Let´s Take It Outside

This country is beautiful. From the mountains to the palm trees to the colorful buildings, Cuenca as a city looks like a fantasy many people would dream up for their ideal place to live. Just look at a regular street here:

Now, I'm a little nervous about writing on this topic, but here goes anyway...despite the physical beauty of this city, I am having trouble, let's say, connecting with it. And, unfortunately, I know that has to do with the encounters I have had with some of the people. Because nothing is perfect, and because I have written about a lot of positive experiences I have had (well let's be honest, it's important to see any experience as a positive one because you can always get something out of everything) I'd like to share some of the negative experiences I have had, beginning with the strangest:

I was walking down the street recently on a Sunday afternoon where I passed by a man who was rather dirty looking (and I mean literally as he had blood all over his face and mud on his clothes) who told me Banate, banate (take a bath, take a bath!) and proceeded to throw the contents of some drink he was carrying all over me. Covered my face, my hair, drenched my clothes, and so on. I stood there appalled and all I could do was keep walking home. It did not help , though, that nearly everyone I passed pointed and laughed. Personally, I did not think this was funny. And what's worse is that, after this happened, I have been scared to walk to and from school and so I have been taking taxi cabs two or three times a day. The reason this scared me so much is not that he dumped juice or whatever all over me, it's that I know he would have harrassed me one way or another no matter what he had in his hand. I firmly believe that if he had a knife, I would have gotten stabbed. It is the sheer possibility of what could have been that scared me so much and is thus the reason I ride in cabs now.

I know this is a strange circumstance and has nothing to do really at all with Ecuador or Ecuadorians in general, but it was my experience and it scared me and that is something I cannot help.

Taking taxis have saved me the trouble of walking over an hour a day and running into who knows who, however, they aren't much better. Almost every cab driver has had to pull out a map during my three minute ride and this is very unnerving to me. I have had quite a few cab drivers get frustrated with me for not being entirely sure how to get home from someplace, though it really should be the other way around. One got very mad at me when I had to tell him he had to turn “a la izquierda” not “a la derecha” because I had not told him ahead of time. Excuse me for not knowing you didn't know your way around, oh TAXI driver. My advice: remember the landmarks around where you are staying-this will be a much greater help.

One time I was walking with my “sister” here in the afternoon when a young boy came running up next to us and tried to grab my sister's phone from her hands. He missed, fortunately, and had to keep sprinting ahead. This was terrifying, mostly because it was broad daylight. If that happens during the day, what happens when it's dark? Another reason to take taxi cabs. As in any city where a diverse population of people live.

Yet another thing that causes severe discomfort for me walking around is the staring. I've been stared at before, I am a 21 year old girl, but this is different. This is overt, direct, dirty staring that makes me feel both like I am naked and have purple spotted alien skin. This, I'm sure, comes from the unfortunate fact that “machismo,” or chauvinism is horrifyingly present here, not unlike many other places I'm sure. But it is no fun to walk down the street when you either get penetrating stares wondering what on Earth you are doing there or knocked over (literally) like you aren't even there at all. This certainly makes me appreciate how women are generally treated in the United States (though there are plenty of places still where it is dangerous to be a woman). I have never felt threatened by a stare where I have lived.

One final comment I will make is that at a restaurant last night some friends and I went to we experienced what we can call segregation. We were placed, with a couple other tables of foreigners, in a separate room from the locals, purposefully. I understand this might be common practice at some restaurants, but all it says to me is, “We find you annoying and would like to keep you in a different place so we can enjoy our meals without you around.”

I would like to say that my family I am living with has been very kind to me, and I especially don´t want this to reflect poorly on them. This was a difficult post to write because the point is not to provide any negative judgements about Ecaudorians for people reading. I have had a number of positive encounters as well during my stay here, these were just a few circumstances I felt were important to point out.