My wife and I were living in Ecuador on Sept. 11, 2001. We overheard our landlady talking on the phone that morning, just bits and pieces about bombs and the United States. Because of my perspective and where I was living at the time, I assumed the US embassy in Ecuador had been bombed. So we turned on the television and watched. . .
Helplessly we watched. . .
Two US citizens living in South America, totally out of touch with their families, and their country. We knew something was changing that day, but had no idea the scope of change.
We turned on the TV in our little apartment and watched footage from CNN (the local Ecuadorian stations were pirating CNN footage and then just speaking Spanish over the top of it, so if you listened carefully you could hear the English behind the Spanish.)
We sat there in shock and just watched. It is strange to feel like you are part of the US, but not be in the US when such a traumatic event is happening. I am sure other ex-pats living abroad at the time had similar feelings.
We called our families to make sure they were ok. Everyone on the other end of the line was in shock, disbelief. So were we, but we were stuck in Ecuador.
My mom asked us if we thought we should come home "to be safe." It was kind of funny, because we want to be close and turn inwards in a situation like that. But there weren't any terrorists flying airplanes into buildings in Ecuador. We were "safer" in Cuenca, Ecuador than we would have been in the United States on that day.
After a half day of watching gut-wrenching news footage with the TV muted, we left our apartment and wandered into the center of town to grab dinner. There weren't a ton of foreigners living in Cuenca, so we always stood out and people always knew us as "that really tall American couple." As we walked into town, complete stangers (at least strangers to us) walked up to us and asked us if we were ok, if our families were ok. We were treated almost like royalty for the days following Sept. 11.
We decided to eat at a restaurant called "New York Pizza." There was even a drawing of the New York skyline on their sign and their pizza boxes that included the twin towers. The owners were Ecuadorian but had lived in New York for years and then moved back to Ecuador to open the restaurant.
As we sat there, watching more news footage (this time in English because New York Pizza had satelite television) more people came up to us and asked us how we were doing. Those that didn't come right up to us stared at us, or looked at us with sympathy and even solidarity in their eyes.
We walked back to our apartment in a daze. I don't think we had any idea what kind of a long-term impact this would have on our country, our "homeland."
We spent weeks processing it. It would occasionaly slip from our conciousness because of where we were, but then it would be brought back by seeing a paper or watching the news.
I think the first time we really "mourned" was watching one of the telethons following the attacks. It was 10 days afterwards, the "America - A Tribute to Heros" broadcast. It was showing live on every channel in Ecuador. When Neil Young began to sing "Imagine" we just cried and held each other. I still get misty-eyed thinking about that moment.
I still think Jessica and I have a little bit of a disconnect from the events of that day. I am so grateful that we shared the experience together. It would have been even tougher to suffer through it alone.
I think this is the first time I have written down my reflections of that day, where we were, and what it did to us.
My inspiration for writing this blog post was from watching a video yesterday. The first "Daily Show with John Stewart" broadcast following Sept. 11. I listened to John Stewart's reflections and began thinking about my own experience with that day.
Below is a link to the video. The first 8 minutes are amazingly profound. I hope this means as much to you as it meant to me after watching it.
http://www.bangitout.com/videos/viewvideo.php?a=1463
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