algunas novedades.

last tuesday was the feast day of the virgin of quinche, so with my popular andean religions practices class, we took the bus to el quinche, a town 1.5 hrs from quito, to observe. it was so interesting! the people have such faith in the healing powers of this virgin statue, they were frantic to touch her or rub her with a cloth so that they can rub the cloth on themselves when they are sick. and there was a fountain of healing waters, a wall full of plaques where people make promises to the virgin, and over 300,000 people at the mass outside of the church. and like all ecuadorian festivals, there was music, fireworks, and tons of street vendors. i am absolutely fascinated with the intersection in between the sacred and the secular, especially in this country. there seems to very rarely be a division.





my brother came to visit for thanksgiving! it was great to have him here. we did all the touristy quito stuff, and his enthusiasm and constant picture taking really helped me to see the city with new eyes, since it has become rather ordinary to me on some days. we spent the weekend in cotacachi teaching english and having good political convo with raul around his fireplace, drinking champagne. we went to a real-time, non-touristy shaman (friend of raul’s) for a cleaning ceremony, where we were rubbed down with candles, sticks, and rocks, and had alcohol spit all over our bodies and smoke blown all over us. as uncomfortable as that sounds, it was actually so refreshing. i felt like i was being confirmed again. and the intersection between traditional indigenous practices and catholicism was fascinating here too. the shaman’s “office” was full of pictures of saints and Jesus, and we were instructed to offer our candle to the virgin mary (on an altar in another room in his house) after the cleansing. i could study that kind of mezcla for years i think!

we also went to go see some pre-incan pyramids close to quito with my family. it was shocking to see such interesting and historically significant ruins with almost no preservation, no publicity, no research done about them, no books to be sold regarding info about them. its such a shame! but the trip was rather interesting. and apparently, at pyramid 14, the pyramid of fertility, there are still indigenous weddings rather frequently.



the fruit market in otavalo (somewhere else i took my ñaño)

my ecuadorian presidential candidate, correa, won the segunda vuelta! thanks be to God, i was pretty much nervous about the results all of sunday. my brobro and i went to correa’s victory party that night in a quito street, where the popular masses were dancing salsa and drinking boxed wine. incredibly fun. i really wish that i would still be here in jan. when correa gets inaugurated, because i’m really interested to see what will happen here...

annnnd, today, my ecua-mom put up the christmas tree...another confirmation that time is absolutely flying by... take care, friends!