Here's the view on our ride to Zuleta (taken while sitting in the back bed of a truck)
Monday:
3 of the professors from UW that are working on the Wisconsin without borders project that set up our internship have come to ecuador to visit the site.
Today was also Independence Day for the city of Cotacachi! They celebrate similarly to how we do in the states, with a large parade! The people in the parad e are mostly schools from all of the surrounding towns. They play their instruments and dance through the streets! Even the fire department comes out!
After observing the parade we got to work and started discussing the order of jewelry that the women are going to put together for the professors to bring back to the Wisconsin.
We worked for quite a while and then I went into town with 2 of the professors for a snack break (ice cream) and to grab groceries for dinner. One of the professors made chicken with wine sauce for dinner which was delicious and so flavorful!
When we got back we did a little more work and then hit the hay after a long day!
Also, 2 of the professors don't speak Spanish so I have gotten to do a lot of translating, which has been helping me improve my Spanish!
Part of the Independence Day parade! Lots of different groups and schools participated in the parade- dancing, twirling sticks and playing instruments!
Tuesday:
The professors wanted to see where the women buy their beads, so we took a trip in the morning to Otavalo. We spent quite a bit of time in the bead shop and also searching for other supplies we needed in Otavalo. It was my third visit to the bead shop that week so I've become best friends with the guy who runs the shop!
We ate lunch at a pizza place that was actually pretty tasty! We went to the plaza to do a little shopping and then back to Otavalo! Back at floras home the women were working and then able to make some more necklaces with the beads we bought in Otavalo!
We had dinner at floras and then played some card games with Alia before heading to sleep!
A new view found in Otavalo.
Wednesday:
One of the professors had read that in a near by town there were a lot of specialty shops and workshops of women who do embroidery. The town was called Zuleta and it was beautiful! Very tucked away in the mountains, but such a gorgeous drive up there. It took us about two hours to get up there and unfortunately the place we had in mind that we were going to visit was private property (a super fancy "hacienda" hostel type place). The man working was nice enough to open up the embroidery shop for us to look around. Flora and Marisol came with us and we're interested to see this type of work. Unfortunately, there weren't many other places to check out in Zuleta, so we headed back down the mountains to la Calera (with a stop in Ibarra for lunch!) I got to ride in the back of the truck on the way back which made for some beautiful pictures!
Back in la Calera we worked on some orders, played Go Fish with Alia and then the professors said their good byes and headed back to the states!
That evening I spent some time with Camila. She had wanted to paint my nails a few days ago and I told her she could.. Until she told me she would with her marker. I said no no no. I bought some nail polish when I went to Otavalo and surprised her with it and she was so excited. I let her paint my toe nails, and she also managed to paint my toes too. She's not one to stay inside the lines. It was also red Polish so it currently looks like my toes are bleeding. But no worries. She was so excited to have painted my toes nailed she dragged me around the house to show her siblings and parents her grand master piece on my toes.
The group in Zuleta
Camila painted my toes (yes, nails and toes)
Thursday:
Keenan and I went to Otavalo this morning to pick up an order we had placed for some new beads. We had to wait a while for the owner to get there but when he came he had everything we needed! We went back tonal Calera for lunch, which I had a yummy soup with quinoa, potatoes, avocados and tostados- I've had a lot of soup here, this one has been my favorite. Then after lunch, we got to work on the new designs, which was a lot of fun to work on!
I went home for dinner which was another type of soup, and after dinner I talked to Marisol and her husband Byron for a while about traditional weddings in their community! It was so interesting to learn about some thought I would fill you in as well!
When proposing, the man brings a ton of food and beer to the girl's parents house to ask for her hand.
There are 3 days of celebrating
1. House of the dad of the groom
2. House of the girl
3. House of the godparents
When you bring gifts for the bride and groom on their wedding day, also bring beer for the dad and eggs or flour or rice for the mom, also you can give gifts to the godparents if you know them.
The day after the wedding the godparents of the bride and groom wash the couples face with flowers and ortiga and water. They make a cross with 3 flowers and ortiga and wash/hit their face with that. Ortiga is the stinging nettle plant that people slapped me with during the bathing ritual- I can't imagine that feeling good on your face.
The bride wears a traditional white blouse and white anako and the groom wears all white with a blue or black poncho.
Weddings are a big thing here! People usually get married young. Marisol and Byron got married when they were 21 but they said some people get married at ages 14 and up!
So interesting to learn about traditions in other cultures!
Also, on our walk back from Cotacachi, Keenan and I got a little lost/ took some back "roads" (actually grass paths) to get back to la Calera. Saw some of my favore ex-pat houses from the back and was amazed! There are 500+ Americans living in Cotacachi, mostly people who have retired, and they live in beautiful houses!
Friday:
We worked for most of the day! We made some new designs and I created a cost formula so the women would know the material costs of how much they would need to spend and how much of each bead they would need when an order comes in!
