i love quito, i really do. i enjoy this city life, the weather and the people here but there is a definite dark side to the city.

with the generally accepted fact that we are not in claremont any more comes the understanding that, like in any big city, we need to take extra safety precautions. i don't take my laptop out of the house just because it would not be worth it to have it stolen. no walking alone after 8 or 9, especially in certain parts of town, and the buses stop running around then, too, so the only other option for us is to take a taxi. inconvenient but worth it. big city life but, again, worth it.

there are other things that happen here, which i do not know what i can attribute them to that i doubt happen in places like los angeles; certainly not as frequently as i have experienced them here in the last month and a half.

several weeks ago, i walked down to eloy alfaro, the street where i take the bus to class every morning, and crossed it to get to the side i needed to be on. on the median of this street, which has trees and grass and brick paths to cross it, i found also had a dead dog on top of a pile of filled garbage bags. i crossed the median as quickly as possible and did my best to not look at it hoping to never see it again.

the next day i walked down to eloy alfaro, crossed the street to get to the other side, and realize that the dog, on top of the plastic garbage bags, is still there. a bit taken aback, i hop on the next bus and head over to my community service.

the next day it is still there.

so i walked down the block where there are police officers directing the traffic every morning and told him of what was still lying there on the median of my street, after 3 days. the next day it was gone.


two weeks ago, again walking on eloy alfaro after a quichua study session, i cross the street, unnecessarily expensive ipod in hand, and i realize that, 10 feet in front of me is a man lying on the ground. he isn't just lying on the ground, he is unconscious on the ground, the lower half of his body splayed on the street while the upper half on it's back on the sidewalk.

he wasn't obviously injured. i told myself he had just had a bit much to drink at four in the afternoon on a sunday. i felt, at that moment, like the most useless human. i didn't think i could do anything as a small, white girl from the usa, would i tell someone else to do something? kick him? so i just stared as others walked by like he was a filled garbage bag, of no importance, and i just kept going in the direction of my house.


today i was walking up a different street to meet up with my friends to start our research at a university library. a beautiful day and then i find a dirty dead cat to my left on the sidewalk. keep walking, that's my routine, my motto.

several hours later as i walk at night to the bus stop on that same street i notice a long rectangular box near where i found the cat earlier today. there were paws sticking out of the box.


those have been some of the most physically disturbing, bothersome experiences of my time here but really, they shouldn't be. every day i see mainly afro ecuatorian preteens to teens juggling in front of cars stopped at a red light to try and earn a bit of money while not going to school. i watch these guys go up to every driver's side window and knock on it while the drivers of bmws or benzs ignore them or look right through them.

ever day i see indigenous women dressed in indigenous clothes, sitting or standing on a sidewalk with a basket of candies, cigarettes and gum, selling any of it for 20 cents a pop. sometimes i see a wiggle coming from their backs and i realize they have a newborn they are trying to feed.

the easy thing to do is to ignore it all. honestly there isn't much i or any one could do unless they wanted to buy something off of every street vendor or give change to every kid ditching school to support themselves or their families.

this is my dilemma. i don't know what to do. all i know is that i would rather see a million dead dogs on the sidewalk then have to live with the guilt of knowing what little i could do to help these people i don't actually do, i usually keep walking, hiding my ipod under my jacket so it doesn't get stolen.