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Published: November 15th 2008
After our band practice in the evening of the 30th of October, where I left off last, I returned home feeling topsy turvy with an upset stomach... After a tossing and turning night's sleep, no breakfast (due to not feeling all that well) and a rocky bus ride to Quito, I was very happy to meet up with my Uncle David at the University of San Fransisco in Quito and by that time, was feeling quite hungry! After a nice tasty meal and conversation in the quiet room of the dining hall, on our way out my stomach had other ideas about the food and without too many details, I lost my lunch, luckily there was a garbage can right by the door and I did not have to soil the spotless University floor! :P I hope this will be the only time the food doesn't agree with me (I know that the culprit was a bad potato, and I know exactly which one it was, I was having second thoughts about putting it in my mouth but the glutonous side of me insisted and so things ended the way they did!)
So I missed the University tour, have to leave
that for the next time I visit, but I did get to speak for a nice long time to my dear family all the way across the world! And then we returned home for a nice long nap, a luxury I cannot indulge in at home becuase my dear family and neighbors always want to play with me! Later that day Elan came over, bringing a big bag of treats for Uncle David, specially brought from Canada, including Licorice spice tea (which is incredibly good!) and an amazing Australian invention called Tim Tams. A simple, two-layer biscuit with chocolate in between and coated with milk chocolate. Very simple and delicious on its own. HOWEVER, during breakfast of the 1st of November, I discovered THE MOST DELICIOUS combination... You bite off both ends of the cookie, then dip it in hot coffee and suck on the end so that the coffee permeates the cookie, melting the chocolate inside and then eat it. I cannot describe the bliss of that morsel!
Later that day I traveled to Ipiales, a town/city just over the border in Colombia. It was amazing to me not to be stopped by police or have my passport checked,
one minute I was in Ecuador and the next I was in Colombia and it felt like no change at all!!! There is a border, but they do not pay any special attention to who comes in and out. Late that night (around 12) I returned to my humble Otavalo home and had the pleasure to host my dear Uncle David in my humble abode, with a toilet (but no toilet seat) and the constant flowing water. But this brings me to say that although my house may seem poor and humble and not very pretty to look at, I am very thankful to have a toilet inside the house and not an outhouse like my neighbors, I am thankful to have hot water and a stove and kitchen sink, I am happy to have shoes and clothes and the use of my family's laundry machine. This is a lot more than many people here in Otavalo have and I give thanks to God every day for what I have been provided with, not only materially but spiritually with the support of everyone both here and my family and friends all over.
On sunday the 2nd I dressed up
as an indigena (indigenous woman), with all the jewelry, shoes, clothes and hair style and went with a Bahá'í indigenous family to the cemetary to celebrate the "day of the dead", where I ate a lot of the local traditional food, a lot of fruit and generally the favorite food of the dead. It was a wonderful experience, unforgettable and they can't wait to dress me up again! (To tell the truth, I can't either!) We then visited the San Pablo lake about 20 minute from Otavalo and played soccer with a beautiful view until it started to rain and we indulged ourselves with fresh lake fish lunch accompanied by empanadas, patacones (fried green mushed banana) and tostada and then returned back to Otavalo to celebrate Joselito's 21st birthday, with lots of games, dancing and general fun.
ON the 3rd we had a feast at the Bahá'í Institute, with a meal all together afterwards and generally fun and games and lots of dancing San Juan. Everyone is always so upbeat and happy it is incredible! In all the time here so far, I have never felt angry or extremely upset with anyone or anything, life is so easy-going and free
that you don't get caught up in the stress of the things like in Europe or the USA.
Generally in school these days we are practicing for a spelling bee, with the younger students being shown pictures and having to say what the image is rather than spell words, and the highschool students (10-12th grade) also having to give a meaning of the word. It is a lot of fun to watch and help the students. Aside from that, I have also been busy helping to give children's classes, junior youth classes, attending devotionals, and preparing things for the conference that will be taking place in Quito later this month and for which we will be playing a piece of music (me on the bass) and a special indigenous dance (which I might be participating in, I am not sure yet because based on my looks, I will stick out like a sore thumb...)
I have adopted the saying "Beauty dies where litter lies" and so have become famous in the school for picking up the garbage lying around. It is really sad for me to see people throwing away so much and not caring about the natural beauty
of the area.
On Friday the 7th Kendy had his second birthday, and we had a small family party for him, with a cake and when José Luis (father) entered with the cake (unfortunately I was not there) Kendy ran around the house saying quick, come and and sing Happy Birthday Kendy! and he blew out the candle almost as soon as we lit it, not bothering to wait for the song to star tor finish! He is so adorable!
ON Saturday the 8th I accompanied another group of junior youth to the Peguche waterfall and had a wonderful time yet again, although this time the river was more overflowing than usual due to rains the day before... And with a crazy hyper group of 16 JY and two adult supervisors (of which I was the one...) we had a rough time trying to keep the kids in line and away from dangerous activities!
