Encounters in Ecuador: Stories from my "Other Country"

Sunday, I went to Pijal with Pepe (host dad) and Mariauxi, where we met with Don Antonio (guide/local contact), David Brown, and Mark. It was a super fun day with academic friends who are so welcoming to me! I never feel like an outsider, even though I’m the only cultural anthropologist and have a very different focus than the rest of the group. Instead, they are all supportive of and interested in my research. David is always especially enthusiastic, making me wish more academic interactions were like this.   Pijal is of interest to archaeologists because of its raised mounds (tolas, marked below) and agricultural mounds/ridges (camellones).  The camellones are a series of mounded ridges and valleys used in agriculture to control water levels and crop production. In times with an abundance of water, people planted their crops on top of the mounds. The water in the little valleys held the warmth from the sunlight and distributed that warmth at night, allowing ...

Inti Raymi is a pre-Colombian festival celebrating the sun and Mother Earth (Paccha Mama). People celebrate it in various ways throughout the Andes. Here, people come from the surrounding areas to eat, drink, and dance. Different communities will bring gifts of food (live chickens, castillos – triangles made from reeds with fruit and bread hanging from the cross pieces, and alcohol) as well as bands and dancers. The parties last all night and sometimes during the day for a two week period. Different communities celebrate on different days. A contact recently told me about the history of Inti Raymi and I learned things that I had never heard before (despite coming to Ecuador for the first time in 2009 to study the festival’s economic impact). Apparently the festival signals that the sun is preparing for a long journey around the world, which is why they dance in circles. The celebration also helps prepare the Earth to grow new things and the dancing softens the Earth in prepara...

Saturday, we had a birthday party for my homestay parents' 2 year old grandson, Josesito. Preparation for the party begin Friday as extended family came in to help clean, rearrange the house, and decorate. The birthday party was car/racing-themed, and it was very detail-oriented. Having your own print shop certainly has its perks, as is evidenced by the custom banners and signs that transformed the house. Josesito's mom Ivone must have spent weeks prepping for the event. They made metals and little cars filled with treats as the favors for everyone who came to the party.     I was told that 20-25 kids and their parents would be attending and that the party would start at 2 p.m., but I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The birthday boy actuallyslept through at least the first 30 minutes of his party, and after that, he wanted to spend the entire time playing with his grandpa in the entrance way. He took so many items out of the piñata that they h...

So I took some creative license there, but settling in for 6 months of research entails a lot of mundane things that don’t make for an exciting blog. A week in, I’ve reconnected with my contacts, wrangled technology into cooperating for the most part, gotten a few good days of research in, had my first day (of what will likely be many) with an uncooperative tummy, and even went to a birthday party (stay tuned). For those of you who aren’t on my Facebook, I also got witnessed to by a Jehovah’s Witness (basically the same as in English), who complimented me on my Spanish and accent, and made friends with a sweet dog who followed me home for blocks, despite my repeated apologies that I didn't have any food. Not to worry – she was rewarded when she waited at the door and my host mom took pity, allowing me to run back out with some bread! One of the highlights of the past week was visiting my friend, Andrea in San Antonio. I actually got a ride with my host mom, which meant I ar...

Yesterday was my travel day to begin my final stint of dissertation research (fingers crossed). It was an incredibly long day, made longer by both flights being wracked with terrible turbulence and my ever loathed journey from Quito to Otavalo tacked on straight from the airport. I was glad to get it out of the way, but my stomach had other feelings... It seemed like the vast majority of our plane was visiting Ecuador for missions or as medical workers, complete with the matching attire. The man next to me mistook me as a member of his mission group and asked me to remind him of my name when I sat down. The longer we talked, it turned out he wasn't entirely off-base. He mentioned traveling to Ecuador last year for a similar mission trip (based in Quito) and encountering a girl in the Plaza de Ponchos market (on their free day) who had a really interesting project. Cue me excitedly exclaiming, "Hey, that was me!" I don't feel too badly for not recognizing him because...

So, it turns out this never posted after I wrote it last October. In my defense, it was right before I came home, so my focus was probably elsewhere. Anyway, I think it's a cool post (who doesn't want to look at fresh bread), so I'm publishing it now as a teaser while a write a new post. ............................................................................................................................................................ On October 2, 2017, I went to Peguche to make bread with some of my contacts. One of the women made a doll for me and a horse for Doug out of bread, which is something they normally do for a festival on November 2. Maybe I'll be there for it next year! Each woman prepared a large basin with dough in the morning, then let it rise all day. They come together for a minga to form the bread into shapes (after kneading more pig fat into it) and bake it.  They don't use bread pans like we're used to, but instead, form ...