Arriving of the Toros

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Time is moving forward, albeit slowly. Life has slowed down. My days have taken on an incredible simplicity that I find surprisingly easy to adapt to. I have more time alone inside my head than I have had in a while, maybe the most I have had in my life. Many things factor into this, the largest probably being the language barrier. I think I am probably improving, but it is slow-going and hard to gage. I am also learning that my simply being here will not necessarily improve my Spanish; I have to be actively involved in the improvement. It is all too easy to allow my thoughts to wander instead of intently listening to conversations among the people around me, even if I know they are talking about me. They often switch between Quichua and Spanish in a single conversation, which doesn’t make things easier.

Last week the family moved the cows to some of their land higher up in the mountains. I think this is where they will remain for the rest of the summer, which means a bigger hike to them twice a day now. On the evening that they moved them, there was a meeting with the community foundation that I am working with. I did not want to be 2 hours late again like the previous week, so I insisted on going to the meeting instead of accompanying them all the way to the new pasture. My ‘aunt’ Mercedes came with me. We arrived just before 6:30, so less than half hour late. Sure enough, the meeting once again did not start until shortly after 8. The timing here is truly absurd.

At the meeting, my counterpart, Manuel, asked if I knew about the meeting that had to do with tourism in Cuenca the next day. I had heard nothing about it, but I agreed to go with him. Cuenca is the 3rd largest city in Ecuador and is 2 hours away. I was actually looking forward to it because the meeting was with the organization Red Pakarinan, which a fellow volunteer and friend is working with. We planned to meet the following day at 11:30 in the town center of Zhud. I arrived in town at 11:30. He was nowhere to be seen, so I walked to his house. His father assured me he was home, and insisted I sit and rest while I waited. Everywhere I go, people insist I sit and rest. Half an hour later he finally appeared and we headed to the center to wait for a bus. Of course no buses seemed to be running this day, so we waited another half hour until one finally arrived. We were on the road around 12:45. The meeting was supposed to start at 2, and we had a 2 hour bus ride. This was around the time when I found out that the meeting was not actually in Cuenca; it was in Jima, which Manuel said was about half hour from Cuenca. However, we first had to go to the Red Pakarinan office in Cuenca to find out how to get to Jima.

We arrived at this office just before 3:30, and come to find out Jima is not half hour away, but actually an hour and a half. If we decided to go, we would be arriving 3 hours late. As we walked out of the office, I asked if we were really still going to go. Since we hadn’t yet eaten, he suggested we get some lunch first. I agreed. Over lunch, we decided it probably wasn’t worth it to go all the way there. We returned to the Red Pakarinan office and hung out for a while. I got to see my friend after all since she and the staff there also did not end up going, claiming they didn’t have a car that day to take. We later received a message from a volunteer who did attend, saying that we should be glad we didn’t make it. It was a 4 hour meeting which soon turned political and apparently the only thing they accomplished was setting up a time for another meeting. And so it goes.

Sunday was market day as usual, but also Mothers’ Day, which is surprisingly quite a big deal here. Rosa left early with her father and son to take their smaller pig to market to sell. This little piggy went to market… to sell in order to have some money to buy a new dresser for daughter Norma so that Hannah can have some room to put her clothes… I went a little later and met them with Rosa’s mother and Norma. Rosa’s parents went to the jail to have a quick visit with the wife-beater from the other weekend. Then it was consumerism fun-time for the next few hours. Rosa bought a necklace for herself for mothers’ day which is supposed to be from her husband who is currently living in the U.S., so he had her pick one out. They bought some pots, socks, and finally lots of produce for the week. I made one purchase that day… a hat! I had had my heart set on a traditional hat from this area. However, my head is just too damn intelligent (big). None of the traditional women’s hats fit my bursting brain, so now I am more of a cowgirl. I think I can rock it. I wore it the other day and ran into my counterpart. I asked him if he liked my new hat. He assured me it was fine, then with a giggle said I looked like a Columbian ‘vaquero,’ a.k.a. cowboy. I’ll take it.

