Busy Week

That Thursday, we had Final Exams for our language course, so we were all busy studying Wednesday night. The rest of the day was busy and full of planning/practicing for our class final presentations in front of the whole group, teachers, directors, and the assistant dean of our SIT program. No pressure. Our class decided to do a rendition of "El Ahogado Más Hermoso del Mundo" by Gabriel Garcia Márquez and turn it into a skit. It was fun making lines and actions up.

The next day, we had a few hours to practice and then we presented. First it was Andrea and Kara's group - they did a Jeopardy game with food, legends, famous people, ethnic groups, and Ecuadorian expressions. It was really fun, and at the end, we all got candy. Yum. The second group consisted of Lisa, Sophie, Joi, Chris, Abby, and Lucy, and they acted out all the crazy things that had happened to them so far. It was hilarious and by far the best "skit" I'd ever seen. They really did have interesting events throughout the month, and it was really cool to see things acted out. It's one thing to hear about it and another to see it kind of happening in front of you.

We were the last group. It was really fun to present what we had practiced. It probably wasn't our best run-through, but it was still really enjoyable and entertaining. We dressed up in "rural" clothing and even made a fake ahogado (drowned man) out of Dan's clothes and a bunch of pillows, bags, and newspapers; we even gave him a face that we cut out of a magazine. Hahaha it was pretty great. We also used real candles and flowers and other stuff that made the experience a bit more real. It was really cool.

Right after class, I went straight home to quickly take a shower and eat lunch, because I was planning on meeting Laura W. at the choclo (type of corn) monument so that we could go to Quito together. We met my host parents in Quito and drove to their work so that we could walk to the 30-S commemoration march. 30-S, or 30 de septiembre de 2010, was a really crazy day for Ecuador. The police and other people started riots in Quito because they were really against Rafael Correa (the president of Ecuador). So Correa tried to go stop them or something but the police had captured them. And so the military had to be involved and shot a bunch of people; in the end 4 people died and many more were injured.

Correa tried to make it look like it was all the police/anti-Correa's faults by using propaganda and controlling the media, and he claims that it was an attempted coup d'e'tat. I still don't think I can form my own opinion since I don't know much about this country's politics, but I really don't like Correa because of his previous actions, which you guys can look up or ask me if you really want to know. But yeah. Now he's trying to make it like a celebration that democracy is still living since he is president, and he's really sorry that 4 people had to sacrifice their lives for democracy. So in honor of those who were injured/killed, he had a commemoration ceremony/march in the Carolina Park in Quito.

It was seriously crazy that Friday because there were so many indigenous people walking around that had traveled for days just to be there. Apparently Correa pays some of them to make it look like he has indigenous supporters, when in reality he really doesn't because he's ruining their homes with the petroleum industry in the Amazon. But anyway. We got to be in the midst of tens of thousands of people who were chanting and holding flags and banners. Eventually we got to see Correa in person because he gave a speech. He's young and handsome and charming, and I can see how he got elected. But I still don't approve.

Then we went straight to our host family reception, since it was the last weekend with our Los Chillos families. It was really fun because we got to see all our group members' families and how they interacted with each other. The food was great, and afterwards, we got to dance a lot. It was so much fun since there were a lot of people, and the music was Ecuadorian. Afterwards, the group wanted to dance more, so we went to a discoteca (club) called Picante to dance. It had really good music to dance to. It was such a fun night. :)