Where Am I?

Trip Start Jun 12, 2005
1
35
40
Trip End Ongoing


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of United States  ,
Monday, July 17, 2006

So I never would have thought that I would be experiencing a little bit of Ecuador in Houston, Texas. Everyone who was supposed to fly into Guayaquil tonight has been put into a hotel on Continental Airlines tab. We all really don't know why. The few representatives say that it is because of the volcanic eruptions have caused the Guayaquil airport to close; however, the word is going around that there are other planes flying in just fine into that airport... strange.

While we were going through the process of hearing about the news from the attendant over the loud speakers, some culture differences arose during the process of being informed that our plans must be moved back a full day and a half, blurring the borders and making me feel a little confused as to what country I really stood in. For example, customarily in Ecuador when a "line" of 200 people would be formed to pick up a refund voucher for food and hotel (as what happened at the airport), really what happens as did today is a big mosh pit of people trying to grab that voucher ...
...
 . Or, when the representative shared the bad news, I swear I heard a few hardy stadium boos and loud complaints, kinda like the ones I receive during my banking workshops with the ladies. ;-) When I was in the bus heading to the hotel with those Ecuadorian speakers, I was in the bus with all Spanish speakers!!! for the first time in the U.S. - really quite strange first-time for this side of the equator.

This has caused me to write a quick-list of differences between the two with my spare time in the middle of the night here with the last few hours of free computer time for the next year or so...

1) Soiled toilet paper in the north does not go in the trash can by the toilet as in the south.
2) $5 Starbucks = 3 course seafood lunch, 1 hour of internet, a coca cola, 30 minute bus ride to Canoa, 4 happy-hour drinks, and a night sleeping under the stars on the beach in my tent.
3) 1 car lane = 2 lanes in Ecuador
4) Most taxi driver's in Alaska don't' have opened six packs of beers in their cars while asking if you want a ride.
2
2
 5) My 2 minute, 1 gallon ecua-bucket baths in which gets my skin cool make me just as clean as my 10 minute warm showers that get my blood flowing from the Alaska's coolness.
6) In Alaska there are these boxes that fill up with water... You can seemingly add whatever you would like, whether it is clothes or dirty dishes, and after a few minutes you can take them out and whooppeee, they are clean and dry... So much for doing things by hand.
7) The same Coca Cola that sells for 50 cents goes for $1.50 in Alaska.
8) The hills and mountains of Alaska have untouched beautiful forests, not the beautiful farms with hundreds of years of subsistence history.
9) The sun will always rise and set at 6:30 in Ecuador. In Alaska the sun can stay and leave for days on end.
10) As big as the draw was to come back home and visit, re-charge myself, and share some stories, to leave and continue this lesson is an enduring mixture of humble frusteration and appreciation of how fortunate I am to have these escapes: this balance of opportunity in America and the experiential learning in an entirely different part of the world.
11) In the United States, ignorance on how the majority lives in the world is bliss; in the World, ignorance on how the majority live in the United States doesn't exist.

Enjoy the photos.
Slideshow Print this entry Houston hotels