Ecuador

Friday 5/16/2014 - Craig's 48th birthday, Morochos Fiesta Pageant

Today was Craig's 48th birthday. We woke up at around 7 o'clock. I was having some stomach issues, and Craig hadn't slept particularly well, so we had a lazy morning until emerging from our casita at around 8:15. Sisa didn't have school because it was the first day of the Morochos anniversary festival, so all three kids were here this morning. They all greeted us with big hugs and kisses.

We had seen on the news the prior night that there was a natural gas shortage in Ecuador. The family uses it for cooking and for the hot water heater in our casita. Antonio had gone out first thing in the morning to make sure that he could buy some. You have to wonder if this is all related to the latest initiative to drill for oil in the Yasuni National Park, which we had visited in 2010. Energy is big industry in Ecaudor, to the detriment of the environment and indigenous culture.

I wasn't very hungry for breakfast. When Aida learned of my gastrointestinal troubles, she ran right out to the garden and picked some plants which she made into a medicinal tea. We really love this about the family; they have a subsistence farm and grow a lot of their own fruit, corn, etc. Each house has a section of their garden devoted to medicinal herbs. They are very knowledgeable about natural remedies and medicines as part of their Kichwa culture.

Sisa set the table this morning. She really is a good helper around the house. For breakfast, we had a fried egg, French fries, rice, and some home-made donuts that Rosa fried on the stove. We gave the kids colored pencils and coloring books,and spent time coloring with them. They always spontaneously thank us and hug and kiss us when we give them gifts. We then went outside and the kids danced with us on the patio. Sisa gave the baby chicks some water. She then picked a chick up, placed it onto her ride-on car, and gave it a ride around the patio. She was really entertaining.

Antonio came home with a canister of gas and hooked up our water heater so that we could take nice warm showers. Although the temperature never freezes here, it does get quite chilly at night, and any time when the sun is not out. Water can be pretty chilly, so the gas water heater was definitely much appreciated.

For lunch we had quinoa soup, chicken, potatoes, rice, and tomatoes. Since it was a special occasion (Craig's birthday) the featured beverage was a 3-liter bottle of Coke, instead of the usual fruit juice. 3-liter bottles are common here, making them especially awkward to pour, since the plastic is more flimsy.

After lunch, the kids were super excited. They sang happy birthday to Craig and Antonio played along on his violin. They brought out a beautiful cake with 2 blue candles: one in the shape of a 4 and one in the shape of an 8. It was all very touching and we appreciated their thoughtfulness. Yupanqui and Tayanta licked the frosting off of the base of the candles. They then used the base as a little spoon to shovel more frosting off of the cake and into their mouths. To quote Tom Waits, "Kids will be kids." It doesn't matter what culture they come from. Everyone enjoyed the cake which was topped with fresh fruit.

When Aida had gone to town to buy the cake and Coke, she had also bought some corn for the baby chicks. Sisa ground it up with the grinding stone and fed the little guys. Rosa and Aida told me that they were making me a new blouse for tomorrow's festivities. I had planned to wear the gorgeous one that they had made me for Yupanqui's baptism last September. But it turned out that they were making matching new ones for all of us. This year's embroidery design was more bold and less delicate. It was so nice of them, and I loved it and looked forward to wearing it the next day.

As we saw yesterday when the baby chick salesman arrived, it is common for people to go from house to house, either in pick-up trucks or on foot, selling goods. This afternoon, two men and a woman stopped by carrying a huge bundle of clothing for sale. They set it out on the patio and the family picked through the items, looking for things to purchase. Rosa bought a fleece for herself and one for Sisa. Aida wanted to buy a cute pink Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt for Tayanta, but the neck hole was too small for her head. A couple more people arrived, including a little girl named Sayuri who was Sisa's friernd. Sisa gathered flower petals from the bushes in the garden, and she and Sayuri pretended to be at a wedding throwing them in the air. Sisa has always loved picking flowers. Her name actually means "flower" in Kichwa.

Antonio's traditional Andean band, Chasqui Ñan, was supposed to play in Cotacachi that night, and some of the band members came over to the house to practice before the gig. They played a drum, pan pipes, violin, and guitar. Sisa danced with us on the patio, and Yupanqui played along on the recorder. He only played one note repeatedly, but it was in the right time, and he tapped his foot along with the music. It's awesome that he is learning so young, at only 3 years old. It's something he can share with his grandfather. Although Sisa loves music, she seems to prefer dancing to actually performing music herself. Tayanta took the drumstick and pounded on the drum, which was made of an animal hide with the fur still on it.

We had to catch the chicks when it started raining and bring them inside in their box. Once again that song came to mind, "The baby chicks say pio pio pio, when they are hungry, when they are cold." And not for the last time!

