Oct. 6, 2019 - Big trouble in Little Ecuador
Hola amigos! Hope your past week has been fantastic. Mine has been great! This week I made a lot of progress with Spanish and Kitesurfing. The end of the week my brain imploded a bit but otherwise, all was good with me. The country, on the other hand, is a bit in dire straits.
Kitesurfing
I can go both directions! And go upwind! and turn!.. sometimes. I switched teachers and I'm now learning from a Venezuelan named Eddi who speaks almost no English. Nothing like learning a dangerous sport in a new language! On Wednesday, he took me out farther than I had ever gone; about 2.5km offshore; way past where the water changes color. Saturday we had minimal wind and my 12-meter couldn't stay up so they put me on a 17-meter kite. It was so difficult to control and I very quickly gave it up. There was a 5-second delay to every move I made making it nearly impossible to correct my numerous mistakes.
Spanish
Update from last week: I thought my teacher had placed me in Advanced but he did not! He placed me in A2... as in ABC. That makes way more sense and all is right with the world. At this point, I'm at B1, and by end of this coming week, I'll be starting B2.
I switched teachers this week. My new teacher is named Iván. He's the same age as me but has 3 kids. He's a fun guy to talk to about all the crazy stuff happening in Ecuadorian politics (see below). When he was younger, he was in a punk band called Turbobiela. I listened to a few of their songs on youtube. Pretty good if you're into headbanging!
I generally felt good about my Spanish this week. I'm able to have conversations with folks as long as they're willing to speak slowly. I hitchhiked home from kitesurfing on Thursday with a family and had a great conversation with them. They complimented me on my Spanish which felt pretty good.
In class though, I got very frustrated trying to understand when to use reflexive pronouns with certain verbs. For instance, "dormir" (to sleep) is usable as an intransitive verb (I sleep), a transitive verb (I put someone to sleep), or a reflexive verb (I fall asleep). For the example of "I sleep on buses", it sounds more normal to say "I fall asleep on buses", but the only way to know that is through experience with the language. There's no hard and fast rules dictating which is more correct which makes it hard for my rule-following brain. It doesn't really matter but when I'm getting things wrong in a workbook it gets really frustrating.
On Friday, I was fried. Couldn't focus for shit. Fortunately, my kitesurfing lesson was canceled due to low wind so I was able to chill the whole day. Ended up binging Season 3 of Big Mouth. One thing I've been trying to pay attention to is my personal rejuvenation. It seems that I need 1-2 days a week to recover from any intense learning or projects. Recovery in this case means letting my brain unfocus. I usually use consumption of media to help me do that but I want to find a more efficient way. My guess is that if I integrated meditation into my life it would be a more effective rejuvenation source than TV or podcasts.
Ecuadorian politics
Big happenings this week in Ecuadorian politics. On Wednesday evening, the President of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, instituted multiple austerity policies including the removal of a 45-year-old gasoline subsidy causing the price of gas & diesel to double overnight (Gas: 1.85=>2.39, Diesel: 1.03=>2.30). Multiple different groups went on strike throughout the nation including transit workers, indigenous communities, and students. In response, the president has instituted a "State of Exception" (essentially a State of Emergency) and several transit union leaders were arrested for instigating the strike. By Friday, other union leaders called for an end to the strike. However, It's unclear why they would do so as the President has not agreed to any concessions. The indigenous communities have responded with their own State of Exception and have arrested 47 Ecuadorian soldiers. They have sworn not to end the strike until the President enters into a dialogue about the economic measures.
The removal of the subsidy was part of a larger set of measures aimed at lowering the government's budget deficit. Fun fact, last December, the NYT reported that Moreno attempted to trade Julian Assange to the US for debt relief, negotiated by none other than...Paul Manafort. That deal fell through, but by February, Moreno had negotiated a deal with the IMF for a $4.2 billion loan over 3 years under the conditions that Moreno reform spending and taxes. Assuming Ecuador complies, other financial institutions (eg. The World Bank) have agreed to an additional $6 billion in loans. The requirements from the IMF include:
"wage bill realignment" & "public wage restraint": Public workers must now pay 1 day per month of salary in taxes and their vacation allotment has been reduced from 30 days/year with rollover to 15 days/year without rollover. This brings public worker benefits in line with private workers.
"careful and gradual optimization of fuel subsidies": Clearly, Moreno did not get the memo about "careful and gradual". The subsidies should have been phased out over the next 3 years.
"tax reform": This package reduces or eliminates all import tariffs on technology products and vehicles < $32k. Additionally, the wealthiest companies (> $10m/year revenue) have been asked to pay .1% sales tax for the next 3 years to pay for education and public health.
"catalyzing private sector growth": $1B in mortgage loans to spur construction, no increase in VAT, removal of advance income taxation.
"Protecting the poor and most vulnerable segments in society": 300k families will receive an extra $15/month in addition to the $50-150/month they currently receive to make up for increased costs caused by the subsidy elimination.
Main road into Manta
All in all, this doesn't seem to me to be a bad set of adjustments. However, the overnight removal of the fuel subsidies seems to be a crucial misstep for an otherwise good set of economic policies, especially given the public distrust of the IMF due to a long history of IMF influence over Ecuador’s budget.
For my part, I have not felt the effects of the above social turmoil with the exception that all the taxis in town are blockading the primary road into Manta so most shops are closed and nearly all construction has stopped. I'm hoping that some service has resumed by Friday, otherwise it may be difficult to find a bus heading south.
Next steps with my trip
My new housemate Alex and I have hit it off so we've decided to travel south together to Montañita on Friday. We are both traveling through Guayaquil to the Galapagos but our timing is slightly different. Hopefully we end up in the Galapagos together for some Scuba diving.
That’s all I got for you folks! If you like this make sure to subscribe below!