It is amazing how fast people can become desensitized to the poverty that surrounds them...I mean...not other people necessarily, I mean me specifically. The reason I say this is because I was thinking today that one of the biggest problems in Quito is how hard it is to get change.
I get money from the ATM, and it always comes in twenty dollar bill form. The main problem with this is that no store anywhere will take anything except nearly exact change. If you buy food from a huge grocery store for $21.71, and try to pay with two 20s, they will look a you like you tried to pay with Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket and a Faberge Egg. It's nearly impossible to buy a lunch for $2.80 from a small corner restaurant when all you have is a pocket full of 20s.
Anyhow, this relates back to my first sentence. I was thinking today that one of the biggest problems in Quito is how hard it is to get change. I am such a stereotypical, rich, piece-of-shit, tourist. I moved here to volunteer and help people and after a few weeks, I don´t see the people living and begging in the streets, the five year old kids juggling or doing cartwheels for cars at red lights to earn spare change during school hours, the teachers with no textbooks to offer their students, the violence, or any of the other problems. All I see is that I have two twenty dollar bills and no way to pay the 60 cents an hour the internet cafe charges.
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