second day in lumbisi!

These are from my second day here... just found the internet cafe!

Yesterday we went to the supermarket. I was expecting it to be very small with limited choices but it wasn’t as sparse as I was expecting. It’s called the Santa Maria and it had lesser options than in the U.S.A. but there were still choices. Maltide (my host mom) bought something wrapped up and called it chicken. As I’ve been doing my entire time here in Ecuador, I smiled and pretended to understand while really only grasping the BASIC concept—that being that whatever she had just picked up, despite the fact that it was not refrigerated nor in a familiar shape, was indeed chicken. (Sometimes grasping only the basic concept means I only realize that they’re talking about a person I don’t think I know or they’re talking about something about me. It’s been really vague here for me…) Well later that night, during dinner, she brings me a sandwich of the chicken thing. Now, I am trying to be brave when it comes to food here, but when it comes to a chicken-hotdog thing that is cold and put on white bread and is in the shape of bologna, I don’t know if I can do it. I didn’t try it last night but that was only because I couldn’t eat anything else. I had high hopes of getting in fantastic shape here but I’m being fed all the time. I feel rude saying no and they think I’m crazy because I don’t eat it all but I had just tried to eat an enormous plate of food. Its so much, I can’t even believe it. So I said, “Gracias, pero no, no tengo hambre.” (There goes the best Spanish I’ve managed while here, haha.)And we decided that I could try it tomorrow. Luckily, that did not happen. Unfortunately, carne de res was on the menu! I helped prepare dinner. (I made the salad in about the same time it took Matilde to make soup, rice and meat. It is the sad truth.) The meat smelled good but I couldn’t eat it. First of all, there was this white part on it, like a tendon or something, and once I saw it, that end of the meat was ka-put. I was trying to eat around it but the meat was very tough and I didn’t have my mutton fork *shout out Ella Enchanged, holla!* and I was struggling from mental blocks. I ate a few bites, I tried it. But it took a long time to swallow and I didn’t have water. Instead I was drinking something that reminds me of applesauce and I believe is made with oatmeal. It was good, but not exactly my idea of a beverage and not exactly the type of drink you can swish around in your mouth to help you swallow.

In other food news, I also ate a pepina and drank the fruit of a tomato that grows on trees. Both were very refreshing.

***i was served the chicken bologne the next day...at breakfast. hahahahaha.****

Los Animales

So my family has two dogs and a cat and fish. The names of the dogs are Beethoven and Pokemon (YES.). The fish don’t have names and the kitten’s name is still up in the air. They’re sometimes calling it Missy. That kitten is cute but I’m sort of scared of it. The two year old, Isaac/Martin, just throws that cat around. He picks it up, cuddles with it and punches it in its head. He slams it into things, pokes it in the eye and pets it and the damn cat never does anything in retaliation. But if I am eating, that stupid kitten won’t let me be. It doesn’t bother the others. But if I am eating or drinking immediately the kitten is by my side, meowing. When I ignore it it comes right up onto the table and eats my damn food. And sometimes I want to say, GO AHEAD YA GATITO BECAUSE I AM SO FULL BUT I HAVE TO EAT THIS. But mostly I just try to move my food. Even today while making the salad, it came over to beg me for food. Begging isn’t really the right word though. It just takes my food. Even when I say no, even when I move my food, even when I muster up enouch courage to TOUCH the cat and move it, no matter, it will find me eating or drinking and it will steal my food. That kitty’s crazay, I tell you. TOTALLY INSANE.

Other than the cat, the animals don’t live inside. (But the fish actually do, woops.) There are so many dogs in Lumbisí. Today while I was exploring, aka, went to find Nikki or Alexis’s house and got really lost, I changed my path a few times to avoid the snarling beasts. I am pretty sure they won’t attack (maybe?) in the daytime, but still they know I’m scared. I’m working on my “I’mbiggerthanyouandIalsohaveaccesstoacarthatcancrushyou” face for the animal situation here. It really isn’t my fault that I’m awkward around animals. I generally only come across friendly dogs that I know. This is very different. I know that it is normal to throw stones or hit the dogs with sticks and though I sometimes like to imagine running the dogs over, I know I never really could and I am even uncomfortable throwing stones at them.

Also about dogs, I live next door to Zack and his family has a dog or two, I’m not sure. But one of them is named Princesa and is going to have puppies in February! Well I’m not sure whether or not to be excited. This town has no need for anymore dogs, but at least I understood what they were talking about and at least I learned the phrase “Dar la luz” (to give birth) this past semester in Spanish 410! Or maybe I learned it in Spanish 412, I’m not sure, but it is in my head and I wasn’t totally lost for once. Zack’s family are cousins to my family.

***i found out pokemon belongs to zack, not me, but the name is still hilarious. also, since writing this, the two year old, martin has thrown the cat off the roof...twice. and each time shouted ´se cayo, se cayo´which means, it fell! it fell! but he actually should have shouted (according to zack who has taken on the task of protecting the cat) le tire, le tire! which means, i threw him! i threw him!