Ecuador 1/21/2017

Saturday 1/21/17 - Shina Tayanta's Baptism

Baptism day is here!

It continued to rain torentially last night. This morning Antonio rented a third tent. In typical Murphy's Law fashion, as soon as the third tent went up, the sky started to brighten, and the rain stopped. Hey, whatever it takes! Though the forecast claims 100% rain until 5 p.m. and diminishing until 11 p.m., we are hopeful for a dry baptism and party. The ceremony is at 5 p.m. at Iglesia de la Matriz in Cotacachi. We will then all take a chartered bus home, and there will be much food, alcohol, music, and dancing.

Devoted family friends such as Rosita and Alexandra were here late into the night and again early this morning (6 a.m. on), helping to peel potatoes, cut vegetables, de-feather chickens, etc. Antonio and some of his friends (Alexandra's husband Marcelo) constructed a makeshift stage for the band right next to our casita. There won't be much sleep tonight, as the bass will rattle our walls until the wee hours!

The men also spread sawdust onto the mud under one of the tents to create a dry space for people to eat. While it was still raining, the piglets burrowed into the sawdust in a pile to keep warm. The poor things were shivering!

The girl of honor, Shina Tayanta, slept very late this morning, as she wouldn't go to bed until Rosa and Antonio did last night. Sisa and Yupanqui have been gone all morning to a class at the community center. We think this was intentional to keep them occupied and out of the adults' hair during preparations.

Alexandra and Marcelo's young son Jung has been around all morning. We befriended him on previous visits, but he had forgotten us and was very shy at first. But Craig broke the ice with him by kicking a soccer ball to him, and now we are buddies. He played soccer with Craig and broomball with me as I swept the patio.

We are so excited to become Shina Tayanta's godparents. And we are very happy that Carol Peddie (who works in the area with Anna Taft's Tandana Foundation) is able to attend. We have been acquainted via Facebook for quite a while, but schedules have been such that this will be our first in-person meeting!

The rain stopped before the baptism, but it was still quite chilly. We all got dressed in our traditional clothes. It had been so wet the past few days that the laundry hadn't dried on the line, and Antonio needed to use an iron to speed the drying of Yupanqui's white trousers.

We took a camioneta to Iglesia de la Matriz in Cotacachi. We had been told that Mass was at 5 p.m. We arrived at 5:02 p.m. Not bad for Ecuadorian time. Yet there still must have been some kind of misunderstanding, because as we walked into the church, a young boy was actively being baptized. I recognized our Facebook friend Carol and quickly gave her my camera, as she had generously offered to be our photographer.

We rushed to the front of the church and took seats on the side of the beautiful gold colonial-style altar while the priest completed the crying young boy's baptism. Rosa and Antonio hurried off to purchase a baptismal candle and rosary. While they were gone, the priest called us up. Ummm...but...but...

We approached the font with Shina Tayanta, with Yupanqui and Sisa in tow. I picked up Shina and the priest asked her name. I told him, and he asked me to hold her over the font. We worried that she might be scared without her grandparents present. But she was great! Although she grabbed my traditional headpiece tightly, twisting it at a 45 degree angle, she didn't cry or anything. She is obviously very comfortable with us and trusts us. The priest asked me for the baptismal candle. I shrugged and said, "Lo siento...tarde" (I'm sorry...late). He said it was fine and we would do it later.

Mass continued and Rosa and Antonio returned with the candle and rosary. At the end of Mass, he called the four of us up along with Shina Tayanta. He had each of us make the sign of the cross on her forehead, and he lit the baptismal candle and handed it to me.

We felt very badly that Antonio and Rosa missed the actual baptism, but we are glad that it was able to progress and that Shina Tayanta was so agreeable. Carol took some photos of the family in front of the altar, and then we congregated outside as the custodian was locking up the church.

Antonio chartered a bus to take everyone back to Morochos for the party. The bus seemed pretty empty when we left the church, but we stopped elsewhere in Cotacachi to pick up a bunch more people who hadn't attended the Mass.

