Deserves its own post.
It is why I was born.
You can make it too!!! Boil cans of condensed milk for 3 hours. Make sure they are totally covered in water or they might explode.
It´s like caramel but better!
On a side note, because there are festivities every weekend till September, someone stole 15 of our chickens! To eat for the holidays! San Pedro may strike them down!
Am making great friends with new volunteers! Gimena compelemeted me on getting stronger! I´m making latkes tonight!
I still miss y´all like all hell, but I´ll see you soon.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Email to my ex:
I am in Ecuador (you know this). Upon awaking this morning to roosters and donkey braying, I decided to check out the communal bookshelf in the volunteer house, because (for the first time in my life!) I packed fewer books than I have time to read. I tore through The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao and Lolita in 2 weeks. While brousing through the very limited selection of reading materials on the shelf, what should I happen to come across but Ostranenie 2.2 (a Wesleyan literary magazine, for readers who don´t know), the one where you submitted work in order to get me to do the same (which I never did.)
Have I mentioned I am halfway across the world????
It´s one of those experiences where for a brief few seconds I question the reality of my existence, which is good spiritual work to be doing. And it ties in well with my realization that I can´t run away from myself by getting on a plane (a tough lesson to learn, especially when there is no one here to distract me from myself).
It´s funny too because I went to a supermarket for the first time here yesterday, and it was the first time I saw American things like Pyrex (be proud of me I didn´t buy one), Quaker oatmeal, Jello, Head and Shoulders shampoo. That would have been an appropriate time for me to feel like the world is small and homogenous, but to be honest, I was pretty wrapped up in discovering the dulce de leche section (it will be the death of me). But I gotta say, over world-wide mega-corporations, Ostrenenie magazine takes the cake.
Just thought you might like to know that ''your art'' has reached rural Ecuador. I wonder who it was who brought it?
Have I mentioned I am halfway across the world????
It´s one of those experiences where for a brief few seconds I question the reality of my existence, which is good spiritual work to be doing. And it ties in well with my realization that I can´t run away from myself by getting on a plane (a tough lesson to learn, especially when there is no one here to distract me from myself).
It´s funny too because I went to a supermarket for the first time here yesterday, and it was the first time I saw American things like Pyrex (be proud of me I didn´t buy one), Quaker oatmeal, Jello, Head and Shoulders shampoo. That would have been an appropriate time for me to feel like the world is small and homogenous, but to be honest, I was pretty wrapped up in discovering the dulce de leche section (it will be the death of me). But I gotta say, over world-wide mega-corporations, Ostrenenie magazine takes the cake.
Just thought you might like to know that ''your art'' has reached rural Ecuador. I wonder who it was who brought it?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Email to my Mom:
Hahah, great email. I of course have no idea what´s going on with NK or Sotomayer. I have fewer than 100 pages left of Lolita. I am terribly homesick and miserable with the realization that you can fly across the world and still not escape yourself. And there are fewer distractions in developing countries. I guess I´m lonely, irritable and bored. The diarreah stopped though! And I hung my hammock and tonight I might make another tissue paper lampshade for the house (ecuadorians don´t seem to comprehend pantallas, or lampshades.) Miss you, miss America. Reading a buddhist book that says this kind of unsettled loss of former self is brilliant but I feel like no one. No I´m not coming home. Paul and I are building an oven and then I will hopefully seduce some new volunteer with my fabulous banana bread. I bought an alarm clock with the plan to wake up at 530 for an hour and a half of yoga and meditation before breakfast. It ticks all the time and drives me nuts. Gimena told me though that I can put yogurt in a tub of water to refrigerate it though so now I don´t have to eat fucking oatmeal for breakfast. Granola making in a pan with quick oats leaves much to be desired. Last night I got lost