Pan Babies and a Symphony

Friday night the program treated us to a very special cultural event. Day of the Dead is coming up, and in Ecuador it's tradition to eat guaguas de pan aka bread babies filled with jelly, and drink colada morada aka this fruity purple drink. So, we all went to the office and found our guaguas with our names on them:

(disclaimer: all the pictures are a little blurry, I apologize but something is going on with my flash...)

Me and Caroline drinking Colada Morada

We then all piled into a tiny van thing (it should not have been able to fit all of us...) and made our way to the Casa de La Musica for the National Ecuadorian Symphony!

 Me and Bethany waiting to go into the Auditorium.

A row full of Gringos. 

So yeah, pretty laid back Friday night, and I must say I didn't mind the classical music too much!

Have a good weekend!

Pizza, Postre, Película, Oh My!

Thursday night, a bunch of us got together and ate delicious pizza from El hornero and then made a pizookie (pizza cookie):

Basically it's undercooked cookie dough with tubs of ice cream dumped on top. So delicious.

The anticipation!

The aftermath.

Then we watched Moulin Rouge, which I have been craving for WEEKS. It was super fun, and a really relaxed night, which is just what we needed after a crazy week of classes.

ICE CREAM AND PUPPIES!

Tonight, in order to celebrate yet another successful but long week of FLACSO courses, my friend Luis invited us over to see his baby puppies (his host family's dog Kiki had a litter of 9 three weeks ago). SO CUTE. But first we made a pit stop to the McDonalds for 75 cent ice cream.

Luis and Hannah, with some rando guy in the background.

PUPPIES.

They were hard to capture on camera because they JUST opened their eyes so we couldn't use flash. And they kept moving.

Luis and a puppy.

Hey mom, can I keep one?!?!?

Some Fun Facts...

Ecuador has a lot of quirks. And I've taken note of them.

Quirk #1: Remember Sacagewea dollar coins? Ever wonder where they all went? The answer to that one is: Ecuador. They are SO much more common than $1 bills because they last longer.

Quirk #2: Gas prices in Ecuador are up to 1/4 of what they are in the USA, with Diesel being the cheapest. The reasoning? All the oil production in the Amazon (see this post). That is also why transportation is so cheap (25 cent bus ride anywhere in the city? Ok.)

Quirk #3: You can tell an institution is fancy if they provide toilet paper for your use. For example, Universidad Politecnica Salesiana is not fancy because you have to bring your own TP, but FLACSO provides you with some. Gas stations, public restrooms, etc. do not, fancy restaurants and hotel lobbies do. Interesting.

and Quirk #4: Our resident director, Juan, is one of the most well connected men in Ecuador. They tried to entice him to become a politician, but he declined saying he "wanted to sleep every now and then". Here are some Paparazzi pictures of him taken this weekend (sorry Juan!):

He's great.

So yes. More quirks to come when I have time to write them down again.

The Amazon

What an amazing weekend!

We woke up at 4:30 on Thursday and took a 9 hour bus ride/30 minute canoe ride into the Amazon jungle (a little too close to Colombia for the State Department's liking...) where we lived with the Secoya tribe for a few nights. One of the main focuses of the trip was to understand the Texaco/Petroecuador situation and how they are exploiting native tribes and destroying the Amazon Rainforest bit by bit.

The canoe ride to the community at sunset. Didn't see any monkeys or crocodiles.

This is our campsite. The tents were SO hot at night, it was miserable, but we couldn't sleep outside of them for fear of getting eaten alive by bugs.

Caesar painting my face.

The next morning, after an early morning hike in the jungle to hear the birds, monkeys, and see the tarantulas the size of my face (so gross), we hung out with the Secoya people. They painted our faces with berries. We look fierce.

We also had a pottery lesson. This woman is the mother/grandmother of the two guys in charge of the turismo comunitaro, Caesar and Wilbur. There are 4 generations of their family living in the community. We loved those guys so much.

They even put on a tribal dance in traditional get-up for us.

Because the day was so hot, after lunch and a chat with the tribe teacher (specializing in bilingual education of Secoya/Castellano), we hopped in the boat and cruised to a nearby "beach" where we swam in the river. Later we found out that the river does indeed have piranhas, crocodiles, and even anacondas further down stream. Terrifying.

That night we had the community Shaman come and talk to us about traditional medicine. He even cured a few of my friends, in a much more legitimate manner than the Cuy Man. How did he do it? With chanting, smoking tobacco, and at least 12 shots of Rum. We had to canoe him home in the morning because he was very chuchaki (hungover), and wasn't trusted to float down the river by himself. But apparently the curing might have worked!

The next day was filled with more wandering through the jungle to learn about plants and animals, more food, and more swimming. We did have to leave that afternoon, but the trip wasn't over. We drove to a city that exists solely due to the petroleum boom in the area, where we were able to shower and eat some ice cream in an air conditioned hotel. It was lovely.

