A weekend of culture

(written Tuesday)

After our exquisite dinner, we continued to experience the fine culture of Ecuador. Saturday we bought laminated particle board to build shelves, had lunch with Jose’s extended family at his Grandparents’ country home in Paute, visited the small town Gualaceo (known for its production of leather shoes and a drink called “rosero”), and returned to Cuenca in the evening to go to the theater. Sunday we built a bookshelf for our desk, watched Deportivo Cuenca beat Barcelona 1-0 in a packed stadium of soccer fans, exited the stadium mosh-pit style, and finished off the day with some 5 on 5 soccer (boys only). Early Monday morning I was roused from my sleep by nausea. Yes, we are sick AGAIN.

I slept all day Monday, and by evening Brad was also feeling ill. I thought we had been careful about what we were eating, but somehow we both managed to get sick. Jose told us that many other people are also sick, and that maybe it is a virus going around Cuenca. He’s sick, too. I don’t know how people here get their work done, or how I’m going to get my field work done, if we are sick so often.

Anyways, back to the weekend. We bought two pieces of particle board, which they cut to the correct dimensions for us to make our shelves. It has a white laminate finish, and they even taped the sides with the same material so that it looks nice. Our first shelf, the one for our books, turned out quite nice. It is 1m x 1m, and sits nicely on top of our desk. Dad, I think you’d be proud. We managed to measure and get the shelves fairly straight, and Brad did a great job with the “power hole maker.” The only problem was that it ran out of juice before we finished the job. We gave it a rest, and returned to finish it later in the day. Our next job will be to assemble the bigger shelf for our clothing. I can’t wait to get our clothes out of our suitcases!

We didn’t realize that we were attending an extended family lunch (apparently they happen most weekends), until we arrived at Jose’s grandparents. The yard was beautiful, and so was the inside of the house. We were given a quick tour, and then shown to sit at the table where there seemed to be some confusion (I think they weren’t expecting two extras). We had a salad of lettuce, onion, and avocado with a citric dressing, a bowl of soup, a scoop of rice, some beef cooked with green peppers, tree-tomato juice, and a scoop of ice cream with blackberries and another kind of fruit. We tried to follow the conversation, but there were so many people talking at the same time that it was near impossible! Jose’s aunt had spent time living in the US (Cleveland, then Lexington, then Houston) and she spoke to us in English. After we ate, we walked outside in the garden where Jose’s younger cousins played in the fountain, then we returned to the table for coffee. Jose is getting married soon (January 8) to his girlfriend Toja, and we found ourselves amidst a wedding- planning conversation. Wow, it’s so much less stressful to talk about someone else’s wedding! The wedding and reception will be help at his grandparent’s home, so they are doing some renovations in the house and the garden to prepare for the celebration. The colors will be red and white. That’s about all I got out of the conversation.

On Saturday afternoons, Jose teaches a class on biogeography at a university in Gualaceo. We thanked his grandparents, and then went with Jose to explore the town while he held class. It is the prefect size town to tour by foot, so we left the car parked at the university. We visited the church, the garden in the center of town, the market where we enjoyed a delicious drink made of coconut, a german bread shop, and many shoe stores. We were low on cash so it was just a day for window shopping, but there were so many shoes for sale! I found a pair of boots that I liked, and some heels, and some flats. Brad didn’t really find anything he liked, and if he had there would have been the problem that his feet are bigger than average here. I thought if Gualaceo is famous for their leather shoes, maybe they would also have nice purses, but the ones I saw had “made in China” tags. We met up with Jose after his class, and tried some of the cuisine specific to Gualaceo: roseros and quesadillas. The rosero is a drink made with fruit pulp and flour. It tasted sweet, but not pasty as I would have expected with the flour. Instead it was smooth except for the chunks of fruit. The quesadilla is not the same as the Mexican- style tortilla filled with cheese and other savories. This kind is small, filled with a different kind of cheese, served cold, and tastes both sweet and dry. I didn’t really like it, but Brad thought it was okay.

So we returned to Cuenca for the theater. Jose’s uncle from Quito put together several weeks’ worth of small theatrical performances of groups from all over Latin America, and Saturday night’s show was a double header. We missed the beginning of the first show, but it was easy to catch up. It was a one-man clown performance, complete with juggling, balloons, a unicycle, and audience participation. The second show was much more serious, and difficult to understand. It was about sexual abuse, a topic on which the government here is really working to educate people, but it was pretty difficult to understand the words. I also thought it was a strange follow-up to the clown show.

We had to arrive at the soccer match early on Saturday, so that we could get a seat—or actually so that we could get in the door before the match started. We met our friend Diego who had picked up the tickets for us, stopped by a small shop to grab some snacks for the game (you can take your own food and drinks into the stadiums here, it seems to be encouraged), then got in line. We waited in line for nearly an hour just to get through the door, then we had to find a place to sit. We ended up on the front edge of the concrete bleachers, snuggly nestled in. However, there must have been room for half a butt-cheek next to Brad because two guys managed to squeeze their way in. Right in front of us there were two large umbrellas (somewhat obstructing our view) and a young girl watching over a snack stand. Two older women kept returning to restock the bottled water, colas, beers, and other snacks that they were peddling in the stands. The game itself was alright, although Brad was disappointed that the players looked so tired early in the second half. We participated in the cheers, although the fans remained seated throughout the entire game. We were all happy that D. Cuenca won the match.

In the afternoon, Brad got the opportunity to find out why all the players looked so tired early in the game. He was invited to play a 5 on 5 match with some of Jose’s friends. It was a range of talent, and Brad seemed to fit right in. I took my place behind the chain –link fence because it seemed to be a boys-only game (later I was told that I could play if I wanted). Brad was on the field for about 5 minutes before he started looking bad, but he endured. He asked to play goalkeeper, but still couldn’t catch his breath. He came out of the game, and said that his lungs were burning. We’ve been here nearly 6 weeks, but still are not acclimated. There’s a 10K coming up in about a month. Maybe if we start training for that Brad’s soccer endurance will improve.

And now we are sick again. Brad missed a day of work yesterday, I missed a day of field work today. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be feeling better.

Addendum: We have fallen victims to the rotavirus epidemic that’s working its way through Cuenca right now. Symptoms include aches and pains, vomiting and diarrhea, tiredness, loss of appetite. Prescribed treatment (as directed by Jose’s homeopathic doctor) is pedialyte and 48 hours of rest.