Democratic Elections

Yesterday was a big day for Ecuador—Election Day! The country is going through a ton of political reform and this was just the start of it. The ultimate goal—at least for the time being—is the creation of a new constitution that better suits Ecuador’s needs. To begin this process, Ecuadorians had to vote in around 130 new asemblaístas, or assembly members, who will be in charge of drafting the constitution in the upcoming months. What’s different about the vote here is that it’s obligatory. If you don’t vote, you don’t get your voter’s registration card, which essentially means that you lose all of your basic human rights in this country. As you can imagine, that card is kind of a big deal.

Obligatory voting presents a whole new set of problems that voluntary voting doesn’t have. For instance, for the people who don’t care who’s in office, which is probably a pretty significant portion of the population, how do they vote? The answer is, of course, that they just fill in whatever, or that they just leave the ballet empty. The other problem is transportation. Everyone has to vote in a certain area, and Ecuador is not as flexible as the United States in that sense. Where you vote all depends on your last name. So, even though all of my host family does everything else together, they don’t vote together because everyone has a different last name (naming rules/choices are fairly complicated here). In line with Ecuadorian law, Marcia, my host mother, went to vote yesterday afternoon, and she invited me to come along. We hopped onto a bus off la calle Occidental, the biggest street near the Pazmiño’s home, and fought our way past the people blocking the door. Because everyone in the country has to vote where they reside, public transportation was as packed yesterday as I’ve ever seen it. And that’s saying something, because every single morning of orientation was a fight to stake out a spot on the Ecovía.

At length, we arrived at a children’s school, where the classrooms had been turned into makeshift polling stations. People voted at card tables, the ballots hidden by large sheets of cardboard proclaiming “la vota es secreto,” or the vote is secret. As the Ecuadorians flooded into the school grounds, Marcia and I were eventually able to spot the classroom she was supposed to vote in. She got in line with the other women (A separate line had formed for men, which was significantly longer. It was nice to see that whenever a pregnant woman, or a woman with a child would come to vote, she didn’t have to wait in line and got to go inside to vote immediately.) and was off to the races in a matter of minutes. I hung outside the second story classroom and tried not to look too much like a gringo, which is completely impossible for me. I think about thirty Ecuadorians would’ve asked me what the hell I was doing there if they felt I would have actually been able to respond.

Voting itself is no easy task in this country. When I think back to the 2000 election and all that confusion the people of our country faced in filling out relatively simple ballots, I realize none of these elderly or confused individuals would’ve been able to cast a single correct vote with on an Ecuadorian ballot. Where, in the United States, it’s basically a choice between two parties, here there are literally hundreds. In the election of 130 assembly members, guess how many candidates there were. Over 3000. The ballot was bigger than a map. Each candidate’s photo was smaller than a dime. Completed ballots were dropped into boxes through slots that could fit some laptop computers. Even though the vote was supposed to be secret, I was able to watch one man fill out his ballot through the window. I imagined he was trying to navigate his way to Mars instead of voting for Correa.

The country should be handed the final results in about three days, which is when the reform begins. As a big gap has formed between the rich and the poor in this country, there are some definite competing interests motivating how the new constitution will be written. From what I understand, however, the people are relatively content with their current president, Raphael Correa, (and I should adjust this to the people in the Sierra) so no major power swings are probably going to take place as a result of this vote. I was watching the news this morning, in fact, and Correa’s party has been very effectively kicking butt. Where things might start to get sticky is when, months from now, the people are handed their newly drafted constitution and must vote to approve it. I’m probably definitely going to see some demonstrations, but demonstrations—in general—are extremely common in Latin America and they don’t tend to be violent. They do, however, tend to muck up transit.

All in all, besides the buses, yesterday was very peaceful. It’s really encouraging to watch the democratic process operate so smoothly outside of the United States. Yeah, democracy!

The other big news, which is bigger for me than the country, is that my month of orientation is now over, which means I’m as qualified as I’m going to be as an English teacher in Ecuador. The group of volunteers and I finished up Wednesday last week and many people have already shipped out to their various sites within the country. It was kind of sad to watch a lot of the people I’ve become fairly close to leave. I really won’t see most of them until we reconvene at the coast for our mid-service meeting sometime in January.

Wednesday night the entire group ate at a Cuban restaurant here in Quito. It was kind of a cool place because of the décor (and because my meal was something like glorified sloppy joes, which all of my old roommates will be happy to hear because I used to go through sloppy joes like nothing else). The walls were wood, flat like particleboard, but without being made from a million individual pieces. Everything was covered in graffiti: the walls, the supports, the tables, you name it. Someone had brought a Sharpie along and I choose to write “que ricas arepas” in a spot that only someone as tall as me could reach. What delicious arepas was a tribute to Isaac—a volunteer that I’d gotten pretty close to not only because we lived together, but also because we hung out a lot—who will be more difficult to see than most because of his site placement. We’d been out twice for arepas, which are pretty much the most delicious things on the face of the Earth. Basically, they are deep-friend pancakes, wrapped around the meat of your choice and topped with an avocado sauce and a super-spicy red one. You feel like a total Ecuadorian when you buy them too, because no one but people in the know go to the little street stand where you can get them. The place is kind of out of the way too. Isaac and I had turned getting these arepas into a huge joke between us, so whenever we talk now, we can’t get through more than five sentences without saying ¡que ricas (fill in the blank)!

The day after orientation, we went hiking up the Teleférico, which is this gondola that takes you to the top of this mountain. From the height you reach, you have access to the Ruca of Pichincha, which is a ¨two and a half¨ hour hike to the top of beautiful mount Pichincha. I put two and a half in quotes because that must be by Ecuadorian standards. I think it took Rob, a super-chill volunteer from Minnesota, and I about four hours altogether, and he’s something like 6´5¨and in pretty good shape. I’m going to attach a photo from the Ruca to the next post.

Other than that, there’s not so much to say about what I’ve done so much as what I’m going to be doing. I’m going to hang out in Quito for the next couple days and then I’m taking the night bus from Quito to Santa Elena Wednesday night. I just bought my bus ticket—only $9 to cross half the country. The night bus is my only choice for a direct route to Santa Elena; otherwise I have to dink around in the Guayaquil bus terminal, which is pretty much an invitation to get my stuff jacked when I look the way I do. The night bus is much safer, even if it does travel through the darkness. Fortunately, it makes very few stops along the way. My teaching position starts up next week Monday, the 8^th, so I’m going to have only a few days to open a bank account (which I’ve heard is going to be a bitch and a half) and get my lesson plans together before things get hectic again. I tried to call my host mother, Sara, just a little while ago, but I can’t reach her. I’m very excited to reach a point of stability in Santa Elena. And I can’t wait for more cerviche!

Thinking just about today, I’m going to relax a little with a couple of Quito volunteers. One of the girls is a big time mountain climber and she wants me to come with her to this climbing gym. I’ve never done any climbing before, but it should be fun. After that, Marcia is going to take me to a suburb of Quito where a bunch of vendors sell traditional Ecua-gifts. It’s kind of touristy, which I don’t really like a ton, but Marcia is so cool I’ll pretty much go anywhere she wants. Out of everyone in my host family, she understands me the least, so she’s really great for me to practice my Spanish with. If Marcia can understand it, anyone can!