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Don�t blame Ecuador, exchange student says By Melissa Martin Ecuador is a peaceful land of friendly people who greet each other with a hug and kiss, says an exchange student from the country�s capital. Yet criminals living in the remote jungle region near the Colombia border are giving this tranquil nation a reputation for violence. "We are an easy people and we don�t have any problems with anybody," says 18-year-old Sandra Padilla, a student at South Medford High School. "The kidnappers were Colombian people, but it happened in my country and I�m really sad about it. Sure it happened in Ecuador, and people think it�s my people, and it really hurts. I don�t want to blame the Colombian people. I don�t know why anybody would do that." Padilla arrived in Medford in August for a 10-month Rotary Club exchange program. She graduated from Colegio de America in Quito last year and will begin college when she returns from Oregon. The daughter of a civil engineer and a retired paper plant executive, Padilla says she feels safe enough in Ecuador to walk home from a friend�s house at 10 or 11 at night. "Of course, in every part of the world you will have thieves and kidnappings," she says. Quito is a city of 3 million people but only two McDonald�s restaurants. Foreigners discover that it takes time for their bodies to adjust � even producing more blood � to living at 5,000 feet, an altitude nearly as high as Mount Ashland. "We are a really close people," Padilla says. "We give hugs with everybody. We are a trusting people. It�s hard to find someone that is like a bad person, so that�s why we hug each other." Her country is beautiful, she says, known for its towering Andes Mountains as well as the Galapagos Islands 600 miles off the Ecuadorean coast. Padilla traveled to the Pacific Ocean islands for a school trip when she was 11 and saw penguins and sharks, she says. "It was an experience that you never forget," she says. Where she hasn�t traveled is the frontier of Ecuador, the remote, roadless, jungle region near the Colombia border. "Colombia has some serious problems with drugs, bad people, kidnappings. If you go there, you are not safe. That region is kind of scary. You can�t cross the frontier at night." While she�s been out of her country, the government of Ecuador officially switched currency to the American dollar from the sucre last September. She also missed one of her favorite holidays, Carnival, a milder version of Mardi Gras, which closed schools and workplaces last Monday and Tuesday. "The point of the holiday is to get people wet, using mostly water, but sometimes eggs and flour," Padilla says. "It�s really fun when you are with your friends at school and somebody pours a bottle of water on your head and you have to walk around wet for the rest of the day." What she didn�t miss was the news accounts of 40 gunmen who stormed oil camps in the frontier jungle last October and abducted 10 workers, including three from Gold Hill. After spending 140 days in captivity, the men were released Thursday. "I was really glad and happy to hear of their release," she says. "I can�t imagine how the family is. The kidnapping was so horrible. It wasn�t my people." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.