The Precarious Adventures of a Peace Corps Volunteer: Semana Santa

March 28, 2013. Finally a great training week. This week is Semana Santa (Holy Week), leading up to Holy Thursday and Friday (which are holidays so we have them off) and Easter on Sunday. So for the 3 day training week, on Monday, as we had a general overview meeting with the training staff, they broke out into a surprise dance party. Then, Tuesday, we got to spend the whole day in Quito. In the morning, we went to 2 museums within La Casa de Cultura: Arte Colonial and Arte Moderno y Instrumentos Musicales. Noteworthy items in each: tiny amulets of children that will steal your soul if you look directly at their faces; lots of exhibits of human sacrifice; statues of priests on cocaine, who look like their eyes are closed but they’re really just high; a mirror which takes away all the bad energy when you look into it- totally did it, feelin’ good; sad but beautiful, sudden transition to Spanish art taking over South America; some gorgeous originals of Oswaldo Guayasamin (Ecuador’s most famous artist) including “Desesperado”, which was my favorite; and flutes made out of human bones.

On Wednesday, we got to do our Language and Culture class in my house! My Spanish facilitator wanted to get everyone together to learn how to make the traditional dish of Semana Santa- Fanesca. Everyone at the training center hears about my host mom’s famous cooking so the facilitator asked Sonia and she agreed. So the night before, we went to the market and Sonia helped us buy all the ingredients. The soup is known for having 12 grains, (ours had 8) dried fish, some cheese, a hardboiled egg, and a mini empanada on top. It sounded pretty odd, but it was delicious! It’s a lot of work because you have to boil all the grains separately: red beans, lima beans, garbanzo beans, peas, chocho, corn, lentils, peanuts; and the vegetables: zapayo and sambo, which are similar to pumpkin. So we prepared the night before and the morning of, peeling all the beans and cutting everything up, and when my language class got to the house, we finished everything together. Then we had a lesson on Semana Santa and subjunctive tense while the soup finished cooking and my host mom also made Arroz con Leche for dessert, which is like a sweet, hot, rice drink. Barriga llena, corazon contenta.

So there was a volunteer opportunity to help out some taxi drivers with their English in Quito today, but I had to decline because my host parents have family members coming into town with a car who were going to take us to Mindo! I had been looking forward to this all week because this is where I’ve wanted to go SO much! Then, last night, my host mom says she has bad news and I knew right away, her family isn’t coming so we can’t go. I was extremely disappointed but didn’t show my host mom because she was also sad that her family member isn’t coming to the baby’s birthday party this weekend. So we slept in this morning and then I want to go to Quito for the market and lunch, I’m not sure yet if my host family is going to come with. I’m trying not to be upset about it and just focus on the fun stuff we did this week. There will be other times to go to Mindo.

(10 hours later) Such a good day. So glad I didn’t let the canceled trip bring me down. Though I’ve been to the capital, Quito, many times for training and once with my family, today was the first day that I got to slow down and really enjoy it. We wandered around the artisan market for a couple hours and ran into some other volunteers. We went to 3 different malls looking for this particular baby store, and man! The malls in Quito are outrageously nice! Quicentro is Fashion Valley status, with Tiffany’s and Tommy Hilfigher and the whole 9. Then you travel a couple hours to the pueblo and all you can do is laugh at the distribution of wealth. Anyway, then we saw Parque de Carolina and ate Colombian food on my Colombian friend, Carolina’s birthday! What a coincidence! Cumpleanos feliz, Caro!

Anywhozer, yeah, I had wanted to take my host family out to dinner to say thank you before I leave for my site so I offered to buy lunch since we would be in the capital today. I’m so glad I did because I never would have found this delicious little Colombian place, S’pan’sy. I had never eaten Colombian food before so I was dumbfounded by the menu. My host mom ordered some little things for me to try so we shared some empanadas, which were different than the Ecuadorian kind; aperos, which are flat doughy breads with different sides, mine had guacamole, cheese, and hogao, which is like salsa but tangy; morcillo, which my host dad insisted that I try before they explain what it is, because it’s a pig’s intestine filled with rice cooked in pig’s blood, it was pretty good; bunuelos, which are little fried dough balls; and REALLY YUMMY hot chocolate! We walked around the Mariscal (the fun touristy district) at dusk, which was beautiful.

Then we did some grocery shopping and came home around 9:00 and had ice cream sandwiches and raspberry tea for dinner. Tomorrow I’m making strawberry cream cheese crepes for breakfast and then my host mom and I are going to get haircuts and paint our nails and drink sangria and finish the goody bags for Ayllin’s party. I’m so excited! Not just excited about having a silly, girly day, but because I can truly say that now I have a lot of fun just hanging out with my host family. I’ve always loved spending time with them because I learn SO much, but now, it feels like I’m hanging out with friends. We have inside jokes and we tease each other and I just feel comfortable, even when I’m butchering their language, they understand. There’s nothing in the world quite like having good friends.

Thank you for reading. And thank you for being good friends.

Abrazos,