a letter?

ecuador,

you amuse me sometimes. you frustrate me sometimes. for all your beauty, inside and out, you certainly have your flaws and these flaws make me into a pretentious estadounidense who thinks she knows exactly what's right for you. i can't make you change your ways. any change of yours has to come from the inside, it can't be a superficial or a half-hearted attempt. your flaws are a part of your character, they help make you who you are. so maybe i'm just not right for you but maybe we both could make compromises to make a better relationship.

for instance, what was up with yesterday?

i went to parque carolina to play basketball with my friends jed and ellie who watched from the sidelines and agreed. your people were acting a bit unnaturally unfriendly towards me. i promise it wasn't me, your people were different today. my teammates, your people, didn't play fair with me even though i scored the team first possession at the beginning of the game by making the first shot. they wouldn't pass to me even though i was wide open. one of them in particular would look at me, smile, and pass to someone else or shoot. the old guy on my team was the coolest of them but still, they weren't making shots and when i would steal possession of the ball or on the offhand chance someone would pass to me, i would score more often than not.

jed's team won, which honestly i was glad so that my teammates wouldn't be rewarded with a victory after excluding me even though i was the fourth, very necessary, wheel. for the next game, jed, two of our ecuadorian friends, and i played against the same people who were on my team in the last match. just a second into this game, i had the ball underneath the hoop when one guy, the guy who guarded me in the last game, tried to grab the ball from behind me. i decided to call a foul and when he disputed i said that no hugging was allowed in the game. he replied by saying, that wasn't hugging and then tried to grab me with his gross sweaty body saying he would show me a hug but i quickly stepped out of his grasp and went to the top of the court to start afresh.

the same guy, who was not much taller than me but definitely heavier, drove to the basket and ran into me on the way. i called a charge and he said i fouled him. i tried to explain to him that a charge happens when someone on the offense runs into someone on the defense who is standing still, not moving. that is a charge. you just ran into me when i was standing in one place. that is the definition of a charge. but he and the other one on his team that i disliked simply laughed at the little girl yelling at them and took the ball, starting to play, laughing, before i had finished telling them they were wrong. they completely didn't listen to what i was saying and had a good time at it too.

now i know we all have our bad sides, the sides we try and not let show too often but that little exercise in disrespect really showed your true colors to me. that kind of attitude either comes from a society that doesn’t care enough or one that is not in control of its people. neither is a good characteristic to have.

usually i consider you to be well -behaved, friendly and humorous but today, that was not the case. i went to fybeca, the chain pharmacy store, a lot like rite-aid to pick up pictures i had dropped off to be developed. well on saturday your fybeca employees said to come back on monday afternoon. so i did. and without much friendliness, they told me to come back in an hour, that the pictures were not done yet.

so with ellie in my arsenal, i return, pretty excited for the pictures i was about to have from before and after coming to you, beautiful yet far away land. but the same person who rang me up when i bought the pictures, and who i paid $9.10 to, said that i must pay the rest of the price. 'no' i say, 'you didn't tell me i was going to have to pay more, i didn't bring any money!' and there we began the battle between fybeca manager and ellie and i. apparently it is logical to pay when you turn in photos and when you pick them up. half at the beginning and the rest, which is variable, when you come back. apparently i was supposed to know that from reading the fine print that even he couldn't find. he couldn't even find the sheet where they list prices for developing photos, which weren't on the wall or anywhere visible either. they were willing to give me the photos up to the price i paid, and let me come back and pick up the rest when i had the money.

after a very long winded, circular argument that lasted about 20 minutes, the big time manager came by and said, 'i have heard what this argument is about, we will let you take them without paying the rest of the bill', which, apparently, is an uncommon practice with your businesses but certainly isn't in my country's businesses. it is also uncommon that you pay for developed photos twice.

now maybe this is common practice in fybeca but it certainly isn't common practice everywhere else and i don't know how they think they can get away with charging someone at the beginning and not tell them they will be charged again at pick up time. that seems really inefficient, among other, more vulgar terms.

more generally, you can definitely be really inefficient. the inefficiency in that incident really wasn't an isolated incident. many times your stores don't want to break a 10 dollar bill or even a 5 sometimes. how is that good business if you have to refuse customers because you can't or won't break their marginally large bill?

and also, what's up with your road rage? you have no respect for pedestrians and that is pretty self destructive behavior. you're really only hurting yourself and your reputation.

and speaking of your reputation, it's a good one. you are different, multi-faceted and proud, rightfully so. keep it up, with all the good things you do. i really think you are going in the right direction and i am really happy for you.

but soon i will be going in my own direction, and i think our paths will probably go far away from each other. at least for a while. how about we call it a healthy break? i'm sure when it feels right again that i will come back. but i say we take advantage of the time we have left together. yeah. i'll take your annoying facets and embrace them as quirks and how about you do the same.

well, if i don't hear back from you soon, then i think that's what i am going to do, do everything i can to enjoy you for the time i have left and remember the good times once we split ways. and i hope you can forgive me for my flaws too. i think our time together has been worth it, i wouldn't have done it any other way.

con cariño y un abrazo,

maya.