"Así es"

Caleb came home from school the other day with the next list of supplies needed for his classes. This list was for Art Class, and it included paint brushes, a smock, colored pencils, and other articles that we readily found at Super Paco, which is like a small version of Staples. Caleb asked if we could also buy a stapler for his classroom. He explained that the first day of school the 9^th Graders made a “wish list” for their homeroom, which included a full-sized pencil sharpener, a boom box, and a stapler, and it was the latter that he wanted to contribute. So we put a stapler into our shopping basket.

Near the end of Caleb’s list of art supplies was “1 quart of yellow acrylic paint” with the name of the paint brand, Condor. There was no sign in Super Paco of metal paint cans, so we headed to the hardware store and purchased it there. When I asked Caleb why the paint had to be yellow, he explained that each student had been assigned a specific color so that once all the paint had been brought in, they would have the full complement needed for Art Class.

Así es. That’s how it is. C’est la vie. It’s a whole different way of financing education. For 9^th Grade in Colegio Nuevo Mundo, we put down $110 for enrollment and insurance and paid $90 for Caleb’s multi-piece uniform. Now we pay a monthly tuition fee of $142 and a monthly bus transportation fee of $40. One aspect to this system of contributing supplies to the school is it allows for the families with fewer resources to contribute less and thereby lower the cost of their children’s education.

Here’s another insight into “Así es.” We live very close to Quito International Airport and the jet planes roar in and out overhead. (A huge new airport is under construction outside the city, responding to complaints over many years that Quito needs longer runways, less of a steep dive in and out among mountains, and more distance from dense populations.) The vibrations caused by these planes trigger car alarms in our neighborhood. Even a truck driving by can trigger car alarms. It’s enough to drive you batty.

We were discussing this annoyance with our friends Sandra and Tom over dinner the other night, shortly after hearing from Sandra about her human rights work with refugees from Colombia who demonstrate a lot of initiative and energy in comparison to the local Ecuadorian population, which causes tension between the two. Tom told us how he’d finally convinced the skeptical dealer to set the alarm on their new car on the “least sensitive” setting. Jens talked about how a car alarm right behind our apartment outside our bedroom window goes off several times a night. We discussed various approaches: the Ecuadorian approach to these annoying car alarms is “Así es” and the American approach is to take action, for example, by speaking with the neighbor, while Sandra said the Colombian approach would be to shoot up your neighbor’s car if it was that annoying!

This is not to say that everyone just sits around accepting things as they are. Here’s a different story: As the movers were finishing their delivery of our rented furniture and appliances last month, I went around the apartment and up to the roof-top laundry room and maid’s quarters to see what was missing. I noticed the dryer was not plugged in and upon inspection, realized that the cord was too short to reach the plug high up on the wall. Later, I mentioned this to one of the moving fellows, suggesting we might need to buy a special extension cord, but he assured me he had taken care of the matter. Here’s a picture of how he solved the problem. Very creative!