First week in Malingua Pamba

Wow I feel like it has been SO LONG since I´ve been online and written on this blog, even though it´s really only been a week. I´m actually sitting in the exact same hostal at the exact same computer as I was last Friday, Suzal once again besides me typing away at her computer. She is back in Latacunga today because tomorrow she has a flight out of Quito back to the USA :( I´m here for the day and will get a ride back up with the family I´m staying with later this afternoon. On Fridays they come down to the city to buy things that they use all week long. Let me see how much I can explain about life in Malingua Pamba. Right now I´m in Latacunga, a city that is 2.5 hours south east of Quito. 2 hours further out into the Andes is a very small community called Malingua Pamba. It is a fairly new community because the current president´s dad started the community himself. There are about 35 people who voted for the president, which gives you an idea of the size of the voting populace. But there are SO many kids in the community that it is much larger than 35. Plus everyone lives scattered in the mountains so it´s not like a very close side-by-side neighbor like we´re used to in the states. Here´s a break down of who I´m staying with:
1. Paulino: he´s the current president of the community, he also teaches computer classes to the high school students on Saturdays, and I´m staying in his house (he constructed a second story on his house to hold volunteers like a hostal).
2. Elvia: Paulino´s wife who is about 25-30ish, has 3 boys, cooks for us and makes AMAZING food with lots of veggies, fruit and fresh tea
3. Bolivar, Roberto, Hugo: Paulino and Elvia´s 3 kids ages 7, 5, 3
4. Alcedes: Paulino´s older brother (there are 4 brothers in their family) who lives right in the same area as Paulino, as in on the school´s campus, he has a small shop next door to his house where he sells soda and soap and other small things
5. Aurora: Alcedes´ wife and a very warm-hearted woman
6. William, Patricio, Wilmer, Edison, Hernan: Alcedes and Aurora´s 5 sons ages 17, 14, 12, 8, 6--which means that there are 8 young boys running around the school campus all the time because they live right on campus with their parents
7. Josafina: Paulino and Alcedes mother, the wife of the first president of Malingua Pamba (who died in a tragic accident several years ago), who lives right across the way in what they call the Sacred Place
8. Enma, Blanca and Sonia: Josafina´s daughters, all under the age of 21, all attending high school, all living with Josafina because they are unmarried

OK so that list might not mean much to you, but it´s good for me to have it written down and it also gives you an idea of one important thing to this community: family. It is great how the boys can play soccer with their cousins and aunts every day of the week, something that constrasts starkly with my anual visit with some aunts and cousins.

We arrived on Friday in the afternoon. This included me and Suzal, Pam (nicknamed Pamelita in MP (malinga pamba) who is the director of the school there, Pam´s boyfriend, Pam´s brother and his 2 teenage kids, Pam´s sister in law and our 2 guids. When we arrived we got a little tour of the grounds from Pam and then had some dinner. That night Pam´s boyfriend Richard has snuck some elk into his suitcase and cooked it up for us all to eat. I thought that was going to be all and I was still starving. Luckily that was only the beginning. One of the guides, Jean, who knows EVERYTHING there is to know about Ecuador, was with us and had brought up 3 pizzas, which we heated up and ate. Following that was the more traditional meal of some delicious veggie soup and then a plate of potatoes and a over-easy egg. This whole meal was finished off by some hot tea that was made from herbs in the back yard, don´t ask me what type because I don´t know what the translation for the Spanish herbs are in English!
The next day was Saturday and that is the day the colegio is in school (colegio is high school in Spanish). The colegio is only on Saturdays while the escuela (elementary and middle school combined) is in session Mondays-Fridays 7:30-2 with an hour lunch break. As the colegio students studied away, Suzal, Coco (Pam´s sister in law) and I sorted fabric in one of the classrooms and chatted about Coco´s involvement in different worldwide programs, such as the school in MP. A while later we had lunch (both lunch and dinner include delicious veggie soup and a plate of something that usually has potatoes and sometimes egg and/or avocado and then either super freshly made juice or hot tea). After lunch we hung out and I spoke to some of the little kids and high schoolers in Spanish. That night we had beer-cooked chicken and all the volunteers hung out in the big dining room portion of Paulino´s downstairs. Elvia brings our food out from the kitchen and serves us all 3 meals.

