Fast Forward

So its almost the end of June, holy time has flown.

Today was the official last day of school and I attend the graduation ceremony of all the grade 7 students, including my host sister. The ceremony was pretty similar to in Canada. They sang the national anthem, gave out only one award to the student with the highest marks and he was also valedictorian. The poor boy though got so nervous that he forgot his speech, which was only memorized and not on paper, but everyone was sympathetic towards him and clapped. Then the principal made some remarks, which I understood very little of, One of the grade 7 teachers made some more remarks and they handed out the diplomas. To hand out the diplomas they called up 4 students at a time, had one parent tie a dark blue cape around their shoulders, then a teacher put the grad cap on their heads and gave them their diploma, they turned to face everyone, had pictures taken and headed back to their seats. The entire ceremony was outside, and it started to rain, so the students' diploma´s were getting wet so one parent went and collected them all back up so they wouldn't be ruined. Thankfully, it stopped raining later on and the sun came out so they were able to celebrate without getting soaked. After the ceremony, each of the 4 grade 7 classes had a feast in their classroom with all the students and their parents. I went to the teacher's feast and later to my sister´s classroom. As soon as I got there they tried to give me another heaping plate of food (they like to feed people excessive amounts of food here) and then when everyone was finished eating they turned on music brought out a bunch of beer and started dancing. No kidding, beer at the school for the parents and they like to try to force it on people, but thankfully my host parents said I couldn´t so they stopped trying to get me to drink. However, because of my skin, hair and eye colour, I am considered very pretty and they all wanted to see me dance so I ended up dancing a whole bunch with the parents of the kids in the class. My feet were so tired, I was very happy when my host parents said it was time for us to go.

I am going to fast forward throught the month of June and just write some of the major events and then keep posting to keep caught up with current events, instead of always being behind:

June 1st - This is international children´s day so at the school this morning their were several speeches and one of the classes did a presentation. Also, a lot of the classes had fiesta´s put on by their teachers with food, I was invited to one of the grade 7 classes and given chicken, potatoes, molte (a food made from corn that is like wet popcorn, it tastes pretty good), and cooked banana, of course served in a small plastic bag like most street food is here. It is very common to put food into plastic bags, and whenever their is a fiesta people take their leftovers home in plastic bags.

weekend of June 6th - all of us Candians went to Otavalo for the weekend. We saw the huge open market place and all of teh booths, it is beautiful. I finally bought postcards to send home to people. We stayed in a hostal and tried to take advantage of sleeping in but only actually slept until about 7 o'clock. On Sunday morning, I went to church with one of the other students. The churches here are very large and very beautifully decorated. I have pictures so I will have to post them soon.

Wednesday, June 10 - we were on the bus to go home after school, they had people packed in as much as possible, when a police officer came along, inspected the bus and said it wasn´t allowed to leave. So everyone had to get off and wait for another bus to come. Finally, another bus came and once everyone was on, it was also inspected and they told everyone to get off. As people were unloading though I guess they changed their minds because they told us to get back on again. By the time we finally got home it was past 2:30 (normally we are home by 1:30), my host mom was very worried about us, and I was starving!

June 12 - my host family planted potatoes today and I helped! It was fun. They said they can plant and harvest all year round. Potatoes take 7 months to grow so my family will harvest them in December and then they can plant more. It seems so starnge to me to be able to plant and harvest all year round. I explained to my host fmaily that in Canada you have to plant in the spring so things are ready to harvest in the fall and then you can eat or feed your animals all winter from the food you have stored up. Of course this concept was also very strange for them.

June 13 - Today after lunch I was feeling really sick. I had a really sore stomach and threw up once. By the time it was about 10 o´clock at night I was in a lot of pain and couldn't sleep, so I told my host mom I was sick. She got really worried and told my host dad. There were some aunts, uncles cousisn and grandparents at my house because my host mom's brother had come to visit from Quito and he only visits once every three years. Of course, hearing I was sick sort of broke up the party. They told me to go back to my bed and my grandmother came in with an egg to rub all over me (it was sitll in its shell), then my host mom came in with a bunch of leaves from outside, which my grandmother also rubbed all over me. My host dad was drunk from drinking beer all afternoon with the guests, and was sitting on the edge of my bed saying things that were suppsoded to be comforting but often made me laugh. He lept saying you´re strong, you´re strong and you´re my daughter, I´m your father over and over again, and 'que linda, que bonita' which translates to how beautiful, how pretty. Then they gave me alka seltzer to drink, I don´t know why, but it tasted horrible and was triggering my gag reflex, I managed to drink about half of it. During all of this on e of my aunts, and two cousins were all in my room along with my host dad, mom and grandmother, so on top of being sick, I had a huge audience. I woke up feeling quite a bit better and haven´t been sick since, so thank goodness :)


Sunday, June 21 - Today all of the students and I went to see one of the mountains that is snow capped. My host dad was acting as a guide and my host brother and sister, and my grandma and a couple of cousins came along at the last minute. We rode in the back up a pick-up truck, a very common way to travel here and took tons of pictures. We had lunch in a house at the base of the mountain and then started climbing towards the peek. It was hard because the altitude made breathign difficutl and we weren´t really prepared for mountain climbing. We were wearing running shoes for the most part and most of us didn´t have mittens. The children who came were also very underdressed for how cold it was so we ended up giving them all of the extra clothing we brought along and also a couple students took off their coats to give to the kids. The view though was breath taking, we were in the clouds and could watch them drifting past below us. We took lots of pictures so I will post them as well.

June 26 - We all travelled to Quito, the capital city, for the weekend to celebrate Canada Day. The chamber of commerce put on a pancake breakfast and some events for the day. The pancakes were awesome but the syrup was aunt Jemima lite, ew. I was definitely wishing I had been smart enought ot bring some of the maple syrup that I brought from home. oh well.

June 29 - today was the festival of San Pedro, a huge festival in Cayambe. There is a huge parade and groups of people from all of the surrounding communities dance. I danced as a part of a community that is higher up than Convalescencia (where I live) because they didn´t have a group. Four of the other students danced with Santa Isabel because that is the community that they live in. I will write mroe about this in a separate post.

Well, that is June in a nutshell. More to come about my placement, host family and everything that happens in July!

peace,

Krista