Tuesday, December 12, 2006

A long week

I am ALMOST back home after more than a week of traveling-working. The domestic violence conference went fairly well, although I don`t know if it lived up to expectations.

I presented a talk on masculinity and violence for about 45 minutes (which I was not super comfortable with) and then participated in a round table talking about the circle of violence and answering questions (I thought that I did much better in that one... I had more experience on the topics and it was a more comfortable position for me).

Then, I co-facilitated two afternoons of workshops with high schools boys about how to discover what it means to be a man. Not having sex, beating people up, drinking and mistreating women... but a real man. It was interesting... sometimes fun and sometimes frustrating.

A few of the difficulties facing women here:
- One of the few men that the organization found to present during the conference showed his ignorance by saying, ¨women are practically equal to men.¨
- The group of 15 teenagers unanymously agreed that if a girl invites a guy into her room (especially if they are dating) then she is obligated to have sex with him. Sort of like an unwritten contract.
- The nun in charge of the Catholic school where most of the kids who participated in the conference attend, repeatedly made comments that undermined women´s rights in favor of antiquated and misinformed interpretations of the biblical roles of women (which are a huge part of the cause of interfamiliar violence here in Ecuador).

I also hung out with about 4 or 5 of my best Peace Corps friends who also came to the conference to watch-learn, but not present (one other volunteer presented). We had delicious Italian food and then went salsa dancing on my birthday.

The last few days have been interesting as I have tried to make it home. On Sunday night, I took a 10 hour bus ride into Quito, the capital, to find out that I couldn´t make it the rest of the way home (another 5 hours) because of a Paro. Paro´s are when communities or unions block the highway with fires and other roadblocks in order to force the authorities to talk and deal with them. Since there are so few alternate routes available in Ecuador due to the mountains, it is relatively easy for a small group of people to completely isolate a large area of the country. (A paro in a different part of the country elongated one section of my trip down to the conference from an 8 hour bus ride to a 12 hour one).

I was stuck in Quito for the day... then delayed an extra 2 hours this morning as I traveled to Ibarra (still 1.5 from my town). Then, after I did some shopping (I don`t have any food waiting for me in my house), I went to catch the last bus to my town. However, when I got to the bus station, I was informed that the bus simply wasn´t going today. No excuses or explanation. Just not going. Normally, I would catch another bus that goes close to my town and then walk another hour, but today I had too much food to carry and I wouldn´t have made it. So, I am here in Ibarra until tomorrow.

Anyway... lots of traveling, lots of mala suerte (bad luck), but also a lot of fun and I should be able to make it home tomorrow.

posted by Steve @ 3:36 PM