As many of you know, coronavirus has greatly affected Ecuador. We haven’t gotten it, nor has anyone we know, despite the fact the rate of morbidity and mortality has been quite high. We have had to comply with the distancing rules, but that hasn’t inconvenienced us much. We’ve been able to work with the curfew, which was from 2 PM to 5 AM but is now 11 PM to 5 AM. Many businesses, restaurants, government offices, schools etc were closed, but those is opening up, for now. The buses are running again. Masks are still required outdoors, but that’s no big deal. They may have to shut things down again, as the public hospitals as maxed out, but how that works out remains to be seen.
The big deal for us is that while life is easier with the easing of restrictions, the consequences are severe for many if not most people. We’re okay because my income stream remains steady. We don’t need jobs or customers. We don’t have kids in school. so the schools being closed doesn’t affect us. And so on. What does affect us is the near collapse of the health care system. So far, our province is still barely above water in taking care of covid patients but many clinics, public and private, aren’t even open. Specialists in the public system, which we are in, are no seeing patients. Elective services are not happening. If you can get into the system for something, the wait and cancellations make it practically much more difficult than before
A looming problem is the social and economic problems already showing themselves. Most Ecuadorans are financially strapped and the economy is running at a fraction of it’s former pace. Ecuador was already in dire straights. Now, things are worse. It’s going to start being ugly around here. Desparation is palpable and isn’t going to get better soon, especially if they have to shut things down again. We don’t want to witness violent protests like the ones we saw a few months ago when the government tried to cut subsidies on gas and gasoline. When it has to cut expenses even more, it could be even worse.
Myung has some nagging heath issues she was having a hard time being addressed even before coronavirus. Plus, we aren’t getting any younger. So, we talked about moving a couple of months ago and decided to make a move. That move is to Korea.
During the worst of the outbreak, no one was even allowed to cross provincial borders. Our province, Azuay, borders Guayas where Guayaquil is. You probably saw how bad it got there. Fortunately, the restrictions on movement worked and that didn’t happen here. Now we can leave Azuay, which means we can go to Guayaquil or Quito for international flights.
It’s long story about all the problems we had getting a flight. I’ll spare you. In the end, we got one that so far hasn’t been cancelled. We leave from Quito on Tuesday, July 21, insha allah.
Obviously, it isn’t so easy as before. All international arrivals in Korea must be quarantined for 14 days. The governement will just put you in a place for $100/day per person, or you can go to a plac that will have you. Myung arranged the latter in Gyeongju, where we plan to live. Without her, I would have had to just throw myself at mercy of the government. But she’s got it all engineered. Korea is really making sure they keep the lid on coronavirus. We will be met when we get through immigration, taken to the high speed train to Gyeongju, put in a special quarantine car, met in Gyeongju and transported to our airbnb place that accepted us. There we sit, our cellphone location monitored and visited by health department personnel. Fortunately, delivery of groceries and really about everything else is common in Korea, so there is no reason for us to have to break quarantine.
It’s with mixed feelings we leave Ecuador. If this hadn’t happened, we may have never left. There are plusses and minuses to leaving and going to Korea. The weather is better here. The beauty is all around, much of it within walking distance. I speak enough Spanish to get by. Life’s inexpensive. Up till now, the health care system was adequate. We have friends we’ll miss. We’ll miss our dog, which we found a nice home for. Korean is very difficult for me. And we had hoped for stability.
On the other hand, Korea has much to offer. Obviously, Korean is Myung’s native language, so that’s good for her. I’ll manage, but it’s going to be like when we lived in China. It’s politically stable. The health care is very good, and cheap because I am married to a Korean. It’ll be fun to be in a modern place where stuff works. Though the weather isn’t s perfect as here and the air isn’t as clean, we’ll be where there are seasons again. Including winter, brrr. Korea has changed wince we were there before. Many of the products I’m used to, like cheese, you couldn’t find are available now. There’s even a Costco about 20 kilometers away. Maybe I’ll even buy a car and we’ll live like other people in developed countries. What a concept! It’s been so long. Finally, Korean people are really nice. I’m looking forward to when we won’t have to wear masks and be able to see people smiling when they pass.
Of course, there are so many details about all of this I could go into, but I don’t think they are too interesting. So I’m going to go ahead and post this. When (if?) we get there, I’ll have nothing much to do in our apartment for two weeks and will write about our plans for Gyeongju. After that, I can get out and take pictures, though we’ll be busy getting a place to live and getting settled. We’re back to having what we can carry. (Our stuff here is all sold or given away.)
So, as always and even more true now, be well all of you.