1 de septiembre,
2013
A covered truck
pulled up to my house at 7 in the morning and the driver told me to hop in the
back. All it was missing were the words “caramelitos gratuitos!” painted on the
side (free candy). It was my co-worker’s brother and his family. One of the
English teachers at my school has parents who live out in the campo in a place
called Rumikincha and he invited me to spend a Sunday playing Ecuadorian farmer
with his family and it turned out to be one of my best days here. I rode a
horse for the first time in my adult life. I milked a cow and then drank that
cow’s milk seconds later, warm, frothy, fresh, and nasty. I used some chochos
(beans) as a musical instrument. I put my feet in the most natural hot springs
I’ve ever seen. I was fed a big lunch of tilapia and rice by an indigenous
family and I shared with them some lemon bars I made (I don’t think they liked
them). And I learned a few short phrases in Kichwa: Nyuca Chelsea mikani (My
name is Chelsea) is all I can remember now. There were a few nieces and nephews
along for the trip and of the 4 children, only 1 had ever seen a white person
before. And yet, they welcomed us with open arms.
Yet another happy
day spent in gratitude of the kind spirit of Ecuadorian people.
P.S. guess what
guys?! By the end of this week, I’ll have a niece!!!
 | |
| SO scared |
 |
| being superheroes at the hot springs |
 |
| NEW EXPERIENCES |
 |
| trying not to upchuck |
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Ecuador? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Ecuador in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez