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Daylight savings ended last night, which means that I will be able to sleep an hour later when I'm working this upcoming week!
I have a bit of a cold now and woke up today with a sore throat and hoarse voice. Rosa made me a special tea called tilo with flowers from the garden which made my throat immediately feel much better. We really appreciate the intimate knowledge of medicinal plants that the family and their community possess. We had nice fresh fluffy scrambled eggs for breakfast, along with last night's Dia de los Muertos bread, coffee, and juice. After breakfast, we broke out our English/Spanish and English/Kichwa dictionaries, and we and the kids taught each other words in our respective languages. It is really fun to make these kinds of connections with them. Now that they are a little older, they are very interested in the differences in our languages. They switch freely between Kichwa and Spanish, often within the same conversation and even the same sentence. We are envious of this ability. Antonio brought home Day of the Dead bread treats for all of us: bread babies ("Pan de wawa") for the girls and bread horses for the guys. They are a similar consistency to the bread that we baked yesterday, but they are in the shape of a swaddled baby or a horse and rider. They are decorated with colored icing and are very cute. We will bring them to the cemetery tomorrow. Rosa told us that when she was a child, she loved the pan de wawa so much that she would play with it like a doll and refused to eat it. Yupanqui seemed to be following in this direction as he gathered some toys together and perched some small stuffed animals astride his bread horse. We squirreled our bread figures away into a safe place in the casita, where they wouldn't be eaten by Max or Chipi or the chickens. (The fate that eventually befell Tayanta's). We took it easy today, doing some household chores and playing with the kids. There wasn't much sunshine today. It was cold and windy, but at least the wind dried the laundry that I had washed yesterday. Two missing baby chicks were eventually located huddled in the main bathroom, trying to get out of the wind. Lunch was broccoli soup, chicken hot dogs, rice, cold green bean and onion salad, and mashed potato cakes stuffed with ground beef. These stuffed potato cakes were something that we had not eaten before, and we enjoyed them. The kids came into our casita while Craig was waching Janis Joplin videos on YouTube. Yupanqui was captivated by "Me and Bobby McGee," and all three kids started singing along to the "La da da da da da da" part. It was so cute! I spent a long time untangling my beaded coral wrist wraps to wear to the cemetery tomorrow. In the end, Rosa helped me since one of them was so hopelessly tangled! When it got dark, we spent some time with Abuelita in the fire shed. Although we can't really communicate with her verbally, we enjoyed one another's company and exchanged many smiles as she cooked a pot of soup on the fire and we watched the dancing flames. The kids ran in and out, shouting and laughing and chasing one another. They were very hyper tonight. In a tradition slightly reminiscent of trick or treating, older children get dressed up in their traditional clothes tonight and go from house to house collecting bread and food. Some local kids got quite taken aback by two large gringos standing in the kitchen, wishing them a good evening! My health really started to deteriorate quickly. I contemplated skipping dinner and going straight to bed. But in the end I decided that the nightly soup would be good for my throat. After the soup, we had melloco (a local root vegetable), cabbage, rice, and tempura kernels of corn. I went to bed right after dinner, as my health was degrading quickly and I wanted to get some good rest so that I can fully participate in Dia de los Muertos tomorrow! I have always been fascinated by this holiday, but have never been in Latin America at the right time to participate. I didn't want to miss this opportunity! |
 Pan de wawas (bread figures for Dia de los Muertos)  Yupanqui, Craig, and Sisa with their pan de wawas  Abuelita at the fire 
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