Naturally Occurring Mud

My blogging has slowly become a thing of yesteryear. My bad. But it’s a new year, so new blogs and I am going to really try to stay on top of it this time. I think what happened is my life became increasingly less interesting, more of the same but really just saying that I am fooling myself. I think I could live in Ecuador for 15 years and every new week will shock me in another unexpected way. So what has been happening.

Well for chirstmas I went home to rolling hills Pennsylvania to spend some time with the fam and what turned into a 2 week food and alcohol tour. It was amazing. I made it back to Ecuador about ten pounds heavier, possibly still hung-over, with eggnog on my mind, fabulous. I also got to take the cobwebs off my skies and pummel down the slopes for a day with my family, minus mom who went to work instead. I decided that skiing is the most painful fun sport invented, and that is coming from prior black-eyed rugby player. Why you ask? Well due to my personal altitude of almost 6 feet, my blood in cold temperatures likes to stop moving beyond my knees and elbows leaving my poor toes and fingers to fend for themselves in their white deathly state of icicles constantly screaming for help at that wonderfully rich oxygenated blood that just stares from my knees laughing. If I was 5 feet tall, skiing could be thoroughly enjoyable.

As normal travel back to my site in Ecuador posed its own large dilemmas like a two hour delay on my first flight with exactly a two hour layover for my second flight had me literally sprinting through houstan airport to arrive luckily just in time, sweating my ass off but as luck and a lot of things seem to happen in threes, I not only made the impossible happen with making both my flights, but I had been upgraded to shrimp salad, mixed grill, free alcohol, first class seats on both my flights. It was quite possibly the best end to my two week gluten session. The third luck struck when I was trying to get a bus down to Guayaquil to make it back to my site. I was in Quito at about 11 pm fresh off the plane and searching for a bus, I managed to get one of the last tickets that night on one of the last buses back, sitting in the very last seat that really shouldn’t even be there, but was stuck in the very back in the isle row so I had all the leg room in the world. I am not sure how the stars aligned for me that day but I was not asking questions. I made it back. And it was new years.

I was soon informed by my dancer pants best friend and ecua-novio that I had nothing to wear. Shocked as I have more clothes than every peace corps volunteer in Ecuador combined, but I guess I was not prepared for the extensiveness of new years eve in Ecuador. Whether or not you only have 5 dollars to your name you will spend that 5 dollars on a new outfit for the turn of January. The night process goes like this, Mass is at 9 which is held outside because there are too many people to fit inside (I elected to skip the crowd and spend that time changing my outfit 12 times.) It lets out at 10 wherein the whole town meets up with their significant other or best friends, children etc to casually walk in these new outfits up and down the main drag. It reminded me of old community days but with adults and minus the fair rides. You do this till just before 12, just walking and then turning around to walk back and then again and again. Then comes the real excitement. For two weeks prior to new years families make what they call “viejos” which are large paper mache people or animals ie, someone made a Viejo in the form of my ecua-novio, also shrek, penguins, transformers…  they stand between 4 to 7 feet tall, human viejos are dressed in real clothes, paper mache head, if you don’t have a good hand in such artwork you can buy them at local Viejo markets. Well at exactly at midnight they throw the viejos in a pile in front of the house and set them on fire, big bonfire type, while the men grab a bottle of rum or anything alcoholic nearby and start drinking, and the children start to play with the flaming debris. Most people then proceed to have this huge dinner till about 1 am after which you either just keep drinking or go to the dance or both. I personally went to a baptism celebration with ecua-novio and his fam till 4 am and then to the dance until 6 am. My night was so far from my norm new years, which is passed out wasted face by 2am without even a dream of seeing the likes of 6 am or having the human mobility to dance. So it was different, enjoyable, and even further rocked my feminist internal core to vibrations with the cultural rule that only men can enjoy the awesomeness of what is alcohol. But no worries I got mine over chirstmas J

