I'm back in Quito again. My passport is finally re-registered and I have to pick it up today at 2pm. Tomorrow I need to get my censo, or ID card. This whole process has cost me hundreds of dollars and tons of frustration. In the end, all it will have gotten me is yet another way for the government to keep track of me and that's it.
Anyway, I'm sitting here in my hotel room stalling until all the other hotel guests have eaten their free breakfast. Then I'll go down and have a nice quiet breakfast with just me and the friendly owners who have gone out of their way to make sure my stay here is a comfortable one. So I guess now is the best time to blog about the congregation fiesta we had this past Sunday.
First of all, I must relate the reason we had the party. When we moved here six weeks ago, that very first weekend was our two-day assembly in Puyo. At that assembly a brother who is barely 4 feet tall and in his 80s was baptized. He is the cutest little thing you've ever seen and claims that his eyesight is bad so all the pretty sisters will stand closer to him. Well, he was so happy to be baptized that he decided to mark the occasion by buying a pig and having a congregation BBQ picnic. The pig cost him two months wages, so at the party there was a contribution box to help him recoup his huge expense. The day of the BBQ was scheduled for Sunday at 2pm and there was lots of planning to be done.
First a list had to be made of who would be attending and what side-dish they could bring. All this pre-planning merited a pizza party, so about 15 of us went over Gary and Eleanor's house to eat pizza and discuss the party plans. That's when I received my assignment: I was to bring a BUCKET full of aji, the home-made Ecuadorian version of Texas Pete as a condiment to the BBQ. The day before the party I had Olivia come over and help me make it. First she went out and bought me a $9 bucket that had a lid. Then she bought the ingredients:
15 tomate de arbol (a fruit called tree tomato)
10 red onions
a bunch of cilanto and celery leaves
a head of garlic
about 30 red chili peppers
1 carrot
5 juiced lemons
We had to make it in batches and put in the fridgerator because the bucket wouldn't fit. Then before the party I just dumped the batches into the bucket, sealed the lid, and Joe carried it to the busstop. Imagine all the looks we got: we had met Rita and Woody, another gringo couple, at the busstop carrying a big salad and a bucket full of aji. People had no idea what was going on as we loaded it all onto the bus that would be taking us to the Sangeles' home across Napo river.
The Sangeles': Martin and Natalie Sangeles are a couple in their late 30s from Quebec, Canada. They've been living in Tena for 12 years. Before Ecuador was using the U.S. dollar, they were using Sucres and you could buy land here for the price of taking your kid bowling in the States. So the Sangeles' were in the right place at the right time and were able to buy about ten acres of land right on the Napo river for next to nothing. Martin is a window washer by trade but a carpenter by hobby. He built a beautiful 2 bedroom home for him and his wife, 2 mini-cabins complete with bathrooms, kitchenetts and tv's on the river for when their Canadian friends come to visit and a playground complete with a wooden castle for any kid who comes to visit. Their land has a swimming pool, an outdoor wet bar, a small pond for thier geese, a chicken run and coop, a boat landing to the river, a greenhouse with nice garden and any kind of fruit tree you could imagine. They are the Trump's of our congregation, but a very humble and wonderful pioneer couple. Really, really nice people...but you can't help but be the tiniest bit envious-- their huge brick wall that separates their property from the main road has a decorative iron boa constrictor on the front gate, the epitome of coolness.
So the day of the party we took the bus to the Sangeles', but the bus only goes as far as the bridge, so we had to carry all our stuff and the bucket of aji in 100 degree heat over the river and about 1 more mile further to their boa constrictor gate. All the kids were already in their bathing suits when we arrived. Martin, (pronounced Marteen) being the awesome Canadian that he is, had hollowed out a bobsledding-type hole in his steep cement boat landing that ends in the Napo river. Then he lined it with plastic, made it more slick with a bar of soap, somehow inserted a flowing water-hose in the cement at the top and, Voila!! a water slide Emerald Point Wet N' Wild would covet. After a few other kids tried it out and lived, Carlie soaped herself up more with the bar of soap and went down with her hands in the air. It's times like this that I'm still pinching myself because I can't believe we live in the Amazon. I can't believe my Pop-Tropica playing Carlie is going down a home-made water slide into a river that flows into the Amazon river!
Anyway, the rest of the party was great! The food was amazing (espcially whoever brought that tasty aji) we had fun dancing Spanish line dances, including the Macarena and we laughed till we almost cried playing silly Ecuadorian games. The best game we played was when it got dark and Martin turned off all the outdoor lights. We were surrounded by jungle trees barely lit by the moon and we couldn't see two feet in front of us. Before he turned out the lights we were given a small piece of paper with the name of an animal. Mine was gato. (cat) When the lights went out you had to meow or make the noise of the animal that you were given and find the other gatos in your group. My group had 5 gatos. Imagine the noise and confusion of 80 people making animal noises in the dark and you had to find only your "species". Then the lights came back on. With your newly formed group, the game changed into a crazy version of American Idol, and you had to come up with a group song. Of course you could only sing it in meows or your corresponding animal. Then everyone else voted for the best "song". Our group meowed to a Latin song "Tres Polliotos" , which thankfully I already knew the tune. But other groups were more creative. The dogs barked out a reggaeton rap. The chickens clucked out a love song. The cows mooed a opera song complete with a director. When it was time to vote by applause, Matin reminded us all who had hosted the party and prepared the pig. Yes, it was the little old brother who had bought the pig, but it was Gary and Martin who had shot it between the eyes with a nail gun, slit it's throat, bled it properly and then roasted it to perfection in a fancy outdoor glass oven. In the end, the dogs won and were given a prize. I didn't see what the prize was, but we all celebrated with more dancing and chocolate cake that Jessamyn had made. It was one of the most fun parties I've ever been to, and definitley the most interesting.
