Today, we took our time in the morning because we had a "free day" and didn't have to get up at any particular time. We planned to sleep in and go at 10:00 am. Good thing, because last night was a late night. We did our best to make sure everyone was in their rooms by 11:00 pm - pretty successful at that, however, at around 11:30 am, the girls came out of their room - screaming. I got out of bed to investigate and discovered that there was a fire burning outside the center property, on the street near a dumpster. Since it wasn't on the property, we figured that it wasn't anything to worry about. Later, the police showed up, pushed it away from the dumpster and left. No fire department response.
So, needless to say, people did not go to bed at a reasonable hour.
This morning, we also found out that one of the kids from the St. Peter's Prep group was sick, so his chaperones, Mike and Tom wanted to let him sleep in a bit this morning. When everyone was ready to go, all 22 of us jumped on the Mitad del Mundo bus and took a 25 minute ride to the museum.
There are two museums dedicated to the equator. The one we attended is called IntiNañ and is the indigenous focused museum so there are displays about things that would be found in the Amazon.
[I had started writing this on our last day in Ecuador and lost motivation! So sorry. Now, I will just pick up where I had left off].
Here's the group at the entrance. This open air museum features demos and experiments about the magnetic forces on the equator. This next series of videos is my favorite.
On the equator, water goes straight down.
In the Southern Hemisphere (she moved the basin south of the line), water goes clockwise. She uses the leaves so that you can see the effect better.
Then, she moved the basin north of the line to the Northern Hemisphere...and guess what? Water goes counter-clockwise!
Some other interesting facts about the equator - there is always (year-round) 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night; it is almost physically impossible to walk in s straight line with your eyes closed on the equator, and it's very hard to resist force (the experiment we did was to clasp our two hands above our heads, another person was to pull them down - it was easy to resist in either the northern or southern hemisphere, but darn near impossible on the equator).
Also at this museum, there are alpacas! Alpacas are smaller than llamas, as the diagram shows. They are cousins and often confused. What we saw were definitely alpacas! (many of our blankets and jackets purchased at Otavalo are made with alpaca fleece).
After leaving the museum, following a tip from the Fordham Prep chaperone, Pierre, we ventured to Fiambre's Restaurant about 100 m from the museum. This restaurant had been featured on Andrew Zimmern's "Bizarre Foods" show on the Travel Channel.
Here is the link to the show, in case you are interested:
When we approached the fine dining establishment, this was our view and we were greeted by the smell of campfire and roast pig. See the guinea pigs (cuyes) on the sticks??
We ordered two for our group. The idea was to give everyone a taste. This is how they were served, cut into 6 pieces, two hind quarters, a head, the torso and two front quarters, on a bed of lettuce with a slice of avocado.
Looks like we enjoyed it! They are very low in fat, also don't have much meat, but are quite flavorful.
Reece and Justin trying to get at the brain. Finally, they succeeded - Nora, Justin and Eva ate some. They said it tasted like cheese. During the rest of the meal, they kept trying to figure out which type of cheese it most resembled.
Out back, they kept rabbits (conejos) and guinea pigs (cuyes). If you are someone famous like Andrew Zimmern, you get to choose which cuy you'd like to eat! I am so glad that they didn't give us that option!
All the kids tried it - some liked it better than others. Ella swore that she would become vegan following this trip!
When we returned to the CMT#2, the girls from Dallas had decorated the dining room for Fourth of July. We had hot dogs, french fries and black beans for dinner - about as authentic as you can get in Ecuador!
Group 2 helped pull weeds with Juan and Marisol who are preparing to build a house on their lot in one year. They had already completed weeding 80 percent of the 30 x 60 square foot lot. Juan and Marisol have two daughters, Emily (5) and Lucy (3), Juan is an auto mechanic and Marisol works in sales at the CMT textiles shop, the girls attend CMT #2 school. The lot cost Juan and Marisol $20,000 and they are still saving to build the house which will cost approximately $40,000.
They are a disciplined, hard working, and loving parents, CMT/Ecuadorian success story.
Parents would be proud of how hard the girls worked today wielding hoes and digging with shovels!
The gentleman speaking with Marisol is blind, he lent her extra tools.
This is Lucas, the neighbor's adorable Golden Retriever.
Ella finally pulled out the aloe plant.
Natalie and Lauren playing with Lucas...
Great job cleaning the yard!
Time to go back home - Juan pushing Emily and Lucy in the wheelbarrow...
We attended 5pm Mass at Divino Nino Church a Franciscan Community.
The sky walking back from church...
Tonight Sabrina and I made a Spanish Tortilla for dinner...
Nora made a delicious Bolivian casserole for dinner...
Everyone else had Domino's pizza delivered and loved it!
When faced with tough physical work around the house, the average American takes the subconscious action to hire help. Contrary to the United States, for the people in Ecuador this kind of help is not as easily accessible or affordable. Instead of hired help, indigenous people participate in an act called "Minga". The Minga is collaborative work in which friends and neighbors volunteer their time, effort, and sometimes funds to achieve a shared goal for the betterment of the community or themselves.
Today our group participated in a Minga. We took the public bus (a very cultural experience) and arrived at the location about 20 minutes away from the center. We walked to a house in an urban neighborhood and split into two groups. The smaller group stayed at the house and helped move sand and rocks. The larger group walked a few blocks to a lot filled with weeds and had to clear them all out for the family to make their home this coming year. Both jobs were long and tiring, but an enlightening experience where we learned the value of teamwork. Four hours later we headed back on an extremely crowded bus. After battling to stand securely while traveling through steep terrain, and holding on to our personal belongings for our dear lives, we made it back to the center. We were filthy and took showers, in preparation for mass later in the day. After attending mass in Spanish, we ordered pizza at the house. The pizza was a nice treat after a two weeks of non-american food - it tasted the same but lacked sauce. We had a great day, and an even better two weeks! See you in two days!
