January 2015
Although
Christmas was a hard time, being without family and celebrating very different
traditions, the New Year’s celebrations made up for it ten-fold.
In
the Indigenous culture here the passing year is seen as an elderly man who is
dying. You would think that this would give the occasion a solemn tone- but,
much to the contrary New Year’s Eve is a raucous event. The ‘Old man Year’
unfortunately left behind a widow. A young attractive widow, who now, with no
other source of income is forced to ‘sell herself ‘on the streets. This is
depicted by men of all ages dressed up like prostitutes and dancing at every
street light and stop sign in the city. Families spend a good portion of the
early evening driving around town to laugh at their neighbor’s antics.
At
about ten o’clock everybody returns to their houses for a large family dinner,
similar to that of Christmas. Following the midnight countdown, the second
important tradition begins: the burning of your old self. A scarecrow-like doll
is made of each person with a papier-mâché mask of their likeness. Every family
member then writes down something amusing or bad that happened to that person
in the last year, once the bad memories are stuffed inside the doll the whole thing
is thrown on the bonfire. The rest of the night (until 8am) is spent jumping
over and dancing & singing around said fire.
On
January 17th I switched families. I had grown extremely close with
the mother, Pati, and it was incredibly hard to say goodbye. However, in other
ways, I was ready for a change. My new family, ‘La Familia Benitez’, is
wonderful! The parents’ names are Carmen and Yaro, and they have a twenty-one
year old son, Diego. He is studying in the university in Quito and only returns
on the weekends. Their eighteen year old daughter, Paula, is currently on
exchange in Germany.
I
am very grateful for all that my first host family did for me. Even though
there were some rough patches at the end I will not forget their hospitality.
However, although I’ve only been in my new host house a very short time I
already feel like they’ve integrated me into their family.
In
my first home I really tried to and wanted to get involved in extra-curricular
activities. I was hoping to join a dance class, but I was truly open for
anything that would get me out of the house. Yet, since nothing is published
online here, I didn’t find anything. I asked my family for suggestions or help,
but they preferred that I didn’t go out in the afternoons and that I stayed at
home. As a result, I spent many hours running errands and cooking with my host
mother. From the positive angle, this
fostered a very strong bond between me and her.
But,
in stark contrast my first family, in the two short weeks that I’ve been in ‘
La Familia Benitez’ I’ve already enrolled in both a salsa and a Spanish grammar
class. My family talked to the instructors for me to ensure that I am receiving
a fair price, and they helped me figure out a safe bus/taxi route I can take by
myself.
Additionally,
after expressing my interest in medicine, my mother spoke with one of her
friends who works in the local hospital of Otavalo regarding the possibility of
me shadowing for a week or so. I believe that I will start next month during
our school vacations.
Con
un abrazo fuerte!
Allyson
Block :)
Me and my New Year's scarecrow doll
My new parents, Carmen and Yaro
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