in Cayambe after dark and I didn´t like that. It was however unthreatening so please dont worry! They don´t have nuts except for peanuts here. I tried last night to take a bath by boiling 4 pots of water on the stove but it was lukewarm and not worth the trouble. I am going to post this email on my blog if you don´t mind because I don´t want to rewrite the last week. I love you so much and I don´t want you to be sad that I am having a bad week of culture shock and no-friendness. The sheep escaped and they walk around the lawn with the cows now. Paul went to Quito for the weekend and i am going to feed the chickens. There is a sickly one with few feathers, who I tried to put in the ¨hospital¨ which is a chicken-wire coop but whenever I tried to grab him he would shriek and I would shriek and we ran away from each other. Ha. The poetry writing is going slowly and I need to do research. There are no books here. But a million videogame shops. I hate hate hate to admit it but I miss bourgiosie things. Like organic granola and yoga mats and aviator sunglasses and expensive chocolate. Also they don´t appear to eat mushrooms here.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
2 is company
Paul may be a blonde, baby-faced boy of 20, but he is fastidiously German and is by all means the head volunteer. This übermench is kind, clean, good natured, laid-back, attractive, organized, a fabulous chef, didn´t know a word of Spanish the day he arrived 10 months ago and is now totally proficient, better than I am. Also fluent in English. When he returns to Germany at the end of the summer, he´s going to school for mechanical engineering. After a hard day of farmwork, he likes to go to the gym in Cayambe. The übermench is, I think, better than I at everthing except for expressing his feelings with words. Needless to say, we have little to talk about. This week, it´s just him and me in the volunteer house, so it´s very quiet except for the übermench´s dance techno music, eminating gently from his spotless room.
Monday, June 8, 2009
List
Things That Rule in Ecuador
1) The value of the American dollar: I bought an unwrapped block of brown sugar and a little bottle of rum for 3.75, seven bananas for 35 cents total, from my friend Alonso, whose drunk friend asked me to marry him tonight and divorce him in the morning, and about a pound of butter, wrapped as a stick in a plastic bag, for 75 cents. I came home and made bananas foster for dinner.
2) Recogando las babosas: Collecting slugs. This is to be done in the morning by overturning wet planks among the beds in the garden and putting the slugs in a jar to feed to the chickens. There are these super awesome blck flat slugs that look like petroleum and move like it, too. I honestly don´t know why but it freaks m out when the slugs climb up and start coming out of the jar. Feels like an attack. Milagros helps me with slug duty.
3) Milagros: is 4. She yammers at me in completely incomprehensible 4-year-old Spanish. She also has the cutest damn outfits I´ve ever seen. And the cutest eyes. And the cutest smile. And the cutest hairdos. Today she told me she loved me and I almost cried I work with her mom in the garden.
4) All the fresh vegetables I can eat growing in my backyard: All the fresh vegetables I can eat growing in my backyard. Also fresh milk and eggs.
5) The climate: Dry, cool, cloudy.
6) The animals: There´s livestock everywhere just grazing. We have a burro who is white, takes dust baths in the road, and brays till he´s asthmatic. Also there are dogs everywhere. I mean, I went into a resteraunt and there was a dog lying under the table and no one cared.
7) Complete disregard for safety: The food vendors on the street. The people riding in the backs of pickup trucks barreling down the cliffside highway at 60mph. The dogs in resteraunts. The theifs who will rob you blind (I´ve been lucky knock wood). The five year olds walking around by themselves. Drinking on streetcorners. The men hanging out the doors of the buses yelling Quito or Otavalo to see if anyone wants to get on.
8) The buses: Super cheap, will pick you up at any point on the road, and drop you off anywhere. They also have ultra-violent movies in Spanish showing and they usually have little curtains on the windows and pictures of Che on the dash. Some play raggaeton instead of movies. At longer stops, venders get on to sell snacks and drinks.
9) The mountains: I cannot begin to say how breathtakingly unreal the Panamerican mountains are. I am in love.
10) No one is stressed: Ever.
