It didn't rain on my parade

I have not been able to update this blog in while for a few reasons. It has not rained here for a while which is a problem for a country which runs on hydroelectric power. They have been cutting the electricity for 5 hours at a time in different parts of the city. I've heard that they've been cutting it for 8 hours at a time in other parts of the country. Some days, when we have electricity in my house, there is not electricity in andinatel, which then cuts the cable and the internet in the whole city!!! and when the electricity comes back on in that section, it goes off in our section. it's been incredibly frustrating. Stupid global warming. All you people in the developed world, stop polluting the earth so that it rains here so that I can have electricity! as romantic as dinner by candle light with my family can be, it's a bit scary because I can't really see what i'm eating... and with them it could be anything... haha no, they know now that i don't really like guinea pig.

last weekend, I went to la mama negra which is a parade in Latacunga. The parade commemorates a slave woman who gained her freedom and to celebrate, got drunk and gave liquor to everyone she saw on the street. Today, the town chooses one MAN to paint his face black and dress up as the mama negra. The parade lasted for hours with many men dressed as women pouring aguardiente into everyone's mouths. It was actually crazy. In the parade, there were also some people dressed as angels. They went around to all the "sinners" and cleansed their souls. They did this by dancing around the sinners waving herbs and something that looked antlers and finally, they sprayed/spit alcohol all over them to cleanse them of their sins. so of course my friend Kat and I had to experience this. We left Latacunga at about 3 pm, before people got too drunk and started passing out in the streets, which is what I was told would happen. In order to leave, we had to walk the path of the parade, in essence becoming our own parade of gringos. Everyone saw us and was like hey! gringos! lets see them dance, lets give them alcohol! We felt like spectacles, but it was entertaining for us too.

This past Thursday was Ambato's independence day. There was a parade here too, but it was much more tame and organized than the mama negra. It was a civic parade where all the high schools marched with their "bands" Actually, not one high school had a real marching band. The only school that had any wind instruments was the music conservatory. The rest had only drums and "lyras" or glockenspiels... but everyone at the parade gathered to support their high school. Two of my sisters marched, Michele played the lyra and Alexandra marched because she's a senior. I learned something very interesting during the parade. There were some people who marched in traditional indigenous clothing instead of the school uniform. Monica informed me that the schools cannot make the indigenous population wear a uniform. They are permitted to wear their traditional clothing of their particular group (which in a way is its own uniform) I found that really interesting. Anyway, I'm very happy that this parade is over because now Michele will stop practicing her lyra in the house, which was getting incredibly annoying.

This weekend will be spent relaxing with my family and correcting massive amounts of homework from my students. ciao!

Trucha!

This weekend I was supposed to go to Cuenca for their independence day festivities. But I came down with a fever on wednesday and was not better enough by friday to go. :( At first, I was not happy about staying home for a four day weekend, but it proved to be some nice family bonding time. My sister Alexandra was also sick so we hung out and watched movies in Spanish. Today, we took a family trip to Rio Negro (outside of Banos) to go fishing! We caught trout with bamboo fishing poles. Then my host dad built a fire and we cooked them right next to the river! It was delicious. I realized that I didn't have a picture of my family on my blog, so here it is! My parents are Marcia and Luis, and my sisters Monica, Alexandra, Michele and Maria.

Colada Morada!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Here in Ecuador, although there are lots of costume parties, they claim not to celebrate Halloween. They prefer to celebrate their own holidays rather than adopt those of the U.S. (even though all the bars and halloween themed nights this week.) Here, we celebrate dia de los difuntos (the day of the dead) on november 2. People go to the cemetaries and celebrate their loved ones who have died. Today and friday, classes and workplaces all over Ecuador are making time to drink Colada Morada (like pina colada only dark purple) eat guaguas de pan (bread babies... ok bread shaped like babies sounds better). This is the traditional food to eat in this time of year. Both of my classes asked to bring in colada morada tomorrow, so I will take pictures and put it up. I know it is a big deal, because each class elects a "Miss Colada Morada" and a "Mister guagua de pan." It´s kind of like prom king and queen. These two individuals are elected to bring in colada morada and guaguas de pan for the whole class. In my morning class I was elected Miss Colada Morada. (Thank you! Thank you! I´ve been practicing my wave...) but I told them that I have no idea where to get Colada Morada and that someone else will have to bring it for me. I´ll let you know what else goes down tomorrow, and hopefully take some pictures! Feliz dia de los difuntos!

Tungurahua

I was finally able to get a good shot of Tungurahua volcano from my window. There was one day when it wasn´t covered in clouds, and the sun was setting and the light hit the snow on the top of the volcano just right. I hope you enjoy it!

I also put up a picture of the campo, just before it started to rain. The sun rays were amazing. And finally a picture of me and Juan Carlos and his family at the mitad del mundo. The yellow line is (supposedly) the equator!

Rumba and the Campo

Thursday night I had a deeply cultural experience. I went to a Rumba Terapia (rumba therapy) class. Rumba therapy is incredibly popular in Ambato. If you ask someone where a gym is, they will point you to a rumba terapia studio. Rumba is basically a glorified 80's aerobics class with latin style music (merengue, salsa and lots of reggaeton). the room is full with women age 14 to 75 all wearing spandex and sporty tank tops. our instructor is an energetic teenage boy with long hair and a superman t shirt. he bounces back and forth and forward and backward to the music and we all try to keep up with him, hips swaying and hair bouncing. I look incredibly out of place in my mesh shorts and t shirt and white hips that don't quite move with the same rhythm as everyone else. But that class was so much fun. It was actually really hard, too. I worked up a sweat. Next time I will definitely wear spandex, a leotard, and my hair in a side ponytail with a scrunchy and I will fit in better. I could film it and pass it off for a flashdance music video.

