RE-ENTRY

FROM THIS....

TO THIS....

Darting through Quito traffic on my bike, I look left - nervous - attentive - I look right - checking people out - scanning their faces and their eyes - profiling... Is that guy with the hoody drunk?! or is it just a kid begging? or an Argentine hippy counting his daily take from his street show!? or
Is it NO one?
Or is it SOMEone...
who would, who could... just pull a gun or a knife and ask for all the cash in my wallet or my cell phone
PILAS no mas...

Here in Denver, I still can not get over how I can walk into a semi-public Safeway supermarket, take out my cash, make a deposit, and walk away. Feeling safe and unthreatened the whole time.

AFTER over two months the reality of moving back to the states after living in Ecuador for six years is beginning to sink in. People ask me; "Wow, what's that like? Why did you move back? Why did you move there in the first place? Why are you back? Do you miss it? What is the most difficult thing moving back to the states? Do you have culture shock?" It is difficult to answer these questions, especially if the person asking has never lived or traveled extensively abroad.

There is just no way to describe how GOOD WE HAVE it here, how different it really is, stats sometimes help; like the GNI (sort of like the GDP per person) in Ecuador is $5,510 compared to $53,670 in the US, and even though they are on the US dollar (another point of surprise to friends unfamiliar with the region) the inflation is different and obviously so is the cost of living A banana in Ecuador costs five cents instead of 60 cents per pound.

And although in the states, we definitely live cleaner, more homogenized, safer from petty crime, and all the rest, I am not sure that we live better. Health care costs are ridiculous, and although you have to wait for the public hospitals in Ecuador, you can get free care for almost any surgery, or intensive care, or first aid like stitches, or X Rays and diagnostic tests...You just have to wait.

So now I am supposedly completely well adjusted to living in these great big beautiful United States; teaching Spanish to native Spanish speakers - a dream in one sense because I am using my Spanish and teaching skills to work with an organization that truly believes in equality of education. But also fraught with its own set of challenges of which I am overcoming with hard work and a sacrifice of any sort of social life.

But at least there will always be the bici.

sources: http://data.worldbank.org/country/united-states