On another note, I started my aerobics class up again and I guess with the images of green been casserole, chirstmas cookies, bagels and their lasting effects on the love handles hovering in my mind, I kicked my own ass, twice, I have been so sore, it feels fabulous. I also gave wings to my raising pigs for money project at the high school with a successful flee market of donated clothes I brought back with me, raising a little over $200. Also having meeting with the parents trying to convince them of how good an idea this is, much harder than I expected. All I asked was for them to send their food trash to school with their kid so we can feed the pig, it turned into a 4 hour contemplation, between 30 parents, over the intricacies of raising pigs, which I really have no knowledge. Also a complete dismissal of all the benefits students get with this kind of responsibility and possibilities of dissections and uses of pig shit. But I think we are moving forward with the idea, and I am just crossing my fingers that some spiritual bunny will come bless me with overflowing knowledge of  pigs, or maybe I should just go with google.

Finally I had a really awesome friend come visit me and in all our combined awesomeness, we went to the banos of san Vicente. Banos meaning bath, but in this instance more meaning mud pit. We hitchhiked our asses there, not taking no for a answer so we could bath in some natuarally occurring mud, like all mud is not naturally occurring… but anway, Its this little compound that has this muddy water pool and when you test out the cold water, your toes get pulled into 2 feet deep of caly/mud. It’s a fairly sizeable ugly area, circumference of 10 or so feet, enough for many visitors to enjoy in the niceties of the mud. When you arrive you see women, children, men alike standing in the muddy water, picking up the clay from the bottom rubbing it all over their bodies, face, hair and all. And then sitting out in the sun to let it dry. I was perplexed but soon joined into the excitement, skipping out on the face, and hair. It has a certain sewage smell to it, I guess its sulfur or some other mineral, but nothing I would put in my nose electively. After we turned into human rhinos we washed off the mud and went into the hot spring tubs, this time regular clear hot bubbly mineral water, still with that same subdued sewage smell.  After a little more normalcy we went for massages ($4) choice of sabila (aloe vera) or more mud. I picked mud, my friend said he had enough of mud and went with sabila. It was a 15 minute process, less massage more like mud/sabila rub down. They heat it up a little and then just spread it all over your body, while trying to make polite conversation. It was at this moment that all my hopes of keeping this naturally occurring mineral mud out of my nose when to shit and the masseuse rubbed it all over my ears, face and yes some in the nostrils. She then promptly kicked me out of the room, covered, having to carry all my things telling me to go let it dry once again and then wash off. I met my friend outside, he seemed to fair better then me as sabila is clear, just kind of looked like he wreaked his car but the air bag was a gelatin bag instead, with the same disgruntled car crash expression, apparently his masseuse could use some hospitality lessons. We washed off, a 15 minute process, (it was in my goddamn ears) and got a ride back to my site. All in all a great experience but prob not going back anytime soon, I will stick with my naturally occurring ocean for now. 

jhalmars got moves

I would guess about now people are wonderin g what i am doing, but before i start this let me warn you that i am using possibly the shittiest key board in exsistence, the keys dont push down, and i also have no patience for  corrections so sorry in advanced. i will try my best...

Tuesday and thursdays at 4pm i teach an arobics class in the tiny village. I get between 4 to 8 women each class. On Thursdays i have my best friend here come in a do dance thearpy for half the class. the women love it, and its hilarious. My classes are a combination of rugby workout, and P90x. Those women are crying by the end, its actually very satisfying. We are on the ground, and up in seconds, high knees, boxings and doing planks. All which lasts about an hour. The women range from 25 to 50 none of whom have ever thrown a punch in their lives, nor have wanted to. So the boxing part of the session is more like fairy dancng with swingnig arms and pointed toes. I have kinda of given up on correct form and have concentreated more on trying to make a women that has lived on the equator her whole life sweat. Its like they dont have glands or something, i am there in the front with two towels and puddle around my feet and these women look like they are ready to go out for the night. Let me remind you it is the cold season still,  i have no idea what i am going to do once it gets hot, bring a kiddie pool or something, and two changes of clothes. But i have succeeded, a couple times i saw a small sweat spot on the back of their shirts, i was pumped.

