i guess the news of ecuadors flooding has reached american media. according to claire ecuador is in a state of emergency because of all the flooding. today i was watching the nationiled media which didnt mention anything about it but that argentina and the us have sent aid in the form of food and money. which brings me to an interesting point: media here is either run by the state or it is monitered by the state and everything seems to be toned down a little. every night prime time television is interupted to give a state of ecuador announcement which ussually talks about what a great guy pres. correa is. yesterday (wednesday) i went to the malecon (river front) with pepe, eli (one of pepes friends) and anita. we went boating which was really sunny and not very interesting and thus not worth writting about. later that night we went to concert featuring what else but music from madigascar. i loved it. i was dancing in my seat looking like a fool. it was very good music played by the afican islands nations best(i never heard the name of the group becuase they spoke in french). after that we went back home to have another feast of barbecued chicken. today was very hot and i am very tired. i started today helping a thirteen year old boy multiplication and some reading (in spanish). i think encountering illiteracy in adults if a very difficult thing to deal with emotionally, luckily thats only happened a few times. i went to the poorest sections of town and started to realize that its what the families have (in terms of possesions) that really reminds me of their poverty. this statement sounds very simple but one family i visit only has a tv, a matress, a box to cook food in and folding lawn chairs to sit in-the houses are made of cane which is like crused bamboo. another house i visit has more stuff, more stuff that isnt what you need to survive with-a playstation, a blendor, paintings on the walls. there is a great range to the quality of houses i visit i can tell you that. i wish i could write more but i dont have too much time.
-mark
o yeah check this out
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7256479.stm
2 comments:
Good to hear your report on the flooding and the non-reporting of the flooding.
On this end, the Texas Democratic debate has just finished and in the trailers on CNN one told of flooding in the small Andean nation of Ecuador where 12 had died and 1000s made homeless.
Fun to imagine you dancing to the beat...you and Pres Bush (he was in Accra two days ago and took in the local music scene)
The polls show a dead heat in Texas.
Stay dry.
ba
Do you think that the families with more stuff (electronic gadddgets, furniture, whatever...) really are better off than the people with only a few possesions?
So it isn't raining there? Do you think it's storming somewhere in Ecuador? Thanks so much for this, Mark.
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