As your mother, it is very hard for me to hear the word "coup".

What a week! I have a lot to add from the last week and a half – I hope you find it all interesting!

First, as some of you might have heard, Thursday September 30th, the police in Quito went on strike and protested throughout the city. I will say, however, that as of now everything is restored to normal. Around 11:00am the policia nacional took over the Mariscal Sucre airport, preventing any planes to land or leave the airport. This happened nationwide – in Guayaquil and other cities as well. We were notified of the protests from our school director, including some parents may want to take students out of school, and they would be monitoring the situation closely. We were only able to finish half of the school day because most of our student had left, or were running around gossiping about the state of emergency. Administration announced to teachers that they would not be providing transportation home, however, because large vehicles, like buses, can be targets during protests. Claire, Angie, Susan, and I had to catch a ride home with a fellow teacher because the administration didn’t want us taking taxis either. With the absence of police enforcement, crime was expected to, and did, rise. Although on our way back to the Gonzalez Suarez apartment, Quito seemed comparable to a desolate Sunday afternoon; businesses were closed, people were off the streets, and hardly transportation (public or private) was running. Arriving safely to the girls’ apartment, we locked, padlocked, and dead-bolted ourselves in for the night. We all sat around, ate food, and Skyped with loved ones. A funny comment from Claire's mom via Skype: "Claire, as your mother, it is very hard for me to hear the word 'coup'." We tried our best to calm her. :) But nevertheless, watching the news that night was surreal – we saw a gun fight outside of the hospital where presidente Correa had been sequestered, as well as his passionate public address from the “white house” balcony to the people (once he had been rescued by the military, that is). [The above picture is actually of the president's white house, but I took it during our city your 4 weeks ago. Correa gave his speech from this balcony, and the plaza was filled with people.]
The motive for this police strike is still being debated from all angles of Ecuadorian politics. Some say it was a misunderstanding, others say it was a conspiracy sparked by the ex-presidente Lucio, who was overthrown in 2005, to regain power. Just the other night I had a conversation with my host-brother, Hugo, about what he thought of the situation. He explained to me this way:
In Latin-American countries, about 90% of the wealth is usually controlled by about 5% of the population. This has never been conducive for the lower classes to pull themselves out of poverty, which has lead to such a large crime rate around these countries. Recently, presidente Correa has been trying to re-distribute the wealth among the police profession. The lowest grade of pay that some police receive is $300 a month (this is also why police here aren’t incredibly reliable, and can often be paid off with bribes). Middle-level police are paid around $700 a month. All police, when they are promoted, receive a bonus as well. Correa, in his attempt to even out salaries, wanted to raise the salary of the lower-paid police to $700 a month, but take away the promotion bonuses from the entire policia nacional. As you can imagine then, the police who are already getting paid the middle-wage, are losing their bonuses. These are the police who went on strike and rioted, being somewhat misinformed, and irrationally over-reacting. One aspect of this golpe de estado that was unique was that the military backed the presidente. As seen in the past, the military will side with the police or the people (who also supported Correa this time) and the presidente will be overthrown. (Cite Hugo Bolanos. haha.)

Anyways, order seemed to be restored over the weekend, and currently, we have settled back into everyday life. I don't have any more pictures, but I think that's a good thing because I was far enough away from the action.

The day after this fiasco, I was invited to my cooperating teacher, Angela’s house in Tumbaco for the evening and to stay the night. We spent the afternoon with her two boys, Zachary (6) and Nathan (3) and had a great day! Zach had horseback riding lessons that we all went to; Nathan and I fed carrots to the other horses in the stables. Angela and her husband, Marcelo, had some friends over for a barbecue that night which was a great time. I liked meeting her other friends; they were very welcoming, asking questions about my home life and experiences thus far in Ecuador. We all had great wine, food, and conversation as the boys (a couple who came to dinner has two boys the same ages as Angela’s) wreaked havoc on the house. Below are Zach and Nathan - but this is not from the same evening I stayed at their house. It describes their demeanors perfectly :)...



I stayed the night at their home, and the next morning we had about six students over for a “coffeehouse”. We decided to hold these coffeehouses every so often for students to come and informally discuss their essays. They can get help from us teachers, as well as other students to develop their essay ideas and content. It was really successful! All the students came with great initial ideas, and we brainstormed approaches they could take to make them unique. Students are turning in rough drafts on Monday, so I’m eager to see how these topics are being developed.

Last Wednesday I had my first university supervisor observation! Nascira came and watched my lesson with the 10th grade honors group. We had a small quiz, then a discussion on the assigned reading. I was really proud of my kids – about 90% of them did their reading and participated well. Some of them, however, participated too much, too often. One of my criticisms from Nascira was to not let my students talk out of turn, and to raise their hands during discussions. This is our policy, but alas, it is not always followed by the students. SO, we have recently implemented a participation system where they are given two bookmarks with their names on them, and they are required to use those when they want to contribute to a discussion. We collect them after they’ve said their comment, and they get counted at the end of each day. It’s helpful for those who don’t participate by requiring them to talk once or twice during class, and it’s useful for those who talk too often by limiting their responses. It’s worked well so far – we’ll see how it’s going after a few weeks. The rest of the observation was successful. I was given some great compliments, and a few areas where I can improve.

Saturday night a group called Las Tres Marias played at a restaurant called El Pobre Diablo. These three women in their seventies have been singing together since they were three years old. They’ve played around the US at venues priced at $50, and I was able to see them in Ecuador for $6. I felt lucky to have heard them perform – who knows how much longer they’ll be touring? The woman on the left is 73, the woman in the middle is 76, and the woman on the right end is 79. Que bestia?!


Finally, today the seniors were given their chompas, or jackets for being in sexto curso (12th grade). The entire grade is traditionally called “the sextos”. All of our blocks couldn’t focus because of the anticipation of getting their class sweatshirts and jackets. After getting the sweatshirts, they all paraded down to the bleachers for their “entrada” or entrance. Then they put on their jackets and I snapped some pictures. They all look so cute!





These pictures are from the "bautizo" or baptism that involves the seniors and the freshmen. It's basically school-sanctioned hazing, including shaving cream pies, a mud tunnel, flouring, and a slip'n'slide. Very fun to watch!



This weekend is Otavalo - where a huge market is located. Susan, Tessa, JP, and I are leaving after school today. Updates next week!