Cholitas, Granola, Buhos, Guitarras, y Jefferson Perez

August 16, 2008
Saturday
9:30am
Sayausi
Our Apartment


Cholitas and Granola
Last Tuesday morning I left our apartment carrying a small yellow bucket filled with pineapple skins, apple cores, banana peels, onion scraps, and other discarded food items headed for our old host family’s house. Several times a week I bring over our organic waste (minus coffee grounds) and they use it to complement the diet of their several chanchos (pigs). In exchange for the lavasa (the food scraps used to feed the chanchos) they usually give me a pitcher of fresh cow milk. However, after a few bad experiences with said milk I have begun to intentionally forget the pitcher and leave without the fresh cow milk. On this morning, I brought the lavasa into the kitchen, chatted with my host family, told them we had just bought milk yesterday and so needed no milk, and sat down to pasear for a little while.

I had scarcely pulled the chair out from the table to sit down when Norma asked me if I wanted to see the polleras now. Polleras are part of the typical dress of the women of this area, more specifically they are skirts that almost every old woman wears. The pollera was worn by women of all ages on every day but now old-women wear them every day and younger women and children wear them on special occasions. And, when someone is dressed with the pollera, a blusa (a blouse), and a chalina ( a long scarf-like piece of fabric used for carrying small babies, corn, fruit, or any other random cosa) they are called a chola (which is just the name for women dressed traditionally).

Now, the reason why Norma asked me if I wanted to see the polleras is because for the past two months Mike has been telling people that when we go home for Christmas I am going to dress like a chola. This is obviously a joke (at least to me) but the idea has really caught on with my host family. So, Doña Melchora led me upstairs to see her pollera collection. Doña Melchora used to dress as a chola on a daily basis but no longer can because of some reason having to do with a surgery.

I was led to the corner of a back room on the second floor where there were no less than fifteen polleras of every color, quality (there are polleras that are muy formal and there are others that you wear when milking cows), and size. It did not take more than five seconds for Doña Melchora to take one down and tell me to put it on. It took no more that five seconds after that for her to run into another room and come back with a blusa and tell me to put it on.

I would say that within several minutes I went from gringita to cholita, just like that. From here things are a blur but eventually I, Doña Melchora, Norma, and Norma’s two daughters were all in polleras dancing to the Chola Cuencana (The Chola from Cuenca). During the dancing (which lasted close to an hour, if not more) they dressed me in several different polleras, a traditional apron, and took at least ten pictures of me as a cholita with their 35mm point and shoot camera.

Once the festivities had died down and I was back in my gringa get-up they began talking about what a great idea it would be to surprise Mike when he came back from work. I, of course, agreed and planned to return to their house later that afternoon with Mike.

At four o’clock Mike and I arrived at the house, I was swept upstairs, and Mike was instructed to remain downstairs until the transformation was complete.

While I was upstairs changing from gringita to cholita for the second time in eight hours, Norma’s six year old nephew went into the kitchen where Mike was waiting and said, “Mary taught my mom how to make something.” He said this because several days before his mom had been in our apartment and I was trying to explain what granola was and decided it would be easier just to show her; so we made granola, during which she took notes, and in the end she really liked it.

Mike, who was there when granola demonstration happened, replied, “What was it?”

“A food with stuff in it.”

Mike: “Oh, like what?”

“With oats and stuff like that.”

Mike: “Do you like it?”

“Oh, yeah we’ve had it like three times.”

This is kind of unrelated to the chola story but it did make me feel pretty good to hear that. Back to cholas.

Once I was fully chola Norma sent down her younger daughter to get Mike and lead him up with his eyes closed. This was all very exciting for our host family and they were unable to resist another opportunity to dress up and dance. So, Doña Melchora, Norma, and Norma’s two daughter’s put on their polleras, and joined me in another round of the Chola Cuencana while Mike documented the event and considered the pros and cons of being married to a gringa turned chola. I’m pretty sure they were all pros, I mean how could anyone find fault in polleras and happy, hopping, dancing?