I am writing this post from the BEAUTIFUL home of Juan Carlos Fernandez. He is a very good friend of my cousin Melanie. In fact, she is the godmother of their 3 year old son John. Yesterday, I took a bus to Quito and Juan Carlos picked me up. He gathered his family and we headed off to meet some of his friends and family in the campo. Now when I think campo (countryside) I think someone has a cute little farm somewhere outside the city limits and we're going to visit them. oh no. how wrong I am. We drove for about an hour on unpaved roads, bumping along in his little suv to an empty field. Apparently his friend just bought this property out the middle of nowhere. Worse than Bethany, CT, this place is comprised of fields separated by barbed wire fences, lots of cows and lots of cow poop. His friend had not built anything on his newly acquired property. Juan Carlos's friends and family had set up a small tent and were drinking cerveza when we arrived. They ate hornado (roasted pig that for some reason always comes with the pig head) and mote and corn and potatoes and just drank in the field for hours. Then we planted trees around the edge of the property. They made me remember which one was mine and baptise it with water and name it Jessica. hahaha as the afternoon went on, we could see a cold front coming in. It was amazing to watch. Half of the sky was bright and the land looked green and fresh. The other half was covered in dark clouds and the land below just looked brown. It was clear that it was going to pour. We watched the lightning storm roll over us. It was so incredible because there was only nature for miles. The only hint of human existance were the barbed wire fences separating land from homogenous land. I felt like I was on stormwatchers, that nature show that they used to make us watch in science class in junior high. Anyway, we bounced down the unpaved roads in the rain. it was a bit terrifying. especially, since Juan Carlos's friend in the passenger seat of the car in front of us kept getting out of the car to dance over to us and offer beer to our driver. Thank goodness he refused it, but that happened at least five times on our descent into civilization.

We made it back into town and it stopped raining. Juan Carlos showed me around the downtown area of sangolquil (the town that he lives in) and of course we had to see the church, Which was one of the prettier churches that I've seen in this country. Then we headed back to his house and watched a movie (hot chick? it's an adam sandler movie from cerca 1991) and went to bed.

Today, we were supposed to leave at 10 to go to the mitad del mundo (center of the earth) a monument and museum on the actual equator, which I've heard is really cool. Of course it's 10:45 and everyone is still showering and getting ready. oh Ecuadorians.

Melanie, Everyone I've met here asks me about you and your family. As soon as I tell them I'm related to you, they say, oh well then you're family! So you should know that everyone here loves you and cares about you and asks me when you're coming back. plus, it's so nice to see Boston regalia everywhere!!! it's so nice to be able to say that I'm from close to Boston instead of close to New York. No other Ecuadorian knows where Boston is! :) thanks for the great contact. It's nice to have family here!

but she said we were friends, and I was in no position to pass up friends...

I finally went for a real run today! I managed to get on the right bus and get off at the right stop to go to the track. The track is surprisingly nice. I ran 2 miles.. in 24 minutes. I recognize the fact that this is pretty pathetic, but I´m in altitude and I haven´t ran in a few months. So I´m gonna consider this a success. After I had finished jogging, this girl named Silvia came up to me and asked "estas entrenando?" are you training? sure, why not. I said yes. She said, well, you should definitely train with me! ok why not? well, it turns out she´s (almost) an olympic athlete. she qualified for the 2008 olympics for the 300m hurdles, but she tore her achiles before she could compete. Now she´s recovered and has been training for three months. And she thinks I can train with here?!?! Well, she was really nice. We took the bus back to the center together and chatted the whole way back. She seemed really excited to get to know me. It´s so nice to make an Ecuadorian friend who´s not male and not part of my family!! and it will be nice to have a running partner.... even if she´s running laps around me.

weekend in Ambato

This weekend is nice and relaxing. Last night I went out with all of the Worldteach Ambato volunteers to eat shawarma (it was actually really good) and then drink hot wine at a cute little bar in town. It was really nice to relax at the end of the week and listen to a little shakira.

Today, I went with my host sisters and some of their friends to parque de la familia, a park at the top of quisapincha hill outside of the city. I was so excited to see wide open spaces. and of course I brought a frisbee so I was a happy camper. However, it turns out that my host sisters and their friends were terrified of my frisbee. I tossed it towards them and they would shreek and back away. ´"doesn´t it hurt your hands?" omg. Thank god Kat (a volunteer from Texas) was there to throw with me, I would have been so dissapointed.

We returned to my house to eat lunch and swim in our pool. yes we have a pool. i´m pretty sure I´m the only worldteach volunteer ever, to have a pool in my host family´s house. So we relaxed the pool/hot tub all afternoon. I love weekends.

Another reason to celebrate is the fact that I´m writing this email FROM MY HOME!!! we now have INTERNET in our house!!! ahhhhhhhhh this is the most exciting thing since the rice I had for lunch today (and the day before and the day before) I can now update my blog without paying 90 cents an hour. (i realize it doesnt sound like that much, but when you´re American and you feel the need to check your email... and talk to your boyfriend... as much as I do, it adds up) so hopefully this means i´ll be able to blog more often. Shavuah Tov!