Let's build something

I finally got an ICRP!!!

So you know what the heck I’m talking about: An ICRP is and Inter-Cultural Research Project. It’s something that I have to do as a part of the study-abroad program I’m on. Basically, we volunteer somewhere in the community and do academic stuff related to this volunteer work. They’ve changed how the ICRP is done this year (and the new way of doing things is a total mess) so I’m still not entirely sure what I have to do to get the credit.

Anyway, I finally found a place to volunteer at; it’s called Proyecto salisiendo chicos de la calle (Getting kids off the street project). I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be doing yet, but I’ll find out tomorrow since that will be my first day on the job. I’m very happy to have secured this volunteer work, since the class that goes along with my ICRP has been asking us where we’re working for the past three weeks and I haven’t been able to give a concrete answer. There’s a major stressor off my shoulders. Also, I now have my schedule set. None of my classes are going to change, and my volunteer hours are going to stay basically the same, so I can finally start getting a real routine down.

Something I’m finding really interesting here in Quito (and Ecuador in general) is the construction of buildings and houses and everything else you can think of. It’s different.

Obviously it was going to be different, but you don’t really think about differences in construction when you think about living in a foreign country. People spend a lot more time telling you about food and customs and manners and the like; there’s much less said about your physical surroundings. I’ve been getting a pretty good view of them now that I’m here though, and even my surroundings in the making. There’s a house/apartment building, being built or remodeled (not sure which) just down the street from my house that I pass every day on the way to and from the bus stop. I kind of like that it’s there because it’s very interesting to see the progression of construction here.

The first thing you need to know about Ecuadorian construction, or high-altitude Ecuadorian city construction, is that everything is made of cement. No, really. EVERYTHING. Sidewalks, streets, walls, houses, even the telephone poles. All cement. These people are geniuses with the stuff. Walls are generally built with cinderblocks, rebar, and probably some poured cement. Then, the whole wall is covered in what I’m going to call cement-plaster. It is cement, but they apply it to the sides of buildings as though it were plaster. If there’s a small part of a wall that looks bad, or needs a small repair, they will sometimes apply cement paint (again, for lack of a better term). Literally, take a paint brush and paint a fine, thin layer of cement onto the wall. Despite all of this wonderful cement work, the sidewalks here are treacherous. Kind of like the sidewalk in the unkempt part of the city where the roots have wreaked havoc on the concrete slabs and they stick up all over the place so that you have to ride your bike in the street so as not to fly over your handlebars when you hit one of the bumps. If you grew up in a city you know what I’m talking about. Here though, the bumps are practically steps. Which isn’t all that illogical because the entirety of Quito is hills, so the steps are there for a reason, but they aren’t the only bumps in the sidewalk. Nothing at street level here is flat, or even properly sloped, so that when it rains, all of the water that has no ground to soak into (since everything is cement) forms lakes and puddles all over the roads and sidewalks. Going home in the rain involves crossing a river and avoiding a pond for me. The main road is the river, and the intersection is the pond.

Of course, cement isn’t the only thing that is different about the construction techniques here. There is a prevalent use of tile outdoors as well. You have not realized how slippery tile is until you have walked across an entire tiles plaza and up and down tiled stairs. I’m surprised those suckers haven’t killed someone. Another thing I’ve noticed is the variety of door latches here. Specifically bathroom stall latches. I don’t think I’ve been in two bathrooms here with the same latches on the doors (ok, that’s an exaggeration, but you get my point).

The geography of the city also makes for some interesting construction stuff. Of course, the houses on the sides of Quito’s steep hills have to somehow be made level, which is quite the feat if you know these hills (think San Francisco). There is a limit to how steep a hill can be before you really can’t build into the side of it though, and that limit is well known here. The edge of the city doesn’t really peter out like you see in the US. It ends. Abruptly. This is most evident at night when you can see an edge to all the lights of the city. There’s city, and there’s dark, without much of a fade region.

I think my favorite things about the construction here are the things they can do because they don’t have winters. For example the USFQ campus is a virtual maze of connected buildings that open to the outdoors in many random places and have open courtyards in the centers and all sorts of other cool things. This is possible because they never have to worry about snow. Or cold. Or ice. Or anything remotely wintery. This is also the reason that all of the buildings here are FULL of windows. Almost all of the outer walls of my house are solid window. It’s gorgeous.

My last structural observation (for now) is the power system. Specifically, the power and telephone lines. The look like this:

And I don’t think I really need to interpret that picture for you, except to say that this is a moderate example of the number of wires they can fit onto a single pole.