Culture P2

For the last week I have really been noticing the little things, which I noticed initially and then got used too...
1. Police / Security guard...Are on every street corner, outside every major shopping area and all have massive shotguns slungs over their shoulders and stand with their fingers on the trigger. I keep expecting their finger to slip one day, but Im sure (or at least I hope) the safety catch is on.
2. Buses...$0.25 to anywhere on the bus route. The bus stops when you ask the driver to, and if you want to get on it will stop wherever you are on the bus route....ie. There are no bus stops. The buses all have bus attendants to collect money and every 5 minutes or so there is a check point where the attendant runs off to get his card stamped. Because of this, everyone is rushed on and off the bus, to make sure the bus is on time. The bus I catch to the city center has 2 different routes depending if anyone wants to go to the hospital, if you do you just have to tell the driver. Oh, and there is no back door for the buses.
3. Taxis...$1 during the day and $1.50 at night to anywhere within reason in the city. Outside the city or to the airport, just negotiate before you leave. Dont be surprised if they stop for petrol, and most will only put in $2-5 per time (and my host Mum is the same).
4. Cars and all transport...Tooting to ask if you want a ride, toot because they are checking you out, toot to tell you to move or toot because they want soemones attention in the house/shop. My host mum will happily sit outside a shop tooting until the shop attendant comes to the car door and brings here whatever she wants.
5. Time keeping...Whatever I said last time, I am going insane with the lack of timekeeping, I cannot get used to it! If I go anywhere with my host Mum we will drive around the city for a couple of hours, often not achieving anything, just driving around.
6. Hospitals / Rehab centers...As I said last time pay your own medicines, and buy them too. I have visited 2 new rehab centers, one is private (often paid by a persons work place) and the other is public ($2.50 per session). These are for both adults and children and both opened in the past year, before that there was only the rehab ward in the hospital, and i have been told they dont stay there for long. Generally people get in and out of hospital as fast as they can. Nobody can tell me what would happen for rehab if someone had a serious spinal injury or something, needing rehab (maybe they can help when I visit Guayquil, a bigger city).
Although there is great need for OT here I havent found any working in OT. The rehab centers as they are called are really physio clinics and one physio will see 3 or 5 people at once. They were both really nice and had all the equipment but the physios I met couldnt believe that our clinics would be multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary, or having multiple disciplines working there at all. The clinic I have been helping at, has PTs and SLTs. And I have been told there are 4 OT schools in Ecuador but that most OTs are working as physio assistants (it would be interesting for the WFOT to visit and see what the curriculum is at the OT schools, Ecuador is not registered as having an OT school, yet it has 4 of them, and the course is 5 years long. I am trying to get my hands on a curriculum but its harder than you would imagine). If anyone has any questions I have email contacts for several physios here that are happy to answer any questions people have, just post a comment and I will see what I can do.
7. Superstores (department stores)...Yes these exist and they function more or less the same as home, with discount cards and special deals...But the security requires all bags to be handed in to the security guard and you recieve a number in exchange.
8. Beaches...Most people will hire a beach chair with umbrella and sit on that, the fancier the chair the more it costs, up to $2 per day.
9. Dress...(And I have adopted this without realising). Girls dont wear board shorts, only mini shorts or skirts or jeans or trousers. They are always dressed up to the 9s and always look stunning. I put my boardies on the other day for the first time in 3 months and I felt disgusting and ugly, it was so funny what you become accustomed to wearing without even realising it.
10. Manta is cooling down and everyone is talking about the weather. Normaly at this time of year it is meant to be a little cooler with no rain, but it has cooled quickly and there is daily rain at the moment. We are now in the dry season and it is unheard of for this to happen!
11. Magazines....Fascinating article in the Ecuadorian womens magazine that I read, if you are not confident to say "te amor" (spanish for I love you) then say I love you in english because it holds less emotion! Ecuador is very romantic country in that sense. Other articles were about womens rights and equality and what foods to eat (advsing the same as western cultures despite the cultural differenc in food), and horoscopes, and lots of ads.
12. Birthdays....Are a BIG deal! Parties, fiestas, food and drink. We even had a celebration at school for a 3rd birthday that lasted most of the school day. My host Mum had 2 fiestas for her birthday and for some childrens birthdays their parents will publish something in the city newspaper (apparently normally their 15th but I saw this for a 12th birthday and a 13th birthday in todays newspaper).

Again that will do for now, anoth installment later. Keep those comments going, it is great to get the feedback and feel free to ask questions and I will see what I can answer, or if I cant answer I try to find out the answers.