We are a lot like finches!

A friend asked what made me happy. Let's see...

Swimming in the harbor, with sea lions, lifted by turquoise crystalline swells. Witnessing tropic birds soaring, trailed by two feet of white feathers, banking and braking just inches from a cliff. Riding my bike up volcanic cinders, to the rain forest where sweet oranges and the rich coffee grow. Enjoying the three families who have taken me into their lives. We slurp down fish soup, lentils, and rice and my loneliness evaporates.

I am happy when swapping ludicrous stories with cartoonist/Brit/French friend Alan Hesse. He and I have made more than a few cultural errors but we find a way to take the sting out. Here is my latest: I told a high-ranking guy that I was hoping that the educational reform would be finished in a 100 years. What I meant was that reform is never done. He interpreted my comment differently, and he responded with a tirade:

"The people from the northern hemisphere treat us as if they still own us. They are imperialists but they no longer control our country. The imperialists have said we cannot run our country. We have shown them that this is not true. When someone says reform will be slow, he does not understand it is happening now and the Darwin Foundation is helping. After 50 years, we have a contract to do educational work, and you cannot criticize what we do. I forbid any negative remarks."

My brief attempt trying to be smarmy, funny, a bit sarcastic, wise and profound was not welcomed by Mr. Important. I was chagrined, embarrassed, horrified to have made a mega faux pas. I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

For two days, I was kicking myself. Until Alan and I chatted, that is. Then we looked at how many times we are not sure about the culture here. There are many layers of Ecuadorian culture, and so much originates from a history of colonialism and racism. Chatting with Alan makes the bad vibes disappear. After a couple of tall ones, we even revel in the oddities. He helps me shed my self-consciousness and self-condemnation. (That trait, that has never served me well, is not useful here.) I am learning, and that makes me happy. In fact, writing this email makes me happy!!!!!!!!!

One more happy thing, though it was born of tragedy: a wonderful father here, Patricio, lost his son in a car wreck. Ever since that sad day five months ago, Patricio has fought to make the streets safe. Today we had another Via Activa, and, as before, there are only bikers and pedestrians permitted on the streets. It is a sunny and happy day. I was so thrilled to be the documentalist and all-purpose gopher.

Aside from dozens of outdoor chess games, puppetry, aerobic dancing, and face painting, there was a spectacular bike jumping demonstration. These two nutty guys from Quito (Jairo and Daniel, a.k.a. Tiro and Chaso) sprinted down a 20' high ramp, went up a second ramp, and then they did flips in the air. They fell a few times and skinned elbows and hands. Ni modo, as they say. Whatever. Very cool. But, what was REALLY awesome was the utter do or die feeling. Here is why we in the audience had our hearts in our throats: the downward ramp was built on bamboo, the second ramp self-destructed (into splinters), their landing was on volcanic cinders, and the Locos were bloodied a few times. Everyone gasped, snapped away and loved the event.

Later, I spent a few days with Tiro and Chaso. Chaso, the taller Ivy League-looking guy, has competed in BMX contests throughout Latin America. Tiro is shorter ("I am a dwarf, that is just the way it is.") and funnier. He is missing a tooth in a prominent place, and he wears white-rimmed shades. He has won various world championships in one kind of suicidal bike race or another. His website features a skull and is named after a friend killed in an auto-car accident. Both young men are so full of life, curiosity and insight. As I realize how much I miss teaching, I am content to meet some youngsters with "animo," as they say here.

Whew! I feel happy, just thinking about today.

What makes me less than happy? Most of all the sense that there is blank check to exploit all of the resources here. There is lip service about the environment, but many powerful folks here see the conservationists, like the Darwin Foundation, as enemies of progress. The thinking is like this: the non-profits are outsiders who know nothing about people but who, out of arrogance, condemn residents and try to compel local folks to change. The developers have a good point in that conservationists often sound like tree huggers robed in Political Correctness.

There are two distinct cultures here: those who want the islands to develop quickly, and those who believe that a slowdown is absolutely necessary. The much smaller second group points to the lack of potable water, lack of sewage treatment (non-existent), lack of oil (none), and lack of excellent schools (there might be one). True, there are three turbines on the wind farm, and there is a plan for sewage treatment, but there is also a population that doubles every 11 years.

Last night over supper, some of us had a loud debate. One person felt that the islanders have it too easy, since government employees (including teachers) get a sizeable bonus due to high prices. The local folks, therefore, are not "hungry" and so they have no incentive to innovate, study and plan. Theory 1: People are spoiled.

Theory 2: island cultures are all like this. They are inbred worlds, isolated from other provinces, with their narrow view based on their self-interest. There is not one bookstore here and no movie theatre (or any other kind of theater), so folks re-invent the same ideas. More expansive and eccentric notions die off, from lack of attention. Few are interested in the unconventional. People are ignorant. They are weak, in terms of ability to quickly adapt to new circumstances. They don't do well when they leave here; many return from the mainland with wallets empty. Because of this slack style, people are like Darwin´s finches. They exploit the environment so that they survive, but they don't push themselves to prepare for future conditions. The finches are everywhere, as always, but they are scarcely able to survive the predation that environmental degration has brought. Humans have to be smarter than finches, so that we anticipate our tendency to destroy our own habitat. Here, philosophy, ethics and such abstract ideas are as remote as Ulan Bator. People stagnate. I am partial to this theory, but... maybe I am wrong...

Theory 3: Life here is pretty much like life anywhere. There are tensions between the innovators and the traditionalists. As in the USA, there are liberals and conservatives who battle about the same kinds of issues. Republicans want to drill in Alaska and Democrats do not. People are absolutely normal here.

I am not sure what to think. I am fuzzy about this. I have been here too long to make be sure of anything!

Getting back to the present. I have only one complaint this week. Why is it that, in this pristine setting, surrounded by exquisite bays and sugary sand, almost no one swims? Of the 30,000 residents, I have only seen eight swimmers. This little group of fanatics are a team that practices next to the Darwin Foundation beach. I am so thrilled that I will join them. It does not matter that I am the only one over12.

Writing this has led to a little epiphany for Halloween Day: I am going to start a school for swimming next week.

Tito