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Today was quite interesting. Yesterday I posted a photo of Sisa hugging her deceased biological grandmother's cross at the cemetery during Dia de los Muertos. Last night, Sisa got a fever and a bad stomach ache. She couldn't sleep at all and cried all night because she didn't feel well.
This morning when we got up, a gentleman from the community was here. I recognized him as someone who danced with me at Sisa's baptism. I had a nice conversation with him and then came in to the kitchen to eat breakfast. We had flour tortillas with tuna salad, lettuce, and rice, as well as some more of the rolls that we had baked for Day of the Dead. Rosa made uvilla juice to help with my cough. I had forgotten something and went back to the casita to retrieve it. Aida told me to get into the kitchen quickly, and she closed all of the doors to the house. It turned out that the gentleman was a shaman. The family believes that Sisa contracted "mal aire" (bad air) from hugging the cross at the cemetery. The shaman cleansed her of the mal aire, but if any of us were outside at the time, it could be transferred to us. Thus the closed doors. Less than an hour later, Sisa emerged from her room, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Coincidence? Then, while I was working, Craig was helping Rosa to prepare some of the bamboo ceiling material for the addition. Rosa was using a wire brush to clean the bamboo, and all of a sudden it went missing. The two of them looked everywhere in the garden for it, including under the bamboo ceiling materials. Rosa resigned herself to doing it with steel wool instead, saying that the earth must have taken it. Craig was obsessed with trying to find it, and continued to look everywhere he could think of. It drove him crazy. It had to be there somewhere! Several hours later, Craig saw Rosa outside using the same wire brush. He rushed outside to ask her where she had found it. She said that she had found it under one of the pieces of bamboo, where both of them had individually looked earlier. He looked at her questioningly. She shrugged her shoulders. Where had it gone in the interim? Had the earth truly taken it, and then returned it? She seemed to take it for granted. It was now back and she didn't give it another thought. It was a day of unexplained events. For lunch we had corn soup with popcorn, followed by pasta with ground beef and vegetables. Antonio and Rosa worked diligently to complete installation of the bamboo ceilings in one of the two third floor rooms. It is looking great. It's amazing how much progress has been made in the two and a half weeks since we arrived! We love to see how creative the kids can get with their environment in terms of playing. They decided to use a 2 x 4" plank as a see-saw. It was balanced using a log as the fulcrum. Sisa sat on one end, with Yupanqui and Tayanta on the other. They were having so much fun! Oh, and sadly, we are down to four baby chicks. Two of the six passed away overnight or early this morning. Yupanqui got to choose which Youtube videos to watch, and he consistently chose animated videos about the various components of construction equipment, ambulances, firetrucks, etc. He was enthralled, and Tayanta enjoyed watching it too. I had to oversee an evening software release at work, so I monitored the release while eating dinner with the family. We had a delicious green soup (lettuce or spinach, I believe). We had some sort of vegetable stalk battered and fried, as well as rice, potatoes, peas, and carrots. After I was done with work and we were ready to go to bed, the family prepared a vapor bath for Craig. They had done this before to help his legs with MS symptoms. Antonio gathered herbs and Aida boiled some water on the fire. They soaked the herbs in the water and then had Craig hold his legs over the bucket. They wrapped a blanket over his legs to keep the steam in. Tayanta kept coming in and out of the casita. She would go over to Craig, check on him, pat his legs, and then go back outside. It was very cute. After about 20 minutes, Rosa bathed his legs with the herbal solution. The she instructed him to get right into bed. We really appreciate how much the family cares about Craig's illness, and tries to find traditional remedies within their culture to help him. Tomorrow afternoon we will go to see a traditional Kichwa healer in Cotacachi to see what he recommends. We are open minded to all kinds of treatments! |
 Rosa  Tayanta and Max  Antonio trims the ceiling bamboo  Yupanqui, Tayanta, and Sisa play on a makeshift see-saw 
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