I walked with them almost a mile to catch the first of two buses. We had a great talk about our respective lives and especially about life in Ecuador. Wilson comes from Ambato, a small city about three hours south of Quito. (A classic misunderstanding came about when I asked where he came from and assumed that he had just come from Ambato that day. I was so impressed at how well behaved his daughter was considering that she had been traveling for three hours. Turns out they had just left their apartment when I met them.) Even so, little Samanda WAS very well behaved, as are most of the children I´ve seen in Ecuador. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that one of the rarest things one sees here is a stroller. I can count on one hand the number that I´ve seen in almost two months (and one of those was for a child who was obviously disabled). Children here are either carried or they walk.
[Stepping on soap box] I think one of the most disturbing trends in the US is that children as old as seven are carted around in strollers. While I´m certain this is a labor saving device for overworked parents, I worry that we are raising a new breed of children whose bones will not have developed properly because they didn´t spend enough time walking. Not to mention the fact that hauling around strollers large enough to haul one, two or even three children requires an SUV! [Stepping off soap box]
Children here seem to fall into two catagories, the doted upon and the exploited. Though poor children may be just as adored as those who have money, it is only the poor who are exploited, often by their own parents. One of the most heartbreaking things one experiences, especially in Quito, are the young indigenous women with babies who sit on the sidewalk selling small candies and gum and who send their older children out to either sell or beg. The level of exploitation is dreadful as the women are being just as exploited as their children. Afterall, those women are not the ones buying the candy and gum, someone is supplying them and they wouldn´t be doing it if they weren´t making money. That is surprising as one very rarely sees anyone buying their goods. Sometimes the children seem very well taken care of, with clean clothes and shoes that fit, other times they are wearing little more than rags. The most pitiful are the shoe shine boys, who range in age from teens down to six year olds. Their arms, hands and clothes are filty and they compete with one another and the older, established men who have stands for the few customers who want their shoes shined.
Wilson works in a factory about one hour outside of Quito repairing refrigerators. He makes $200 per month. His wife, Isabela, works at a customer service call center for banks and credit card companies, where her hours can vary from 9-5 to 2-midnight. They share an apartment with Isabela´s brother and his three children, one of whom is disabled. They don´t have a car but they both have cell phones. They would like to buy a house but it seems like an impossible dream given their salaries and the cost of living. He was surprised, though, to learn that most people in the US get loans to buy a house; he assumed one should pay cash. We said goodbye at the entrance to Mitad del Mundo and made arrangements to meet again.
Once inside the park I heard some very familiar music and as I came around a corner saw a troop of dancers and singers. The reason the music was familiar is that they came from Mexico! They gave a wonderful show with Aztec dancers, a mariachi band, the famous ¨Old Folks¨dance from Oaxaco and dancers from Veracruz but as it was almost unbearably hot that day and there was little shade, the audience was quite sparse.
The monument and park were quite nice.
and, of course, I had the obligatory photo taken with one foot in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern.
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