La · Gansada

The thing I like least about living in Ecuador is the prevalence of crime. Hands down.

Did I mention that, during the month we spent in orientation, 9 of the 36 other volunteers I came here with were victims of crimes or attempted crimes? That I happened to hear about, that is. There may have been more.

Okay, that was in big bad Quito, and I live in a much smaller and safer city now. People are constantly professing it to be muy tranquilo, which implies safe. But I feel way, way less safe here than I ever did on the notorious South Side of Chicago, where I lived for 8 years. I have never had to spend so much time thinking about crime and how to avoid it as I do here.

At our end-of-service conference, about 10 months after those other volunteers and I arrived in Ecuador, someone asked how many of us had been stolen from. A large majority had.

Foreigners are regarded as easy marks, and I am frequently told that I in particular should not do certain things or go to certain places, because it would be especially dangerous for me, as a woman and an obvious foreigner. But this is not something that happens only to foreigners. In just a few weeks in December, in separate incidents, three of my Ecuadoran friends were robbed. C'mon, people! It's Christmas. Show a little good will toward humans!