Sunday was the big celebration. The latest construction had been completed a few months prior and this was the inauguration of the edificio grande (big building). We started the day with some great fresh fruit, yogurt, granola and popcorn, an essential part of a well-balanced breakfast (which I must say they make WONDERFUL popcorn here freshly popped without much salt and no butter, yummm!). Then we were off to the games with the kids. All the volunteers had been assigned an activity so I worked with Coco to get a few games of sillas musicales (musical chairs) going, followed by hop scotch. The day before hop scotch had been a huge hit but Sunday it wasn´t as popular. Luckily Josafina´s older daughters joined in so there were a few people I could hang out with while hop scotching. After a short round of Simon dice (Simon Says) it was time for church. There is an iglesia (church) on the school campus but the padre (Catholic priest/father) is a traveling priest that only comes every few Sundays. Since last Sunday was such a big celebration there was church on campus and Josafina´s daughters invited me to go, which I wasn´t planning on doing considering I´m not Catholic and I felt a bit uncomfortable going in. However, since I was invited I decided to see what it was like and I am very glad I did. We walked into this very small building and sat on the right side (I guess the left side is for younger kids). The girls sat on either side of me and kept asking if I was bored, they definitely seemed bored as do most kids in weekly church services. However I was extremeley surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Not only was I observing their community rituals and feeling very much a part of the community, but I also had the chance to practice my Spanish comprehension. Plus I actually enjoyed with the priest was talking about because he discussed how Pam had brought education and peace to the MP community and now it was their time to spread that peace to others around them. Bottom line: I´m not turning Catholic but if I were invited to church again I would probably go (however usually the kids of a certain age are the only ones who attend weekly services in a town about 2 hours away walking distance, and they have to leave at like 5:30 or so).

After church was the big celebration program. Pam gave this nice speech about the importance of education and community. There were several awards handed out and then we got to eat. What did we eat, you may be wondering? Guinea pig! Yup, I watched tons of little guinea pigs get boiled the day before so they could pull off their hair and then they were served on Sunday deep fried along side a dish of tender potatoes in a peanut sauce. I´ll say that the guinea pig was extremeley tough and hard to chew, it was very salty and had very little meat on it. It was compared to rabbit, but either the way in which it was cooked or the fact that guinea pigs are such small animals there just wasn´t much there to eat. Needless to say, I was happy to pass it on to another family who really wanted to eat it after I tried my one bite. Following lunch it was time for more kid games so we did some more rounds of musical chairs, which the kids were SO into and we even had them playing to a live band that kept playing the same song over and over :) To top the kid games off we did a trash round up where they scattered around the premises picking up trash, and if they participated they received a little prize. The volunteers were pretty pooped by this time so we headed back to Paulino´s house and chatted around the table for the rest of the evening. We had some very vegetable-full dishes, thankfully since we´d had that guinea pig for lunch, and Pam was great to even share some bars of chocolate she´d brought (the first bit of chocolate/dessert all week...a record for me lately!). Before heading to bed, however, Suzal, Coco and I had to stop by the new building to see the fiesta going on there: dancing, live music and alcohol to the max. On top of all that, older women and little kids were sleeping along the walls because they had to wait for their families to be ready before they could head home. We dance a bit but it was so hot in there that after like 30 minutes we were ready for bed.

Monday morning came and that was the final morning with Pam and her group of family, friends and volunteers. She made her famous sourdough, banana pancakes (YUMMY!) and then we took our volunteer group picture that will be framed and added to the other volunteer pictures hung up along the wall of the big new building. We then all made our way to this little market that is in another town about 20 minutes away before saying goodbye. Some of us walked partway there which was great to see a bit more of the beautiful surroundings, and then Jean picked us up in her car so we didn´t have to hike the last uphill climb. At the market we see lots of veggies, pastries and clothes before parting ways. Suzal and I grabbed a ride back with Aurora and Paulino who were selling veggies at the market. Once we got back to MP, Suzal and I were the only volunteers left. It was time to start the murals.

