The Price of Juice

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 15, marks the two month anniversary of our arrival in Quito. Today, in honor of the milestone, I had my first "I'm sick of it all" day.

I started out with flying colors, ordering Rebecca to wash her breakfast dishes before she left for work. It's drives me crazy that after I clean the table, wash the breakfast plates, put things away, etc., she puts her one bowl and spoon in the sink and walks away. Today, I let her have it.

The walk to school should only take about ten minutes, but with Maya and Jonah, it takes about twenty. And the last quarter of it is straight uphill. Often, we will take a taxi, and Maya wanted to today, but I wanted to save the goddamn dollar that it costs us, so we walked. Of course, Jonah refuses to walk the entire way so I had to carry him up the hill. I never enjoy it, but today I started berating Rebecca and myself (out loud) for thinking it was a good idea to not bring a stroller. I don't think there is a street that we've been on in Quito that I haven't carried Jonah down like he was some kind of royalty. When Jonah heard me muttering stuff about no stroller, etc, etc, he said, "I can walk now". Poor two-year old kid. I told him I wasn't mad at him, that it wasn't his fault, and that I would carry him. I deserved it.

After we dropped Maya off (Jonah goes to school on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday), Jonah and I went to Parque Carolina with his soccer ball. That was fun. Before we went back to pick Maya up, we stopped for a juice.

The menu said "Jugo - .40", but when I went to pay for two juices - it was $1.60. I told the woman that the menu says juice is 40 cents. That's with a meal, she said. I said, the menu doesn't say juice is forty cents only if you get it with a meal. It says juice is forty cents. Juice is 80 cents, the woman said. Whatever. I paid her. But it really pissed me off. As we walked away, I thought of all the great arguments I could make about why I was only paying her 80 cents, but I restrained myself from going back.

Of course, I only had $22 in my wallet at the time, and most of it was printed as a $20 bill. So, after paying $1.60 for juice, I didn't have enough in small bills and change to get into a taxi back to the school like I planned. You can't get in a taxi with a $20 bill for a $1 ride. There is no possible way the taxi driver will have change.

So, we had to get in the bus, which meant I had to carry Jonah to the bus stop and then carry him up the damn hill to the school again. And, we had no change for a taxi or the bus after we got Maya, so we had to walk home. Well, Maya and I walked. Jonah got carried. All because some woman thought it would be cute to double charge me for juice.

This happens all the time - the gringo tax. Usually it doesn't bother me that much to pay a few cents more. The other day, our taxi driver stopped for gas while he was supposed to be taking us home. I watched the meter tick up fifteen cents while he pumped. When we got to the apartment, he charged me the meter rate. I told him I was discounting it by the fifteen cents and he was fine with it. He drove away. If, he hadn't, I would have paid the meter, made a comment that it was a dirty trick, and forgotten about it. It was only fifteen cents. But today the price of juice festered in me.

As we walked home from the school and while we ate lunch, I started thinking of all the things that piss me off about this place. Like, you have to plan your day around breaking a $20 bill. There's only two places that I am sure will have change for that big a bill - the fruteria, the bank. Even the Ecovia, the city's biggest bus line, is hit or miss when you give them a twenty.

One time at the grocery store, I had to wait for three other customers to check out before the store could give me the correct change for my $20. And this was first thing in the morning when you think the register would be flush with change. At the time, it was no big deal to me. I have nothing to do all day. What's the rush. Part of the reason we are here is to escape the American philosophy that every thing needs to be done in a hurry. Today, having to wait for change would have pissed me off, I'm sure.

The fact that cars do not give pedestrians the right of way. Usually, no big deal. Keeps me on my toes. Today, this pissed me off. When I am by myself, I am much more aggressive in taking the right of way. Of course, with Maya and Jonah, I wait for a break in traffic (or, we cross at the signal). But, there are no extended breaks in traffic. So, invariably, we'll be halfway across the street and some fucker will be flying down the road at us. We've taken to saying "Run for your life" whenever this happens as we run across the street. The kids get a real kick out of it. And it really makes them move.

After lunch, Maya Jonah and I spent three bucks at the fruteria to make change for my $20, so we could take a $1 taxi ride to Parque Carolina. I wasn't going to take the bus because I was done carrying Jonah for the day.

And the park cooled me off. We went there to fly a kite. Maya was so excited. She kept running with the kite even when she didn't need too. When she ran, she kept getting the string tangled in the exercise equipment near us. She did finally get the hang of how to handle the kite and was pretty expert at it. She's amazing.

Jonah was happy to roll around in the grass and play with the loose screws on the exercise equipment until it was his turn to hold the kite. Then he would crash the thing into the ground.

They were both so damn excited and cute over the whole thing. It was a lot of fun.

On the taxi ride home from the park, Jonah remarked that when he grows up, he wants to be a taxi driver. I asked him why. His reply was, Because I want to move the stick back and forth (he was referring to the stick shift standard to the taxi industry here. Damn. I will be so proud of him if he follows through on that dream.