A long time coming

OK, sorry about cutting any readers short last time, my internet time had run out.
While in the Intag we participated in what is known as a Minga- a local gathering of workers to help a common friend finish a project that would take one person months and finish it in a manner of days, for us that meant building a bridge across a small river on a small preserve near La Florida. They were building the bridge in a effort to combat the mining companies by finding another source of income: ecotourism. Ecotourism is currently the only strategy these people have against the mining companies and with this bridge, the preserve will be more accessible. What the construction entailed was moving rocks from the river into piles 9 meters by 9 meters so that concrete could be poured over to form the bases for a suspension bridge. With 40+ people working for 4 hours, we were able to finish over half of the rock moving (9x9 meters is a lot) and the other SIT group should finish where we left of in a next weekend. After the bridge was finished we packed up and bused back to Quito.
The second major occurrence in the last week was my rural homestay. Rural in the full meaning of the word. Last Tuesday morning, we were greeted by a group of women who were also attempting to combat the evil that is the mining industry by selling handmade woven products such as bags and belts, etc. After a brief presentation we were introduced to our new mothers and said goodbye to the comforts of La Florida and our US companions. Actually my mother and my sister came to pick me up. My mother's name was Piedad and my sister was Karina. We then rode on horseback up and down the mountains, crossed 2 rivers (without bridges) and made one final ascent to our home. The campesinos of the Intag say that although the are not rich with money, they are rich in family, friends and beauty- the view from my home was a testament to that claim. While the actual building had minimal electricity and no running water, the view was incredible. We were on a plateau overlooking valleys on all sides which each had their own river running through. With non existent pollution and zero light pollution, as well as the altitude, the stars were brighter that I have ever seen. The building itself was 5 small rooms without solid walls or windows:4 bedrooms and a kitchen. In addition to my mom and sister, I had a dad Ricardo and two brothers Santiago and Edison.
Our mornings were spend in the fields picking and shelling beans, our afternoons consisted of soccer (games that lasted for 3 hours each) and our evenings were cut short- everyone was on the schedule of the sun, which sets at about 7- by 8 everyone was asleep. This wasn't a problem for me because the soccer matches at extreme altitude wore me down quickly) The boys would wake up at 4:30 am (no typo here) to catch truck to ride into the nearest town to go to school for a few hours a day before joining the rest of the family in the fields. The rest of us generally woke up at 7 to start work
As I said, while these people had no money, they were rich in friends and family. It seemed that everyone was in some way related or at least acted as though they were. But what was most humbling about my homestay was the overwhelming generosity of my family. They had NOTHING and yet they shared what ever food and space they had with me to the point of them sharing sleeping quarters so that I could have the best bed and giving me second helping at dinner while they ate half a plate. AND, on the first day my mother saw me awkwardly carrying my Nalgene water bottle to the field, so that night she made me a sling to hold my bottle while I walked. My family was incredible and I will never forget them or their generosity.
Which brings me almost up to date.
A quick note here on my Ecuadorian Family: I have a mom, a dad, a sister, two brothers and 3 dogs. We live in a nice flat in the center of Quito. My brother are 25 and 27 and named Paul and David. My sister is named Sofia and is 17. My dad and mom are both in their 60's and are named Camilo and Miriam. Miriam is a hairdresser and Camilo is an accountant. They are some of the most generous and caring people I have ever met. Ever morning when I wake up there is a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a mug of steaming hot lemon tea. My mother rode the bus with me the first two days of class to make sure I could get there and back and every night she helps me with my spanish ( I read an article from a local newspaper and underline the words I don't recognize, she then explains them in spanish until I get the gist of the word. After she is done I record the new words for everyday in a notebook, so far (in three days) I have expanded my vocabulary by 138 words). My mother is also deeply thoughtful and talked to me for 3 hours one night about how she dreams of looking down from heaven many years from now and seeing all of America- North, Central and South, united under one flag, one purpose, one country. She dreams of a day when we won't need to be divided across borders and when we will all be bilingual and destroy the language barrier. She dreams of one day when there will be peace and stability throughout the Americas and we can all just live together, it might sound naive or optimistic, but I think she has got life figured out, we all do really want the same thing: peace, unity and solidarity. Anyways, if my mom represents the heart and soul of my new family, then my dad is the humor. Everything he says is a joke and my fellow students say that he reminds them of a cartoon character. He is doing all he can to make me a full ecuadoriano and un-gringo me. He tells me to pretend that I don't speak english when one of my classmates is talking to me and that I only understand spanish. As for my brothers, they really don't want anything to do with me or the family. They're nice, but I think being in their 20's makes them less inclined to be at home often. My sister is very nice and is always on the phone, but helps me around the neighborhood and is a chatterbox.
