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Rosa left early this morning for Cotacachi for a minga (communal project) in the cemetery. The community would be cleaning up the cemetery in preparation for next Monday's Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Mingas are very important in Kichwa culture. The community helps one another, and everyone is obligated to participate.
Just before breakfast, as I was getting set up to log in to work, a door-to-door chicken salesman walked down the driveway. He was an older gentleman with a cardboard box balanced on his head. I recognized it immediately since the box had airholes in it, and we had bought baby chicks from a similar salesman during a prior visit. The man greeted us and put his box down and opened the lid. A bunch of 2-week-old baby chicks hopped out. Antonio and Aida observed the chicks and selected six of them - two black, two gold, and two brown. Even though we are in a relatively remote mountain village, there are many goods available at your door, from people on foot selling live chickens or meat, or people driving trucks full of potatoes, shoes, clothing, fish, plantains, or tanks of propane for sale. It really is very convenient. For breakfast, we had omelets, bread, juice, and coffee. Tayanta had still been asleep when they purchased the chicks. When she woke up, she went into the bathroom and was quite startled to find that there were two baby chicks in there! When Sisa and Yupanqui returned home from school, we had lunch: soup with crackling pig skin, veggies, avocado, and rice. Marcelo and Antonio finished the wooden forms for the concrete for the third floor construction. Later in the day Marcelo's wife Sandra came over to assist, and their kids, 7-year-old Natalia and 4-year-old Jung played with Sisa, Yupanqui, and Tayanta. After I finished my work day, we played soccer with the kids. After a few minutes of kicking the ball around, with both of us acting as goalie against all of the kids, it proved to be too much for Craig and he had to sit down. The kids are full of energy, especially when there are 5 of them under the age of 8 playing together! We put the baby chicks into the coop for the night. One proved to be an escape artist, and came over to greet us a little while later. All we could think of was "Chicken Run." The house construction continued even after dark, with Antonio and Aida rigging up work lights so that they could finish up the current job. We had to move the dinner table because every once in a while, some water would splash down from above, a casualty of the concrete pouring process. Once they had completed the concrete, they came downstairs, dirty and tired, but satisfied. Now they should be ready to start the roof construction soon! Marcelo, Sandra, and the kids stayed for dinner as thanks for their help: soup, beef, green rice, and egg and beet salad. It's funny, because Ruby Natalia and Jung also both call us Achi Taita and Achi Mama (Godfather and Godmother)...as far as they are concerned, those are our names. But on this visit, Sisa and Yupanqui inquired about our given names for the first time ever. It is as if it just occurred to them that we have individual names. They struggled with "Craig" at first, but Sisa soon got the hang of it. It is a very difficult name for native Spanish speakers to pronounce! Along with interest in our names, Sisa and Yupanqui are also very interested in English words in general this time around. We have been teaching them to count to ten in English (for some reason they always forget 8). They are catching on very quickly. But the thing that really interests me is Tayanta. She is a little sponge, and even though we may not think she's always listening, she is. She has repeated English numbers as I say them, but on several occasions, I said "One" to prompt Sisa or Yupanqui to count, and three-year-old Tayanta floored me by responding "Two." Tonight Sisa and Yupanqui taught Ruby Natalia to count in English, and they also asked us how to say other words (mostly animals or body parts) in English. I told Sisa that pollitos are "baby chickens" in English. Then I asked her to tell me in English how many pollitos they had. "Six baby chickens!" she said triumphantly. She and Yupanqui would remember that phrase and say it over the next 2 weeks whenever we were around the chicks. Jung is definitely warming up to us. He hugged both of us, and then sat on Craig's lap. He was so happy when I took a photo of the two of them together. He grabbed Craig's hand and led him over to Marcelo and smiled, as if to say, "I want one of these." We had a lot of fun together. It was another successful day of work and time with our compadres! We could get used to this... |
 Buying six chicks from the comfort of our home  Tayanta peeks into the casita to say hello  Putting the chicks to bed  Sisa, Ruby Natalia, and Jung 
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