We drove back to Morochos, and as we approached the house, the bus started to honk its horn wildly to announce our arrival. When we got off the bus, Fender's Band was already in full swing to welcome us. There were many people waiting for us, seated in chairs under the tents. Craig, Carol, and I were seated at the head table along with the kids.

Shina seemed to really be enjoying herself. The other kids had seemed more overwhelmed at being the center of attention during their baptisms, but not Shina. She sat at the table, laughing, snuggling under Craig's poncho, and playing with her new toy goat, a gift from Antonio's friend. She draped her rosary around the goat, and also used them to swing Yupanqui's toy ATV's around. Ah, the sacrilege! LOL!

Marcelo, Sandra, Rosita, and others who had helped with preparations were busy in the outdoor kitchen, preparing 3 courses of food. First was a hearty chicken soup, followed by corn soup, and finally the main course: pulled pork with mote, potatoes, and salad. Everyone was given heaping portions - more than they could eat in one sitting. It is customary here for people to bring plastic bags with them and load them up with leftovers, and this party was no exception! The community contributes to these parties, both through their labor and through gifts of foodstuffs, and the idea is for everyone to get as much food as they want; sharing abundance with the community.

There is always way too much food for me to eat, but it didn't matter this time as I was way too busy to even get much chance to eat. I had to write a list of all of the people who helped with the festivities for the band to announce, and then I had to cut two medium-sized round cakes into enough pieces to feed ~100 guests. That was not easy!

Guests kept arriving, bearing gifts such as crates of beer, 3-liter bottles of soda, trays of eggs, toys, etc. By now Shina was tired and playing in her room. They asked her to come out to greet the new guests, but she didn't want to. I picked her up and brought her outside so that they could at least see her in her adorable baptismal outfit. She cuddled into me as I sat down, and soon fell asleep on my lap.

Rosa put her to bed and then dancing commenced. Craig and I danced with Sisa, Yupanqui, Ruby Natalia, and Natalie. Drinking commenced as well. The drink of choice was canelazo, a home-made aguardiente cane liquor infused with lemon. It is served warm (sometimes too warm). Men carried around buckets of it with a communal plastic shot glass. You take your shot, then pour a drop on the ground as an offering to Pachamama (Mother Earth). I think that Pachamama must have been quite drunk by the end of the night!

Beer also made the rounds (I declined each time, as I am allergic to it). And one man had a bottle of dark colored hard liquor. We also had shots of that.

I danced with Antonio, and Craig danced with the wife of the man who had the bottle of liquor. The songs were quite long, so dancing was a commitment. Fortunately, the traditional dances are rather simple, holding hands, stomping your feet, and moving in a circle. Craig had been saving up energy all month for this, and he did great. He looked so stylin', dancing with his cane!

Antonio got up on the stage and made thank you announcements. Then he brought the kids up onstage. Yupanqui called "Hola Achi Mama! Hola Achi Taita!" into the microphone, addressing us. It was so cute. Then Sisa took the microphone, and with a little prompting from Antonio, said in English "Good dancing, Achi Mama and Achi Taita!" The crowd loved it!

A variety of men in varying degrees of drunkenness asked me to dance. I love dancing, and I really enjoyed myself. Craig danced with Rosa. Familiar faces welcomed us and thanked us for being a part of their community. They were especially happy to see Craig, as they remembered Craig's absence at Yupanqui's baptism due to him MS attack. They said they were sad that he had not been there, and they were extra happy to see him now. They jokingly apologized for bothering him so often with dance offers.

The community seems to embrace us much more than they used to. We have now been coming here for 7 years, and they are no longer shy around us, coming up to chat in Spanish. A few even tried out their English on us. It's always challenging to be able to small talk with people when there is very loud music, alcohol, and a language barrier, but we got our points across.

Craig and I danced together, and then danced in a circle with several people including Abuelita.

As much as we didn't want to go to bed, we were exhausted, and had to surrender to our casita after 2:30 a.m. The music continued until around 4:30 a.m. We were tired enough to sleep through most of it, even though the bass rattled our walls. We still thought we heard people talking at around 6:30.

It was a wonderful party, and we are so happy to have another Achi Wawa (godchild)!