Saturday, October 8, 2011
-You can breath when walking uphill at 9,200 feet
-You no longer need to follow an Ecuadorian across the street to avoid getting hit by a car
-You think a $7 dinner is carísimo (really expensive)
-You’ve learned a bit about Ecuadorian history, especially dates, via street names
-You eat soup at least once every day
-You know what chévere, chuca, and chuchaque mean
-Your response to cold is “¡Achachay!”
-You can accept pan, queso, and cafecito as complete dinner (bread, cheese, and coffee)
-You expect rain almost every afternoon
-You can identify the correct blue bus, flag it down, and get on without the bus stopping
Last weekend, the Duke in the Andes program took a trip to San Clemente, a small indigenous community in the mountains. Our program director is very well connected in this community, so we stayed with indigenous host families. We had lots of interesting talks about indigenous culture, got to participate in and observe some ceremonies, etc. I did all sorts of things I never would have expected, like: plowing a field (the old fashioned way with cows and a big wooden contraption), cooking food with hots rocks and a traditional oven that was literally a giant hole in the ground, and a spiritual cleansing ceremony, among other things. Stay tuned for a post with stories and pictures from San Clemente!
