Yesterday was amazing. In the afternoon I went to Guayaquil for an election party thrown by the US Consulate. It was very fancy. I hadn’t seen such finery in a long time. A lot of really important people were there (besides me, of course)—both Ecuadorian and American. I met the only Ecuadorian gold medal winner, started a big-shot club with the president of channel 8 (his idea, not mine), exchanged phone numbers with the head of the US Embassy security in Ecuador and made him promise to come to Machala and hang out with us, and got invited to go to the Consulate General’s house for Thanksgiving.
The best part of it all, however, was when CNN announced Obama’s victory. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After the party ended the remaining PCVs and I went to McDonalds to celebrate. We then returned to the hotel where we watched the CNN until we passed out from exhaustion.
Today I woke up and had my first hot shower in over two months. It was amazing!!! Another PCV who is near my site and I then decided to return to Machala together because we both needed to be back in our sites in the afternoon. We paid a little extra and hopped a direct bus so we would get home quicker.
Well… about forty minutes outside of Guayaquil I saw a camioneta (sort of like a pick-up truck) pulled out in front of our bus and … CRASH!!! Everyone in the bus was fine, but the camioneta was not so fortunate. Three people were in the car, including a little girl. I saw the girl and she survived but was pretty banged up. The front passenger and the driver were not so fortunate. I am pretty sure they both died. I didn’t get a good look at them (nor did I want one), they were rushed off pretty quickly.
Eventually all us passengers got off the bus and began to wait for another bus to come for us. That is when things got worse. Apparently this was the second fatal accident in the same week and people living around there got really angry. They decided to start a protest. They refused to let traffic pass and two dump trucks came out of nowhere and dumped piles of dirt on the road. The army suddenly arrived but didn’t do anything and left just as quickly. We ended up being stuck there for hours!When I finally got back to Machala, I went straight to my dance class. After doing nothing but sitting around all day I needed some exercise. After about an hour I happened to glance out the window when I saw… ANOTHER CRASH! Fortunately this one was only minor… but seriously! I feel a little shell shocked.
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