Boots!

July 22nd, 2010 to my Cousin Kim, it is probably in your best interest you do not read this blog entry.


Today was a pretty relaxing day. Had an extended lunch with the committee that the current volunteer (Brad) helped to create. It was interesting to hear their ideas and how they differ from other ideas in the community. I am sure in the future I will be able to explain that better, but first I want to know more about the going-ons in the town.
Later on in the day I went to mass with Isabel and afterwards we had a lovely dinner with the Padre and some other important local people who names I will someday know.
The first dish, usually soup, was soup. It was good, but I was preoccupied with the thought that I was going to get served cuy (guinea pig) for the main course. As I was slurping down my hot soup, I saw the ladies who brought the food prepping something in a greasy cardboard box.
“Maybe it is just a box of super greasy potato chips.” I reassured myself
“Why did she grab scissors and what is she cutting in the box?! Maybe she is cutting snowflakes out of potato chips like I did with paper when I was a kid.” I lied to myself

Shit.

The lady removes her hands from the box, scissor hand first, and in the other hand is a whole cuy grilled to what I assume would be perfection. The skin looks like hardened caramel. Cuy are usually cooked on spits, this one clearly was. How do I know this you ask? It is quite obvious, the jaw is broken and open wide mimicking a python ready to swallow a hippo. The other end of the cuy is opened just as wide.
She continued to cut the cuy in half. When suddenly I realized I had stopped eating my soup and was simply starring at this lady and the cuy across the room. I don’t think anyone noticed, so I did the best I could to finish my soup and not to think of my pet guinea pig I had as a kid. Crap, I just did. Now all I could think about Wendy. She used to cry out whenever we would open the fridge, hoping to get some lettuce or other veggies. Cute little thing she was, may she rest in peace.
A plate with potatoes, rice and half a cuy was placed in front of me. I have eaten some weird things before including shark, duck feet, kangaroo and raw goat’s blood. But this for some reason was a whole new level of gut wrenching torture to pick the bones clean as not to insult my hosts.
It is a greasy meat. I will let you, the readers, decide for yourself if you like it. I hope I myself grow to like this traditional dish. I have been informed that I will most likely be eating it a few times a month.

July 23rd, 2010
Integration is a funny thing. Sometimes I think the Peace Corps. overcomplicates the subject and how to achieve it. After I ate breakfast, I noticed my host brother Pablo was watching the movie Avatar (in Spanish). So I joined him and we sat in silence watching for a good 2 hours. After he asked me if I like action movies and who my favorite stars were. He is a big action fan too; he likes Sylvestor Stalone and just about any movie with gore. On to the next action flick, The Book of Eli, in which Denzel Washington kicks a lot of ass and dies as a martyr. Then came lunch time and we ate in silence and then headed our separate ways for the day. We said “see you later” but this time it sounded different. It sounded like we both wanted to actually hang out again. It was at that point that I knew I had made another friend.
That night, Isabel hosted a goodbye/welcome party for Brad and myself. A bunch of neighbors came to help celebrate in the frame of a four story apartment building next to our house. Turns out that Isabel owns it and plans on putting a restaurant on the first floor! However she ran out of funds, so the project is halfway done for now.
Party started at 8, did not eat until 10:30. Starving! As was everyone. In the meantime many meaningful speeches were given. The community will truly miss Brad and expressed the warmest of welcomes for me. Speech! Christian (as I am know here, easier to say) introduce yourself. Luckily I had sort of practiced this so it went pretty well. After my speech, Isabel with tears still in her eyes from her speech, got up to say something else.

Translated roughly:
“Tristan’s Spanish is pretty good; just don’t ask him what time it is. He will give you a math problem. Instead of 10 minutes until 8, you will get 10 times eight!” Everyone got a big chuckle out of me using the wrong word for “until.” I was embarrassed. But Brad leaned over and told me “That means they like you.”
:)

July 24, 2010 Last day in my site until I am back for two years!
Packed up my gear into my backpack and headed to Cuenca for the day to explore a little bit with the others.
I got off the bus at the bus at the wrong stop and had a 40 minute walk to where we had to meet up. Not a big deal though, got to learn a little bit of Cuenca and see old retired gringo couples out for walks.
10pm, bus ride! It was much better this time around. However, there were still several times when I awoke feeling as if the bus was tipping over at high speeds. Thankfully the shades were shut and it was dark out, because I am sure we were swerving right next to huge cliffs.

