You make me feel like dancin'...

Today we went to Lumbisi for the first time. We took the bus from Cumbaya as a group and met up with Emily, Chris and Kevin in the park. From there we took a short downhill walk to the Centro Infantil or Children’s Center. It is part of Maria Teresa’s organization FEVI which has several social service-type projects in the area. The school was really cute. All of the walls were painted with cartoon characters or scenes of Ecuador. On one wall were painted 30 easels, each with two clothespins attached, so they could hang a piece of paper and paint outside. The building has two classrooms and a little kitchen/dining room. There’s also a little house that they built not too long ago used for everything from puppet shows to dance class.

Jaime, the director, showed us around and gave us an idea of what projects he saw in the future that we could help out with. He wants to build a well next to a little tree so it gets plenty of water and then kids can climb the tree. He also wants to make a little garden of medicinal plants and a little ‘farm’ with rabbits and chickens. Also mentioned was a waterfall/fishpond. All in all there is plenty to be done as far as volunteer work at the Children’s center.

From there we walked a short way to the organic garden that is used to feed the kids at the school and whatever is left over is given to the senior center- which is where we went next. There we listened to several speakers talk about FEVI and the upcoming festivals but since we were just sitting there and doing nothing my tiredness overcame me and I started nodding off. I felt really bad and I tried really hard not to but it kept happening. After Maria Teresa talked we left and went to the dining room where Grant and I got to help make lunch for the old people. We helped shape ‘bolas,’ which are just potato and cheese balls with other seasonings in them.

Then the dancing began. The old people- mostly ladies- who were still mobile dressed up in traditional costume and performed a dance for us. It was probably the cutest thing I’ve seen in my life! Then, after their dance, they grabbed their children or other relatives to come dance with them. The ones who didn’t have someone to dance with pulled people out of the audience. Eventually our whole group was dancing with them.

After our dance we went back to the Centro Infantil for a little lunch they set up for us in the dining room. We had sandwiches and juice and fruit and salad and bread. It was very tasty. I ate a lot of bread because I haven’t had much since I’ve been here and it was so good! At lunch we met Jaime’s son Daniel who was 4 and really cute but shy. We tried to talk to him but he wasn’t having it and ran away. After lunch we had more dancing- but this time it was a class. Lumbisi’s annual festival of San Bartolome, the city’s patron saint, has been going on since Thursday and will continue until Tuesday. On Sunday there will be a parade and we will be in it- dancing! So of course we had to learn the dance we’ll be doing.

One of the school teachers very patiently taught us the dance even though we got confused a lot. We were all dying of laughter when we messed something up- and we usually really messed up. Eventually we had it basically down. We’ll practice again before the parade so hopefully it’ll be ok. When we do march we’ll be in full costume as well! I’m pumped! After dance class we were free to do whatever so Danielle, Keunae, Lauren and I stayed to see Chris and Emily’s houses. Lucas, a German student that Maria knows, stayed with us too. He’s a sweet kid. We took pictures on Emily’s roof and then took the bus back to Cumbaya.

Danielle, Keunae and I decided to meet up later that night to go to the dance happening later. When I got back Pato, Guadalupe and some friends were watching a movie but I had no idea what it was and they were in the middle so I went to my room to do some stuff on the computer. Then I had to go meet Danielle to go to the bus. We thought we were a little late, since Keunae said we were, so we kind of ran to the bus stop. Of course this was unnecessary but whatever.

We got on the bus and made it to Lumbisi fine. We found Emily surrounded by children and Chris helping her mom. We all got some really delicious kebobs from some lady cooking them on the street and Danielle and I got water while the others got beers. We talked in the park some then Danielle, Chris, Chris’s host brother and sister and I all went on the ‘gusanito’ ride. It was a big caterpillar that drove around town. Danielle and I had way too much fun on this ride- we were hysterical. It serpentined down the road and did donuts at one intersection. It was sweet. After the gusanito we went to the place where the old people danced to see if the dancing had started- it hadn’t. So we walked back to the park and found Maria Teresa who said that she’d pay for us to go to the dance so we did.

At first no one was dancing but we all went out for the first song and others joined us. Eventually Lucas and his two friends showed up and so did Zack- he lives in Lumbisi and knows Maria Teresa, but who doesn’t? We were all dancing and at the start of the next song some old creeper came up to me and started dancing with me. He was just creepily staring at me the whole time and wouldn’t let me go. He moved his hips a lot and that made it extra creepy. I’m glad my purse was in front of me so we didn’t have to be too close together.