Today we finished a three day lecture series from my new friend Mary Ellen Fieweger, the ecoterrorist I mentioned before. She is in her late 60's and lives in the heart of the Intag Cloud Forest most of the year, occasionally visiting Quito to give lectures. Anyways, she is one of the most fascinating people I have ever met. She is incredibly intelligent and twice as passionate. She gave us a history of Ecuador lecture series of the course of 8 hours in three days. That might sound like a lot but, for me it wasn't enough. She is perhaps the first person to give me a history lesson from a non-US background and essentially every negative event that has occurred in Ecuador or even South America has been the direct result of the United States government or a United States Corporation. It is truly shocking the things she had to say: She told us of policies from G.W Bush, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan, JFK and Truman that have all in some way taken advantage of, or manipulated Ecuador or it's neighbors Peru and Columbia in a way which benefited the US first and the people of South America second. I don't mean to sound un-American or bash any politician other than George Bush II, but the United States has done some despicable things. Clinton's Plan Columbia is the reason Columbia remains a haven for groups like FARC and why the drug problem remains in the United States and Europe, not in Columbia. Under Reagan, the deregulation of just about everything, as well as the U.S.'s absolute influence in both the World Bank and IMF, lead to unpayable interest rates after the Ecuadorian Oil industry collapsed in 1982 (a collapse caused by the United States bribing Saudi Arabia out of an OPEC established export amount with arms, causing all other members in OPEC to begin exporting as they pleased, causing the price of oil to drop like a rock causing 60% of Ecuador's economy to essentially be erased causing shortage of payments on United States loans). Even Obama renewed the Cuban Embargo for another year (which exists not because Cuba is a communist threat to capitalism, but because in 1960 Fidel Castro payed 100's of U.S. Sugar companies what they had claimed was the value of their plantations was for cuban taxes and made them leave the country, saying that it was cuban sugar and the profits should go to the cuban people). My point is that the United States has a self serving history of exploitation and manipulation especially in Latin America.
One of the only things Mary Ellen was proud of the United States was Jimmy Carter's handling of the Panama Canal. When Carter gave the canal(which was owned by the United States for 99 years) back to the Panamanian government, he was ridiculed by conservatives into the stone age. How dare he give them OUR canal?
Mary Ellen ended her less than positive speech on an optimistic and inspirational note. Quoting both Susan George, author of Another World Is Possible If... as well as Thomas Jefferson and a few people between, I'll give you the short and long:
It is easy to get down over all of the problems in the world, the corruption, the inequality, the lies and the overwhelming suffering of a large percentage of the world, but we mustn't give up. The worst thing we can do is run to our rooms and cry and feel sorry for ourselves and the world and everything that will never change. If that is you then go, go to you basement, lock yourself up and cry. That's fine, go cry but get out of our way, we have work to do. Because there is always work to be done. And it is always being done, everywhere. The more you look, the easier it becomes to see good people working for great causes. People saying no, it's not about me, it's about something bigger, something more lasting, something more important than any one of us. The people of this Earth are generally goodhearted souls often in unfortunate circumstances. (The minimum wage for a worker in Ecuador is 220 USD a month, the average cost of food for a family of 4 is 550 USD, no wonder crime is a problem).
I don't know if it is the fact that I am south of the equator, but the United States is beginning to look more and more upside down everyday. Thomas Jefferson once said that people have not only the right, but the duty to overthrow a corrupt government, so do we have the obligation to work for real change until someday we can live in the world my host mother dreams of.
And now to bring it back down...
I tried a drink my mother made me, it was a combination of rice, milk and raisins. It was about as good as it sounds. Right now, I'm in my living room, not wanting to leave because my dad is whistling while playing the guitar. I'll try to keep this updates about me and not boring politics, it's just that it's fresh in my mind and really makes me mad. Mother: I am healthy (no stomach parasites...yet) and getting enough sleep and protein, so no worries. Chébre y adios. Los extrańo mucho.