July 25th, 2010 Ah, cayambe.
We finally arrived back in Cayambe about 10am, exhausted and in need of sleep in a real bed. I sleep on the bus, but it is not really sleep. It is more like a being knocked out by a punch or something like that. I always wake up sore and cranky and wanting to go back to sleep.
I snuck in the side door to avoid the impending hour long conversation with my family about my new sight. I just wanted to sleep. Fatal error, I flushed the toilet. As I leave the bathroom, Connor comes running upstairs.
“Hey man, everyone is coming to Oyacachi (his site) now. My futbol team is in the finals and we recruited Walter to play as a ringer.” He exclaimed.
“Sure, let me pack a jacket and camera.”
Glad I went. Oyacachi is a beautiful town of 600 people tucked away in a tiny valley in the middle of nowhere. Cell phones do not work there and the town has not has power for a month, yet life goes on. A beautiful cascade can be seen from the town and it is also known for its natural hot springs.
Connor’s team tied the game 2-2 in the last minute with a goal scored by Walter!
Afterwards we all went to the hot springs to relax. Connor is convinced there is natural lithium in the mineral-y rich hot springs of Oyacachi. After we got out of the water, I definitely understood what he meant.
We then walked across this rickety suspension bridge into town in search of a meal. We ate a traditional dish of rice, fried trout and soup. The trout was fantastic! It made me want to go fishing again. After dinner we said our goodbyes to Connor and headed off into the night for our 2 hour trek home.

I am pretty sure I was asleep before I had fully lain down in my bed.

July 26th, back to school
This morning I went to take out money from the ATM to pay my family for the upcoming weeks’ rent. Where is my ATM card (that I got just a week ago)? Hijo de puta! Well this sucks, it takes at least a week to get a new one and we are leaving for a weeklong trip this Sunday, super duper Tristan, and way to go. Luckily I had some cash I was saving to get my cowboy boots. So I pay the family with what cash I had. $20 left over to buy my boots tomorrow, and I will have $5 left to feed myself for the next 5 days or so… I am getting the damn boots.

July 27th, 2010
Waited all day for 5 o’clock and finally it came. Clint, Curlee and I all arrived at my house at 5:30pm sharp like I told Jose we would so he could take us to get the boots. However he had some stuff he had to do and we didn’t leave until around 6:30, no pasa nada. We spent the hour working with one of Walter’s friend’s English homework and this proved to be quite entertaining. At last Jose arrived and we hopped in the truck.
His cousin’s store is smaller than most American full bathrooms. On display were several models of boots. The biggest size he had for me to try on was a 43, about a 10 in men’s. This apparently is super big in Ecuador, haha.
After we had picked out the styles of boots we each wanted he took measurements of our feet. He commented that Clint’s feet were really wide and looked like a ducks.
He then drew up the contracts and we signed off and paid whatever we had on us. I happily gave him my $20. My custom handmade cowboy boots will cost me a total of $90 and completely worth going without the luxury of full meals for the next few days.
When we got home Carlota and Jose had to help install some sort of lighting fixture upstairs in one of the apartments above our house. We didn’t eat dinner until about 10pm, again no pasa nada. I spent that time teaching Walter, Ping and several of the neighbor kids the card game Texas hold’em. They absolutely loved the game! We started off with about 15 cents in pennies each, and by the end Ping had everyone’s money.

What I have taught/sort of taught since I have been here:
• English, mostly curse words or grammatical structure
• Some guitar
• America’s favorite gambling card game Texas Hold’em
• And hopefully helped improve the image of Americans in the minds of a few Ecuadorians (not that they think badly of us)

Ps. I am growing my beard and my host brother says I look like Bin Laden or Che Guevara. I am considering shaving.





http://www.parroquiabanos.gov.ec/banos/