We spent this past weekend in Lumbisí with our families taking in the indigenous culture and basking in the sun of Ecuador's eternal spring. Tranquil as it sounds, life in Lumbisí is not all sunshine and daisies. In fact, my weekend was peppered with excitement: after a morning of de-graining and grinding corn kernels to make "humitas," little corn cakes wrapped and cooked in the husks, I stepped outside to witness my neighbors skinning a lamb hung from a tree. ¡Guácala! (Gross!) Not sure if this is more humane or not, but my neighbors assured me that they didn't kill the lamb but rather that it strangled itself on the leash they had it attached to. NORMAL. Saturday night at Kelsey's birthday party thrown by her fam we drank (ecuador's finest beer: Pilsener, the flavor of which could be closely equated with rotten toilet water or something of the like) we danced, and we smashed the cumpleañera's face into the cake as is the local tradition. Sunday, we attended one of the finest sporting spectacles I've witnessed in my day. Lumbisí's annual campeonato, championship, was this weekend and the Men's and Women's basketball teams from my Sector were in the finals. These teams are made up of little indigenous people age 18-45 and the tumult of chaos that took place may have out-spectacled my 8th grade Main Line Girls Basketball Assoc. championship game in which, despite holding the competition to a mere 13 points, we lost 13-8. GOOD. If i ever have enough bandwith to upload the videos i shot at the Lumbisí games you'll have the pleasure of witnessing a hilarious show of some of the finest basketball skillz since AI, complete with ample ball kicking and bricks ricocheting off the backboard at every foul shot. The highlights were probably the delicious sandia (watermelon) and the home made helado (ice cream).
Also, the sun was so freaking strong at the game on saturday my face practically burned off.
Next time, I'll write about the bullshit redtape we went through to claim a package from Ecuador's Customs agents. Ohhhh Ecuadorian socialist government, you are annoying sometimes, even more annoying than the waiting at the DMV or Post Office in America for hateful hateful government workers.
love~!!!!R@
Py359QWPET nik :)
Two things: 1) They hang lambs from trees in Armenia near St. Gregory's pit and skin them as well. So don't pretend like that's an unfamiliar sight. And 2) Watch what you say about "hateful government workers" in America. As you may recall, I AM ONE.
ReplyDeleteyou lost 13-8? LOL
ReplyDeleteStrong sun, pfffsh. At least you have an ozone layer.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope you girlz are wearing sun screen. UVA/UVB ain't nothin to play with.
ReplyDeleteMiss you!
Most lambs in Armenia are killed by the slitting of the throat. They are then hung, skinned and allowed to bleed out before being gutted and butchered. Churches also have stone blocks on which lambs are sacrificed on Easter Sunday.
ReplyDelete