In the span of a single hour I saw both a Truck-taxi and a Fox motor cross shirt with Jesus on it. I have seen the most peculiar things in this country. Moreover, I have stopped asking questions and just started accepting that I might see a man roaming the streets trying to sell desk lamps on one block and a parade of kids dressed as the Virgin Marry and Batman riding horses (a traditional celebration called “Pase de Niños”) on the next.
día cincuenta y ocho: 03/03/2010 Monday was “Día de las Mujeres,” a national Ecuadorian holiday that celebrates women. It seems like a silly holiday, kind of like Flag Day or Mother's Day in the States. But, when I got home from class, my host dad gave me a big hug and warm words of appreciation, he also bought my host mom a pretty flower arrangement with a card that said, “Happy Women’s Day to the woman/love of my life." Ahhhh, how sweet. They seem to have a touch more sentiment for the women in their lives her in Ecuador. Oh, this reminds me, come to think of it, I have never once seen my host parents be affectionate toward each other, you know like kiss and smooch and all that gushy stuff. It’s weird because I still get this sense of deep love and care between them despite no PDA
feliz dia de mujeres- this is me and my host mom. yes, I'm wearing a funny dress. just read week 9
día cincuenta y nueve: Anyhow, Tuesday came and I went running in the rain. It was refreshing. Also reminded me of how much I miss running in the states, where I can have my headphones in and it can be late at night and I don’t have to be as preoccupied with the thought of security or of running into a cow (no joke, in the parks here people bring their cattle from the countryside and just let them free to eat the grass and drink the river water, it’s quite startling when you’re running along and all of a sudden bump into a cow, one time I even scared one and it fell into the river a little, poor thing. I may have already told y'all about this).
día sesenta: On Wednesday no one was home for dinner, so I made Mac n Cheese!!! (really Trent, it’s not that gross). And when I went upstairs to pee, the bathroom door was locked! I had to climb through the window from the terrace on the stairs. It was very sketchy. Later I learned from my host mom that they were having plumbing problems in the house. I figured as much and for this reason I didn’t use that bathroom, just got my toothbrush and stuff. I really needed to pee too. Side note, you cannot flush toilet paper in the country of Ecuador. Regular plumbing here cannot handle it.
día sesenta y uno: Thursday I bought nail polish and painted my nails fire-engine red! The nail polish was only $1 a buck 25, unheard of in the States. I bought it at this tiny hair salon on my way home from school. For dinner we had a scrumptious “torta de arroz," it’s a fried patty of rice and cheese and egg. After dinner I was listening to Nick’s most recent playlist that he has sent me, when my host mom’s autistic niece wandered into my room. She’s 5 years old and hardly reacts to anything, but as soon as she heard a punk cover of Regina Spektor’s “Ghost of Corporate Future” she lit up with a brilliant smile and started making all kinds of noises. I decided to try a little test, I switched the music over to another genre and Dora’s niece went silent. I switched it back to punk, Millencolin and the Ramones this time, and again she went berserk. It was amazing to see. All I could think was, “Behold, the power of punk rock!!!”
Ok so the last bizarre thing I saw this week was found along my walk to school. I was running a little late, so I had my head down and my concentration on my stride, trying to walk as fast as I could without tripping over something. But then a semi-crumpled semi-scribbled-on picture of a dad laughing while holding his toddler daughter caught my eye (see Arbitrary post). This random picture reminded me of some of my own pictures, angrily thrown away and forgotten about memories. It made me stop and think...inevitably, I was late for class.
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