Easter, Deporte, y Chuspi

April 25, 2009
Saturday
1:30pm
Cloudy and breezy, 60F
Cuenca

A Year in Review
For those of you keeping track of time, or those of you that occasionally peruse this blog outside conventional time constructs, we have just reached our one year mark in site. That means Sayausi has been our home for one entire year. Times such as these call for deep reflection and self-analysis. What have I really done this past year? What will the future bring? Why does the gas truck come so late on Fridays? I suppose more time in site may shed light on these probing questions, or I may still have no idea why buying five papayas costs more per papaya than buying only three. Only Father Time knows and so we will await his omniscient reason and in the meantime patiently pass the time until seven thirty for the gas truck on Fridays and gladly buy papayas in threes instead of fives.


Easter Pascua (not Navidad Pascua)
Pascuas Past
Last Easter we were in La Esperanza located about forty five minutes West of Cayambe, which in turn is located about an hour North of Quito. We went several masses, ate fanesca, were troubled by the scary people in purple robes, and ate tons of homemade humitas (tamales for those of you more familiar with Mexican gastronomy). To refresh your memory and stroll down the pleasant roads of yesteryear check out our Easter Post from last year by clicking here.

Pascuas Present
This Easter we saw many processions, heard the warning bells for many masses, were overwhelmed by the smell of rosemary on Palm Sunday, and we observed the final station of the Via de la Cruz from the comfort and safety of our apartment (my favorite “tradition” is that after the last station the plaza was raided by ice cream vendors and I’m pretty sure the entire town of Sayausi partook in a rico helado, I later asked about this “tradition” as I saw it to be and was told that it was not a tradition at all, people were just cooling down after the long walk that is the Via de la Cruz…but if it happens every year, and only once a year at the exact same time than what is it?). We would have participated more fully in the goings on had I not been with gripe (a cold, flu-like, non-specific illness).

As it was we were busy cooking up a storm. No, we were not attempting our own version of fanesca (see last year’s post) we were busy creating our own version of some Carbone family classics. Now of course, with the exception of Easter Salad which was still made by a Carbone, the remaining dishes were made with the blood, sweat, and tears of a Driscoll-MacEachron. So, below is the menu for our Ecua-Easter Sunday:

Breakfast:
Easter Salad
Googala
Easter Bread (Of which I made tons and gave out to several families that we are close with in town. They all loved it and were completely amazed, as was I, that the egg cooks in the oven with the bread. Also, everyone thought it was a lot like guas-guas de pan (babies of bread) which are made in abundance for the Dia de los Difuntos, see our November post for more information)

Lunch:
Repeat of Breakfast

Dinner:
Lasagna with homemade spinach noodles
Salad (hecho by fellow PCV Kelly)

Dessert (Special Note: We were going to make a wheat pie but I had tuckered myself out and so called upon a more tried and true dessert)
Sugar Cookies (hecho by Me and Kelly)

On a scale of a-very-Eastery Easter to a-not-so-very-Eastery Easter, I think we hit it out of the ballpark with a super-Eastery Easter. Of course there were no dyed eggs as all of the eggs here are shades of brown and more often than not soiled (see pictures) and Easter egg dye is essentially nonexistent, so there were some lacking elements but the spirit was there and that’s what counts! So, Happy Easter to one and all!!!!

Easter in Ecuador (double-click to enlarge)


Pascua Future
Like I know what’s going to happen next Easter! You’ll just have to check back then and find out. Or next year, I can post a link to this year’s blog and it will be like I wrote about next year’s blog this year…who’s with me?


Es Lindo Hacer Deporte
Once again we had a month filled with athletic events and we were told many a time by many an Ecua, “es lindo hacer deporte.” Which roughly translates to, “It’s nice to do sports.” Everyone from the woman who works at the lavanderia to the man who sells pinapples in the street would tell us, “Si, es lindo hacer deporte” especially when I was walking around town in my very red uniform (see the parade of uniforms post).

Indoor
This month I was invited to join another soccer team. The team is made up of some of the same women on the soccer team that I am already on but the games are played on a different field and it’s not called “futbol” it’s called “indoor”. The origins from this name are based on the size of the field. The field is small like the size of the fields used for indoor soccer in the States. However, unlike in the states “indoor” is not played indoors. The field is in someone’s backyard and since it is bordered by corn and sheep it is most definitely outdoors. To help me get ready for this new sport we went to our local tienda and bought a brand new “indoor” ball so that I can practice. We were quite surprised to find out that the ball for “indoor” does not bounce….here is the proof….

Click here to see the video!


Last Sunday I played my third “indoor” game outdoors on the muddiest field I have ever seen during a mild downpour. My very red uniform was completely black with mud after the game and I only finished cleaning it yesterday after several days of soaking and scrubbing. In any event, “indoor” is fun and it means that I now have a game every weekend and two games every other weekend, as my “futbol” team only plays once every fifteen days but “indoor” plays outdoors every week.

Basket
We have known for quite sometime that there is a women’s basketball league in Sayausi. In fact I have been invited to play several times but have declined since my basketball skills are far below my futbol ones. However, we have recently discovered that a men’s basketball league is starting up. We learned this by the many solicitations Mike has received to play on different teams. Being 6’2’’ is something that is not easily overlooked here in Sayausi where at 5’4’’ I am taller than the average man.

Next week the season starts and it looks like Mike will be playing on the Buenos Aires Men’s Basket (they just say, “basket” not “basketball”) Team. We selected that team for him since it is made up entirely of the husbands of the women on my futbol team. Now we just have to find shoes…if only that were as easy as it sounds. Shoe sizes are EU here and Mike needs a forty-six. In Cuenca, a city with half a million inhabitants, the largest shoe size that can be found is a forty-one. Wish us luck and check back later for basket highlights!

