More notes about Ecuador - part 2

This is my last post about Ecuador as I am now getting prepared to go to India and start my movement in England after that (see Our Own Future). There are just a couple of other things to tell you about regarding life in Ecuador, the first one them being:

Young mothers - It is very common indeed to see teenager mothers. In fact, on a number of occasions I have seen women who look no older than 20 who already have 3 children with them. However, from what I have seen and heard, unlike in the west, it is not seen so much as a problem as part of the culture. They start families young and that's just how it is. I'm sure they don't have children to get more money from the state as that is not really how things work there. It's just how life is and people get on with it.

Energy problems - I don't know enough about this in detail but briefly, Ecuador is trying to reduce its imported energy sources and use more hydroelectricity. There are problems of corruption and bureaucracy that make the transition very slow so in the meantime, it is quite common for there to be power cuts. These are actually planned more than spontaneous as there is sometimes not enough electricity available. During my time at the reserve, it happened quite a few times that we would have no electricity during the day until 5pm but they put it back on before it gets dark. We were usually working when this happened so it didn't always affect us. At other times, it did because it would go off at the weekends when we were there or in the evenings. But we learnt to deal with it, for what else can you do? We kept a supply of candles for these regular events and spent the evening in the common room, talking or playing cards or the guitar.

Anyway, this, along with many other experiences of living in a poorer country, makes you realise that some problems that we get in the western countries are usually quite trivial by comparison. It's now about 3 weeks until I go to India and I am expecting things to be more extreme there. I am not really thinking about it as I don't know exactly what to expect but I'm sure it's going to be another eye-opening experience. :)