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Having arrived in Ecuador June 7th, four days before the rest of the group, I have had the opportunity to experience a bit of the capital city, Quito. This city of nearly two million inhabitants extends for several miles roughly north to south on a narrow plateau only a couple of miles across. The surrounding landscape is dominated by the steep and verdant slopes of the Pichincha Volcano. Although it is definitely active, the crater at around 15,000 feet above sea level is geographically located such that it poses no immediate threat to Quito—at least no threat of lava flow or mudslides. The sun is strong up here at about 9,300 feet above sea level, mitigated only by the numerous clouds drifting by throughout the day.
When looking up at the brilliant blue sky and the lush green slopes Quito feels quite environmentally clean. However, there is a different reality on the streets and amongst the buildings. The automobile pollution is chokingly thick due to the concentrated traffic of too many vehicles on roads not designed for that purpose. The infrastructure simply does not exist to handle the number of autos now on the roads. I had no idea that Quito would be so developed, so planned out, and with such obvious demonstrations that a reasonably high standard of living does exist for many people here. Still, the enormous gap between the extremely rich, the wealthy, and the poor is quite obvious. The growth in this city has occurred predominantly in the last 40 years when petroleum was discovered in the eastern part of Ecuador. Now Quito is the second largest city in the country, next to the port city of Guayaquil.
The faces of the people in Ecuador are almost as diverse as you would find in most large U.S. cities, but I have yet to encounter even a hint of the rudeness, brusqueness, or personal distance that I have experienced in other cities of this size. People are kind to foreigners who are kind to them. Amongst themselves the Quiteños are warm, affectionate, and open-hearted. Still, it is a large city and it requires us to remain alert and pay close attention. The entire group arrived the night of June 11 and Dr. Grijalva whisked us off immediately the next morning, up hills and down (he is, perhaps, the fastest walker I have ever encountered), to visit the Eugenio Espejo Hospital, the Red Cross Blood Bank, and Ecuador’s National Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It was important that we have a glimpse of what is available in Quito to provide a basis of comparison as we journey outside of the capital. The tours were brief, but we were able to see that the conditions were not up to the standard that we are accustomed to in the U.S. This was only surprising because of the level of development in Quito and the amount of money that seems available for such important institutions now that petroleum is a major government industry. If public health care institutions in Quito are in need of improvement in methods, techniques, and cleanliness, we are wondering just what we will encounter in the pueblos we will visit in the next weeks.
In many ways we are all eager to experience the smaller, slower-paced communities to see how most of the Ecuadorians live their daily lives. Most of all, we are craving personal contact with the members of those communities, hoping for an opportunity to help improve the quality of their lives. I am certain, however, that they will teach us something about acceptance and happiness.
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