As I may have already told you, Suzal is a retired high school art teacher. She wanted to volunteer at MP and Pam asked if Suzal could help with a new mural on the new big building just constructed and inaugurated. Suzal was happy to help, but didn´t realize what she was getting herself in to. Instead of it being 1 mural, it ended up being 8 murals that were to describe how Pam got the school started in MP. I quickly became Suzal´s personal assistant as we tried to gather a few kids to help us paint and get the murals on the way. We worked diligently for the rest of Monday, all of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and we didn´t finish the murals. We tried really hard, got a bit stressed, used a lot of help from the older boys who live near campus (since the younger ones make a huge mess and were in school from 7:30-2). I tried to get as much done with Suzal yesterday as possible because it is now my responsiblitiy to finish them and as much as I love to do art, this is a little different project. However, regardless of the stress and dirty clothes, the murals look awesome so far and we did make a significant amount of progress. Several of them are almost done and a few just need some final details added. Therefore I have my work cut out for me during the next two weeks (I´m planning on leaving MP 2 Fridays from today so that I can catch the same ride down to Latacunga with Paulino and his family in order to continue my journey).

In addition to finishing the murals, I also want to help the kids out a bit academically. On the way down to Latacunga today, Paulino asked me if I could help teach him some English. I think I´ll be busy teaching English and maybe doing some computer tutoring too. There is a computer lab with several computers in it, but most of them don´t work. Pam brought some new harddrives and keyboards to the school, but nobody has hooked them up. The other day I worked with Wilmer, the 9 year old, to hook up between 5 or 6 computers. Unfortunately, they use a different program the kids aren´t used to PLUS the kids don´t get much time on the computer so they type with their right index finger extremeley slowly. Also, there isn´t internet so the most I can do is help them with typing, powerpoint, etc. We´ll see what they want to do, what the teachers think is most helpful and what I´m able to do.

So a bit more description of MP. There is a compostable toilet on campus that is a huge accomplishment here. While it is nice to have a toilet available for the students, it sure doesn´t smell good and I´ve had to use it a few times while several flies and even a bee or 2 were flying around the small room. To limit the amount of times Suzal and I have to go downstairs to use the bathroom, we´ve put a big multi-use bucket in our room that is nicely called our piss pot. We have the goal of keeping it as clear as possible, which will now be just my goal since it is now just my piss pot (she leaves tomorrow for Colorado). Oh yeah and speaking of Colorado: several of my new friends including both Suzal and Pam live in Boulder, Colorado, just 30 minutes from my new home in Denver! Back to MP though: I´ve been trying to take a shower every 2 days but I´ve slipped into about every 3 which is pretty gross since I can smell myself right now and my hair is pretty greasy. I don´t wash my hands all that much but luckily Suzal brought baby wipes that I can use when I can´t wash my hands or face (I don´t wash my face here unless I´m taking a shower). For laundry we´ve been rinsing our clothes out in the shower and then hanging them up on a line in our room, making our room look very decorated with our clothes hanging up there all the time. We stopped hanging them up outside because most afternoons it starts raining and that doesn´t help them dry. Fortunately these past 3 days it hasn´t rained in the afternoon, which has let us continue painting later than usual.

When I´m not painting in the afternoon though, I have played futbol (aka soccer) with some of the boys on the field which is just dirt and 2 small goals on either end. It is very tiring running around at such high altitude (10,000 feet at least) and my fingers get swollen after a bit, but it´s fun and a different type of exercise so that´s good. I am so thankful for my sleeping bag because I have not been cold whatsoever and have even woken up in the middle of the night to take of clothes. I know I must belong here because we go to bed around 8:30 or 9 and stay in bed until around 7, 7:30, which means we get A LOT of sleep and/or relaxation. I´ve been journaling since I can´t blog and have also started reading a bit. This long amount of time in bed is great because the days are extremeley long and every minute seems to be filled with something, so after a nice long night I feel ready to start another day. Also, with so much sleep, I´ve been having very very vivid dreams, which is good and bad: they make me feel weird in the morning but I get to hang out with friends from home while sleeping :)

As I´ve kinda already mentioned, I now have 2 weeks in MP by myself, as in no other volunteers. I´m excited to continue working on my Spanish, further my relationships with the friends and kids I´ve met already and see what help I can do while staying here. I´m a bit nervous to not have anyone to share my room with, speak English with or share my foreigner experience with. However my main goals of going abroad included working on my Spanish, working with kids and getting to be part of a community, rather than just being a tourist. All of these goals are being accomplished while staying in MP so I am going to keep an open mind and heart for the next 2 weeks here. Plus I know that all the time I spend worrying about being alone, I am not enjoying spending in MP, but before I know it I will be moving on to my next destination and then will be back in California before I can blink my eyes! As a heads-up, today was a surprise to come to Latacunga and get access to the internet, but I may not have access until I leave, which is in 2 more weeks. If I can I will update, otherwise hasta luego!! XO