You may have noticed from facebook photos that I’ve sworn in, and, indeed, I’m writing this from my site. However, I’m rather behind on blog posts, so let’s go back a few weeks to Semana Santa, or Holy Week, with my host family in Cangahua. Isa and Andres, my host siblings, had the week off from school, but the town’s festivities didn’t begin until Maundy Thursday. I went to mass Thursday night with Katy, one of my host moms, and we made excellent pew mates, each poking the other to point out (and giggle at) the sleepers while wiggling uncomfortably in the stiff, wood-plank pews. Also sharing my pew were Reid and Joe. Christina, several inches shorter than the rest of the Cangahua PCTs, sat one pew ahead and towered over her average-in-Ecuador height host-sister. I can only imagine how freakishly tall my pew appeared. I’m going to be the giant gringa for the next two years.

The mass was interesting – I’ve never been to Catholic Easter-time services before and was surprised to see 12 boys and men of Cangahua dressed up as the apostles, and to watch the Padre spend 20 minutes washing each of the “apostles’” feet. The alter area was decorated with hundreds of roses (which are grown in greenhouses all around Cayambe and cost a few dollars for two dozen) and a choir was up in the narthex singing over the congregation. My favorite part of the service though, was leaving (no snickering). The church sits atop a small hill overlooking the central plaza of Cangahua and, farther off, the valleys around Volcán Cayambe. In the darkness, the lights of all the Cayambe communities sparkled.

Along with the kids, the Peace Corps trainees enjoyed a brief respite from the drudgery of training with fours says free from security briefings and Spanish lessons. I took advantage of my free Saturday and visited the market in Otavalo, the best-known market in Ecuador. The streets of Otavalo were covered for blocks and blocks with stalls selling traditional fabrics, alpaca clothing, hammocks, Panama hats (which are made in Ecuador), and a huge variety of handicrafts and jewelry. I purchased a (supposedly) hand-woven belt and a slightly over-the-top, but highly functional hat. You’ll be seeing in it many future photos of my life in the Ecuadorian campo (countryside). The picture to the right shows a fellow trainee, Eddie, descansando (relaxing) in a hammock in the courtyard of a pizzeria that hosted quite a few PCTs.

During the break, I also joined some PCTs in Pesilla, one of the training communities near Cayambe, for a hike into the mountains surrounding the town. It was a beautiful hike, and I discovered that a lunch of panecita with avocado and tomato is exceptionally delicious at 3000+ meters. My out-of-shape and vertigo-prone self, however, decided to go down after lunch, so I enjoyed the thunderstorm that crept up later in the afternoon from the comfort of a Pesilla bar in the company of Reagan, a PCT from Michigan/Washington, who accompanied me down. The rest of the group avoided the thick of the storm, but had to trudge through a bog on the way down, leaving Cara in the condition you see on the right.

My host family doesn’t attend mass often, so Thursday was it for them, but they did observe Easter with a large family gathering of Teddy’s siblings, nieces and nephews, and traditional foods. On Saturday and Sunday, everyone had cake and fanesca, a stew-like soup made with chunks of dried, salted fish and twelve grains, each representing an apostle. It was tasty, but one of the most filling foods I’ve encountered. It left me with food twins.

Next on the agenda (and coming very soon): Tech Trip.

Chao chao,
Alli