Long Day

Monday, November 9


Long day. Very long day. And now I am making it longer by writing!

I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep. It could have been because I was in bed by 8:30. I had my first shower and breakfast at my home stay. It’s a tossup over last year’s shower situation and this one! This year’s pros: shower basin with 6” raised lip AND shower curtain; easy to manage facets, even providing hot water when the electricity is out; wall against my bedroom and the outside instead of against a chapel wall; shower head permanently a foot and a half out from the wall. CONS: Electrical wire that runs catty corner across the top, hanging from the ceiling and resting on the shower curtain rod.

Breakfast: croissant with jelly, juice and Nescafe. I was given a cup of boiled milk (I think unpasteurized) into which I was to stir the instant coffee. (Doesn’t real coffee come from this country?)

I was walked to school this morning for the first time in 45 years! Pilar walked with me to the school and waited until the owner couple/teachers arrived. I was matched with Rosario and Janine with Fredrico. Four hours is a long time for a class. We did take a break about half way through and had real brewed coffee and discussed a couple of things. Fredrico speaks English, but not Rosario. But we figured out what I should say to my host mom regarding a little less rice and fatty foods (croissant) and we decided to take a hike to Le Leguche – a magic tree - on Friday for our lesson. It’s about an hour hike up, so we will see how we do. If I don’t carry anything but water, I should be ok breathing. We also determined they could help me with my GVI issued t-shirt that was of course too small. I will say though that it is a large and not even an extra large. So after lunch, Rosario and I went to three different shops to find someone who could insert a one inch panel on either side. We found someone who could do it no problem for $1.00!! What a deal. (I hope I will still think so tomorrow when I pick it up!)

Lunch was a delicious veggie soup followed by a half plate of fresh peas, half a plate of rice with a thin slice of beef with a small amount of light gravy over it. I really appreciated the half plate of veggies. Hopefully this will continue but maybe not with such a starchy veggie.

After class Janine and I went to Buena Vista, a small café/restaurant that has free Wi-Fi and is a hangout for Gringos. I was able to upload yesterday’s blog from MSWord before we headed over to the GVI House. It was Laura’s birthday (a volunteer from Germany), so we went out to an Italian dinner to celebrate. I had manicotti (3 stuffed with chicken) and a glass of wine. With tax and tip: $10.50. We then went back to the GVI house where we celebrated with a dessert that one of the other volunteers made. It was pretty late when I got home and I felt bad as the dog of course barked like it was supposed to, but the JorgeLuis woke up and came downstairs to turn off the lights. There is no way you can quietly enter the house – which is why they have the dog!



Observations:

The indigenous Quichua women wear a cloth tied on their heads, instead of a hat. It is black with white trim in the back. Some women seem to just place a folded cloth on their head to protect it from the sun.

Either to girls have babies very, very young, or some are carrying around their mothers babies. I know the later is wishful thinking.

The Quichua people are of very small stature. It really throws me to see some tiny kids walking and some that from their size I would guess to be 2 or so, helping out a younger child! I asked Rosaria when we walked what she would guess one little girls age and she said probably around 4, but I swear she couldn’t have been more than 2 by her size.

I see police officers everywhere. And a lot of guards. At banks, money echanges, the supermarket, or anyplace bigger than a small family operated store front, there are guards with guns standing by the doorway. Kind of unsettling.

The commerce in this town is huge. On the weekdays, there is the market at the PPPPP Poncho with the crafts. Then there is another outdoor market along both sides of a street a block long with general needs: clothing, pots and pans, shoes, etc. And then every block is filled with little shops selling one or two items of the above.

There are a number of elementary schools and high schools, technical schools and a University. The elementary school children all wear uniforms. Some of the Quichua children wear their traditional skirts or blouses under the uniform.

There are mucho perros (many dogs) wandering the streets loose. I’ve now seen only two dogs on leashes: a schnauzer and a wiener dog. On the walk home last night, we easily saw 15 dogs.

And the winner: Janine and I were walking down the street and we heard music coming from a big truck. There was a loud speaker on the front and we couldn’t figure it out, because it sounded like an ice cream truck, but it seemed too big and it was kind of late and there weren’t a lot of kids around. As it passed us, we saw it was the garbage truck!