Here are some of my various thoughts, in no real coherent order…
I’m sitting in my flat in Budapest and trying to anticipate my semester in Cuenca that’ll start in less than two months (!). One thing I’d determined before deciding to do spend two semesters in a row abroad is that I’d try not to make comparisons between them—that I’d try to keep talking about my experiences in Budapest to a minimum so I could fully be in Ecuador (and not bore my fellow study-abroad participants)—in short, that I’d really live in the present in Ecuador. This same value—of trying to actively be present where I am—has made it a bit difficult to think beyond December, when I leave my current life in Budapest.
A picture from Budapest, since I don’t have any from Ecuador yet!
Nonetheless, I’ve kept listening to Spanish music, I visited a Spanish speaking country, and I’ve met up with various native-Spanish speaking people to prepare—these are all the things I could think of to do from here to prepare. I’m feeling mainly excited (Ecstatic! Emocionada!), but also a bit melancholy at the thought of leaving this current life.
Here I am in Barcelona, being excited that I could communicate with people!
As a female computer science major, I’ve been thinking a lot about women in technology, and the challenges that they (we) face. This prompted me to look into the status of women in Ecuador. From the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, here are 9 facts about women in Ecuador:
1) Around 14 percent of rural women are illiterate, compared to 4.3 percent of urban women.
2) Rural women attend school for an average of 7.1 years, compared with 10.9 years for urban women.
3) Rural women in Ecuador earn roughly half the monthly income of urban women (US$219 compared to US$421).
4) The average workload of rural women in Ecuador is 83 hours per week, 23 hours more than that of rural men.
5) Rural women attended an average of 2.7 checkups during their most recent pregnancy, compared to 3.9 in the case of urban women.
6) Six out of ten Ecuadorian women have suffered some form of gender violence.
7) In Ecuador, 78 percent of girls suffer from some form of abuse at home and in 42 percent of cases, it is severe abuse. Approximately 69 percent of girls (between 10 and 15 years) have been victims of gender violence, especially sexual abuse.
8) Women account for 50 percent of Colombian refugees in Ecuador. The majority of women refugees suffer from gender-based violence, as many leave Colombia without their male partners and are thus vulnerable to abuse.
9) Most Colombians seeking refuge in Ecuador remain vulnerable after the first year of relief assistance, as 64 percent live in extreme poverty, three-fourths of whom are women.
The last two bullets about Colombian refugees really stands out to me—I have spent quite a bit of time thinking and talking about the refugee crisis here in Europe, I haven’t found much information about Colombian refugee populations in Cuenca, but that’s definitely something I want to learn more about before I go.