Also, one of the family´s cows had a calf this week. I got to drink colostrum for the first time. This is the first milk that a cow (or mother) gives after birth. It is thick and yellow and after they added some sugar, not that bad. I think that it is better for the calf to get this than the family, but what do I know.
I went to Quito on Sunday to hang out with some friends and watch the Cards game on ESPN. The Cardinals won big (The first time I´ve seen them win this year), so it was nice. One of my friends from Philadelphia was there too, so I got to rub in the Phillie's 10,000th loss.
I´ve been reading James Joyce´s "Ulysses" the last couple of weeks, and it has been kicking my butt. It is very complicates and even he said, "It will keep the Professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant." I decided that when I went to Quito, I´d print out a study guide at the office to help me understand. Huge coincidence though, when I went to the office, in the PCV lending library, there was a copy of "Ulysses Annotated". Over 600 pages of notes for a 700 page book. I´m glad I didn´t have to print the notes out. I think the office manager wouldn´t have been too happy if I used all the paper ion the office for that.
While I Quito I picked up a bunch of packages too. 1) Scott and Kari Mueller sent a book 2) Jason Muchacho sent books and a reading light (Which I used this week when the power went out) 3) Mom and Steph sent books, socks, and thermal underwear. The books I got were...Collapse, Black Hawk Down, Frankenstein, The Panama Hat Trail, War and Peace, The Communist Manifesto, Airframe, Grant and Sherman, The Mayflower, The Conquerors, and The HP 48G Users Guide (Exciting reading that one). Total pages received - 5,243. I think I´ll have enough books for a while. Books, socks, and underwear though. If I were 10 years old, I´d have thought I had a shitty Christmas, but down here I couldn´t have asked for anything more. Thanks to all you guys who sent packages, it means a lot. I also got some letters from my Mom and a packet of Pectin for making jelly. I´m going to try again this week, so wish me luck. On the box there are instruction for making the jelly, and a chart for converting the cooking times for high altitudes. Unfortunately I live 1,200 feet above the highest altitude in the chart, so I´ll have to extrapolate.
Speaking of my altitude, I was bored the other day (I was taking a break form Ulysses) and figured out that if the ground under my site disappeared, it would take me over 27 seconds to fall to sea level and by then I would be travelling 580 mph. Of course this is assuming no wind resistance, but you get the idea...I´m up there. Also, to pass the time, I carved "Wonderboy" with a lightening bolt a la Roy Hobbs into my walking/dog beating stick. The kids didn´t understand , but they thought the ´bolt was cool.
I should preface this next story by saying that I am a religious person. I believe in God, the devil, and the rest of the heavenly host. My doubts though, come in the belief in God´s intervention in our daily lives. I don´t think that praying for a sunny day to dry out your clothes (which I´ve been tempted to do down here) actually works. Many people do believe, and that´s fine. I´m not conceited enough to think I´m always right, and far be it for me to belittle another person´s (my Mother for example)beliefs. I do though have a line, and that line was crossed on Wednesday.
Two weeks ago one of the sisters of my host family asked me if I wanted to go on a trip to the coast. Of course I said yes, because I wanted some warm weather. The trip was planned to leave at 10:00PM on Tuesday night and return the following evening. I was excited until Tuesday night when I found out why we were going. They had told me that we were going to "Pass a little time"in the sun, but now they told me that we were going for "The Cure". I asked what this was and they explained that it was a mass with the "Niña Sana", or "Curing Child". I was interested to see this, but not looking forward to the 10 hour bus ride to do so. I tried to back out, but they wouldn´t let me. We left at 8:00PM (early for a change) and after a horrible overnight bus ride (everyone slept but me), we arrived in a small coastal town at 7:30AM. The one good thing about the trip was that I got to see some aspects of coastal life. 3:30AM and there were people in the streets dancing, eating, and hanging out. This is a stark contrast from the town by my site. There, everyone is at home watching bad TV by 10:00PM.
Anyway, we soon found out that the mass wasn´t until 11:00AM, so we spent some time walking around the town. It was a town smaller than mine with one main street with about 40 houses. All the houses had been turned into restaurants and their were vendors selling food, clothes, and other crap. Also a ton of people were selling gallons of water. I immediately didn´t like this, but held my tongue. As the time neared, the people I was with all bought water and we headed behind the town where the mass was. There were about 2,500 people there and more vendors (also, chair rental stands). There were a lot of people with physical disabilities and obvious aliments; amputees, crooked backs and legs, mentally handicapped children, etc. All of whom (or their caretakers) were carrying jugs of water. We waited around for a while talking and I taking pictures. Finally, a man came out in one of the backyard with a bullhorn and said that the niña sana would come out soon, but that NO ONE!!! was to take pictures or the cure wouldn´t work. The people I was with quickly told me to put my camera away. I did so and then asked who the niña santa was. They told me she was a girl from the town who had prayed to God to help a man who couldn´t walk. She said that God told her that if the man could raise a glass of water over his head, then he was a servant of God and would be cured. The man did so and immediately could walk. Now people come from far away to see the girl and raise water over their heads (hence the water vendors).
A couple of minutes went by and then a group came out in the yard and began the service. It took about 25 minutes and was just some praying and singing. Then the niña sana came out. She was about 15 and began shaking people´s hands along the fence that separated us. People were crowding to touch her and have her bless their water. I just stood in the back in awe. They said a closing prayer, and that was it. The niña santa shock more hands for 10 minutes. I had to wait because the people I was with wanted to touch her. They didn´t get to, but weren´t too upset because they´d have a chance to at the next service. What?!? I thought we´d be going home or hopefully to a bigger town, but no, we were going to sit in the bus for 4 hours waiting for the next time. I was not happy to put it mildly.
I passed some of the time walking around looking at the stuff to buy and watching parents rub the supposedly bless water on the heads of their children with Down´s Syndrome hoping for a cure. When the people I was with asked me what I thought, I told them that I didn´t like it. They couldn´t understand that I didn´t believe in any of it and thought it was all a ploy for the town to draw tourists and make a ton of money selling food, junk, and overpriced bottles of water. They then went to the next service and I went to sleep on the bus. Afterwords, they got back on the bus. Many still limping.
Then it was another 9 hours on the bus back to Machachi (although the trip was only 110 miles as the crow files). We got there too late to catch the bus to my site, so we slept on couches at someone´s house. WE got up at 5:00AM and caught the 6:30 bus to La Libertad. I got home at 7:15 and crashed in my clothes. Thirty six hours, three Ecuadorian Provinces, and a $10 fare (which they ended up not charging me) all to see the World´s worst impression of Lourdes. And I thought we were going to the beach! Oh well, it is all for the experience.
I just wonder if the guy standing next to me at the first service with a gallon of bought water over his head will have his amputated leg grow back.
(NOTE: They are going back again next week. They asked me if I want to go, but I said no. Also, the sister of the family says that since she got back, her back pain has gone away.)
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