Then there is thursday class with jahlmar. The moves this kid has would but shakira to shame, no joke. And the new fad in south america is reaggeton. Now is the time to youtube latin reaggeton videos. In case you dont have time, girls and guys of all ages come together on the dance floor and literally have the raunchiest sex with their clothes on. I am talking doggie style, missionary, and 69. I thought the dance floor at bentlys was bad but i have never seen such blantant sexual pelvis moving as i have seen here. So why am i talking about this, well Jhalmar on thursdays for half an hour teaches mothers with 5 kids how to do these moves. We are on the ground, over chairs, face down, going in circles jirating our vaginal areas, it is so uncomfortable its hilrious. These women like most people in the world were not blessed with the possibility to forcefully ossilate the pelvis while shaking the ass and the tits. Lets just say its hard. I am one of the most advanced of the ladies and i look like i am having a seziure. Anyway if you can buy a plane ticket and see for yourself its just that ridiculous.

As for other things i am doing, i started a community bank, and am putting together a world aids day celebration with a parade and activies during the day to educate. Hopefully it will go well. i am also trying to put together a womens soccer league cant wait till they realize that i dont know how to play. I have a speed walking group, they go mid mall pace their little tiny legs just dont permit for speed walking, i am just glad they come. i also ran a ¨"marathon" for the professors of the high schools, it was like 2 to 3 miles, got second in that bitch, took home a trophy. Not gonna lie i have blood on my hands it was totally not fair, these women have never ran further than the bus, and i am not even a teacher, i never even go to the high school, it just so happened i showed up the week of the race and they coerced me into running. I am really happy i did not take home first, they probably would have jumped me.

My puppy is getting bigger still adorable, and i broke up with ecua novio but i think we are still together, it did not work out as i had planned, but hey i have clean clothes thanks to his mom (really awkward), and he is teaching me to make ceviche! There are also an ennumerable amount of rumors about us, i was told we are the number one topic on convo of people in town. I supposedly buy him new clothes, and give him money when he wants, and bother him so much he is obligated to be with me. I also apparently hand fed him bread while walking down the street and he spends every night in my house oh and we are getting married. there are probabyl more that i have not heard yet, i asked him where my ring was. This was all told to me by my host mom who heard it from my host dad who came home very upset saying, "guess what they are saying about our doughter, i cant let them say these things about her" I love them. and it sounds like nothing but this is real serious stuff, novios are not allowed to spend time together alone, let alone stay the night. The questin then arises, how do all these 14 year olds get preggers... i think i am going to give a lesson on birth control and condoms, they will probably believe me now seeings how they think i am have outrageous sex and yet still not pregnant :) Yes there is always an up side.  i guess next time i break up with him i am going to have to do some translation.com look up on how to make it more clear.

anyway love you all, oh and aparently i have lost weight, people comment everyday, i put sole reasoning on the fact that i am not eating a vat of rice everyday now that i live on my own, but keep the compliments coming, its great :)

a whole new year

I am 23 now, seems crazy I remember like it was yesterday turning 21 and heading to Bently’s, miss that. But things change, people change, I have changed. For this entry I am going to do a little review of my past year and then a synopsis of what is new.

A year ago I moved home to reading Pennsylvania to spend my last couple months with my parents before I left the country for 2+ years. Well at least that’s what I told Faith and Mike. In reality I had just spent a summer at the beach with my bff Maggie renting bikes to tourist at the incredible rate of $7.50 an hour for about 25 hours a week and spending the rest of those hours at the Chincoteague inn, golfing and people watching on the best beach in history to partake in such activity. Therefore putting me into a good amount of debt that had to be paid back by the time I left, February. Best option was to live with mom and dad.

