People ask me all the time if it’s dangerous in Ecuador. There are definitely some rules to follow here, especially if you’re a gringo, and like all major cities, there is some violent crime. But the big thing to worry about here on a daily basis is theft. And what an experience I had with that today.
The cheapest form of transportation in Quito is the Quito trolleybus system, a.k.a. El Trole. I walk a few blocks downhill from home each day, then across Av. America, one of the major streets, and go a few more blocks past HCJB and Alliance Academy to Parada La “Y” (pronounced “La Yay”), and hop on the Trole there. It’s five stops (or roughly 2.75 kilometers) South from La “Y” to Colón in the Mariscal neighborhood and then another few blocks walk to get to language school each morning. And at 8:30ish in the morning, it’s usually not to bad a ride.
Coming back on the Trole, though, tends to be a little more intense. At lunchtime when I finish with class, the Trole is packed. If you think you’ve been in a crowded area before, you have no idea. When the doors open, people theoretically use the door on their right, so the people exiting don’t run into the people entering. During peak times though, people are usually crammed up against the doors anyway, and are trying to move further into the Trole if they have a few more stops to go, and people entering and exiting the car are trying to squeeze past in any way they can. You have to be pretty daring sometimes, especially in getting on (see my football example from the previous post). The area closest to the doors becomes a flash mosh pit at every stop, and the area further inside the car becomes this resolutely unmoving wall of bodies.
I told you that to tell you this.
Pickpockets here are good. A girl on one of the teams I hosted last summer had a large amount of money stolen out of her bra (we tell teams to distribute their cash all over their person) and she didn’t even know it until she went to pay for something. And that was at the market, which is crowded, but nothing compared to the Trole. I had even specifically moved my wallet from my back pocket to my front pocket so I could feel it against my leg and could keep a hand on it. Didn’t work.
The problem with trying to hold onto things on the Trole is that you simply spend too much time holding on to the Trole so as not to slam into people every time it starts or stops, which is even more frequently than when it reaches a station, despite the (theoretically) Trole-only lanes on the highway. I realized my wallet was gone even while I was still on the Trole, somewhere between Mariana de Jesús and Florón, so roughly halfway home. When I got out at La “Y”, I dug through all my pockets anyway, just to be sure. It was gone.
Fortunately, there was a grand total of $0.00 in it at the time. Add that to the fact that credit and debit cards are significantly harder to use here than in the States, and the fact that I trucked home to call the bank, and all I lost was a really nice wallet given to me by a friend.
In all honesty, I was really mad at first. I was angry at whoever stole my wallet. I was angry that I didn’t just balance myself without hanging onto the rail in the Trole so as to keep better hold of my wallet. But while it was kind of a hassle this afternoon, it’s really not that bad. Thanks to my Skype account, I called the bank from my computer as soon as I got back to the apartment. Thanks to my trick memory for numbers, I have a new license and a new bank card on the way. Thanks to the fact that I follow the rules and my own advise that I gave to teams all last summer, I didn’t have extra cash on me (would have been a different story if they’d got it before class, though) and I left my PayPal card at home, so I still have access to my money even here in Ecuador while my new cards are en route, even if it is three steps to get it out now instead of one.
Tonight, I’m just thankful that it wasn’t a bigger hassle the way it could have been. And I’m saddened for the people who feel like they have to steal to get by. I spent a lot of prayer time this afternoon asking God to forgive, enlighten, and provide for (in other ways than gringos on Troles) the person who stole my wallet, and I hope you will as well.