Anyway, I'm sitting here in my hotel room stalling until all the other hotel guests have eaten their free breakfast. Then I'll go down and have a nice quiet breakfast with just me and the friendly owners who have gone out of their way to make sure my stay here is a comfortable one. So I guess now is the best time to blog about the congregation fiesta we had this past Sunday.
First of all, I must relate the reason we had the party. When we moved here six weeks ago, that very first weekend was our two-day assembly in Puyo. At that assembly a brother who is barely 4 feet tall and in his 80s was baptized. He is the cutest little thing you've ever seen and claims that his eyesight is bad so all the pretty sisters will stand closer to him. Well, he was so happy to be baptized that he decided to mark the occasion by buying a pig and having a congregation BBQ picnic. The pig cost him two months wages, so at the party there was a contribution box to help him recoup his huge expense. The day of the BBQ was scheduled for Sunday at 2pm and there was lots of planning to be done.
First a list had to be made of who would be attending and what side-dish they could bring. All this pre-planning merited a pizza party, so about 15 of us went over Gary and Eleanor's house to eat pizza and discuss the party plans. That's when I received my assignment: I was to bring a BUCKET full of aji, the home-made Ecuadorian version of Texas Pete as a condiment to the BBQ. The day before the party I had Olivia come over and help me make it. First she went out and bought me a $9 bucket that had a lid. Then she bought the ingredients:
15 tomate de arbol (a fruit called tree tomato)
10 red onions
a bunch of cilanto and celery leaves
a head of garlic
about 30 red chili peppers
1 carrot
5 juiced lemons
We had to make it in batches and put in the fridgerator because the bucket wouldn't fit. Then before the party I just dumped the batches into the bucket, sealed the lid, and Joe carried it to the busstop. Imagine all the looks we got: we had met Rita and Woody, another gringo couple, at the busstop carrying a big salad and a bucket full of aji. People had no idea what was going on as we loaded it all onto the bus that would be taking us to the Sangeles' home across Napo river.
The Sangeles': Martin and Natalie Sangeles are a couple in their late 30s from Quebec, Canada. They've been living in Tena for 12 years. Before Ecuador was using the U.S. dollar, they were using Sucres and you could buy land here for the price of taking your kid bowling in the States. So the Sangeles' were in the right place at the right time and were able to buy about ten acres of land right on the Napo river for next to nothing. Martin is a window washer by trade but a carpenter by hobby. He built a beautiful 2 bedroom home for him and his wife, 2 mini-cabins complete with bathrooms, kitchenetts and tv's on the river for when their Canadian friends come to visit and a playground complete with a wooden castle for any kid who comes to visit. Their land has a swimming pool, an outdoor wet bar, a small pond for thier geese, a chicken run and coop, a boat landing to the river, a greenhouse with nice garden and any kind of fruit tree you could imagine. They are the Trump's of our congregation, but a very humble and wonderful pioneer couple. Really, really nice people...but you can't help but be the tiniest bit envious-- their huge brick wall that separates their property from the main road has a decorative iron boa constrictor on the front gate, the epitome of coolness.
So the day of the party we took the bus to the Sangeles', but the bus only goes as far as the bridge, so we had to carry all our stuff and the bucket of aji in 100 degree heat over the river and about 1 more mile further to their boa constrictor gate. All the kids were already in their bathing suits when we arrived. Martin, (pronounced Marteen) being the awesome Canadian that he is, had hollowed out a bobsledding-type hole in his steep cement boat landing that ends in the Napo river. Then he lined it with plastic, made it more slick with a bar of soap, somehow inserted a flowing water-hose in the cement at the top and, Voila!! a water slide Emerald Point Wet N' Wild would covet. After a few other kids tried it out and lived, Carlie soaped herself up more with the bar of soap and went down with her hands in the air. It's times like this that I'm still pinching myself because I can't believe we live in the Amazon. I can't believe my Pop-Tropica playing Carlie is going down a home-made water slide into a river that flows into the Amazon river!
Anyway, the rest of the party was great! The food was amazing (espcially whoever brought that tasty aji) we had fun dancing Spanish line dances, including the Macarena and we laughed till we almost cried playing silly Ecuadorian games. The best game we played was when it got dark and Martin turned off all the outdoor lights. We were surrounded by jungle trees barely lit by the moon and we couldn't see two feet in front of us. Before he turned out the lights we were given a small piece of paper with the name of an animal. Mine was gato. (cat) When the lights went out you had to meow or make the noise of the animal that you were given and find the other gatos in your group. My group had 5 gatos. Imagine the noise and confusion of 80 people making animal noises in the dark and you had to find only your "species". Then the lights came back on. With your newly formed group, the game changed into a crazy version of American Idol, and you had to come up with a group song. Of course you could only sing it in meows or your corresponding animal. Then everyone else voted for the best "song". Our group meowed to a Latin song "Tres Polliotos" , which thankfully I already knew the tune. But other groups were more creative. The dogs barked out a reggaeton rap. The chickens clucked out a love song. The cows mooed a opera song complete with a director. When it was time to vote by applause, Matin reminded us all who had hosted the party and prepared the pig. Yes, it was the little old brother who had bought the pig, but it was Gary and Martin who had shot it between the eyes with a nail gun, slit it's throat, bled it properly and then roasted it to perfection in a fancy outdoor glass oven. In the end, the dogs won and were given a prize. I didn't see what the prize was, but we all celebrated with more dancing and chocolate cake that Jessamyn had made. It was one of the most fun parties I've ever been to, and definitley the most interesting.
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