So I headed home but stopped by a rugby tournament on the way and accidentally messed up my knee once again putting me on crutches and an immobilizer. Really no surprise there. So in my great attempt to both make money and rehabilitate I got a job at the local meat head “I do roids” station called LA Fitness. I had worked at a gym before in the frat row district in college so I knew my way around the power shakes and boneless skinless grilled chicken diet but never had I encountered such beings that work in a LA Fitness, I said wtf at least 10 times a shift, that plus I was straight up awful at the job, so it was only a 2 month gig .  I then moved on to bigger better positions, one as a sales attendant at Clarks shoe stores and as a waitress at the Rugby Tuesdays in a mall. I worked my ass off seeing how I was in even bigger debt.

It was about November or Decemberish that I got a call from peace corps saying that things got messed up and my departure date was not for another 6 months, but they had a position leaving in February for South America if I wanted it. Though pretty far away from my original plan of Africa working in health, I bought a bottle or two of wine, and invited my bff Beth over to decide with me. Peace Corps gave me two days to decide my fate. Well not hard to put together, I obviously decided that maybe with wine I can speak Spanish and that this was a sign of fate pulling me away from my long time goal of living in Africa. Thanks Beth, I have not regretted it yet.

By February I had pulled myself out of debt, even had some cash in the bank, could size a person’s foot by the sound of their step and knew exactly how cheap the bastards are that live in Reading PA. So yeah I was about ready to leave, plus my faithful car’s heater pooped out on me mid January in the coldest winter PA has had in decades. I packed my bags and alligator and moved far far away. From that point on I think I have it all written in the blogs before this, so if you need to catch up feel free to scroll upwards. Put in short, one of the most sweaty, and tallest Americans was put at zero altitude directly on the equator and told to try to make friends. Against all odds it worked!

Now for what is new. I turned 23, have my very own house (think jail cell) its made out of cement and has bars on the windows but I love my house. I teach aerobics classes in Spanish on Tuesdays and Thursdays . I have my very own garden with some tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, squash, and well I am not really sure. I know what compost is and I have made some. But that’s all well and good, the more important things are that on my birthday I brought home a puppy! The cutest little shit in the world. I named her Isla, that means island, yeah I know its not a name but its her name. She has no race just mutt, officially has gone outside to poop but refuses to pee anywhere but the kitchen floor. But as you sigh don’t forget that my awesome house is made completely out of cement, so who really cares how many times she pees on it, its not like it will get uglier. Isla also has a bad case of fleas and ticks, I call it a fiesta here at my house, with all the wildlife running around. But she is the most adorable little thing that pees when she gets scared/nervous which is exactly what I do so yeah we are life partners.

Second new thing in my life is my Ecua-novio. Ecua for Ecuador, novio for boyfriend. His name is Kleber, which is pronounced clever, now don’t get too excited, this is nothing big or realistic. It is though the best way to learn Spanish, and keep other cat calling men at bay. If you can remember from my other blog, Kleber is the guy I described as the tall one. He is approximately my height, is the only guy in my town with bigger feet than me and thinks I am really cool, therefore puts up with all the times I ask “what?” We will see how this goes… Also if there is a six figure income making guy reading my blog thinking I am the one for him, I want to make it clear that I am very much still on the market J

Oh and before I forget to mention,  I think the purpose of Peace Corps is to make girls like me a little more domesticated, you should see what I have popped out of my kitchen. Some top notch stuff, plus that whole cleaning and putting your shit away after you use it, I had no idea I could ever be this person, well I should say, I had no idea I could ever be my mom J

Argentinian pop god

It was my host moms birthday and i, like a good daughter made her a cake, it liteterally looked like a piece of rounded out shit but it tasted amazing. After they all laughed and took their first bites with extreme caution i got praise of how good it was and many smiles. Due to the good mood, my host mom, sister and aunt decided to go to a free concert held in a nearby city. It was tuesday night about 9 pm when we left the house. I did not exactly want to go since i thought it was folklore music and this just is not my jam. I was somewhat dragged along, not really expecting much but boy was i surprised.

