Waste Not, Want Not

As a US native, I have been inundated by the ‘culture of consumerism' for my entire life. I have also been inundated with various criticisms of this ‘culture’ - so much so that I fancied myself a very frugal person. Even though I was living in the “Land of Plenty” (as is, plenty of cheap junk available at Wal-Mart and Target), I did my best to keep wasteful spending to a minimum and to avoid mindlessly accumulating stuff. (This was made easier by the fact that I was a perpetual student and then a not-so-highly-paid government employee.) At any rate, I thought that I was pretty good only buying the things that I really needed (as opposed to really wanted) and not throwing things away until they had lost their usefulness.

Living in Ecuador has changed my perspective about material goods – in more ways than one.

First of all there is the fact that there are many consumer goods that are either unavailable in Ecuador or extremely expensive. For example, most of the clothes here costly, not my style, and/or of rather poor quality. One of the first things I did when I was visiting the States over the summer was to go to a local outlet mall and buy myself some new clothes. It was such a pleasure to find jeans that fit the way I wanted them to fit, and comfortable shirts in my size. I also found great quality clothes for Christina, at reasonable prices. When I travelled back to Ecuador my suitcases were jam packed with stuff – much of it clothes. Here in Loja the value of those clothes has taken on a whole new meaning. I know that I won’t be able to find anything similar until the next trip to the States so I put more effort into taking care of them than I ever would have before. They are washed and handled gently. I have become an expert at removing stains and repairing small holes and tears. And they are only given away when they are extremely, extremely worn out.

Children’s books in English are also expensive and difficult to find in Ecuador. When I was in the States I stocked up. And I had to pack very carefully on the way back because it doesn’t take many books to make a suitcase go over the airline’s weight limit. I ended up packing both my and Christina’s carry-on bags with as many books as we could handle.

Another thing that surprised me was how important something becomes if it it is unavailable, even if it is something cheap. This point really came home when I started worrying about losing my favorite brush, which only cost $1.50 in the States. It is one of those things that I just can’t find in Ecuador, but it works perfectly for me. So even though it didn’t cost much, it is worth a lot to me now. Another thing that has suddenly become very valuable to me are spare parts for my food processor/blender. A while back one of the plastic attachments broke; it was still usable but not as functional. I bought a new part for about $4.00 when I was in the States last summer, but I still saved the old, broken part – just in case my new one breaks on me.

There is something very satisfying about making use of things for as long as possible and deferring most of my purchases for visits to the States. It is a good way to stay focused on the things I really need and stay off the consumerism treadmill.

The Bravest Cable Guy Ever

This afternoon I was looking out my window and I saw the TV Cable truck drive up.  Curious, I watched to see what was going on.  Before I knew it a guy got out and started climbing the telephone pole - without ropes, a harness or anything remotely resembling safety gear.  Then he proceeded to lean backwards and make some sort of adjustment to a tangle of wires, all the while keeping a one-handed grasp on the pole.  Now that guy has guts!

 

Brrrrr …..

For the past week or so it has been rather cold here in Loja. Those of you in the northern hemisphere - where it is the middle of winter and freezing - probably wouldn’t think so, but for those of us who are used to temperatures that reach about 70 to 80 degrees F (~21 to 27 deg C) consistently, every day, it has been feeling pretty cold lately. It is hard to say what the actual temperatures have been here – there are no weather reports on TV, and the internet forecasts don’t seem to be very accurate (right now they are saying that it is 82 deg. F [27.7 deg. C] in Loja and I’m sure that’s not correct because I’m wearing a sweater and my nose is cold) – but it has been overcast and rainy for several days and it is definitely colder than usual.

I was hoping to write a little blog entry with some interesting facts about weather in Loja and the surrounding area, but after a not-so-exhaustive internet search I came up with very little real information. It appears that the rainy season in this region lasts from about January to around April. It has been raining a bit more since the beginning of the year, and I remember that last year around this time there was some heavy rainfall and flooding that occurred. August and September are supposed to be periods of high winds and colder temperatures and that was true last year and the year before. Also, according to local lore, it rains during the new moon and not during a full moon (I haven’t tried to check that one out, though).

Many years ago I took a physical geography class and I dimly remember learning about weather in the tropics. From what I recall, altitude has a bigger effect on the weather than season (i.e. the higher you go the colder it gets and vice versa). This is definitely true around here. During the 45 minute drive ‘down the hill’ from Loja to Vilcabamba (a difference in elevation of about 1,600 ft [500 m]) the weather changes from mostly cool and spring-like to generally hot and tropical. I’m sure that prevailing wind patterns (either from the ocean to the west or the Amazon basin to the east) also have some effect on the weather, but I’m going to have to do a little bit more research to figure that out. (btw – if anyone knows of any resources in this area please drop me a line in the comments section)

When I first got here I wrote a short blog post about how how variable the weather is here on any given day. But the recent cold weather seems to be more consistent and longer-lasting than any other weather pattern I’ve experienced here. Usually no matter how cold or windy it is on a given day, eventually the sun will make an appearance and (since we are in the tropics) it will get really, really, really hot; this means I must follow my dad’s old clothing advice – which at the time was meant for San Francisco – and always “dress in layers”. But for the past several days it has been windy and rainy almost all day long and the sun has barely peeked out from the clouds. I keep wanting to turn on the TV and watch minute-by-minute commentary on the ‘storm’ until I can’t stand it anymore. But, alas, I can only stare out of my window and watch the clouds go by.