An Ecuadorian Experience

Returned safely from Quito, Ecuador! First off, let me say that conferences are strangely strenuous, especially when you're in an unusually large group of people for socialization & really don't get any down time in a day that lasts from 7am-9pm. That said, so much fun, and so many great people!

Purpose of Conference: Gather all the Andean fulbrighters together to talk about our projects with like minds, see the similarities, differences between our countries, our experiences, have time to network, and potentially get feedback. We were put into groups of "like" topics. I was in Arts, Education, and Archeology. In our group was one archeologist studying Inca sacred sites in Peru, 2 girls from Ecuador studying education and class issues in the education systems (between indigenous populations and the hispanic schools), one musician from Columbia studying Afro-Columbian precussion, one anthropologist studying tea rituals & storytelling in the jungle in Ecuador, an artist doing an art history project on the history of women artists in Paraguay, and me. Very interesting discussions about language barriers in Quechua vs Spanish commuinities, indigenous rights and discrimination, how to stay objective in an immersion situation, and many other things (so many similarities).



There was also a "sight seeing" portion of the trip, where the Fulbright Coordinators wanted us to see the city and near by historical things. We went to the Colonial district of Quito, where we toured a few buildings (our tours lead by reenactors), took an Afro-Ecuadorian dance class, and saw a performance of traditional Ecuadorian dances.

Quito Cathedral

We went to the Equator and the monument to the Equator (the monument was built before GPS and when GPS was invented, was discovered to be in the wrong place). The Equator is a line on the ground. Woo.





Jeff (the glacier guy) doing a handstand on the equator


Monument that was not in the right place...


We went to an artisan market where most of what was there was just like what's here in Peru, except for these filigreed pieces of silver jewelry. We went to the hot springs.... We were supposed to go to the Cloud Forest in the Jungle to do volunteer work and go hiking and then a landslide happened blocking the road, so instead Hot Springs!!

Part of the experience of getting to know the country was eating lots of different types of Ecuadorian foods-- with which they took every chance they had to stuff us. Had an adventure to go with this part of the trip, as I warned them I'm allergic to Shellfish and for dinner one night were 3 dishes with shellfish. Managed to eat a bite or two of octapus before I realized what it was (I'd asked what it was and I heard "papas" and not "papas y pulpo," pulpo meaning octopus). So I ended up with an allergic reaction to dinner, had to go hunting for meds, not the best way to end the evening.

Last day was just for us to go running around before our flights. Went to the Telifereqo, a ski-lift like contraption that took us to the top of the highest mountain in Quito, where we could hike at 4100m and get a good view of the city.





What was left of our group Saturday Morning....


Then off to the Art Museum of Guayasmin. Guayasmin is the most famous artist to come out of Ecuador. During his life, he traveled around South America and the world and painted about the suffering and the hardships of the people. The paintings themselves were on a grandiose scale and were absolutely visceral in your experience. You felt the pain and hardship of the people he painted.

Lima Day #3: Presentations at the Commission

After a traditionally slow Peruvian start, presentations on our projects (the reason I was in Lima in the first place) began. I was absolutely fascinated to hear about other people’s projects. The diversity of interests is wonderful and, while I don’t know about everybody else, I got a bunch of ideas just listening, and I made some really good contacts.

Di Hu is a PhD candidate, based out of Ayacucho. Her project is dealing with comparing allocations of space in weaving and textile production centers of the Inca period and the Colonial era. I was familiar with most of the theorists (such as Foucault) she referenced, as well as theories of spatial use and division (thank you installation art!), and personally felt that her conclusions were pretty common sense (weavers in during the Inca period were important people, and were afforded a lot of freedom to work in a communal setting, while weavers during the Colonial era were mostly prisioners, and therefore their spaces were highly controlled, limited, and monitored). Regardless of this, I pulled her aside afterword and told her the layout for the contemporary communal weaving spaces at Chinchero and Sallac were very similar to the diagrams and layouts of the Inca period weaving spaces. She seemed really excited by this and told me she wanted to visit one of these spaces next time she was in Cusco.

The other projects included:


Adrienne—archeologist—studying Inca shrine sites north of Cusco City.
Rob – Mechanical Engineer & water project specialist—working with a handful of NGO in the Cusco Region on water management and treatment for healthy consumption.
Martha—geography-- researching the introduction of Spanish water powered grain mills and how this technology changed the landscape in Lima.
Miguel—Poverty alleviation and prevention
Carmen—Chemistry—working on Ionic Liquid technology to potentially create a safe, water-based solvent alternative to things like Gamsol and Acetone. These liquids also have similar properties to Chlorine, and the hope is that they might be able to create a chemical that makes water safe to consume without the chlorine taste and is potentially safer to use than chlorine.

There were also two US Scholar Fulbright Grantees (for professionals as opposed to people who are just beginning their careers):

Maria—Video and Installation artist—doing a videography project on the theme “working hands.” She’s creating a series of videos where she watches Peruvian women work and they tell stories (the association of repetitive work and storytelling is not a new one, but is one that fascinates me beyond all measure). She will be doing an installation of the finished work here in Lima, as well as in Flordia, where she teaches at a university.

Bartholomew Dean—anthropologist and ethnologist—Has been working the last 25 years with communities in the Amazon region of Peru on establishing cultural studies of the peoples and traditions of the region. As he said, the jungle take up over half the country and yet there is no official program of study at a major institution in Peru to better understand and document the people and traditions from the region.

Of all of these people, Maria and I made an INSTANT connection, and Marcela had to usher us apart twice while they were trying to get our Thanksgiving lunch started. We’re going to talk more as we have so many interests similar in our work and the ideas behind our work, and I’m going to take her to Chinchero sometime in December so she can potentially film one of the weavers for her project. I also have a project in the works I think I’d like her to be a part of… (Ooo mystery project!)

Ceviche

After lunch, pretty much everyone went back to their respective habitations and took a nap. I went out and found dinner with Rob at a local place in Miraflores (had some REALLY fresh Ceviche ie. raw fish “cooked” in a mix of lime in vinegar with herbs and served with corn and sweet potatoes). Carmen and Adrienne joined us for drinks and we were all out far too late for our various traveling plans the next morning.