More on Ecuador

I realized that the information I gave during my last Ecuador presentation never made it to my blog, so I thought I'd remedy that. One thing that is of interest to me is the people of Ecuador. The approximate population is 14 000 000. Though the official language is Spanish, there are approximately 20 other native tongues due to the indigenous population. In fact, the indigenous people make up 1/3 to 1/4 of the population, which is largely mixed, or 'mestizo'. There are many social and economic divisions between people groups, much like many other places in the world. Somewhere between 4o% and 66% of the population live below the poverty line. The country specializes largely in agriculture, and its main exports are petroleum products, coffee, cacao, bananas, cut flowers and shrimp. This means their economy varies depending on the market, and is severely affected by fluctuations in world commodity prices, and can be quite unstable. Voting is compulsory for literate people between the ages of 18 and 65, and Ecuador was the first country in South America to grant women the right to vote. Despite this, the country overall has been slow to accept equality of the sexes, which is illustrated by the fact that only 40% of women are economically active. Though women have entered most fields of work, they still do not work as welders or bus drivers. In 1990, women even made up 10% of the police force. I am very excited about the chance to interact with these people, to see and experience firsthand what their lives are like. It is not every day a chance like this comes along.