We arrived at the outdoor concert wherr there were another 2000 costal ecuadorians eagerly awaiting the entrance of the main musician. While the pre show acts were still singing their hearts out at a loudly booing crowd my tiny little host family, tiny meaning short, pulled my arm through the crowd as far front as their little legs could take them. Now lets rewind. I almost 6 feet tall walk into a concert of ecuadorians, immediately i can see directly to the stage from the far back, i can even see the performers feet from my view point. I did a couple 360 circles and noticed the only thing i could see were tops of heads, i made eye contact possibly 3 times with little kids sitting on their dads shoulders. So as i march through the crowd with my tiny family the grumbles got even louder, since ever step i advanced, took away the sight of at least 50 people. Anyway i mede it through without any fights so thats positive. Meanwhile we are all waiting for this main performer named bilma palmar. At about 10 30 he arrived and the crowd went wild. Micheal jackson on  his last tour wild. i was like wow this might be good after all. I saw the bass player walk on stage looking like he is right out of some awful emo band, and  a tamborine/shaker player with the same getup. Then the guitarist with long curly hair that touches his shoulder blades and a swinging rag in his back pocket, a little 80s but i can deal.

Once the whole crowd was jumping and screaming bilma the bilma took the stage. In his have to jump to get them on black skinny jeans. Black printed t shirt that just fit over his 42 year old bear belly and accompaning man boobs. This was matched with a pair of three stripe white addidas and long blond hair fashioned in quintisencial 1985 bus driver mullet. Within seconds i was jumping with the crowd, who can applaud a man with that much confidence. For the next 2 hours he sang songs that everyone knew the words, and fist pumped at least every 5 minutes. He tried to sing some american rock songs like "if i stay or if i go now" but the all spanish speaking crowd was not so into it. Lets just say with his kareoke voice and lost sense of style the man knows how to get the crowd going. The alcohol was flowing like crazy and they could not get enough.
 oh i love this place, but i really miss having other people from the states to share these experiences with 

my poor mom

It has been a while, almost two months, so sorry kids, a lot has happened, so here is the condensed version.




I found my house, and was working everyday… now that’s a lie, my host dad Vicente worked on it everyday and I showed up for some gringo support. He was a savior. My family was coming about 3 weeks after I signed up for the house, with the plans that they were going to stay with me here for 3 nights or so. That meant we had to attach the side walls to the roof, build two doors, put a kitchen sink in and connect water, connect water to the bathroom sink, and make a drain for the shower. Also change the faucets, buy an oven and gas tank, and somehow find all those other house necessities, like a bed, dishes, pots, seats, maybe a dresser and so on. So I gave all that I could meaning money, and Vicente and my landlord got it ready. I lucked out hard core on my host family, they almost fully furnished my house and lent me three extra beds for my family that they borrowed from friends and neighbors. Oh, the biggest project of all this was to re do the bathroom, by laying tile, painting, finally buying a mirror, and I must say I cant stop looking at it :) Anyway during all this mess I found out I had an UTI, yeah I know lovely, and the same day also figured out I had head lice, it was an awesome day. I got some medications no problem, but head lice in Ecuador are like roaches, they can live through everything. I daily shampooed with the killing shampoo for like two weeks, and had my host sister pick through my hair two different times, two hours each sitting. I think they finally might be gone…

In my last two weeks at my host families house I was served guinea pig, deer, and multiple whole fish about the size of my man hand which I ate all with a spoon. Guinea pig is traditionally from the mountains of Ecuador but my host mom had two growing and one day the pet dog crunched them, so after many tears marina cooked them up, lets just say not horrible tasting but really not worth the work. There is nothing on those little shits. The deer my host brother watched die somewhere and by bringing it to a vendor he got some to take home and 30 bucks. I was not so pumped to have eaten a deer that died of an infected wound but what can you do. Then the fish, there are at least 500 bones in a fish the size of your hand, I am now an expert and probably can filet any size with my new found knowledge of their internal structures.