Our work schedule is not your average 9-5. That is the interesting and wonderful thing about microenterprise work. It's on your own schedule. The women work when they want to, so I've had to be pretty flexible with when I'm available (not that I have plans or anything..) We usually work for maybe an hour in the morning and then have lunch and start back up around 2:30 and then often work until 7 in the evening, depending on how the women are feeling.
I'll also tell you about the food that I've been eatting!
The la Calera diet (that I eat) consists of rice (not as much as the coast though), potatoes, chicken, And lots of soup!
The soup usually has veggies, broth, potatoes, sometimes noodles, sometimes avocado, sometimes tostados.
As for drinking, juices are also really popular here. Lots of blackberry juice which is outstanding, and Marisol often makes me fresh squeezed OJ which I love. Coladas are also popular, they are warm juice that is a little thicker, you use a spoon to drink. Flora made a passion fruit one and a blackberry one which were great. We also have had some fresh popped popcorn the past few days which I absolutely loved.
Here's my fave soup!
Saturday:
Today I received my last rabies vaccine, and now that I am in bed writing this I can finally say that it went smoothly with absolutely no problems (finally!!). I had a driver pick me up at 7am this morning and we went straight to the hospital metropolitano in Quito. We got there by 9:15, I waited for about an hour, a nurse came in and gave me the vaccine, I paid and we left to go back to la Calera.
Hooray! I'm done!
I was home by 1pm for a wonderful lunch of my favorite soup with the family.
I wanted to do some walking (and get ice cream) so I headed over to Cotacachi and Keenan joined me. We were also joined by floras dogs. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in another post, but her dogs follow her or us everywhere we go. They accompanied us on a 40 minute walk to cotacachi and even walked around cotacachi with us and they always manage to find their way back home by themselves. They have even followed us out of la calera when we were in a cat, they run behind the car until they can't run anymore. They walk with me to the bread store and wait outside the store while I get bread. They are gaurd dogs to the max.
I got coffee flavored ice cream from my favorite suppliers along with a homemade peanut butter cup which was delish and then just did a little shopping in the leather district of Cotacachi. I also stopped by floras little market set up where she sells shirts and her jewelry. I ended up watching over her spot for about 40 minutes while she left to go talk to someone. A few people asked for prices on things and I had no idea so I just made up prices! I think I aimed too high with the prices because no one ended up buying anything.
I walked home and then went to dinner at Keenan's home stay because it was his host sisters first communion that day and they were having a big feast to celebrate and they invited me over. There were a lot of people! Keenan is living with floras son, Luis, and his wife, ester, and their two daughters, Helen and jade. It was fun to get to talk to new people and converse about different things! I also spent some time playing with floras brothers daughter Alia, 7. I painted her nails and we played some hand games, she was adorable. We are good food and even had cake! Then headed back home to sleep.
Sunday:
Today was lovely. I had been wanting to go to this like called cuicocha and when I was at Keenan's house last night for dinner, Marco, floras brother said he was going with his daughter Alia today in the AM, so I asked if I could tag along and he said of course.
He picked me up around 8:00 and we drove up the mountains to this large crater lake with floating islands inside the lake. The reason Marco and Alia were going was to watch the annual swimming competition there. It was super cool to see! The swimmers were so intense and the water so so cold that when they completed the race they were carried inside wrapped in blankets, sometimes on a stretcher, and placed next to the fireplace and given chocolates and cinnimion tea. I had some of the tea and it warned my soul- I was cold just looking at these people. After watching the race and admiring the beauty of the lake and mountains we headed back because there was a special event happening in la Calera today.
It was the inaugural opening day of soccer and also the festival to celebrate planting season! To celebrate this, there is a huge parade through the town of la calera (BC that is where the tournament is) but teams come from all over the region to compete. There were cows, little girls dancing, all the teams in their uniforms with little kids dressed in uniforms too, and a woman with each team carrying flowers. We watched the parade and at one point Camila and I jumped in and headed towards the soccer field. At the field, all of the teams lined up and lots of speeches were given and then finally they started to play!
I walked with Camila back to the house for lunch, we actually are at grandmas house today which was fun to chat with marisols sister, Marlena- she also shared a REESES CUP with me because someone sent her a bag from the states. It was heaven. I went back to the field with my host fam later and watched some more games of soccer. I also met a guy from Norway. He was the first gringo I've seen in la calera so I was curious what he was doing here and I also love making friends. It was fun talking to someone in English! And learning about Norway!
The sun was setting so I headed back for dinner. Again, we are at grandmas, but this time the whole family was there! It was like my first weekend there when it was Father's Day. It was so fun to eat with the big group. I also helped cook empanadas which turned out great! I had my Spanish playlist going and we were singing, joking around and making fried dough and it was a blast- a moment I'll always relish. They said they have a big family and it keeps growing- and I said, yeah you even have a gringo now :) they laughed and hugged me and the little girls hugged me so tight I no I am going to struggle leaving next week.
Lake cuicocha and the floating islands
With Marco and Alia
Futbol!!
Parading for soccer- little girls dressed up - Alia and jade in the middle representing the sun, which is representative of planting season
Lots of empanadas con Carmen
The chiquitas and Mateo
The nicest people you'll ever meet
Rebecca
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