February has been filled with, well, parties! Carnaval was the weekend of February 9th (blog post coming soon, my friend likes to wait a month before posting photos...) and it was so much fun and crazy! The weekend after that I went to an opera at my university which was streamed live from the MET and then hosted a half-birthday party for me and another friend. The party turned out to be much more wild than anticipated but was fun once again.
This weekend I went back to visit the Tunki family from Puyo. They are the Shuar family I stayed with in the Amazon (http://cuentosdeecuador.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-week-in-amazon.html). I am currently taking an Oral Literature class and so we have to find stories from people all around Ecuador. I convinced my group that Jorge had the best stories out there so my friend Mike and I traveled to Puyo to record a long story about Iirshim who is a famous character in the Shuar culture.
Jorge was very excited that we were writing down this story for the first time but I couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable extracting this piece of his culture. After all, I am a complete outsider coming into his community taking this story for my own use. We compensated him for his time and I left some small gifts for his daughters who I unfortunately didn't see. Overall it was a good trip and now I am left with the task of transcribing the 30 minute story and then translating it to English!!
Send me an email if you would like a finished copy of Jorge's story- he is very eager to share it with the world.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Home
I think I need to start updating my blog more often- I am starting to forget how lucky and privileged I am to have this opportunity. I have been here for over 7 months now and I finally feel at home. I know Quito (or at least my part of the city) like the back of my hand. I know my neighbors, I run into people when I go to the supermarket, I have lots of friends to join me in any activity I'm doing, and most of all, I love it. When I'm walking home on a sunny day (which is almost every day!) I am filled with this feeling of contentment. Even if every night doesn't go my way or I have bad days every now and then, I am at peace with myself. I have found balance in my life and I am thankful for this gift that Ecuador gave me.
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