We returned mid to late afternoon and went up to take care of the cows. Upon arrival, I saw we had a new one. The super-pregnant cow was no longer pregnant, and there was now a baby toro hanging out in the grass. I missed the birth, but I think I saw his first steps. I like him. There is one other pregnant cow. She will give birth in the next few weeks. Then we will have 3 cows to milk. I’ve been practicing, but it’s not all that easy.

I washed my clothes again the other day on the wooden slab. It takes me forever to wash not that many clothes. I suppose it does get them pretty clean, especially socks. We hang them up outside. There is a special way to hang everything, otherwise it will blow away. The wind here is getting more and more intense. As I was finishing up, Rosa’s sister arrived with 2 chickens and went in the house. Rosa followed, and returned a short while later, announcing they had just killed the chickens and were going to cook them up. Sure enough, we had chicken for lunch. After lunch, I noticed a bowl of red liquid sitting on the counter. Rosa confirmed it was chicken blood. The next day at lunch, they cooked this up with some onions and I was able to sample congealed chicken blood. It wasn’t terrible, but it was rather difficult to get over the fact that I was eating straight-up chicken blood.

I helped harvest some more potatoes the other day. I enjoy digging around in the dirt. Then they always bring big picnics out for lunch. This was an especially good one because it involved black beans, and black beans are good. My 3 year old ‘nephew’ was out with us for the day. Kids can do anything they want here. He started playing with a machete after lunch, and because nothing is off-limits to kids here, they didn’t stop him. Here is this 3 year old, swinging around a machete. I could barely watch, especially when he started approaching the dog lying in the grass. Nothing happened, so I guess it’s all good.

Since there are no limits for children, it means I have to be very careful to lock my door if I am going to be gone and there is any chance the 3 yr. old will be in the house. The other day I neglected to do this, and I returned to find my computer taken out and a few other things misplaced. His mother came in my room and asked if he had touched anything; then she reiterated that I should lock my door when I leave since he’s just a kid and will get into my stuff… (or maybe you could not allow him in my room?) At least I have a lock to use.

One other piece of exciting news I suppose: my ‘uncle’ installed a bathroom door the other day. Instead of just a shower curtain, we now have a real wooden door with a lock. I suppose it’s a good thing, though I had grown accustomed to our nice, maude-colored shower curtain. I think I’ll adjust to having a door pretty quickly.

In addition to harvesting potatoes, I have also planted potatoes as of now. Yesterday I spent the day with my counterpart and other members of the community planting a field. The field was up, up, up. I went with my counterpart, who basically sprinted up this mountain. I had no choice but attempt to follow. It was brutal, but somehow I made it. It was a cold and rainy day, so there were lots of breaks when the rain fell too hard and along with the breaks came the homemade liquor to ‘keep us warm.’ I also participated in the first lunch where they put down a big cloth and pour all the food onto the table, then you use your hand or spoon to scoop it up. I was freezing and ready to go home by the end of the day. We all hiked down together, which was also interesting seeing as it had been raining all day and the path was fairly steep and muddy at times. Everyone else was incredibly nonchalant about it, while I’m in the very back trying my very best not to be the only one to fall on their ass. Mission successful; I made it all the way without falling.

I also have a new nightly activity which I am torn about. Lately the days have been long enough that I wouldn’t mind just being in my house for the evening. However, there is a new club of women and then my counterpart who are teaching/learning certain traditional crafts. This little club is meeting every weekday 5-7 and Sunday afternoons as well. Holy time commitment. I have gone to a few now and learned how to tie a knot, spin some string, and use one of the big wooden weaving contraptions. I really enjoyed some of it, though I am by no means a natural when it comes to these sorts of things. And the pressure is on because they all want to see the gringa try things and someone there has a camera so the kids insist on constantly taking pictures of me, which I do my best to ignore.

Since I started this entry, the other calf was born. Now we’ve got one that is a few months old as well as one that is a week old and one that is a day old. They are all little boys and all appear to be quite healthy. I missed this birth as well due to attending craft night which I was semi-disappointed about.

However, I did finally try cuy (guinea pig) today. It was quite anti-climatic. Rosa served me my lunch. We rarely ever eat meat here, but there were 3 small chunks on my plate. She pointed them out as beef, chicken, and cuy. Dig in. It was decent. Check it off the list.

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