|
We woke up at 7 a.m., took showers, and headed to the house to breakfast for 8:30. Aida was making breakfast. Rosa and Sisa had gone to Otavalo, and Yupanqui was awake in bed. I went to get him up, and he was covered in brown goop. I thought that he must have had a very bad accident overnight, and I cringed to think about cleaning it up. Luckily, I found a wrapper in the bed...it was just chocolate. Someone had given him a mini Twix candy bar, and it had melted all over him. Still a mess to clean up, but a much more pleasant one!
We ate breakfast with Antonio, Aida, and Yupanqui. We had home fries and hot dogs and croissants. Craig also had a fried egg. I did the dishes and then we went to our room and did some cleanup.
Then we went outside. Aida put Yupanqui on a blanket on the grass, and Antonio played the flute for him. Rosa and Sisa came home with lots of groceries. After they put them away, I went to our room to get a gift for the kids: colorful wooden building blocks. Sisa honed right in on the fact that I had gone to get something for her. We played with the blocks outside on a tortora reed mat, and Sisa was very happy. It started to rain so we pulled the mat and blocks into the kitchen. Yupanqui played with us there too. Craig and I built structures and Sisa took delight in knocking them down. For lunch we had corn soup, cheese, avocado, mora (blackberry) juice, corn on the cob, and habas beans. It stopped raining, and we played with Sisa outside. She made a game of hugging and kissing us. Antonio left for a gig. Rosa was going to a Runa Tupari cooking seminar and was planning to take Sisa with her. When the time came, she asked Sisa to wash the chocolate off her face. (They had eaten more than half of the candy already, less than 24 hours after we had given it to them). Sisa refused to wash her face. The car came, and Rosa left without her. When Sisa realized this, she was mad, and we knew we were in for a rough afternoon. After some tears, Aida convinced Sisa to take a ride on her plastic car out in the street. Aida and I went with her. I pushed her up the hill and when we turned around, Aida had gone back to the house. Sisa was mad and wouldn't let me push her any more. She propelled herself down the hill with her feet, and I followed at a distance. She was so mad that she wouldn't touch me; she wouldn't even drive over my shadow! She wheeled the car back to the house. When we arrived, she picked it up by the steering wheel, which promptly fell off. She moved the vehicle, and then the front axel popped off. I tried to fix it for her, but she kept saying no and swatting at me. Aida and Craig came over a few minutes later. They helped to put the car back together. There was one piece that still needed to go on. Sisa insisted on doing it herself, and she had it situated the wrong way. We tried to show her to pop the other end on first, but to no avail. She wanted nothing to do with us and walked away. Aida was doing chores and we decided to read. Sisa played with her new china tea set (a gift from the baptism party) out of our sight. We saw her making a mess out of hand cream or toothpaste or something. She whined and cried now and then. Aida took her on short walks to try to calm her down. At around 5 or 5:30, they reappeared from one of these walks. Sisa had geranium flowers in her hands. She approached and gave a bunch to each of us. Then she gave us each a hug. It was a peace offering. I went to the room and got her the other packet of Perlitas candy we bought on Saturday for (literally!) 5 cents. They are her favorites. She thanked us in Kichwa unprompted and then sat next to us on a little board suspended between cinder blocks. She nestled in close. It was chillier than normal as the sun went down. Aida did laundry in the outdoor sink and Sisa helped out by scrubbing a pair of her little undies and slapping them on the laundry rock. It got dark, and we went inside. We played with the blocks with both kids. Meanwhile Aida was making dinner. Yupanqui was clingy and as soon as she went back to the stove, leaving him with us, he started to hyperventilate and cry. Sisa liked the blocks and unlike earlier, she wasn't just trying to knock everyone's buildings down. She now seems to appreciate the architecture. Yupanqui took a nap. Before we knew it, it was 8 o'clock. Aida finished making dinner, and we sat down at the table. We had soup, pasta with ground beef, pickled cabbage, rice, and Coca-Cola. Sisa was acting fine, but all of a sudden, she started to whine. Then she immediately fell almost fully asleep sitting up while she eating. Her eyes wouldn't stay open. Aida put her to bed and then came back with Yupanqui. Yupanqui is a good eater for someone with no teeth (just two on their way in on the bottom). He eats lots from the table. After we were done, we cleaned up the table and blocks. Aida said the dishes can wait until the morning. We all retired to our rooms. Rosa and Antonio still weren't home yet. I wrote in the journal until 9:30, at which point we went to sleep. |
 Antonio plays the flute for Yupanqui  Sisa plays blocks with Craig  Yupanqui plays with Sisa  Steph holds Yupanqui  Playing blocks See more photos from this day |
|
 |
|
 |
