Amigos y Familia!! I miss you all so much, it has been two weeks since we were able to acess the internet so I have a lot to fill you in on!
We just spent the last two weeks in the Western Andes Intag Region of the Cloud Forest in a tiny town of less than 200 people called Pucara. We spent our time there in homestays living with local familes. We had three hours of spanish lessons everyday and then 4 hours of reforestation work. It was such a beautiful place, the town is surrounded by the Andes and Primary Cloud Forest, and every morning the sun rose over the Cotacacchi Volcano. It was breathe taking. We had an amazing welcoming ceremony with a local band of three guitar players and singers, and we all danced!
I was extremely sick our first week in Pucara with some serious stomache issues, and this was not fun trying to communicate to my homestay mother because she does not speak any English. I returned to my normal state soon after I started taking medication.
Now a little bit about my family I stayed with. Piedad and Jose were my parents, they run 1 of the 2 the tiny little stores in town that sell icecream, beer, crackers, toilet paper and a few other odds and ends. They have lived in Pucara for nearly 75 years and have 8 sons, one of which still lives at home. One of their granddaughters, Dominca, who is 14 months lives with them as well. They were so welcoming and caring, and when I was sick Piedad told me not to be embarrassed because she is my mom, it was so cute!
Our days were filled with reforestation and Spanish lessons as I stated before, and we were all so exhausted at the end of the day from the work and just trying to communicate with everyone.
Last weekend, we had a little “vacation” and visited the village of Junin. Junin is a community of less than 200 people like Pucara and have suffered greatly from the impacts of cooperate mining. We got to speak with one of the locals, who was there when Parimilitary invaded their town. It was so sad hearing their story and how hard they are fighting to protect something they love. But it was also extremely inspirational that such a small community was able to come together and fight against these huge cooperations.
On this “vacation” we also did the longest and highest zipline in South America! It was so scary and so awesome! It was quite the experience especially because they seemed to be having quite the technical difficulties! After the zipline we went to some natural hot springs for a nice soaking!
We resumed our daily lives of spanish and work when we returned from Junin. Because of my ankle, I worked in the local elementary school of Pucara. The school system here made me very greatful for the education system in the U.S. The school is split up into 2 classrooms with all the kids younger then 4th grade in one class and all those from 4th to 7th in another class. I worked with each group separetly teaching them english colors and animals. It was so overwhelming at first, and so hard to communicate with them because they as well do not speak any english. It became easier and they all were so excited to learn a few english words and have a white girl as a teacher haha.
It is the begining of the rainy season here and has been raining a shitton every afternoon. I was told there are three seasons here, dry, wet, and wetter…I cannot image what the wettest season must be like.
We left Pucara this morning after having an awesome goodbye party yesterday. The elementary school has a choir that sang for us, and they performed a few dances as well. The president of the community of Pucara also played guitar and sang for us. It was really special and cool seeing how much the community had bonded with us. , we had been requested to choreograph a dance earlier in the week to perform at our goodbye party after all the performances for us. We came up with two ridiculously American dances to the Dig it song from Holes and then Waca Waca by Shakeria. It was absolutly hilarious performing these for the community but they all loved it so much and were all so impressed.
We arrived in Otavalo this morning and will be here until Sunday when we part for Tandana, an even smaller and more rural community than Pucara. Otavalo has the largest handicraft market in South America and I will be doing some serious shopping!
I also have not showered since last sunday and have not done laundry in two weeks because the shower and laundy situation in Pucara was not good at all!! yay for being dirty and yayy for the availbility of showers and a laundry facility in Otavalo. Love you and miss you all! Happy OCTOBER. I hope you are enjoying the cold!
Kelsey