Quito & Guayaquil

The last few days here in Ecuador have been quite adventurous for Leilani and me. We arrived on Sunday and started work bright and early Monday morning. A lovely woman named Doris from the Plan Ecuador office is escorting us around to the different interviews and chats that they have lined up for us here. Because our investigation and report will be on Plan’s education in emergencies programs, we are talking with people from Ecuador’s Ministry of Education, from UNICEF and other UN Agencies, and from Plan itself. It’s been an amazing experience because we get to talk with so many interesting people who are doing great work in the field.

Me with the requisite NGO logo-ed Toyota field vehicle

Out of the blue on Monday we were asked to join Plan’s weekly Tuesday morning radio chat with a national radio station that broadcasts out of Quito. Of course we were quite taken aback and a little frightened to have to speak to an entire nation of people in our second language and on a topic that we aren’t quite experts in (disaster risk reduction and the environment). At one point the radio host asked me how I felt about the environment in Ecuador. Having absolutely no clue about any kind of environmental issues in Ecuador, I naturally sidestepped the question with a response which may or may not have made any sense, about how wonderful Ecuador is and how its natural resources in the environment should be protected for future generations. Despite how incredibly nerve-wracking the experience was, we had a lot of fun and I have to say that it was quite an adrenaline rush. Definitely an experience we will never forget.

At the radio station "Fe y Alegria" after our national radio debut. This guy had the best radio voice ever.

Later this week we traveled out to the field “el campo” twice, once to the small town of Cotopaxi up in the mountains of central Ecuador, and once to the field office in Santa Lucia, about an hour outside of the coastal city of Guayaquil. Guayaquil is a huge city and also happens to be the place where tourists come, either to see the city itself or on their way to the Galapagos Islands. It was very strange hearing English spoken (in a southern drawl, no less) at the hotel in Guayaquil where we spent a night before traveling out into the field today. We were able to talk to a lot of staff at the Plan Santa Lucia office and even had the opportunity to conduct a focus group with a group of teachers in a local school.

Tuk-tuk (rickshaw) rides are always more fun when crammed in with your co-workers and flying over bumps at

As always, things are ending too soon. We flew back on a little commuter plane from Guayaquil to Quito yesterday and from Quito to Panama to El Salvador on Sunday. For today, we are going to check out the Mitad del Mundo (“Middle of the World”) where you can stand with one foot in each hemisphere, the artisanal market, and possibly the old historical part of town. After such a busy week a few tourist traps are exactly what we need!

 

Lunch at a local Santa Lucia School with the teachers behind

Quito: Part I

I write this from my absurdly nice hotel in Quito, Ecuador. We arrived here yesterday (Sunday) afternoon after a very smooth direct flight from Panama. It was overcast and drizzling a bit upon arrival but since then has been this wonderful, crisp, fresh air weather and around 50-60 degrees. It feels wonderful, like a preview of fall weather to come. We're up in the mountains so the fog settles around the valley that is Quito and the views are unbelievable.

Today was our first day meeting with the Plan Ecuador office and they were amazingly helpful and insightful into what kinds of programs are going on here in the country.  There are I believe 13 program offices throughout the country and Plan is one of the main NGOs here, along with the UN Agencies of course and World Vision and ChildFund.

The most bizarre thing that has happened to us so far is that we were asked to make a radio appearance tomorrow morning on the NATIONAL radio station "Fe y Alegria". Plan has one hour of radio time every Tuesday morning, and we were selected to go on. I'm not quite sure how we are qualified to talk in Spanish in front of a national audience about the reduction of risks during an emergency and disaster preparedness, but somehow we are. This is what makes the field of development so amazing and bizarre sometimes!

The Modern City

I wanted to take the chance to write a little bit about my perceptions of Panama City and the people here before we begin our travels outside of the country with our first trip to Ecuador this Sunday.


Panama City is a remarkably modern and developed place. I knew that it was going to be more developed than any of the other developing countries I’ve been to before (Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua, India, Costa Rica) but still was not expecting the innovative spirit and consumerism that drives this city. The middle and upper-class Panamanians just cannot get enough of shopping and spending their money here—very reminiscent of the United States. That might come off sounding like a negative, but really I’m sure it will drive their economy in the future, not to mention that it implies that people (even the middle class) have money to spend on basic necessities.