Fesitval Atletica de Cuenca
Every year Jefferson Perez (see Olympic post) organizes a giant 15km race to raise money for various causes. The cost to register is $1 and you get a t-shirt, a medal, a water bottle, a little bag, and about a thousand promotional coupons for various local businesses. Needless to say they had us at t-shirt. Here is a link to the official event website.

Last Saturday we and five thousand others gathered at the mall to collect our number, running chip, and t-shirt. After three hours of waiting in a line that actually wasn’t that long (probably about thirty yards) Jefferson Perez himself handed us our bag of goodies and we were ready to race!

Last Sunday at 10:00am we and five thousand others gathered at that start line for the annual Jefferson Perez 15km. Considering I had had a pretty serious cold for two weeks at this point, I was feeling a little nervous about the following nine miles. Not to mention that in the three previous races we had participated in here in the Cuenca area we both finished close to last. It seems that there are very few casual runners in Cuenca and as such I am almost always one of the last ones to cross the finish line. So imagine my surprise when there were lots, and I mean lots, of slow runners participating in the 15km. I looked average, and average was a welcome change from far below it.

Running with kleenex in hand on the cobbled streets of historic Cuenca, through rain and sun, I arrived at the finish line about ten minutes after Mike after completing the mandatory lap around the stadium track to a crowd of cheering onlookers. However, we had little time to relish our respectful finishing times as I had an “indoor” game that started in an hour. So, off we went to ‘hacer mas deporte’ because it is really nice to do sports.


Work
Although Peace Corps work is really about being here, living here, and all that that entails we realize that sometimes our stateside readers need a fix about our so called “actual” work, so here it is; some of the things we have been doing for the past few months at “actual” work….

Me
I am still working primarily a local elementary school where I collaborate with the kindergarten teacher several times a week to help with English instruction as well as basic literacy skills in Spanish. (Follow this link to see pics of the school taken during the kiss the flag ceremony). I have also been working with ETAPA, the local municipal water provider, to run a plant nursery and school vegetable garden where we bring a class of fifth graders to assist in the upkeep of the plants at both the nursery and the garden (Follow this link to see pics of the parade and museum I organized last June with this same organization). I am trying to implement a larger educational component for the fifth graders while they are at the nursery and garden but it looks like I will have to keep working on that for a while as the mindset of both the students and teachers is that outside time is not learning time.

Que mas…I’m helping a local teacher with a field trip for mid-May where we will visit several nearby lakes and learn about the water cycle, water treatment, and of course cuidaring (taking care of) our water resources. I continue to do cooking lessons with a few women who have taken a strong interest in things like tortillas, pizza, and carrot soup. (Click here to see a previous post of me cooking with the ladies)

So work is good and it looks like things are popping up more and more and I am still finding new things to do and ways to help out despite not working directly with an established counterpart.

Mike
Mike has spent the last month working on a trail marking project. About a month ago a Polish guy showed up at the park saying he wanted to pay for and execute a trail project. Cajas of course agreed to the free money and free service and Mike jumped at the opportunity to be working in the park (not the office) on a daily basis participating in a project that would have real results without any signatures required. Not to mention the fact that two months ago a group of six fishermen got lost in the park, Mike had to organize search teams (made up of park guards, fireman, police and army) to go find them, and that none of that would have happened had the trails been properly marked.

At this point almost all of the trails have been marked and Matt (the Polish guy) and Mike have spent countless hours walking the trails with a GPS, a paintbrush, paint, and map marking key spots on each of the eight trails (a total of about 40 miles in length most of it at least 12,000 feet above sea level). Next week they are putting in wooden signs at each of the places where the trails meet indicating the names of the trails that are converging, how long each of the trails is from that point, and the difficulty level of each trail. (Follow this link to see pictures of Cajas National Park)

As a side project Mike has been going to a Neotropical Fauna class at the University of Azuay to help preserve and stuff a wolf (really just an Andean fox, but they call it a wolf) that a co-worker found in the park. Last week they took off the skin and threw away the insides. Next week, they are degreasing the skin with gasoline and beginning the preservation and stuffing process. Keep checking back to see how the wolf gets back to the park. (Follow this link to see a picture of a live wolf-fox)


Politico
It’s election time again! That means lots of little cars with big megaphones on their roof, parades, late night rallies in the plaza, posters with faces and numbers everywhere, political jingles on the radio and TV, and no sale or public consumption of alcohol from Friday at noon until Monday. Also it means we can’t leave our site, give interviews, be on TV, visit polling sites (see link to Constitution post when we did visit a polling site), or anything else that could be considered in any way, shape, or form, political. As such I have nothing more to say about the upcoming election where Correa is expected to win by all credible news sources.

Can you find the election posters??? (double-click image to enlarge)


Gratuitous Chuspi videos
And for your viewing pleasure…Chuspi playing with random objects!!!!

These were all taken this morning as I was writing the blog. That means Mike had nothing to do...hence, all of the videos. Enjoy!!!

Click here to see Chuspi play with paper

Click here to see Chuspi play with a bottle cap

Click here to see Chuspi play with a plastic bag

Click here to see Chuspi play with tagua

Click here to see Chuspi watching and running away from tagua

Click here to see Chuspi watching tagua and the camera

Click here to see Chuspi play with tagua and plastic bag

Click here to see Chuspi play with tagua and plastic bag, again