On Sunday we went on a tour of the historic petroleum sites in the area.

This is the first pozo (well) put in by Texaco in the 1960s. When they first started it up, oil shot over 100 meters into the air and contaminated everyone and everything in the nearby area. Gross.

Ready to cross the oil polluted waters in our botas! Our bus had to be ferried across the river in order to continue the tour. 

Want to drink the water that that came out of? Didn't think so. This is our guide showing us just how polluted everything is around the area. Supposedly, Texaco and Petroecuador said the water that we were standing in was potable and no harm would come from drinking it. So. Gross.

And after another 10 hours in the bus we returned to Quito only to be bombarded with the homework we had neglected all weekend. But it was an amazing trip and so influential. I almost didn't mind the heat and humidity.

Have a great week!

Dear Ecuador,

Thanks for the motion sickness; you need to make your roads better.

Love, Chelsea.

Servicio Comunitario

Part of the Duke in the Andes program requires each student to spend 10 weeks at some sort of community service on top of the classes we are taking. I have landed myself in the cutest school of all, helping teach English. There are kids from ages 5-12 at the school, which is a public/private institution (I still haven't figured that one out...). But it's a very low resource school, and the English teacher, Mariana, basically has to buy supplies out of her own pocket. It's really sad, actually. And a lot of the kids don't have adequate supplies or the correct uniform size or their uniform has huge holes in it because their families can't afford to buy new ones at the moment. It's rough, but the kids are adorable and so sweet.

This is the outer wall of the escueltia. The murals are actually pretty cool.

This is the English classroom. It's an old auditorium, and the kids sit on church pews. It's not very conducive to learning, but like I said, they don't have much choice because of the economic situation of the school.

Today we learned the colors, and got to go outside and play with a big tent-thing!

Not much learning happened.

So yes. This is where I spend 10 hours a week. And it's worth it.

This weekend the program is venturing into the Amazon Rainforest (yep. that Amazon). Wish me luck. I don't do well with snakes.

It's Not A Vacation Anymore...

Up until this point, my stay in Ecuador has felt like an extended summer vacation. Yes, I've been going to classes and I've been learning a lot, I just haven't had much school work to do. Until this week. Yesterday we started our classes in FLACSO, or Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales. It's a grad school and we have two classes a week from 5-8 at night. The work load is going to be much more like the typical Colby workload, and to be honest, I'm not really looking forward to it. But hopefully it will vale la pena (be worth it).

One of the two FLACSO towers. 

This is the café in one of the FLACSO building. I will be spending a lot of time here.

Fútbol! and Columbus Day?

Last Friday, a few of us splurged on the $15 tickets to see the Ecuadorian National Soccer Team play Venezuela in a 2014 World Cup Qualification match. It was so exciting! After taking a quick 2-0 lead in the first half, Ecuador ended up winning the match with flying colors. I have never seen so much yellow, nor have I ever been covered in a rain storm of beer that fell from the sky when Ecuador scored a goal.

"Vamos Ecuatorianos, esta tarde, tenemos que ganar!"

And, to completely switch subjects, I live off the street called "12 de Octubre" and so, when the 12th of October passed, I was really excited to learn about its significance to Quito and to Ecuador in general. The park across the street from my house put up a ton of tents and had huge concerts on Wednesday night, and it was quite the gathering. Why October 12th? The only reason I understood is because on October 12, 1492, Cristobal Colón landed in the Bahamas and thus started the oppressive Spanish rule in most of Latin America. While the day was originally used to celebrate Columbus' arrival, it has since morphed into an activist day, where people all over the country fight for equality among the different groups and nationalities in Ecuador. Pretty cool. 

This is one of the main stages, set up with palm trees in the back. Bad picture, I know.

Rows and rows of tents selling things and trying to educate passer-bys on important things like water conservation and community activism.

El Teleférico

To the west of Quito there is a mountain range that is quite prominent and includes an active volcano (Pichincha). It last exploded in 2001... Well, in 2005 the city of Quito managed to pull together enough money to have a gondola (or teleférico) that can take tourists to the top of the first layer of mountains in order to enjoy the views. And, once you get up there you can hike a little further into the mountain range or you can opt to rent a horse or two for an hour.  We decided to hike.

One of the mountains in the back ridge that is only sometimes visible when in Quito. 

We started our hike at around 4,100 meters (14,000 feet), so we were literally in the clouds sometimes.

North Quito.

What IS the Difference Between an Alpaca and a Llama?

Yes, I've been wondering this for quite some time. And in San Clemente, I got my answer- you use alpacas for their fur, and llamas for carrying things. Duh! But how do you tell them apart? To me they were just some goofy 4-legged creatures that looked like small, hairy giraffes. But then, I stumbled upon this:

"The llama is roughly twice the size of the alpaca and the llama has a very coarse outer coat over a softer inner coat- as opposed to the alpaca, which has a very fine, single coat. In addition, the llama produces far less fiber per animal than the alpaca, despite its much larger size. This is because the alpaca was domesticated and carefully bred for over 5000 years as a luxury fiber-producing animal. The llama has been bred for the same amount of time as a pack-carrying animal."

