Thanks for Everything Agualongo!

Hi Everybody,

Greetings from your new bloggers, Mia and Anna. Be prepared for the best blogs ever.

Our second week in Agualongo was easier and went by so quickly. We all became more comfortable with our families and grew to love the community. The groups switched and everybody had new roles in the clinic and spanish classes.

Our weekend in Agualongo was very interesting. There was a wedding in the community so there was lots of celebrating. We all attended the wedding fiesta on Sunday and many of the girls got to dress in indigenous clothing. We learned about local wedding traditions including a face washing ceremony. The bride a groom and several other family members partake in a face washing with flower and stinging nettle water. At the end they threw the water at the crowds watching- one poor little girl got soaked. There was a lot of eating and some dancing which most everybody enjoyed. Some of us were even brave enough to try cuy- a local delicacy also known as guinea pig.

One of our afternoons was spent at a Tandana volunteer´s host family´s house. Lauren´s host dad is a shaman and we got to learn all about some plants he uses and what he does. He taught us that being a shaman is something you inherit from your family and is a life long learning process. He also told us about the responsibilities of being a shaman. There are some people who abuse the knowledge of the powers of the plants. Even though there is more money in the evil, he stressed the importance of using his knowledge to heal and help. We got to see his healing den and it was incredible.

Another afternoon was spent visiting Master Weaver Miguel Andrango. He taught us the process of turning sheep´s wool into thread and showed us the natural dyes he uses. He demonstrated the backstrap loom weaving that is common in the Andes. He told us that the piece he was working on would take him a minimum of three weeks working seven hour days. Needless to say, his work was amazing. We looked around a shop and he ended up gifting us a few of his treasures. Fun fact: his wife was on the cover of the 1989 edition of the Lonely Planet Guide to Ecuador.

On Thursday afternoon we went to Jessica´s host family´s house in Agualongo and made bread. We had to mix HUGE buckets of dough and had fun making bread of many different shapes. We discovered that some shapes worked much better than others. We have never seen that much bread in one place in my life. We cooked the bread in the new oven they made for the community. It was made out of bricks and mud. After everybody had filled up on bread, we went to Mia´s host family´s house for a goodbye dinner of corn soup with cuy and mote (not mota which was a typo in an earlier blog, do not worry we were not eating bowls of mota).

For our goodbye on Friday the community had a despedida. We had a big lunch (more cuy) and then put on a long performance to thank the community. We wrote a rap for them- lyrics to be posted at a later date. We also wrote them a short speech, sang them ¨The General¨ by Dispatch accompanied by Austin (boy) on the guitar and the health song in Kichwa. They really appreciated us coming and made some speeches themselves. Vicente, Tandana´s local coordinater, played the harmonica and guitar for everybody. It was really sad to say goodbye but we all got so much out of the experience and formed amazing relationships with the community. We´ll never forget it!

As sad as it was to say goodbye we´re looking forward to our next adventure. We spent last night in Otavalo and today we are going on a hike at Cuichoa a crater lake followed by a trip to the hotsprings which we´re all looking forward to. Next week we´re heading to Intag to live with families and do some reforestation work. We won´t have much internet access but we´ll update you as soon as we do!

Your new favorite bloggers,

Mia and Anna