President Correa

San Vicente has a small airstrip that I noticed soon after I arrived to site. I also noticed that planes never used it. I think I went about 7 months before I actually saw a plane take off from that runway. One day, I jokingly asked one of my kid friends what the point of the airstrip was if planes hardly ever used it. The kid told me that the main purpose of the airstrip was not for average planes to come and go, but more so for the President to come and go. The thought of the President of Ecuador taking the time to come to San Vicente made me laugh at the time, but I guess when you are in charge of a country the size of Colorado, it’s not too difficult to make your rounds.

The other day I biked over to Nueva Esperanza, one of the nieghborhoods I work in, to open the after school program. Like I do everyday, I went to Carmen´s house, which is the woman that lives right across from the building, to get the keys to open up. Oddly, the front door and windows were shut. A young kid saw me standing there confused outside the door and yelled across the street that they were up the road.

“Where?” I asked, looking for something more specific.

“Up the road!” He repeated, confused as to whether or not I had heard him the first time.

Since these are pretty good directions by Ecuadorian standards (a country that feels things like “just a little bit further,” “over there,” and a double-lip point constitute as adequate directions) I picked up my bike and decided to go “up the road” to look for Carmen.

I rode about two blocks and as I turned the corner I saw what looked like half of San Vicente standing gathered on the road, eating sandwiches. I rode my bike into the crowd and tapped an older lady on the shoulder.

“What’s going on?”

“The President is coming.”

“The president of what?”

The older woman took a minute, probably deciding if a question that stupid merited a response, and said, “of the country…” in a tone that exclaimed, is this girl for real?

Interesting. Somehow I had missed the memo that the President would be paying us a visit. I glanced down at my black sweatpants that were now covered in dirt from the bike ride, and my somewhat clean t-shirt. I looked around at everyone else who was nicely groomed and dawning what seemed to be their Sunday best. The lady told me that the President, Rafeal Correa, was down the road having lunch. Perfect. I had time. I made a mental agenda for the afternoon:

1. Get sandwich
2. Change clothes
3. Get camera
4. See President

Once I had knocked items 1, 2, and 3, off of my list, I left my bike at home and started to walk back to where the action was. On my way back I passed the line of log cabin-style restaurants by the beach and noticed a decent crowd of people standing outside of one of them. I had my guy.

I strained to see passed the heavily-armed guards in front of the restaurant to see President Correa dining on shrimp and rice and drinking a Coke. When he had finished eating, he got into a minivan-like vehicle filled with his entourage, and drove down the road to where he would speak, with a crowd of Ecuadorians, some stray dogs, and one gringa following in the van’s exhaust.

President Correa has made history in Ecuador by being the first President in thirty years to be re-elected to serve a second term, which is especially notable in a country that has a history of political instability. His revamping of the constitution and openly socialist platform have made him controversial, but generally well-received by the people.  San Vicente was no different as people closed shops and lined the streets with supportive signs to hear the President speak. Correa spent most of the time talking about the bridge that is being built to connect my town to Bahía de Caráquez, the bigger city across the bay. The bridge, when it is finished, will be the product of hundreds of thousands of dollars and about two years of work making it longest bridge in Ecuador. (November/December 2010 is the projected date for the bridge to be finished and I have to say I am looking forward to the prospect of riding my bike over the bay instead of always taking the (30 cent, one way!) motor boat. Its all about the Benjamins, baby.) He also took a few minutes to talk about basic infrastructure issues in San Vicente including the not-so-smooth roads and the lack of running water in the majority of households. His close ties with Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia (a country that Peace Corps was actually kicked out of a couple of years ago) have made him not the best of buddies with the United States. So I was surprised to hear him tell the people of San Vicente to take pride in whatever they had, keeping their yards manicured and houses well-kept, using the United States as an example.

Here are some pictures from Correa´s visit.