Week Seven: Indigenous Wedding and Learning How to Cook

ALMOST HALFWAY DONE! WHAT?!

My First Indigenous Wedding:

               A couple of Sundays ago the NILIs were invited to go an indigenous weddings. The wedding was two hours away so we had to wake up at 4:30AM to catch a bus. In Otavalo, they always have weddings on Sundays during church. The service was in both Spanish and Quichua (the indigenous language), so pastor would say something in one language and then translate it into the other (it was actually really cool even though I was really confused).  The ceremonies were simple but the parties afterwards were huge!

When we arrived at the party there were a number of people sitting on the ground next to large bed sheets piled high with gigantic mounds of beans, toasted corn, and rice. They mixed it by hand and then carried the sheets around the room to serve everyone the first course of food.  And oh my, was there a lot of food: soup, potatoes, corn on the cob, chicken, etc. Everyone was served at their seats; they don’t really do the buffet thing here, even with appetizers.  They only had about four cups for 150 people so several guys would walk around with bottles of coke, pour a drink and wait for the person to finish so they could serve the next person. I don’t know how many shots of pineapple coke I had, It tasted so good!...but it burnt so bad.  And what’s a wedding reception without a cake? They literally had the biggest cake I’ve ever seen! The whole thing was such a cool experience.  

The Basilica:   

Last Thursday we took a trip to the Basilica, the largest church in Quito. It was huge!! We got to climb through the ceiling of the building, and up (I don’t know how many) ladders in order to reach the top of the clock tower.  The whole time I was thinking, “man, I wish I would have attended this church…playing sardines in here would have been Intense!” Although, there’s a slight chance you’d never make it back out again.   We got an incredible view of Quito from the top of the clock tower. And of course we all had to see how far we could hang out of the openings in order to take pictures. 

           

My Ecuadorian Family:

This past weekend I lived with an Ecuadorian family. I didn't speak any English for a whole weekend! My family lives within walking distance of were I’m staying and they attend one of the local Nazarene churches. We spent most of the weekend cooking, which is totally different when you buy the food fresh and cook from scratch for every meal. In the States, I have trouble working the microwave, so I’m pretty sure I provided a lot of entertainment for my family. In the end everything was delicious. We made a couple of traditional Ecuadorian dishes “Caldo de Gallina” y “Llapingachos” yum! Monday morning in class we all got to taste everyone else’s dishes, I think my favorite was “Caca de Perro” If you don’t know what that means go ahead and Google translate that one…

            My family took me to a ‘Baby Shower’ (which is what it’s called in Spanish too, so at least I knew two words).  It was really fun and the food was amazing as always. However, we did get lost on the way there and some random person on the street sprayed me with water for Carnaval even though at that point it was still a week away…yeah, this weekend should be interesting…I’m going to the beach with a big group of gringos for Carnaval…I don’t think I’m coming back with any dry clothes.