Coming Home to Kansas

Friday I was in Cuenca with a bunch of other volunteers and Ellie's cousin Andy, who was visiting. My friend Sarah, Andy and I decided to go up to the Mirador, which is above the city, to have a look at the panarama(by the way, it's a beautiful european style city, and if any of you would like to see it, I plan to come back in a year, so I need a travel partner). We walked back. We were getting close to the university when we heard a dull crash. We commented on it, but noises like that are common enough. So we kept on going. We came up on the Banco de Pichincha, the main bank in Ecuador. The front windows were all smashed in, and there were lots of police and armored vehicles around. We turned around, trying to decide what to do. Because of course, we wanted to see what was going on, without getting killed ourselves. Andy wanted some pictures...he was suddenly walking much faster than before. Sarah wanted a milkshake...because she's just like that. So we skirted the campus, and crossed the river and walked to a point where we could see that there was a sort of battle going on between the police and some students. Well, Andy and I did. Sarah was back getting her milkshake. She caught up to us, and we got a little closer, Andy taking pictures all the way. He even got some video. I've been to a lot of protests, but none quite like this. There were rocks being thrown and fires being started. Pretty soon my throat and nose started to tingle, and as the protest got more intense, so did the sensation.

It turned out that the protest was because a student had been killed by what sounds like a guard at the bank the day before...and of course the free trade agreement that Ecuador will be signing soon. I don't know what I think about protests like this anymore. But at least my eyes stopped watering as soon as we got a few blocks away. And what a way to end my time here.