mine because it has substantial hills throughout the ride, although the first hill is the highest. The hills continue to vault you up high and drop so fast that your stomach feels as if it is upside down in your throat. The stress and excitement of the trip have been like these ups and downs. The uphill is a mounting stress level from constantly moving from place to place, all of them new and unfamiliar. It makes you unsure of what to expect and cramps you together in confined transportation methods with nineteen other people. Therefore each new location or experience had a level of stress mounting beforehand. The drop is the excitement of being able to see a world I used to dream of. Every insect, animal, plant, flower, and climate is new. The coaster tosses you around bends and upside down. I definitely would classify parts of the trip as upside down, at least for me. This isn’t because the worlds are different but because it has taken my comfort zone and thrown it out the window! So much for feeling in control of my situation! By the time the coaster jolts you to a stop, wind-blown and discombobulated, you are dazed and confused. You get out of the car and stumble your way down the exit ramp. By the time you reach the bottom, your head has cleared a little bit and your body is catching up. This trip is hydraulically braking to a stop! There is only a week until we are home. When we get home, we might stumble around a bit discombobulated, but it will wear off. We are about to be walking down that exit ramp a little dazed. However, when we reach the bottom and our heads have cleared, we will be able to reflect even deeper on the experience. Looking back is often the best way to learn. “Hindsight is 20/20." When my head finally clears, I will be able to synthesize the cultural, social, and economic information I have gained. I will be able to apply lessons learned in different areas of my life. And then, finally, I will be able to see the true value of my stay in Ecuador. 

Jolly Green Giant

           

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights;

it is a change that goes on, deep and

permanent, in the ideas of living.”

– Miriam Beard

   

Gramatica. Me odio gramatica. It turns out that my Spanish grammar is just as poor as my English grammar. I’m actually not sure what language I am translating/writing/reading/speaking in, sometimes even thinking in. It’s actually a little strange when the words I am reading don’t get translated in my head; they just get absorbed “as is”. I feel like a bowl of vegetable soup with a little bit of this, a little bit of that. My mind is swimming with vowels, conjugations, punctuation, and everything in between. I feel like I need to watch “School House Rock” to straighten my English back out. It is definitely a learning experience when you can’t think of the word you need in English! I guess that means that we have experienced a little bit of cultural assimilation. We have actually started to submerge parts of ourselves in a different culture and language—and absorb it.

There is one thing though, that I definitely cannot submerge, and that is my height. I look like the jolly green giant here, except here would be the “jolly tall gringa." It makes me stand out like a sore thumb. I really think that I have about a foot and a half on a lot of the indigenous women in Cuenca: I’m 5’9”. It makes me think about the things that I have absorbed culturally. I am accustomed to “almuerzo” or lunch being the largest meal of the day. I have not, nor will I become accustomed to rice and peas! Almost all of the time part of lunch, and sometimes dinner too, consists of rice sautéed with peas. I dislike peas like I dislike grammar, and both are always mixed up with everything here! I have finally become accustomed to the friendly method of kissing cheek to cheek as a  greeting in Ecuador (now that we are leaving of course). All of these things have become part of me and part of my daily routine, but there are cultural things that still stick out of my conglomerated self like my height does here! My attire is definitively still North American. The field pants, tennis shoes, and backpack don’t help the blending-in issue. I have been craving real percolated coffee for the last six weeks or so. Starbucks sounds amazing [some people may not categorize Starbucks as real coffee, but I love it]. It has been an amazing experience to really submerge myself in Ecuadorian culture. The experience has definitely taught me to be a little bit less rigid in my body language. I am used to my personal space. Most North Americans have a personal space requirement, or “power distance." Latin American culture is much less rigid. They hug, hold hands, put an arm around a shoulder, kiss on the cheek, and various other forms of amiability. I have become less of a tall statue, and more of an inter-culturally communicative citizen of the world. When I return to the U.S., my height will blend back in somewhat, but it might be a bit awkward if I throw toilet paper away instead of flushing it! It also might be a bit awkward if I try to take someone's order at work by asking them in Spanish! Grammar, clothing, coffee, height, and body language are all different from culture to culture. What a strange feeling it is when they mix and blend inside me!