Buhos
Also, on Tuesday morning but up the hill in Cajas, Mike had a fun and interesting day. He and the other biologist (Pancho) were paddling around a lake trying to take some GPS measurements to figure out the lake’s boundaries and therefore the quantity of a certain grass that grows on the inner edge of the lake when they saw a floating mass of feathers. Upon closer inspection the floating mass of feathers was determined to be a recently deceased owl. Both Mike and Pancho agreed that this was a fine specimen and should not be left in the lake. So, they picked it up, put it in the boat, carried it with the them back to the office, went to lunch, then went back to the office to begin the process of figuring out how to preserve this dead, but in great condition, owl.

The final solution was to send a park guard down to the pharmacy to buy a liter of formaldehyde (which you can buy over the counter here, like everything else), and then they proceeded to inject this dead, but in great condition, owl with this liter of formaldehyde. The last step in this process was to suspend the owl in a position of grandeur so that it would harden and be suitable for display. The position of grandeur ended up using a cord to suspend the wings from the office’s ethernet hub, wedging rocks into its claws, and standing it on a piece of cardboard resting on a several thousand dollar printer. But it does look cool.


Guitarras, Gorras, y Limpiezas
On Wednesday, a friend of ours came to visit from the coast and while she was here she wanted to buy a guitar and do all things Cuencana. Having already taken another friend on a guitar hunt we knew just the place to go for the guitar.

There is a small shop on the outskirts of old town where a family makes guitars. The guitars they make are beautiful and reasonably priced (from a State’s salary perspective). So, we hung out in the guitar shop for a while, got a tour of the upstairs where they make the guitars, and our friend ended up with a pretty awesome guitar.

Along with guitar hunting we went to a hat museum where they make Panama hats (which are actually Ecuador hats) and went to a market where you can get a limpieza. A limpieza is a whole body cleansing performed by old ladies with herbs, flowers, eggs, and other random things. During the limpieza which lasts close to ten minutes the patient is lightly hit with bushels of herbs, rubbed with an egg, painted with ashes, massaged with scented oil, and spit on with some unknown bottle of something.


Jefferson Perez: La Gloria tiene un nombre
As I am sure you all know, the Olympics in Bejing have begun and as such the medal race has also. This may come as a surprise to you but Ecuador does not have a very large Olympic team nor do they win many, if any, medals. Unless of course the competitor is Jeffereson Perez. I don’t know for sure but I think he may be the only Ecuadorian athlete to ever receive an Olympic medal let alone several, including a gold.

Yes, Jefferson Perez is the pride of Ecuador. He is their David in the David and the Goliath that is the world stage of the Olympics. He has received several medals in several Olympics, he has three consecutive World Champion titles, and he is from Cuenca. This is a very big deal for Cuenca. There is a statue of him in their most athletic focused park, their coliseum is named after him, and he is featured in nationwide commercials.

Last night we, several other volunteers, and several thousand Ecuadorians gathered in his coliseum to cheer him on as he competed in the 2008 Bejing Summer Olympics. There were two jumbo-tron screens, vendors with flags, posters, hats, and Jefferson Perez t-shirts. Mike had also received an email earlier in the week from ETAPA (The large government agency that he works for) informing all their employees about this event and Cuenca was papered with posters advertising this event for the entire week prior.

So, at 8:00pm Ecuadorian time and 9:00am Bejing time after two hours of live music and interesting dance performances, we and thousands of others were in the coliseum with our flags, t-shirts, and hats cheering and carrying on for the Mens 20km Walk.

Yes, that’s right the pride of Ecuador is a speedwalker.

Jefferson had earlier declared that after three World Championships and several Olympic medals, this Olympics would be his last so the crowd was on fire as the starting gun went off and the race began.

After many highs and lows during the hour and twenty minute speedwalking race, Jefferson Perez finished with the silver medal around his neck and the entire country of Ecuador cheering madly for him.

In honor of his victory they lit a castillo after his race (see our Fiestas of San Pedro post if you don´t remember what a castillo is).

It was actually quite a touching event and I’m pretty sure they were as proud of him for a silver as they would have been for a gold. Glory truly does have a name and that name belongs to a Mens 20km speedwalker named Jefferson Perez.


As always click on the photo to see the slideshow and captions.

Also, some of you may have already found the video footage located on the right hand side of this page that shows Mary dancing. If you are not able to click on that image and see her dance, try this link:
Bailando la Cholita Cuencana!
There are two seperate clips, each of 15 seconds. Sorry, no sound.