Panama’s unemployment rate at the moment is 5%, much lower than the U.S.! It’s also extremely apparent how much people enjoy what we would consider an American/European lifestyle: bagels, Dove chocolate, resort vacations, European clothing and shoes. This is likely compounded by the fact that because many of these goods are coming through Panama’s canal on their way from China or Japan to the U.S., goods that we would consider “exotic” or “high-end” products in the U.S. cost much less here. They can just unload some of the product at the ports and bang, its right here.

Even just walking around our El Congrejo neighborhood here I’ve noticed so many interesting things.

This is “New York Bagel Café”, a bagel and coffee shop right next to the first guesthouse where we stayed in the neighborhood. It’s funny because for me this place is really reminiscent of Tryst Café in Adams Morgan, my favorite coffee shop in DC.

Dry cleaning in 40 minutes at the local Lavanderia "Su Perc Klin" (Super Clean).

"The Cabeza de Einstein" (The Einstean Head), in the grassy knoll in the middle of an intersection. The reason for this rather strange tribute to Einstein in the middle of Panama City was explained to me as such, "Einstein was a really smart man. We honor him because he was really intelligent and created a lot of things." Makes sense to me.

The number of new skyscrapers going up around the city is unbelievable. I wish I had gotten a picture of the new Trump Tower building: it is shaped like a boat, with a skinny sail part of the building at one end. It is almost finished and is very noticable along the skyline.  The thing that is perhaps unusual about Panama City is that the buildings look like their are no zoning laws in Panama: anyone can build whatever they want wherever they want. Makes for an eclectic mix. 

"The Golden Frog" Irish American Pub in downtown El Cangrejo.  We've watched a few futbol games here, a very interesting place where most of the Panamaneans are drinking Stellas or Heinekens instead of the national beers of Atlas, Panama, and Balboa.  Their buffalo wings are to die for.

All in all, this city is very eclectic and modern, but still retains the feel of a modern city imposed over top of a once-poor small town. 

Change of Travel Plans

Bay of Panama, with yachts in foreground and skyscrapers behind; storm rolling in

Change of travel plans: 

Now-July 10 Panama City

July 10-17 Ecuador

July 17-July 23 El Salvador

July 23-August 7 Panama City

August 7-August 13 Peru 

And then I am back to DC and then up to Maine for a relaxing vacation with the family. What a summer!

Work and Such

Now for a little bit about the actual work I am doing at Plan’s regional office.  So far we’ve begun our desk review of many of Plan’s capacity studies and background research on the topic of education during emergencies.  This includes reading Plan strategy documents, past performance reviews, country priority documents, etc.  There are 12 country offices within the umbrella of the Plan Regional Office of the Americas: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Bolivia, and Paraguay.  We are specifically looking at Peru, Ecuador, and El Salvador for the Needs Assessment/Evaluation of education in emergencies programs.  

 The outside entrance door to Plan's Regional Office of the Americas 

We also conducted our first interview with a woman from the UN’s Panama office of the International Strategy for Disaster Relief (ISDR/EIRD en espanol).  She was very eager to help and gave us a good overview of what the region and what Plan specifically has been working on in terms of disaster reduction and prevention.  Talking to experts I think will really help give us the background we need before going out in to the field. 

Next week the plan is to continue working on translating questionnaires to Spanish, coming up with templates for interview notes, reading background information, and creating a coding strategy for all of the information we will collect.  We also have a tentative travel schedule for our visits to the country offices.  They are planned around when the country staff can host us, as well as what activities such as workshops and trainings are going on during the period.  

So far, our schedule looks like this:

June 17-July 10 Panama City (prepare materials, background, expert interviews)

July 10-17 Ecuador (information gathering interviews)

July 17-23 El Salvador (information gathering interviews)

July 23-August 1 Peru (information gathering interviews)

August 1-August 12 Panama City (to wrap up the research/write the report) 

 Standing along the "Cinta Costera", running, biking, and walking path near the bay in Panama City