Alpacas. I don't have a picture of a llama because I haven't seen any of them yet!

Have a good weekend!

The Pharmacy Delivers?!

Yep. You guessed it. I've gotten pretty sick these last few days. It might have been something I ate in San Clemente or it might have been a long time coming. But, long story short, I've been holed up in my bed for the last few days, and yesterday's ambitious trip to class only left me weak and exhausted.

But, in spite of my weakened condition, I learned one thing today: the pharmacy delivers! It's a grand total of 7 blocks from my house to the pharmacy, and as I am in no condition to walk that distance nor did I want to spend the money on a taxi, my host mom informed me that they deliver! That was the greatest news I've had all week. So now I'm just sitting in bed with my gatorade watching The Little Mermaid hoping to get healthier by Friday, if not tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Finally, one of my favorite bloggers does this thing called the Happy List, where whenever she feels down, she publishes a list of 10 things that make her really happy in the moment. So, here's my first...

10 Things That Make Me Happy

1. Thunderstorms

2. The Little Mermaid

3. Hot Chocolate

4. Having my Psych prof look at me when asking about an English term for Broca's Area

5. Saltine Crackers

6.  Making new friends who don't speak English

7. My host sister Sophia sharing birthday cake with me, even when I can't eat much

8. My host brother Fabricio (he's 1) blowing kisses at me. Que coqueto!

9. Country music

10. Not using an English-Spanish dictionary every 5 minutes.

Was that weird? Oh well. It made me feel better!

San Clemente

This weekend the group went to an indigenous community called San Clemente, close to a city called Imbabura. It was really neat and a life-changing experience. The people, the food, the way of life, are all so interesting and so different than what I'm used to.

We started out the trip with breakfast at a place called "Café de la vaca" (the Cow Cafe) near this beautiful volcano called Cayambe. 

Upon arrival at the community we ate a huge lunch and chatted with the locals, who hand embroider all their blouses and shirts.

The rest of the day consisted of taking a history tour of the village (which used to be a hacienda with different huasipungos aka almost like slavery until the last 25 years...) and met our host family for the weekend. My friend Tawanna and I stayed with Theresa and Ramiro, and their three daughters Jessica (17), Evelyn (16) and Nayeli (4). 

The next morning we woke up at 5:30 to help make tortillas and milk the cow before breakfast. 

Then we each got the opportunity to till a field.

After tilling a field, we drove a little bit and then hiked to the top of a mountain to perform a special ceremony to mark the beginning of the fall solstice and planting season. The ceremony took place on top of the ruins of Incan ancestors. When the Spanish came into Ecuador and much of Latin America, they literally buried Native temples and other landmarks in dirt in order to erase the culture. So, while we were standing on top of a dirt mound, there was some sort of ancient ruin under all the earth.

After the ceremony we ate another huge lunch then hiked down and arrived at the community just in time for the Sweat Lodge ceremony in order to cleanse our bodies and our minds. There was singing and chanting and sweating and more singing, and was very liberating, albeit scary at some points because you couldn't breath.

Then, on Saturday morning we woke up and dressed ourselves in the traditional dress and went to make lunch with the rest of the community.

Preparing lunch with the llamas.

Lunch consisted of cabbage, corn, potatoes, pork, chicken, and salad. Plus some other tasty things

In order to cook all the food, the men of the community dug a huge hole in the ground, filled it with hot rocks and the food, then buried it all again. We danced on top of the mound for two hours, dug up the food, and feasted until we all fell asleep in the grass.

That night we had a medicinal chat with a local midwife with real life role play (birthing techniques are a lot more natural and look a lot more painful...), and then the local medicine man came to heal two lucky members of our group. How did he diagnose them? He took a live cuy (guinea pig) and shook it all over the volunteer's body until the cuy absorbed the sickness and died. He then skinned it with his bare hands and examined the cuy for signs of damage. It was really graphic and gross. Do I believe it? Not really, but it was an interesting experience.

Then we danced some more. 

Sunday morning we woke up and had a goodbye ceremony where our families gave us these beautiful scarves. Staying with the family was very nice and a great experience.

We then traveled to an ecological reserve called Cotacachi-Cayapas, which is a volcanic crater filled with water and surrounded by beautiful scenery.

We took a boat ride around the lagoon, complete with fake roses and all.

Not to mention the orange life vests were very flattering on everyone.

To end the trip, we visited the market town of Otavalo, known for it's street market full of things like alpaca sweaters, trinkets, and tapestries. 

It was a long weekend, but sure worth it. I hope you had a good weekend too!