ON Sunday we had a cluster reflexion meeting, with a lot of emphasis on teaching the faith and the goals for this teaching period, how many people we want to finish each book, how many children's classes and JY classes we want to have, how many
new tutors and a projected amount of new Bahá'ís in the community. I am proud to say that later that same day I joined a soccer team, which is playing in a tournament at the moment and I was a prime player, playing the whole 90 minutes, even though it was the first time I was meeting my team mates and coach! It was great fun, but the women here use their bodies WAY more, and I got pushed around a lot. The problem was that I could not push back becuase my arm was a the level of their heads and I did not want to give anyone a concussion! 😊 That is not the only reason I don't push. :P
On Tuesday the 11th we had a wonderful celebration for the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh, attended by about 100 people! It was incredible, Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís joined together for a happy celebration with explanations of the day, a long devotional program and lots of prepared music and dance (our band played 4 songs) and I helped serving the food which just lasted for everyone, we were not planning to have so many people! Wih Geoconda (my mom) and Eli,
the woman who works in the school bar, we made empanadas and had to give a half to every person because there were not enough to go around!
On the 12th we had the day off school and some of the women of the community, my mom Geoconda, Fabiola, Lucita and Mery Perugachi, Fabiola Molina, Claudia and children Yazid, Dagmar and Kendy and me of course, had a ownderful day all together. IN the morning we all just relaxed at our house, talking and trying to decide whether we wanted to cook and eat all together or go out for lunch instead. We ended up going out for a seafood lunch, which was amazingly tasty. We ordered and shared dishes of fish soup, paella (a rice dish) with all kinds of seafood, shrimp, muscles, pieces of fish, squid, and bits of octopus and also fish filets with a side of rice. These came with bowls of popcorn and chifles, which are fried thin bits like ships of unripe green bananas. Although it might sound gross, it is very good. Also avocado and fried ripe banana came with the rice dishes. After lunch we were planning to take the children to
the park to play but we were all kind of tired and Claudia wanted to change her shoas (she was wearing heels) so we ended up at Claudia's house and stayed there wiped out on the couch watching a movie and eating a fruit/ice cream/ whipped cream salad and I painted people's nails. We all then made it back to the Institute for children's classes but nobody showed up, so we spontaneously decided to buy a cake a visit a family (Bahá'í) who's daughter Soy had a birthday that day. It was a lot of fun and the family was very appreciative of the gesture and we all had a wonderful time, also trying to find a name for the newest addition to the family, who we all insisted should be called Badí becuase it really is an incredible baby!
We made it back home around 7.00 just in time to have dinner with the father of my family José Luis before he had to go off for a meeting and then Geoconda, Fabiola Molina and I sat around painting nails and having fun talking until we were all too tired to do anything else and so we ended our
day off!
ON the 13th and 14th I participated in a direct teaching campaign. The first was to a 17 year-old student at the school (and one of my higher level English students!) and resulted in a declaration, for which we were all really excited and happy! The second was to a young conservative Christian fellow English teacher, Lisbeth at the school, who although did not declare, was very interested in the Faith and wanted to learn more since she is working in a Bahá'í school. I have been appointed coordinator of one of the five Otavalo teaching groups, and we are organizing going out to do direct teaching with certain people who have specially asked to be taught the faith. We have a very useful tool here, It is basically all of Anna's presentation in the form of a little book or calendar, with pictures and quotes from the Writings or prayers to help the person understand more fully the concepts of the faith. A very practical tool with guidelines on the back pages for the speaker if you forget your train of thought. Also this weekend coming up I will be very busy participating in an intesive
book 1 course, helping to tutor and have another soccer game on Sunday, this time I will be more prepared and know what to expect!
Eli who works in the bar at school and I have become very good friends and everyone knows that when I am not in classes or picking up garbage out in the yard, I am in the bar talking to Eli and her sister Gloria. And they are both so generous, I first entered the bar at Eli's invitation becuase she felt sorry for me that during one of the breaks everyone was eating except me. So she called me in and wouldn't listen to me when I said that I had already eaten, she insisted on feeding me and since then I always get a free (she insistes on that!) dish of food, or some juice or special pastry delicacy. The only way to avoid it is to avoid the bar altogether! In return, I always help during the breaks, serving food, selling juice, sandwiches, chips, yoghurt, and anything else we have in the bar. But becuase I help in the bar, they always want to give me more since I am not
being paid for what to them is work and to me is fun! So recently I have been getting full course meals to take home for lunch and dinner after school and Eli always says when I won't accept something from her that if it is becuase I am afraid of putting on a bit of weight I have nothing to worry about, becuase apparently according to them I have the waist of a ring and they want to fatten and warm me up a bit! If I end up leaving here a bit on the heavier side of how I entered the country I know why that will be so... But it is great to have a good friend like that, we laugh a lot and share a lot in our time together in the bar.
On that note, I will leave you all with many hugs and kisses and lots of love and tranquil thoughts!
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kim
non-member comment
wow!
YOU GO GIRL! you look gorgeous in the outfit! make sure to get your own and bring back ey so we can see you up close! everything sounds so amazing! so incredibly happy for you! lots of love and support from humble leicester! hugs and kisses sis! kim