Highlight of the past two months was the visit of my parents. Super freaking cool. We built a roof on a gazebo in my park. Planted a garden, danced in the town square, in proto lopez we went whale watching and saw blue footed boobies, plus red footed boobies, and another not every colorful boobie. In mindo we went zip lining over the canopy of a cloud forest through a course of 8 lines, we went partners, upside down, superman style, all while I got to interpret the safety directions to my non Spanish speaking family, you can really get them to believe anything. We then went horseback riding, with my mom that is terrified of horses, my brother and matt that are about the same size of an Ecuadorian horse, and my sister and I who really have no prior experience. While the 15 year old guide was jamming out to his ipod, my brother legs were almost dragging on the ground, my mom could not get hers to move, and my sister and my horse were playing follow the leader, until they decided to race. And yes I mean full gallop race down a path with no care of who was on their back. I actually thought this was the end of my life, as I was bouncing up and down holding on for dear life and screaming, my sister was laughing while also peeing her pants a little, until finally they got tired or something and stopped. About 20 minutes later the guide caught up and brought us back to base camp. Only to find out that matts horse tried to not only brush him off on a tree but also tried to launch him off by jumping with the front two legs. I could not sit right for a couple days, but really “only in Ecuador.” We then went to the tena and got to see the jungle, with monkeys and a huge snake, and beautiful butterflies. Oh and I got to eat some really tastey filet mignons. Really awesome trip, next time any of you see my mom tell her you are proud, cause we kinda made her go through hell in Ecuador in all of our adventures. Did I mention we climbed vertically up a mountain side and repelled down the other side of shear rock wall. Mom your awesome.

So now I am back in my house, its great. One downfall, I have to learn how to cook from scratch, has not gone so well so far, but hey I will either come out of this skinny or the next Julie Childs. Tonight is potatoes, shrimp, and string beans :)

Boys

So don’t get too excited, my love life is anything but booming, it just that in the past couple weeks I have had some very interesting encounters with the opposite sex. Well, as you might have assumed by now, my life is a little lame when it comes to traditional North American views of having a fun night. The highlight of my weekends is normally having a movie night with my youth group. But the fiestas of my town came around, two weekends ago, and my night life took a huge upward surge. We had a beauty pageant, which I am highly considering entering for next year. There was also a burning of this large structure called the castilla, they start at the bottom lighting some small fireworks and then it progresses upward lighting of more spinning, twirling explosions for about two stories in height and at the end 4 or 5 huge fireworks get set off for the finale. Before this spectacular, they had a guy carry a fake cow resemblance on his head and called him the “vaca loco” meaning crazy cow. This was all somewhat amusing until I realized this fake cow structure was loaded with pyrotechnics that would set off at undetermined intervals as he was running through the crowd. This is where I will add no exaggeration, this vaca loco’s main purpose was to scare the shit out of everyone, make every small child cry, and grown men flinch as he seemingly tried to light the crowd on fire with his fireworks. Possibly one of the most dangerous events I have ever atteneded, not to mention there were no firefighters in sight, I just kept saying “not cool” as I watched the crowd scream in terror, but yes it was amusing. The last event of the three day fiestas is a big parade through the streets, I walked with the high school, it was definitely not very exciting.



Now for the good part, every night starting at about 10 or so there is a dance. For the more mundane music, there is a band in the street for the parents to get their groove on, and drink as much beer as possible. For the younger crowd there is this basement type cell, with all the lightings, and sounds of a night club. The cell is about the size of my parents family room that comes equipped with no windows, fans, or any type of ventilation except for the front door that is about the size of a Bilbo Baggins entry. I literally have never felt taller in my life, but across the very dark, incredibly hot space, I spotted a boy that also looked taller than everyone. Being my sometimes over conceded joking self, I told the kids I went with that I was going to make him my boyfriend. That night he had two girl counterparts so I laid off hoping I might get another chance. And I did. The next night, and last night of the fiestas, I went back to the dance cell, and tall boy was there, without girl counterparts. Within 20 minutes of my entrance he came over and asked me to dance (I guess my previous nights scope out/stare down got my point across) I danced with him until I was sweating, literally dripping, on to the ground and then took a break until he asked me to dance again. This whole process of dancing, dripping, cool down, happened about 4 or 5 times, it was then he asked me to go sit on the church steps, and talk, so I will cut to the chase. In about 20 minutes or so he told me he was looking for his soul mate and think he found it in me, and would really like to be my boyfriend. This all happened without even holding hands, nothing. I could not stop laughing and told him I would tell him in a week.



