Week Cinco!

OH MY GOODNESS. It is week five already. I can't believe it is our final days in Ecuador. I feel like I have done and seen so much over the past month, that time has just flown by!

Just over a month ago, as I was preparing for Ecuador, I was not really sure what I was getting myself into or what to expect. I thought that Ecuador was fairly impoverished and underdeveloped, and that living conditions would be much different than Canada. Now that I am in Ecuador, and have lived many different wonderful experiences in this country, I am now walking away with a much different perspective.

I was not expecting Ecuador to be so developed. Downtown Quito is in many ways, much more advanced than downtown Winnipeg. Our homes have warm water, plenty of food, a washing machine, and many other devices and luxuries that we would find in our very own homes. That is not to say that poverty and development don't exist in Ecuador, they do, and through talking with our colleagues and students at the schools, I have gained some insight of the different challenges that exist around these issues, but these issues are less visible than I initially thought they would be.

In many ways, this makes Ecuador quite similar to Canada. At a first glance, Winnipeg is a developed, innovative, and progressive city, will tall buildings, bus routes, paved roads, McDonald's, schools, universities, hospitals, etc. But Quito also shares these same qualities as Winnipeg. As I have become more involved with my community over the years, I have become involved with initiatives surrounding homelessness, exploitation, and gender issues in Winnipeg - which are areas in which there remains work, progress, and development that we still need to do.

Thus, although Ecuador, like Winnipeg, is still developing and progressing and working on combatting  various human rights and human security issues that exist, from my experiences and conversations, I believe that a lot of positive progress is being made. I think that Ecuador is experiencing an exciting time of transitioning and developing, and I feel so thankful for having seen and heard some aspects of this development, and for gaining an experience that has truly and genuinely touched my heart and that I will never forget.