I've been in Quito now for five days, and I'm beginning to get used to the city and the language. We've been doing a lot of orientation all week, which was incredibly boring, but we've also done a lot of hiking and exploring the city. We've gone out to eat for just about every meal so far, and I still haven't spent as much money as I would have going out just a few times in the States! I got a sandwich today for 30 cents and it was fabulous.
On Wednesday we took a really wonderful trip to Yanacocha (Quichua for lago verde, or green lake), an Andean forest nearby. It was about a two hour trip to the park, on a bus that was clearly not made for curves, hills, and dirt roads. We hiked around the forest for most of the day and learned all the names of Andean plants and birds in Spanish. It was absolutely beautiful. I've uploaded most of the pictures I've taken so far, and you should be able to see them in my nifty little slideshow (--->)!
Today was our first day of classes, which meant a five hour Spanish class starting at 8am. Needless to say, that was a little rough. But fortunately I'm picking up Spanish much faster than I expected. Once you're emersed and really have no option but to understand and communicate back, it just starts to come more easily. I can't wait until I'm relatively fluent and feel more comfortable talking with local people. After class, we went to a big international orchid festival in the city. The view from the botanical gardens was unbelievable, and the flowers were absolutely beautiful!
Tomorrow morning we leave for the Intag Cloud Forest to study cloud forest biology and live with a rural homestay family. I'll be staying with a family involved in a women's cooperative there that weaves beautiful bags and hats, and I'll be helping the women with this work. I'll also be working on my group's Field Investigation Project, taking soil and atmospheric measurements of the area. It will be a nice change of pace from the busy city to stay for a week in a rural area without electricity (even if that means cold showers!).
The other really cool thing about visiting Intag is that I'll be able to meet the people who have organized an inspiring movement to prevent construction of an open-pit mine in their region of the cloud forest. "Open-pit mining" for gold and copper is the Ecuadorian equivalent of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. It has the same devastating effects on surrounding ecosystems and local communities. The mining companies wield extensive power in local and national politics, just like the coal industry does in the U.S.
Local communities are subject to health hazards through the resulting air and water pollution from the mines, and they are severely disempowered and marginalized by the mining companies. In addition to the impacts on ecological and human health, the mines bring with them increased crime, corruption and poverty. The mining companies extract all of the benefits from these operations and pay none of the external costs, while local communities are left to deal with the costs and receive none of the benefits.
The ongoing movement in the Intag Cloud Forest to prevent construction of one of these mines is the equivalent of the Coal River Valley wind project in Ohio. Local communities and concerned people from all around the region are rising up to stop an economically and politically powerful industry in order to protect the region's other valuable resources: its biodiversity and its culture.
Whether you look at the political and legal systems of a country like the U.S. or one like Ecuador, it becomes immediately clear that policies are designed to benefit extraction-based industries and the upper class. These policies don't protect the poor or even the general population; instead they serve to legalize and facilitate their exploitation and disempowerment. All in the name of economic growth and "progress." I think it's about time for a new system. So hopefully I will be able to spend my month-long independent study at the end of the semester working with these wonderful people and helping to conserve their land and culture.
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