So I think I am going to lay low for a while, this was just way to much excitement.

Hot sauce and hair cutting

Since the beginning of June I have been baptized, became a god mother, and started to feel comfortable with my new home of Ecuador. Yeah its been a good month. Now for a little explanation…


My high school, where I am still “teaching” English three times a week has a yearly celebration called the Nobatada. At said celebration the senior class baptizes the seventh graders, who are the youngest grade in the high school. The baptism is a loose interpretation of what you would see in the church. One senior dresses as the father, there are a couple nuns and other bishops. Then there are three very important devils in tight spandex red outfits sucking on lollipops continuously grinding with the father. I cannot forget to mention that the father is also drunk and smoking weed. After a lengthy presentation of how uncatholic they can be the seniors bring the small innocent seventh graders forward one by one to give them the body of the Christ, being a candy ball with an inside of something grotesque. Each poor kids face turned immediately upside down as soon as one was shoved into his/her mouth, quite hilarious to watch. This year the high school has like 6 new teachers or something crazy, so they decided to make it a full baptism by calling all of us new-bees up. I took my place in front of the father, after I shaked my ass a little for the crowd, and then got to try such wonderful body of Christ, quickly realizing why all the sour faces, because the candy ball was filled with hot sauce!!!! Not sure if you have ever witnessed me eat anything spicy before, but I am one of those kids, yeah one of those who tears up a little, sweats, and looks like she is going to barf. I cannot even explain how awful it was, then they poured water on my head while I was wearing very thin white shorts, luckily they dry quickly.
As for being a god mother, every kid in Ecuador has the pleasure of having three godmothers. One for baptism, one for the first nail clipping, and a third for the first hair cut. Yeah, I am not kidding. This week I was blessed with the opportunity to be a godmother of the first hair cut for Francesco. I will preface this by, it did not go so well and will now explain with some imagery. Take my regular sized hands of a man, put some children’s school scissors in them, and then place a small child in front of them who cannot sit in one place for longer than a second, ok, let describe the kid more accurately like a goldfish, attention span of nothing and always on the move. Not to mention the hair was completely dry and the small child is highly irritated by anything close to his ears. After one snip I told them I did not want to continue on, oh but I did. Seriously, I felt horrible after I saw what I did to this poor kids head. Not one hair was the same length as the next and there is an obvious chunk missing the middle of his head in the back. But they told me I did great and today Francesco asked me to pick him up, we are almost friends.
Why am I starting to feel comfortable? It simple and for anyone that has lived with me for any period of time over a month will fully understand. I have started to only shower twice a week. I am on a Sunday, and Thursday ritual now. I might take another shower during the week if I do any type of hard exercise but even then it all depends on how long of a time period it is between the stopping of dripping sweat and reaching my house. If the equation leads to more than two hours, I probably wont shower. But again if you have ever lived with or near me this is no surprise. I have always like to savior my showers by not taking them often so when I do they are that much better. Plus the not having a mirror thing takes away that whole idea that my hair is greasy cause really I have no idea, and having to shower in ice water also does little to promote the idea of taking them more frequently.
Few other side notes: I got the opportunity to talk to one of the local prostitutes that works illegally in my town with some visiting med students. We learned some awesome things, like she gets tested monthly for STD’s and AIDS, she makes about $5 per visit, and told us she always uses condoms with her guests. She was also very grateful that we came to visit because most people regard her as trash. It was actually a really cool experience, so if you ever find yourself with some friends passing by the local brothel, take a break from your busy lives and talk to one of the ladies, it’s great. I also have started to play basketball with the kids in my town, let just say I might as well be Michael Jordan to these kids. They have no chance with my height and that I have been taught how to dribble. To negate their downfalls they have resorted to literally jumping on my back every time I have the ball. Very soon I will be have a small info sesch on the rules.