Damn life is good! I am happy every moment here...I am feeling really great about being here. I dont have much time to write, but a quick message to say that all is well and I will be moving to my new home in 3 weeks. I love you guys....who is planning their trip to come see me? Hmm??
Mia
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Santo Domingo de las Tsachilas
Hello all.
I apologize for the long time in between posts, although I think its a good thing that I haven´t felt the desire to go to the internet cafe everyday! In fact, I have barely found time to make it here so as far as I´m concerned that is a good thing...I am keeping busy!
I wrote in my journal a couple of nights ago about an experience I had almost two weeks ago now. I am going to just copy it right out of my journal because, it was one of my favorite experiences I have had as of yet.
¨there is so much to recap I dont know where to begin. I will write about my experience with the indigenous women because it was a very magical time. Went on a field trip last Friday, we had no idea where they were taking us. We got off the bus in a town outside of Otavalo on a dirt road. We came across a beautiful house painted bright red, green and orange where we were greeted by an elderly indigenous woman who invited us to sit on her staw mats. We sat in awe of where we had just arrived to. It felt like a little piece of heaven or some sort of fairytale. There was an elderly woman sitting amongst colored wool,and the indigenous woman welcomed us into her home. The family ran a tourist business, and taught visitors the life of indigenous people. She taught us literally from head to toe about their culture, most importantly being their clothing. She started with their sombreros. Hers, as are all, was 180 years old. Passed down from generation to generation, the sombreros are made from sheep wool. They mix the wool with some sort of glue, and the sombreros are literally rock solid. It felt as if it was made of concrete, truely unbelievable that anyone could turn sheep wool into a rockhard masterpiece hat.
Next was the jewelry. 200 years old. Her bracelets and earrings were passed down from her mother, made of pure gold. Every indigenous person you see here wears the same clothing. Las mantas, las fajas (belts), la humaguatarina (a piece of fabric that they place on their head. It looks really strange, because it looks like they just fold up a towel and set it ontop of their head. This woman had over 20 different uses for this ¨towel.¨If its hot, in 2 seconds she folded it to make the perfect shape of a hat, which included a visor for blocking the sun. If she has a baby, she makes another formation from her towel to make a baby-carrier. Another important use (maybe the most important) is to cover up their hair. Hair in their culture, in most I realized, is extremely sacred. No one is allowed to touch your hair, besides you or your mother. When you get out of the shower, you are to immediately braid and cover your hair. If you dont, bad energy will reach you and your body will be filled with unwanted energy or disease.
Another thing that I loved about their culture was their view on death. When someone dies,they were extremely bright colors-colors of joy. Los colores de alegria. This is what my family (my real family) has always instilled in me, and in some ways everything that the indigenous people said was everything I connect with.
The importance of tradition and ceremony was incredible to see. After our lesson on their clothing, it was time for us to be cleansed of our bad energies. We gathered in a circle as the indigenous women prepared roses and water in a large gord. One by one she went around the circle and spoke to us in Quichua, cleansing our bad energies and pouring roses and water over us. ¨flor linda, yo te voy a poner en mi cabeza- beautiful flower, im going to put you on my head.¨ This was the only ceremony that we experienced but it was one of a million others that they practice constantly.¨
That was my rather long, detailed journal entry from the experience in Peguchi. Since then so much has happened, that feels like such a long time ago. Really quickly I will tell you all that we met with the ambassador to Ecuador last week, a very interesting experience that I am not going to write about here, and last night I participated in a parade/party through the dirt roads of a town called Tabacundo. I went initially just to visit some American friends,and I was then asked if I wanted to put on traditional Ecuadorian dancing clothes, and I said yes. They dressed me in traditional indigenous clothing, and we proceeded to dance in a huge group of Ecuadorians through the streets. To say the least I looked ridiculous, but it was one of my favorite experiences down here so far.
All is really well....
OH! I am moving to Santo Domingo de las Tsachilas. It is a town of 350,000 people. Originally I was bummed, because it is not how I expected my two years in Peace Corps to be. I was imagining a small hut somewhere in nature, but now I will be living in a gigantic city. But, I am excited. It is a town with alot of Colombians, Afro-Ecuadorians, and indigenous people (las Tsachilas...google them). I am going to be doing all microfinance work, so in some ways I feel like I am living out my dream. Also I am working with the mayor, so its a pretty big deal!
Anyway, that is all for now. I love you all and miss you. Come visit!
P.S. here is the link (below) to my photos for those of you who dont have facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063032&id=46001541&l=d5c7c7235d
I apologize for the long time in between posts, although I think its a good thing that I haven´t felt the desire to go to the internet cafe everyday! In fact, I have barely found time to make it here so as far as I´m concerned that is a good thing...I am keeping busy!
I wrote in my journal a couple of nights ago about an experience I had almost two weeks ago now. I am going to just copy it right out of my journal because, it was one of my favorite experiences I have had as of yet.
¨there is so much to recap I dont know where to begin. I will write about my experience with the indigenous women because it was a very magical time. Went on a field trip last Friday, we had no idea where they were taking us. We got off the bus in a town outside of Otavalo on a dirt road. We came across a beautiful house painted bright red, green and orange where we were greeted by an elderly indigenous woman who invited us to sit on her staw mats. We sat in awe of where we had just arrived to. It felt like a little piece of heaven or some sort of fairytale. There was an elderly woman sitting amongst colored wool,and the indigenous woman welcomed us into her home. The family ran a tourist business, and taught visitors the life of indigenous people. She taught us literally from head to toe about their culture, most importantly being their clothing. She started with their sombreros. Hers, as are all, was 180 years old. Passed down from generation to generation, the sombreros are made from sheep wool. They mix the wool with some sort of glue, and the sombreros are literally rock solid. It felt as if it was made of concrete, truely unbelievable that anyone could turn sheep wool into a rockhard masterpiece hat.
