Semana Santa

March 20, 2008
3:00 PM (Ecuador Standard Time)
La Esperanza
Our Room

This Saturday we are finally departing from La Esperanza for two weeks of technical training. We will leave early Saturday afternoon for Puerto Quito, a small town four hours northwest of Quito. We are going to spend a week there with our entire group of aspirantes learning about conflict resolution, organizational behavior (hopefully I’ve already picked up some secondhand knowledge on this via being raised by two doctors of organizational behavior, afterwards we’ll compare notes), farming, natural resource conservation (including a visit to a cloud forest), and of course more spanish and kichwa.

After a week in Puerto Quito we’re going to split up into five different groups to begin a week of region specific training. Our group (6 of us from Natural Resources) will be heading to the southern Sierra area. It looks like we will be spending a few days in Cuenca and Parque Nacional Cajas (hopefully we will be able to stop in Sayausi and see our future home), followed by a visit to an alpaca farm, and then some time learning how to grow organic quinoa in the sierra (near Riobamba). Once our week of regional specific training is complete we will return to La Esperanza for one final week with Dona Fabiola and the kids and then it’s off to Quito for our final week of training and a swearing in ceremony at the ambassador’s house. Then of course we are off to our sites for a short 24 months.

As for the past week, we’ve done and seen a few interesting things because this week is Semana Santa, and in Ecuador Semana Santa is a major league holiday. On Palm Sunday there was a feria in La Esperanza that people from all over came to visit. A burro led a procession into the church carrying a statue of Jesus, everyone was carrying tons of rosemary (which we were told is saved for the year to come for “emergencies”…we don’t really know what that means either) and laurel with palm (the town smelled great), offerings of squash and eggs were made during the Sunday service, guinea pigs were roasted, we tried a strange fermented drink and a traditional soup with about 12 grains, 8 types of beans, hard boiled egg, and cheese, and Mike showed our family how to make crosses from the palm (which we hear is going extinct from overuse). On a somewhat unrelated note, there are flower plantations everywhere so we’ve included a few pictures of them, they look like big white tents and they are the reason why roses (in some places) and carnations are so cheap in Los Estados Unidos.

Tuesday we went on a beautiful hike around Lake Cuicocha (a volcanic crater), which coincidentally we had visited the last time we were in Ecuador (during which Mike’s horse bit Mary on the knee). The hike took about five hours and it only rained for the last fifteen minutes, so it was a pretty great day. On the bus ride home from the hike we saw two unique events and ate three really tasty emapanadas. Event one was that la gente de Tabacundo were sacando el alcalde (kicking out the mayor because he was “mala gente” a.k.a. a bad person and the people had had enough). Event two was the townspeople of La Esperanza were walking the stations of the cross with a megaphone around the community, through the Parque Central, and to the church (they did all 14 stations Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday sometimes walking over an hour and half).

Wednesday we had class, and today I made pizza with my Spanish class while Mike went to the market in Cayambe to practice speaking Kichwa with the vendadoras (sellers in the market)…don’t worry Mike was back in time to have the incredibly delicious pizza and nudos de ajo (garlic knots). At the church in La Esperanza 12 apostles were selected from the crowd and had their feet washed for them.

Tomorrow we are thinking about going to a Kichwa festival in the foothills of Cayambe called Mushuk Nina (New Fire) which is essentially a celebration of the solstice with “only a little distortion and imposition from Catholicism” (direct quote from the flier about the festival). There is also another procession in La Esperanza por la evening followed by a three hour mass but we’ll probably be packing our bags during that time.

Then, we’re off for our two-week trip, assuming there are no more weather problems. As always we will let you know if plans change, so don’t worry!

We hope everyone one has a Feliz Pascua…and don’t forget to eat lots of googala, chocolate bunnies, Easter salad, and Cadbury cream eggs for us!

P.S. We are not actually in Bayville, we posted a few pictures from last Easter just for fun and to demonstrate how quickly a year passes…Enjoy!

Also, the church bells have been ringing for the last five minutes…. sounds like yet another Semana Santa mass is about to begin.