El Dia de la Madre

May 13, 2008
Tuesday
1:45 PM
Our Room in Sayausi

First and foremost a belated Mother’s Day wish to all those mothers and mother-like figures who are reading this blog!

Flashback to Mother’s Day Eve when Mike and I were sleeping soundly…until 12:00am…

Beginning at midnight and continuing through until six o’clock in the morning we were treated to serenades, of the loud and prevent people from sleeping sort. Little did we know at the time, but it is the tradition here in Sayausi for a traveling band to serenade all the mothers in Sayausi all through the night. So we, along with everyone else in the town, were awake from midnight ‘til dawn listening to the sweet stylings of our local musicians singing to moms for Mother’s Day (those with less musical talent rent what is known as a dicsomobile and drive up to the house, open the doors, and let the bass do the rest).

Unfortunately for this predominately Catholic town, mass was still at 7:00am which means that at 6:30am (only a half an hour after the serenading stopped) the Padre began blaring music from the church speakers to ensure no one accidentally slept through the service (this happens every week but was particularly painful after a night of bass and ballads). Doing our best to integrate into the community here in Sayausi, we joined the throngs of sleep-deprived masses and headed to Sunday service (where last week we each had to address the congregation by microphone).

Like most masses it began with fewer people than it ended with. Unlike most masses (I think, although I haven’t been to too many) it ended with a “rifle-flasch” or flash raffle. And I’m pretty sure on this next point, that like no other mass the prizes included in the raffle were two plates of cooked guinea pig, one plate of cooked chancho (or pork), and two live guinea pigs that were just handed to the winners without any bag or box to hold them. By 8:00am we had celebrated Mother’s Day in a manner we never had and, after these next two years at least, probably never will again.

The rest of the day was spent mingling around town, perusing the small Sunday market that comes to Sayausi once a week, and watching the soccer games in the estadio (stadium if you translate directly or large dirt field if you go by what they are actually referring to). The games are really fun to watch and they take place all day Sunday and all Saturday afternoon. The coolest part is that there’s a women’s league (which Mike keeps telling everyone in town that I want to join) and an older person’s league, so everyone gets a chance to play. The strangest part is that throughout the games cars drive across and through the field AND play continues! All and all it´s a pretty neat way to spend the afternoon for both players and spectators.

Other interesting events that took place this week include the birth of a baby bull by our family’s cow. The bad news is we weren’t allowed to watch because apparently the cow doesn’t like to be watched when it is giving birth and something bad would happen if anyone saw the baby being born. The good news is there’s a cute baby cow in our yard now and tons of fresh milk, which tastes different yet better than store bought milk (for those of you who drink skim….well…sorry). And, I never knew this before but for the first few days after giving birth the cow’s milk is different than normal. Here they call it leche tierna, or young milk. It’s yellower than normal milk (in that it is yellow) and they serve it hot mixed with sugar and spices. It tastes good but the clumps are a little hard to swallow, for me, although Mike asked for seconds.

The more mundane events this week include me having my first one-on-one meeting in Spanish with an architect in Cuenca, finding the bank and post-office and vegetarian restaurant by myself, finishing my first book in Spanish (who knew ´La telerana de Carlota´ could take so long to read), and making strides in my laundry washing technique. Mike spent several days digging trash and unwanted plants out of a lake in Cajas while bonding with the six or seven park guards that were also sacando basura, he read a 104 page thesis (all in Spanish of course) from a student at the University of Azuay about park management in Cajas, he then proceded to ¨take the red pen to it¨ as it wasn´t quite ready for implementation, he found a really good street food stand close to our house with the best chuzos (chicken kebabs) and corn pancakes, and has almost finished reading ´El Hobbit´.

Hope this week found everyone with equally rewarding events, and please, for my sake and anyone else who has had to wash every single piece of clothing by hand every single time clothes get dirty, appreciate your washing machine! Side note: when the laundry bucket here is not being used for laundry, it doubles as the portable waterhole for the cattle in our front yard.

….and the good news…..our camera came back to life for half an hour on Sunday. It was a special Mother’s Day treat! Unfortunately our family was out celebrating with their mothers so they are not featured in any of the pictures. Neither is the kitchen, as it was locked. What you will see is our room, some of the house, and its immediate surroundings. The camera died, again, before we could leave our yard but in one of the pictures you can see the church. Enjoy…


As always, double click to enlarge AND to see captions on the pictures.