Hey everybody, I hope that you are all having a great September. Nothing much new to report from Olmedo, it is still cold and the horses still poop in the street. And my host mom still yells at Stephen for going into the kitchen.
This week I worked at the sub centro, and at the high school, I am getting the kids ready for global handwashing day. In my three hygiene classes are going really well but I learned an important lesson: never let the students pick their own groups. I have one class where the groups were assigned and another where they picked, the class where the groups were assigned is more on task than the other classes. Well I guess you live and learn.
I have also been asked by the sub centro to make a garden, I have never made a garden and I’m not sure what will grow here but I’m going to try.
This weekend I was invited by the principle of the high school to spend part of the weekend with her in Ibarra. It is a large white city that is about an hour and a half by bus from Olmedo, well 2 hours from Olmedo, I have to go to the closest city first to get a bus to Ibarra. But I had a great time, they were in fiestas. Every city and town here has a saint and when the saint’s day comes around they have a huge party. I think Olmedo is in Fiestas now but nothing different is really going on. In Ibarra for St. Mercedes they had a huge parade. At first I thought it was going to be a little like the St. Patrick’s day parade. Because they had dancers and there was a fire truck. But I was very wrong, was incredible and very different than anything I’ve seen before. First the parade started around 5, and went until 8:30, and because I’m on the Equator it gets dark at 6:30 every night. So it was interesting watching a parade at night. The dancers were from all over Ecuador, and most were wearing traditional dress and doing traditional dances. All the costumes were so colorful and the music was lively and all the dances were different. Not only were there traditional dances but modern dances as well. Every once and a while someone would shout viva Ibarra, and everyone in the crowd would shout viva. It was pretty neat. I guess it was kind of like the St. Patrick’s day parade, but it was more colorful and no one played the bagpipes (although I was kind of expecting one, at every parade I’ve been to there have always been bagpipes). And both parades did have firemen but this parade had a few firemen, and they rode with one of the past reinas (a reina is like a Miss Ibarra, but they take it very seriously here).
The principle had been talking about taking me to Ibarra all week and I had a great time. I also slept better at her house than I do here in Olmedo, which was strange but I woke up really refreshed. I’m still getting use to the altitude here so I’ve been having a little bit of trouble sleeping but it has been getting a lot better. Yesterday (Saturday), we went all over. First we drove around Ibarra for a little bit and I did my role as the token gringa meeting some of her friends and family. Then we went to this lake, that is an ancient volcanic crater and it was incredibly beautiful. Then we went to Otavalo to see the Indigenous market. I was there once before but not on a Saturday, it was huge. It is the largest indigenous market in South America, however only on Saturdays. Then I took the bus back to Olmedo.
I hope you are all doing well.
Love, Aline