While most of you celebrate Halloween on 31 October, we can't do that here. It's not for lack of desire to dress up like the Joker, Jack Sparrow, or some feline (in effort for full disclosure, we did not see Ms. Spears in Quito), as I saw a few of these characters last night. It is, however, illegal to celebrate the day of jack-o-lanterns, witches, and trick-or-treating. In 2007, President Rafeal Correa banned the holdiay, instead insisting that children, both young and old, celebrate the "shield," the insignia on Ecuador's flag that distinguishes it from that of Colombia and Venezuela. Today, kids are learning a now holiday, one filled with national pride (sorry for the Spanish).
So what, you may ask are the ever-intrepid MPI volunteers doing to celebrate Halloween, however illegal it may be? Krysta & Haley made orange cupcakes (sorry no picture, we ate them all), and all of us (falta Erik) are headed to Canoa, a beach about 8 hours away by bus. It helps that Halloween is quickly followed by El Dia de los Muertes and Cuenca's Independence Day, giving us a nice four-day weekend to use at our digression.
As I've mentioned before, I'm on an Ecuadorian soccer team, Rumiñhaui SC. Today, Chet and I played in our 2nd and 3rd games, respectively (there was a mix up with my number), and I scored the first goal of the game. It was not pretty, but it was not a day for pretty play, as the field, which is sand, was turned into a mud pit, making for super slow play. The ball went in off my thigh (thank God for my big thighs?) and we went up 1-0, which was all that mattered at the time. Overall, we ended up losing the game, bringing our record to 1-1 with Mike playing (we're 1-2 w/ Chet, but that does not reflect on Chet's football skills, as he his way better than me). I'm looking forward to our game next week, which could either be scalding hot, a muddy mess, or a cold and dusty day. All is fun with Rumiñhaui!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Happy Oktoberfest!
While Oktoberfest is not officially celebrated here, we are still enjoying a holiday by grilling out on the roof and celebrating Guayaquil's Independence Day. Since it's a 3-day weekend, the Manna house is a little lonely, as some have taken this as an opportunity to travel- Sonia and Ricky, her boyfriend, are in Tena exploring the rainforest, Bibi is in los Bancos, while Haley and Sarah are in Otovalo getting away from us. Most of the rest of us have tickets to the Ecuador-Uruguay World Cup qualifying game tomorrow. All in all, it should be a nice little vacation from everything Mannan
Happy holidays!
Happy holidays!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Weekend Update
Friday the Teen Center hosted its first movie night, screening I Am Legend, or Soy Leyenda in Spanish. We ended up with 7 kids, which was a little disappointing, but much of that was probably due to the early time and the rain that began as the kids were supposed to arrive at the library (which means they still had about 30 minutes to travel). Hopefully our next movie night, in two weeks on the 16th, will benefit from a later start time and more attendance.
Saturday Chet and I went to our first soccer (futból) game. We are now proud members of the Ruminhaui Sports Club (RSC) football team. The game was just up the road from out house, between Puentes 3 & 4 (all the bridges are numbered; we live close to Puente 7). After a slow start, RSC pulled out a 3-2 win over the blue and grey Hyundai (??) team. I know some of you are surprised to hear I'm on a soccer team, especially since I've only played on an intramural team in college (bet you didn't know that either), but rest assured I didn't play this past weekend, only watched, as the place that was supposed to make our uniforms ran out of material (white and blue, basic, no?). Instead, Chet and I cheered from the sides, thanking God that we got to see what we're getting ourselves into for the next 4 months. After watching the whole game, we feel good about our ability to hang in with the Ecuadorians.
In addition to Chet and me, Sarah, Krysta, Haley, and Jackie are joining the women's RSC team. They had a practice Sunday: it lasted 3 hours, complete with yelling from their coach to one of the new players to "just stand there be big!" and a visual uniform fitting that resulted in two of the women being told they should wear the same uniform sizes as Chet (just plain wrong). Luckily, the women's coach, Patricia, is the wife of Raul, our contact for the team, and always goes to our game, so I'm sure any advice will get passes on to us, in one form or another.
I fared much better Sunday, reading The Godfather (I've been trying for 4+ years) and meeting our neighbor one street up. Marcia has 4 kids in their 20s or early 30s, of which we got to meet 3; she also has a basset named Paco. After a hot fruit drink and bread (during which more and more people showed up), the all of us played Jenga, during which time we had lots of conversations in Spanglish and were invited to Byron's (a boyfriend) 25th birthday celebration in Quito Wednesday. Hooray for networking! (With Guayaquil's Independence Day Friday and Ecuador's World Cup qualifier game Saturday, this week looks to be a good one.) The evening ended with all of them (Marcia's 3 children and their 2 friends) walking us home, kissing cheeks, and giggling about our new friends.
Saturday Chet and I went to our first soccer (futból) game. We are now proud members of the Ruminhaui Sports Club (RSC) football team. The game was just up the road from out house, between Puentes 3 & 4 (all the bridges are numbered; we live close to Puente 7). After a slow start, RSC pulled out a 3-2 win over the blue and grey Hyundai (??) team. I know some of you are surprised to hear I'm on a soccer team, especially since I've only played on an intramural team in college (bet you didn't know that either), but rest assured I didn't play this past weekend, only watched, as the place that was supposed to make our uniforms ran out of material (white and blue, basic, no?). Instead, Chet and I cheered from the sides, thanking God that we got to see what we're getting ourselves into for the next 4 months. After watching the whole game, we feel good about our ability to hang in with the Ecuadorians.
In addition to Chet and me, Sarah, Krysta, Haley, and Jackie are joining the women's RSC team. They had a practice Sunday: it lasted 3 hours, complete with yelling from their coach to one of the new players to "just stand there be big!" and a visual uniform fitting that resulted in two of the women being told they should wear the same uniform sizes as Chet (just plain wrong). Luckily, the women's coach, Patricia, is the wife of Raul, our contact for the team, and always goes to our game, so I'm sure any advice will get passes on to us, in one form or another.
I fared much better Sunday, reading The Godfather (I've been trying for 4+ years) and meeting our neighbor one street up. Marcia has 4 kids in their 20s or early 30s, of which we got to meet 3; she also has a basset named Paco. After a hot fruit drink and bread (during which more and more people showed up), the all of us played Jenga, during which time we had lots of conversations in Spanglish and were invited to Byron's (a boyfriend) 25th birthday celebration in Quito Wednesday. Hooray for networking! (With Guayaquil's Independence Day Friday and Ecuador's World Cup qualifier game Saturday, this week looks to be a good one.) The evening ended with all of them (Marcia's 3 children and their 2 friends) walking us home, kissing cheeks, and giggling about our new friends.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)