Today was our minga day. Minga means "work gang" in Quecha, a native language in Ecuador. The families who participate at the Working Boys Center all agree to help each other with building projects at their homes. Because everyone works 6 days a week, Sunday is always "minga day".
We met Hugo this morning at 7:30 am. He took us to a neighborhood called, Pusilí on a city bus. When we arrived at their front gate, Hugo announced that only 4 of us would be working there, the others would go to another location. So, I asked for volunteers - Justin, Reece, Nora and I stayed at that house, and the others went with Maria to the other location. (Maria will blog about her project).
Some context - Hugo (works at the gate of CMT#2) and is married to Luz, they are the parents of Maria, Carmen, Juan and Jose. Maria is Rodolfo Chin's wife (Rodolfo works at CMT#2 so always gives us the tour of CMT#2 and the shops. Carmen is a sister of Maria, not married and without children. Juan was with Maria's group and he is married to Marisol (who works in the furniture shop, Muebles y Mas at CMT#2) and they have two little girls. The kids with Maria were with Juan and Marisol helping them clear their lot in order to build their own house in the future. Jose and his fiancé (who's name I don't remember) were with us, along with Carmen.
Our project was to move the pile of broken bricks, rocks and debris, to next to the wall. The kids jumped right in and were amazing.
Here's the pile moved. The other part of our job was to shovel dirt and gravel into a bag. The bag was lifted to the platform and Jose and his fiancé were sifting it with a homemade sifter in order to separate the gravel from the sand. The sand would be used later to make cement for a building project that the family would do later.
Here they are sifting the dirt.
Jose had attended the Center and is now an automechanic. He works in a shop Monday - Friday, but also does work for neighbors and friends in his garage. (His brother, Juan also works with him).
Here they are at the end of the project. The dog, an American Akida, named Chestnut was really friendly.
Here's the group with Carmen (in pink) and Jose's fiancé.
And here's the group with Jose.
They were the sweetest family and I had a great time practicing my Spanish with them. Jose and Carmen wanted to know all about life in the United States. They asked me about politics (Donald Trump & Hilary Clinton) and told me about how it's an obligation to vote in Ecuador. They asked about education and couldn't believe that our kids were not already studying for their careers. They asked about wages and the costs of cars and other items, like iPhones. They also asked about American music, artists and bands and what we liked. We talked about food, they showed us their guinea pigs (that they raise for food) and they had a cute dog that we played with (photo above).
When it was almost the end of the project, Carmen sent Jose and his fiancé to the store where they bought ham, bread, cheese and Coca-Cola for us. They made sandwiches for us and brought us Coke. Later, Carmen brought out a bowl of choclo (corn) with queso (cheese) which was delicious.
At the end of our project, Jose called his brother, Juan, to tell him to bring the others back to the house. They rejoined us and we rode the bus back to CMT#2 with Juan.
We all needed a shower when we returned. Some took a nap and others play games with others. At 4:30 pm, we walked with the group of girls from Xavier High School in Phoenix and boys from St. Peter's Prep to mass at Divino Niño Church in Cotocollao. It's about a 20 minute uphill walk. Mass was lovely, all in Spanish, of course, but lively and participatory. The Church is Franciscan and there is a real spirit of community and participation there, and it was packed. They also offer free medical care for all those in the community who need it.
Today from our reflections the group observed the following:
the people we are serving are so happy with what they have, even though it is so little.
if you want to get something done here, you have it do it yourself
in the U.S. there are fewer emotional connections with people because we are more focused on material goods
there are strong communal and family bonds here and people are willing to help others do things and accomplish their goals.
Maria and I challenged the group to think of ways that they can promote the mission of both Damien House and the Working Boys Center when they return home.
We have also given them the assignment to write a reflection paper (1-2 pages) about their experiences here. These papers will be due July 12th and will be used to share about our trip through the St. Matthias and St. Pius bulletins and other venues.
Day 11 - A beautiful day in Quito included a long bus ride to Otavalo, with a stop at a beautiful look out, and another for biscochos with cheese and carmel sauce - yummy! A lovely Otavaleña woman joined us for the final leg of our drive to explain her native dress, sing a song, and sell her family products - beautiful scarves, hair ties and bracelets. My kind of shopping!
The 6 x 6 square block open market is colorful and inviting, filled with blankets, rugs, wood carved items, jewelry, leather goods, yarn, produce, and more. One can get lost in the maze of goods for sale!
We each returned with treasures for family, friends, and ourselves.
It was a pleasant drive back to CMT and before dinner we gathered for show and tell!
Tonight is lights out at 10pm so we can wake up early for our Minga - work day!
Sleep with the angels!
Today we went to Otavalo - each Saturday, indigenous people from the northern region of Ecuador gather in this town to sell there handmade crafts. On the way there, we stopped for bizcochos and queso, a traditional Ecuadorian snack. Bizcochos are fresh baked biscuit-like pastries served with a cheese similar to string cheese. They are quite delicious.
Here's a special treat - Justin on the way home on the bus. Lovely hair style.
And all of our loot from today. For our reflection, we did "show and tell".
