Observations from the Trip to Manta

The trip to Manta has made me recognize the knowledge bases in conflict, between me and my community. There is the Western knowledge base, which I more strongly connect with, and the Kichwa knowledge base. Although I have tried to be extremely culturally sensitive, the trip to Manta brought these differences out. Before the trip, the only really conflict I had had was that our conception of time is different. Often my coordinator would be late (30 minutes to two hours late) coming to a meeting that I had been early for, or he would be really early on the days that I happened to be accidentally late.

However, on the trip to Manta the differences became clear. The first was that the differences in the conception of time became emphasized. We had to have the coffee in Manta by 9am on Monday, and we left at 4pm the night before, leaving lots of time to make the 12 hour drive. The only problem was that we were driving extremely slowly; sometimes we were going up the mountain passes at the speed of a walking horse... It took us 9 hours to get from the community to Quito, a trip that should take about 4 to 5 hours. By 9am, we were just over halfway there. By that point, we also started getting frustrated calls from the project director who was supposed to be meeting us in Manta at that time. This clash was brought to the test when we finally got to Manta around 3pm (23 hours later) and the program director had to cover up for the community by saying that it was the driver’s fault, not the community’s tardiness. Being this late for a deadline could have cost them the contract that they have with the shipping company, but I don’t think that they recognized that.

The second knowledge difference was of gender. When there is a cramped space, Western culture places the woman in the best spot. From my experience in that ride to Manta, it might be the opposite in Kichwa culture. I already knew that men were placed at a higher standard than women, but my position in the car exemplified that. This may not seem like a huge deal, but when there are 3 people (and the driver) crammed into a truck bench seat made for two, something has to give. I was told to go in first and was given the worst position in the car, half on the seat, and half on the emergency break, having the stick shift jammed into my lower thigh every time the gear needed to be changed. I eventually dealt with this by talking clothes and blankets and stuffing them around the emergency break to create another cushion for myself. However, things got worse when the two men beside me were getting antsy and uncomfortable, and so they spread their legs and ended up pushing me so far towards the driver, I had to cling to the driver’s seat in order to stay upright. They did not notice, and when I asked them to give me more room, like gave me dirty looks and grumbled before they moved over maybe an inch. Apparently, even though I am in huge amounts of pain, their comfort matters more.

On a background note, the trip we made to Manta (a coastal city in Ecuador) was to drop off just under 10,000 pounds of organic, shade-grown, fair trade coffee at a shipping company so it could be sent to the buyer in Germany. I had the privilege of going because I am learning about the coffee process in their community as an alternative to oil development. This amount of coffee is actually only the last 2 months worth of production, which I think is amazing! I went with my coordinator’s assistant, the driver, and a chauffeur (because the driver didn’t know how to get to Manta). I did learn lots about the final bits of coffee production and they asked me to take pictures so that they could increase their small database of pictures they have of the process.

63 bags of beans (aroun 10,00 pounds - each bag is 125 pounds)

Also, based on my experience above, I decided not to go back to the community with them, opting for taking a bus. This decision was also reinforced when I found out that they were not going to stop so the driver could sleep, even though he had already been up for over 48 hours. Definitely wasn’t going to risk my life to get back to my community faster...

Anyways, it was an interesting trip to do to follow the process of coffee as far as I can take it. However, I doubt I would do it again...