It became later and we thought that the band should have already left for Cotacachi. Antonio said that two of the band members hadn't shown up, so they had to cancel the gig. We were sure that this was disappointing, as Antonio has not had much work lately. The kids practiced kicking soccer balls around. Antonio played with them. Aida did the laundry by hand in the outdoor sink. Abuela was in the fire shed, cooking food over her fire. We stopped in to say hello. When it got dark, we wemt into the house. We sat on the kitchen floor coloring with the kids while Chipi the cat looked down at us from his perch on the table.

For dinner we had a delicious cream of potato soup with chicken. We had fresh blackberry juice ("mora" in Spanish) from blackberries they had picked themselves in the forest. We told them that ever since Patrick introduced us to it at Casa Aliso, fresh mora has been Craig's favorite juice. We had chicken, melloco (a local root vegetable), and mixed vegetables.

After dinner, the kids got all dressed up in the new clothes that we had brought them. They looked so adorable. Everything fit well, except that poor Tayanta's little jeans were too big in the waist. She tried to hold them up while they drooped as she walked.

we walked up to the community center to watch the competition for queen of the festival. Aida tied Tayanta onto her back, but Sisa and Yupanqui walked, holding our hands. The walk was quite dark, as it was foggy and the streetlights couldn't penetrate far. Antonio used his phone as a flashlight so we could see our footing on the gravel roads. Antonio wanted to make sure that Craig could see where he was walking, since his MS makes him a bit unsteady on his feet. Craig was a bit embarrassed and felt rather high maintenance, but he appreciated his concern.

On the grounds of the community center, several large tents were set up with chairs underneath. Kids were playing foosball on ancient foosball tables next to a large arcade game. There was a net-walled trampoline and several rocking horses. It was a carnival atmosphere. There was also a bonfire in the road.

We settled in some plastic chairs under one of the tents. People were selling food and passing around cups of chicha and hard liquor. As much as we usually like to participate in such drinking endeavors, we didn't want to take the chance. Craig was feeling pretty well despite the high altitude. Tomorrow was the main day of the fiesta, and we didn't want to compromise Craig's ability to participate. And although this morning's tea seemed to do wonders for my stomach, I also didn't want to push my luck.

The community center also had a new jungle gym playset on the grounds, and Sisa and Yupanqui wandered over there to play on it. Then they came back and sisa settled on my lap. We saw Chris from the preschool from a distance, but didn't get a chance to talk with him.

Now it was time for the pageant to start. The patio with seats on three sides became a stage. A table of judges sat to our right. There were 5 contestants for festival queen ("Ñusta Morochos Tia 2014" as it said in the brochure we had been given yesterday). They were around 14-16 years of age, and were all dressed traditionally. The cloths tied around their heads were a dark pink, rather than the black and white we were used to seeing in the village. They performed a traditional dance together, and then they each performed an individual skit depicting long-standing cultural practices.

The accompanying music was played on a loudspeaker and was more modern than the traditional music that Antonio and his band play. The first contestant enacted planting and harvesting corn. She was very graceful and her movements were flowing. The second contestant had a live lamb as a prop, and she pantomimed the process of shearing a sheep, spinning woolen thread, and weaving it into cloth. The third contestant enacted washing clothes by hand. The fourth gathered wood and showed the traditional method of cooking over a fire. The fifth contestant had a boy around her same age playing the role of her husband, and she braided his hair into the traditional style.

Teenagers were taking photos and videos with their smartphones. It was nice to see a younger generation taking interest in and appreciating their cultural heritage. During one skit, two dogs came running out and appeared to be fighting...or was it to become something else? Someone had to shoo them away from the stage. Everyone laughed. It was nice to see so many people gathering to celebrate their culture.

By now, Sisa had fallen asleep on my lap. The three winners from last year's pageant performed a dance while the contestants changed clothes. One of these previous winners was Rosa and Antonio's niece Celestina. We hadn't seen her so far on this trip, but when we heard her name announced, we instantly recognized it.

Next the contestants were each asked a question. Spoken language was a mixture of Spanish and Kichwa. This, coupled with the poor quality of the public address system meant that we had a difficult time really hearing the substance of the answers. But it was clear that some contestants had well though-out answers that were quite confidently articulated, and other contestants had very short answers and lost their place. The audience giggled nervously.

The judges conferred, and the emcee asked for the crowd's reaction to each contestant. Three contestants clearly had the popular vote, and two got next to no applause and even some jeers. This was disappointing as it must have taken a lot of guts to get up there in front of their whole community. In fact, at least one of the two who got the least cheers actually seemed to Craig and I to have been more focused and to have been a superior dancer.

The winners were announced: the girls with the popular vote came in first, second, and third. As spectators it felt a little harsh for the non-winners. But we were impressed with the grace that they showed, even after having had such a disappointing reaction from the crowd.

The three winners were presented with sashes and cornstalks The whole event reminded us of "talent show" we had seen in Bhutan.

It ended around 11:20 and we walked back to the house. As we tried to fall asleep around midnight, announcements rang out from some loudspeaker somewhere. The next morning, we heard the same thing at 5 a.m. Someone sure wanted to make sure that we didn't get a good night's sleep tonight! We're sure that the