Finally the band stopped, after like 4 songs in a row, and he let me go. So I ran away into our group. We all danced some more and he grabbed someone else and they danced a while. He danced with me a couple more times because I couldn’t get away and then his friend danced with me too. This guy was even creepier. He asked me my name and if I spoke Spanish and when I said yes he said he loved me. I just laughed at him. Then he kept saying it and it wasn’t funny anymore. He said something about getting married and asked if I wanted to marry an Ecuadorian man and kept singing the lyrics of the love song the band was playing to me. It was really creepy. He kept calling me ‘reina’ which means queen and when Chris and Danielle saved me once from him by grabbing both my hands and dancing with me he kept saying ‘reina? reina?’ Then the first guy danced with me again saying ‘but this is how we dance in Ecuador’ when I said I wanted to dance with my friends. It was not fun.

Then we made a big circle and did the train around and around. Pretty soon though the first creeper weaseled his way into the circle and kept swinging people around, two at a time. It was weird. At one point Maria Teresa started dancing- that
was hilarious. She was such a spaz. Shortly thereafter, Maria Teresa drove Keunae, Grant, Danielle and me home. I still didn’t have a key so I had to ring the bell so Guadalupe could let me in. I felt bad- this is why I wanted a key. After I was asleep Pato rang the bell so I guess it didn’t really matter.


The next day I slept in- till 10:30. That’s not very late for me but since I’ve been getting up at 7 every morning it was good. After the night of endless dancing- plus all the walking we’ve been doing for days now- I was really sore. I’m worried about this dance class I’m starting soon. Danielle and I wanted to go back to Lumbisi today for more festivities but decided to go back in the late afternoon. So I went with Guadalupe to drop her niece off at the hospital, then we got a copy of the key made for me and we got lunch at a ceviche place down the street. The ceviche was really good but after a while the sourness of the lime became too much for me. We each had shrimp ceviche and shared a fried seafood platter with more shrimp, little fish sticks and calamari. It was all tasty but I couldn’t finish, I was so full.

Then Guadalupe dropped me off at la Esquina mall to meet Danielle. We got to Lumbisi and found Chris and Kevin. Chris had to help her mom so we went with Kevin to watch the parade. There were two bands that took turns playing while people dressed as clowns, moreno (blackface) cowboys and other costumes danced in the parade. The tiny little kids in the clown or cowboy outfits were super cute. We went to see if Emily was feeling well enough to hang out with us but she wasn’t. Then we went to find the guillotine and took pictures in it.

Afterwards we climbed the church on the square- seems to be a theme, climbing churches- to watch more dancing. When we got down from the church we walked around the park and Kevin and Danielle bought candied grapes which were not great. Then we went into a $1 movie store. Outside the store we saw Zack who had with him a bottle of aguardiente (lit. burning water)- an alcohol they drink for the special occasion. He gave us each a shot-mine was the biggest- and it did indeed burn. Not too long after that three ‘morenos’ came up to pour more liquor into our mouths. We said no but they ‘threatened’ us with their machetes so we took it. My guy was nice and only gave me a little tiny bit, but it tasted so bad it was enough. Chris successfully avoided drinking any but Danielle, Kevin and I got ice cream to mask the flavor. We sat in the park to eat our ice cream and we saw a little kid peeing in the middle of the park!

We went back to Chris’s house and hung out there for a while, about until it got dark. We got some chocolate covered strawberries and met up with Grant. Then we made our way up to the stadium for the fireworks. On the way we saw Lucas and his sister who joined us and we also saw Lauren, Alex and Betty too. We all sat down to see the fireworks and it started with a bonfire that the clowns etc. danced around. Then they started lighting some firework things that guys carried over their heads as sparks flew off of them.

The displays got progressively bigger and wilder as members of our group left. But they really missed out because the first really big one was the church that exploded several times at the bottom then pinwheels started shooting out sparks and spinning then the whole thing lit up- with more pinwheels- and a disc shot off the top and flew sparkling into the sky. The last and most spectacular display was a ship that they dragged back and forth across the field so it looked like it was sailing. It just kept exploding! We were afraid some of the sparks would hit us since one spray went right into the crowd.

After the ship had sailed there were some awesome regular fireworks too. Then we started leaving and more went off scaring the crap out of us. Then we made our way back to town to relive the magic of the gusanito. It wasn’t quite as fun as the first time but it was still pretty great. Then we got a taxi driver from the Lumbisi taxi service to drive us home. His wife and little girl came with us and he was really nice. I used my key for the first time but of course Guadalupe was still up.


Hasta luego,
Caitlin