Wednesday April 4, 2012 - Preschool, Preparing Fanesca

We woke up at 6:30 a.m. Antonio had told us that we may go to Otavalo and Peguche waterfall after breakfast, so Craig shaved and we got a backpack together. We went to breakfast at 8 o'clock. We had omelettes with pieces of hot dog in them, fry bread with marmalade, croissants, fresh juice, and a warm drink made from a type of corn and milk. I had a few tummy troubles this morning and couldn't finish the warm drink. Antonio was off getting more choclo and came back after we had finished eating.

After breakfast, Aida got a stick and poked it up into the tree. The parrot got onto it and then walked down the length of the stick toward her. She put down a bowl of food for him and then he climbed onto her fingers and let her transfer him to the fence to get the food. She said he doesn't like being touched, but will apparently tolerate it for food.

Chipi the kitten climbed up onto the fence next to the parrot. She moved one paw closer to him, he immediately squawked, and she backed off. But when he was done eating and went back up into the tree, she ate his leftovers. Then the gas truck showed up and swapped an empty gas cylinder for a full one.

Today we did a lot of peeling and shelling of grains. It all had to do with the preparation of a special Easter soup called fanesca. Fanesca is legendary in Ecuador, and only seems to be made at Easter time. It consists of 12 grains, which signify the 12 apostles at the Last Supper.

First, we had to remove beans from their pods, and then take the shell off of each individual bean. We handled the job quite well and got into a groove.

When we were done with that, we took the tortora reed mat outside and peeled a pot of habas beans that they had already taken out of the pods. Craig came up with a good technique of using your thumbnail to slice them and then easily peel he skin off.

We then moved on to smaller beans in green pods. We did one pass to get them out of the pods, and then another pass to skin them. It wan't quite as easy as the habas because the skin was thinner and tended to tear, but it wasn't too bad.

Then when we were done with those, the corn awaited. We removed the kernels from four ears of corn and then had to peel a translucent shell off of each and every single kernel.We didn't even know that corn kernels had a skin like that. Yet here we were trying to remove 4 ears of corn worth! This was a lot more difficult;sometimes the kernel wouldn't stay together without its shell, causing us to get starch all over our hands and clothes. We thought that we would be seeing corn kernels in our sleep. No wonder they only make this once a year!

Rosa and Aida rotated in and out while also preparing lunch. It started to rain so we brought the mat under the roof overhang to prevent the operation from getting wet. Without the sunlight, it was even more difficult to see what we were doing.

Finally Rosa told us that we had done enough corn, and gave us some tan beans which had been soaking in water. These were slippery and the skin slipped off even more easily than the habas.

OK, we had done 4 grains so far, were there still 8 to go? Craig and I were getting punchy as we proceeded with this tedious task.

Then it was time for lunch. We had the leftover hearty chuchupa soup from last night, rice, melloco, fried plaintain, and fresh mora (blackberry) juice.

After lunch, it was still raining and we thought it would be nice to give the kids a rainy day gift to keep them occupied. I had picked up two small MagnaDoodles (magnetic writing tablets with a metal stylus). Sisa spontaneously said gracias and gave us each a hug. She immediately started compulsively drawing little circles all over it and then erasing them.

Aida was knitting a blue scarf, and Rosa was crocheting a maroon one.

Yupanqui woke up from his nap and Sisa immediately showed him his new MagnaDoodle and how to use it. It was very cute how excited she was.

Yupanqui was more interested in eating since he had slept through lunch.

Aida sent Sisa into the bedroom to get some photos, and we spread them across the kitchen table and looked through them. Some we had seen before. There were photos that tourist guests had sent them, a wedding photo of Antonio and Rosa, pictures of the casita being built. There was a picture of Sisa as a baby. And there were also pictures from 2006 when Aida returned home to live wih her dad and step-mother Rosa at age 16 after a childhood working in Quito after the death of her mother.

At 3 o'clock, Aida said that Sisa had school this afternoon. Sisa didn't want to go, but when we told that we would go with her, she was ok with it. We quickly got out our raincoats and headed up to the school. Sisa carried her new MagnaDoodle with her and jumped over puddles in the road, which were many. When we had accompanied her to preschool last year, we had all arrived 20 minutes late for a 30 minute pre-school class. Craig and I worried that we were similarly late today.

We arrived at the community center at 3:20. Her classroom was in one of the main buildings this year as opposed to in one of the smaller back buildings. But it turned out that we were actually 10 minutes early for a 3:30 class. They had free play until 3:30. Sisa went over to a tortora reed mat and played with some big plastic nuts and bolts. Craig and I stuck to the perimeter of the classroom trying to stay out of the way. But Sisa motioned to us to come over and play with her, so we did.

At 3:30, the class began. Sisa had the same animated teacher as last year. There were three other kids: a boy, the teacher's daughter, and another girl whose older sister had accompanied her to school. They sat around a small table. Rosa sat next to Sisa. They were working on shapes. When the teacher addressed Sisa, Sisa paid very good attention and answered questions very quietly.

The teacher passed out scissors and paper. Sisa was supposed to cut out a square and then glue it onto a piece of paper. She had a hard time with the scissors and insisted on using them two-handed, even when the teacher and Rosa tried to teach her the proper way. Once she managed to cut it out, Sisa glued it onto the paper. Then she needed to tear some paper ribbon into lengths slightly longer than the square's sides, and glue them around the perimeter. Sisa made them way too short and the teacher showed her how to measure them. She glued them down and then painted the negative space between them yellow. I enjoyed watching the lesson and it made me nostalgic for my days in the classroom.

A truck drove by the school and the teacher yelled something out the window and then ran outside, returning with a bag of clementines. After the square project, the class sang a couple of songs (Bravo and Relojito). Then the teacher had them come up one by one to each get a clementine. She told Sisa to bring one to her Achi Taita, so Sisa brought one to Craig (who shared it with me). The clementine was quite sweet and nice. It was nice that they give the kids a nutritious snack, while making sure that they have fresh fruit in their diets.

We stopped at a house with a Runa Tupari guest house on the way home so that Rosa could buy a piece of fabric. We got home and took showers and then went into the kitchen and looked at more photos. Aida sat with us and then Antonio came home and he joined us, explaining some of the pictures, including one of Rosa and a friend at Mitad Del Mundo when she was 18.

We then had dinner, a green soup with popcorn, choclo mote, cheese, tomato, cucumber, and onion salad, and tree tomato juice. While eating dinner, Yupanqui sang a happy little song in Kichwa about how much he likes mote (hominy). It was super cute!

We had expected fanesca for dinner after all of that prep work, but it was not even mentioned. We were confused. But what else is new. We had also expected to go to Peguche Falls today, but that never happened either. Perhaps it was due to the rain. Perhaps some other reason. But the fact remains that we often miss the nuances of what is going to happen on any given day.

Sisa went to bed at the start of dinner, and Rosa took her own food into the bedroom to eat while sitting with Sisa. After dinner, Aida changed Yupanqui and then brought him back to the table all clean and fresh in jammies. We all chatted for a while, and then at 8:30 they said goodnight. We went back to our room. It was still pouring very hard and the room felt cozy. I wrote in the journal until 9:30 and then went to bed.

Sisa and Yupanqui

Sisa and Yupanqui

Aida and Loro

Aida and Loro

Chipi and Loro

Chipi and Loro

Peeling beans

Peeling beans

Peeling beans

Peeling beans

Peeling corn kernels

Peeling corn kernels

Peeling beans

Peeling beans

Sisa's preschool class

Sisa's preschool class

Yupanqui

Yupanqui

Aida and Yupanqui

Aida and Yupanqui

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