Holly Johnson writes from Ecuador.
Holly (on the left) and fellow student at the equator, marked by the monument in the background. |
School is very good
I’m taking a history class comparing the US to Latin America, a Bible class on the Gospels (this one is intimidating at a Catholic university, let me tell you!), and advanced grammar at the university. With our program I will be taking Cultural Diversity of Ecuador and a literature class based on authors from the Andean region.
It's hard, but challenging in a good way. The best part is that for my hard classes I have professors that are extremely nice and go out of their way to make things understood if there is anything we don't understand. We will read about one novel a week for the literature class (novels that my Ecuadorian friends have said are difficult for them!), and we're reading the book of Acts for my New Testament class (definitely not a short one!). This morning my New Testament professor saw me on campus and just started up a conversation about how I like Ecuador and how all of my classes are going.
Politics, protests, and tear gas three blocks away
Due to protests by people against the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, my program suggested that we not leave the city of Quito this week and that we don't go to the historic down town part of the city. The majority of the roads surrounding Quito have been blockaded by the indigenous people of Ecuador in protest of the Agreement. We had a trip planned for this last Saturday to the Otavalo market in the town of Ibarra, but the roads are completely closed.
|
I'm not completely sure where I stand on the whole Free Trade issue because I can see the desire of a poor country (the second poorest in Latin America) to want to increase their economic stability, but it also makes me sad because I see so many countries wanting to be like the US. Our planet can't handle that kind of consumption. Plus, I fear the world turning into one culture someday and it makes me sad that the rich culture that I'm experiencing here could be overtaken by the consumerism that drives our culture in the US. So really, I'm torn about the whole thing and am very glad that I'm not the one who has to make this decision for the country.