South American adventure

feliz navidad y año nuevo! we had a very busy last few weeks finishing up our work with CENIT, packing up and leaving our house and then going to the country with the Oñas for 4 nights and the 5 days of celebration. it was a Christmas very different from anything we have ever experienced. we left on the 23rd and i rode in the back of the truck with Jessie and Josh for a very bumpy 4 hours. we got there and went to Isinlivi, the town nearby and watched the selection of the new queen of Isinlivi, and the former queen Diana (neice of Clever, the father of the Oña family) hand over her title. the queen of the festivals reigns all year and does service projects for the children and elders of the surrounding area. after this ceremony was the first of 5 days of dances, a type called banda that is from here in Ecuador, it is an extremely loud music played by live bands, i found a lot of similarities to a marching band with the trombones and trumpets, and the bass which was the loudest of all. the sound systems that were not very good did not help with the way too loud sound. on the 24th al woke up early and helped slaughter the pig they had been raising to eat for christmas. he has an entirely new perspective on meat now and says that all meat eaters should have to pass this rite. i slept with earplugs and did not wake up until they were torching the pig later. i helped too and we all ate fried pork and mote for lunch. it was very good because it was so fresh. later in the evening we went to isinlivi for the 11pm Mass followed by a procession in which everyone held a candle as we walked in a group up to el calvario which is a nearby hill. there were dancers in costume including Daniel and Esteven, the boys of the Oña family. there were fireworks and when we reached the top of the hill we rested a moment and everyone was playing with sparklers. we all processed down the hill again and back to the church. then there was another dance which we did not attend but rested in the back of the truck until the bus left with our friends at 3am. jessie, andy and josh left for peru via Latacunga and Guayaquil at 3am and we were sad to see them go. we worked and lived with Jessie 4 months and grew close to her. she gave us each a bracelet she made with the colors of ecuador to remember our time here.

on the 25th we all woke up very late and went up to isinlivi for an entire day of dancing. by this time we were quite tired and our heads hurt so we rested a while in the truck but then it rained so we stayed inside and did not dance. i do not like much banda because the dance does not require much skill, it is just shuffling your feet with a partner facing you. i prefer salsa.

on the 26th we went up to isinlivi again for the toros (bulls) where there were competitions among the men of the town who could torrear (bullfight) better by untying the ribbon from the head of the bull. this was quite interesting to me and i was happy that they did not kill any of the cows, just anger them. the prize for getting the ribbon was 2 bottles of whiskey and a grilled pigs head mounted on a brightly colored rug.

on the 27th we washed the sheets by hand and packed up and drove by isinlivi on the way out for another day of bulls in which al went inside and did a few minutes of getting a little close to the bulls then running for cover up the fence like most of the men.  

i enjoyed talking with and spending the time with all the family members that were there of Clever and Pati. and the bugs were biting me more than ever, i have dozons of bites on my ankles that thankfully do not itch anymore.

on sunday night we returned to Quito again and stayed 2 nights with the Oñas at their house. on monday we went to the centro historico for the last time to walk the plazas and buy a few last minute things that are plentiful in Quito but in the smaller towns not so much. we ate lunch at Don Jimmys in Mercado Central which is Als favorite place to eat in Quito with the sea bass and shrimp ceviche. we made it back to the Oñas in time to help prepare a turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and rice. i told them a traditional turkey meal in the states does not include rice but the culture of eating rice with every meal here is too strong so we ate our turkey with mashed potatoes and rice verde which was made with spinich. we invited family members of the Oñas over and 25 people enjoyed a wonderful turkey good bye dinner with us. i played the guitar and we all sang christmas carols in spanish, al and i sang some of the same in english while they all listened fascinated. we toasted with wine (sweet for everyone else and dry for me) and Clever gave a few words about how it was a Christmas dinner and also a good bye dinner for us. they asked Al and I to say a few words and we thanked all of them for their welcoming us and their generosity. their grandmother was there and stayed the night and there were no more beds so they asked if i was ok sleeping in the same bed with her, a smaller twin bed. i agreed and thought it would be a rather sleepless night but it turned out to be fine. this morning we woke up early, ate left overs for breakfast and Clever drove us to the bus terminal where we had another sad good bye. i am sad to leave Quito, we have many friends there and so many good memories. but we will return, either before or for the big party for Katis 15th birthday (quinciñera) that is in 9 years. we hopefully can return before then though.

we arrived in Guayaquil today later this afternoon and made our way to the hotel. what luxury! we never stay in hotels. in a few hours we will go to the airport to receive Als sisters and then we are going in the jaccuzi with them and tomorrow we are off to the coast! Puerto Lopez here we come…

Happy New year everyone!

i cant believe that we only have a week and half left here in Quito. there are so many things we still want to do we have a list. this past week we spent sunday with the onas cooking and spending time with their family. we made cheese empanadas and coffee and then later in the night we returned back home. on monday i sang my new christmas songs with the CEA children and they loved it. on tuesday i went to vista para todos with a 9th grade girl for a topographic exam that took much longer than it should have because of the power outage we had to wait several hours for the doctor to arrive. on tuesday night we had a christmas party here where we made hot chocolate with peppermint and decorated cookies and made paper snowflakes to decorate the kitchen with snow since there is no snow here ever. it rains occasionally but often it is warm and sunny. it all depends on the sun, when it is out it is very warm when it is not it can get quite cold especially at night. my friend rianne gave me a pair of warm socks that i am very thankful for many nights.

on thursday night we did the questions for pub quiz at a bar in the mariscal. al read them in english and i read the trivia in spanish. friday morning i got to work early to take Nicole the girl in 9th grade for the contact lenses but she was not there because she is sick. so we will have to go next week. i am also training Evelise to continue my project after i leave and we have been having a lot of meetings to discuss exactly how i do the vision project. every few days this week i have also been running with increased mileage training for the 10K that we ran today. 8 km each day i ran last week was very tiring. on friday night we had a movie night we watched Love Actually with more hot chocolate and popcorn and some friends from the casa. early early saturday morning we took the Trole to Mercado Mayorista leaving the house about 6.30 and arriving at 7.30 to meet up with Pati and the Onas. we went to the market where every saturday morning they sell clothes and shoes very cheap. i finally bought shoes that i have been meaning to buy for weeks that are better for dancing. al bought a leather jacket and we bargained the price down quite a bit too. at the other market we bought guinea pig that is a delicacy here and we cooked them up with garlic, onion and served them with potatoes, a salsa with peanut butter and all on a bed of lettuce. i was a bit hesitant but very curious to try cuy (guinea pig) and it was actually very good, like no other meat i have tried. we stayed home with the children and let the parents go out for a baptism and party to follow and the children went to sleep early so we could sleep too. we spent the night at the onas and woke up at 5.40 this morning to get to the 10K race by 6.10 because it started at 7. by a miracle of sorts we met up with our friends before and after the race even though there were thousands of people running and we do not have a cell phone. we ran with Kai, our German friend until the last kilometer when he wanted to run really fast and i could not go any faster. my goal was to run the entire time and to finish in less than 1 hour and we did both so i am very happy. we finished in 59 minutes!

after the race Clever drove us to Benjamin and Carmens house, the brother of Pati where we visited and had breakfast. we made plans to go swimming next saturday morning which Al is very happy about finally getting to swim in Ecuador.

we are off to a late Mass right now because we were running this morning and we could not go earlier.

feliz navidad a todos

los cabellos son de oro

so here is the story of the last week thanksgiving dinner. we had to stay longer over at grupo game because the turkey was not finished cooking. we arrived here by taxi with al with the turkey on his lap. ... [Continue reading this entry]