Next was the jewelry. 200 years old. Her bracelets and earrings were passed down from her mother, made of pure gold. Every indigenous person you see here wears the same clothing. Las mantas, las fajas (belts), la humaguatarina (a piece of fabric that they place on their head. It looks really strange, because it looks like they just fold up a towel and set it ontop of their head. This woman had over 20 different uses for this ¨towel.¨If its hot, in 2 seconds she folded it to make the perfect shape of a hat, which included a visor for blocking the sun. If she has a baby, she makes another formation from her towel to make a baby-carrier. Another important use (maybe the most important) is to cover up their hair. Hair in their culture, in most I realized, is extremely sacred. No one is allowed to touch your hair, besides you or your mother. When you get out of the shower, you are to immediately braid and cover your hair. If you dont, bad energy will reach you and your body will be filled with unwanted energy or disease.
Another thing that I loved about their culture was their view on death. When someone dies,they were extremely bright colors-colors of joy. Los colores de alegria. This is what my family (my real family) has always instilled in me, and in some ways everything that the indigenous people said was everything I connect with.
The importance of tradition and ceremony was incredible to see. After our lesson on their clothing, it was time for us to be cleansed of our bad energies. We gathered in a circle as the indigenous women prepared roses and water in a large gord. One by one she went around the circle and spoke to us in Quichua, cleansing our bad energies and pouring roses and water over us. ¨flor linda, yo te voy a poner en mi cabeza- beautiful flower, im going to put you on my head.¨ This was the only ceremony that we experienced but it was one of a million others that they practice constantly.¨
That was my rather long, detailed journal entry from the experience in Peguchi. Since then so much has happened, that feels like such a long time ago. Really quickly I will tell you all that we met with the ambassador to Ecuador last week, a very interesting experience that I am not going to write about here, and last night I participated in a parade/party through the dirt roads of a town called Tabacundo. I went initially just to visit some American friends,and I was then asked if I wanted to put on traditional Ecuadorian dancing clothes, and I said yes. They dressed me in traditional indigenous clothing, and we proceeded to dance in a huge group of Ecuadorians through the streets. To say the least I looked ridiculous, but it was one of my favorite experiences down here so far.
All is really well....
OH! I am moving to Santo Domingo de las Tsachilas. It is a town of 350,000 people. Originally I was bummed, because it is not how I expected my two years in Peace Corps to be. I was imagining a small hut somewhere in nature, but now I will be living in a gigantic city. But, I am excited. It is a town with alot of Colombians, Afro-Ecuadorians, and indigenous people (las Tsachilas...google them). I am going to be doing all microfinance work, so in some ways I feel like I am living out my dream. Also I am working with the mayor, so its a pretty big deal!
Anyway, that is all for now. I love you all and miss you. Come visit!
P.S. here is the link (below) to my photos for those of you who dont have facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063032&id=46001541&l=d5c7c7235d
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Running in the Rain
While I am thinking of it, here is my address for anyone that feels so inclined to send me snail mail...i would very much love it!
Morissa Pertik
Casilla 17-08-8624
Quito, Ecuador
I only have about...a month left in this town until I move to my site, so if you are going to write you better get to writing friends!! :)
Anyway, today is a rainy day. I ran here from class in the pouring down rain, it was fun. Everyone was in the streets, dodging cars and running as fast as they could. These past couple days have been....quite boring. We have too much Spanish class, it reminds me of college all over again and I am not enjoying the grammar part of it at all. But, I am speaking better so I guess its paying off. I am in a class with four other Americans. At first everyone was shy and didn´t want to talk with eachother, but now that we spend almost all our time together we have become pretty good friends. Two days ago we made up a Spanish version of ¨I Want it That Way¨ by the Backstreet Boys and performed it in front of 50 people...it was fun.
Tomorrow we are going on some sort of adventure. It cost 15 dollars, which is really expensive, so I hope its fun! I will let you know.
Overall, I´m feeling pretty good. Sometimes I get really frusterated with things, but everything always seems to turn around somehow and I find myself laughing or having fun. We find out our site placement on July 16th, so in two weeks I will know where I will be living for two years....cross your fingers its a beautiful hut on the beach.......ha ha, yeah right.
Anyway- much love!
Morissa Pertik
Casilla 17-08-8624
Quito, Ecuador
I only have about...a month left in this town until I move to my site, so if you are going to write you better get to writing friends!! :)
Anyway, today is a rainy day. I ran here from class in the pouring down rain, it was fun. Everyone was in the streets, dodging cars and running as fast as they could. These past couple days have been....quite boring. We have too much Spanish class, it reminds me of college all over again and I am not enjoying the grammar part of it at all. But, I am speaking better so I guess its paying off. I am in a class with four other Americans. At first everyone was shy and didn´t want to talk with eachother, but now that we spend almost all our time together we have become pretty good friends. Two days ago we made up a Spanish version of ¨I Want it That Way¨ by the Backstreet Boys and performed it in front of 50 people...it was fun.
Tomorrow we are going on some sort of adventure. It cost 15 dollars, which is really expensive, so I hope its fun! I will let you know.
Overall, I´m feeling pretty good. Sometimes I get really frusterated with things, but everything always seems to turn around somehow and I find myself laughing or having fun. We find out our site placement on July 16th, so in two weeks I will know where I will be living for two years....cross your fingers its a beautiful hut on the beach.......ha ha, yeah right.
Anyway- much love!
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