11) Bromance: Really the only woman I have regular contact with is Gimena, whom I work with in the garden. She is the coolest ( her husband, Luis, who operates a bakery from the house, and her brothers, who come to stay with her in the weekends, are also unbelievably hospitable and kind and patient. We went to Otavalo yesterday, which has the biggest market of food, clothes, and jewelry in Ecuador. Amilca, this 21 year old guy, followed me around my shopping spree protecting the gringa so she didn´t get robbed blind). Other than Gimena and of course, Milagros, it´s me and the guys.
12) The fried chicken: rules.
13) Tabacundo: the local town, a 7-minute, 15 cent busride away, where I get internet, fruit, grains, beans, sugar, pan de coco (a doughnut sprinkled with coconut shavings. I buy it mainly for the gooey milk pudding in the center.) I am meeting shopkeepers and it is safe for me to walk around alone at night. Locals describe it as one big family (of 3,000).
Stay tuned for things that do not rule in Ecuador (preview: 1) the keyboards- my fingers are dying here!)
1) The value of the American dollar: I bought an unwrapped block of brown sugar and a little bottle of rum for 3.75, seven bananas for 35 cents total, from my friend Alonso, whose drunk friend asked me to marry him tonight and divorce him in the morning, and about a pound of butter, wrapped as a stick in a plastic bag, for 75 cents. I came home and made bananas foster for dinner.
2) Recogando las babosas: Collecting slugs. This is to be done in the morning by overturning wet planks among the beds in the garden and putting the slugs in a jar to feed to the chickens. There are these super awesome blck flat slugs that look like petroleum and move like it, too. I honestly don´t know why but it freaks m out when the slugs climb up and start coming out of the jar. Feels like an attack. Milagros helps me with slug duty.
3) Milagros: is 4. She yammers at me in completely incomprehensible 4-year-old Spanish. She also has the cutest damn outfits I´ve ever seen. And the cutest eyes. And the cutest smile. And the cutest hairdos. Today she told me she loved me and I almost cried I work with her mom in the garden.
4) All the fresh vegetables I can eat growing in my backyard: All the fresh vegetables I can eat growing in my backyard. Also fresh milk and eggs.
5) The climate: Dry, cool, cloudy.
6) The animals: There´s livestock everywhere just grazing. We have a burro who is white, takes dust baths in the road, and brays till he´s asthmatic. Also there are dogs everywhere. I mean, I went into a resteraunt and there was a dog lying under the table and no one cared.
7) Complete disregard for safety: The food vendors on the street. The people riding in the backs of pickup trucks barreling down the cliffside highway at 60mph. The dogs in resteraunts. The theifs who will rob you blind (I´ve been lucky knock wood). The five year olds walking around by themselves. Drinking on streetcorners. The men hanging out the doors of the buses yelling Quito or Otavalo to see if anyone wants to get on.
8) The buses: Super cheap, will pick you up at any point on the road, and drop you off anywhere. They also have ultra-violent movies in Spanish showing and they usually have little curtains on the windows and pictures of Che on the dash. Some play raggaeton instead of movies. At longer stops, venders get on to sell snacks and drinks.
9) The mountains: I cannot begin to say how breathtakingly unreal the Panamerican mountains are. I am in love.
10) No one is stressed: Ever.
11) Bromance: Really the only woman I have regular contact with is Gimena, whom I work with in the garden. She is the coolest ( her husband, Luis, who operates a bakery from the house, and her brothers, who come to stay with her in the weekends, are also unbelievably hospitable and kind and patient. We went to Otavalo yesterday, which has the biggest market of food, clothes, and jewelry in Ecuador. Amilca, this 21 year old guy, followed me around my shopping spree protecting the gringa so she didn´t get robbed blind). Other than Gimena and of course, Milagros, it´s me and the guys.
12) The fried chicken: rules.
13) Tabacundo: the local town, a 7-minute, 15 cent busride away, where I get internet, fruit, grains, beans, sugar, pan de coco (a doughnut sprinkled with coconut shavings. I buy it mainly for the gooey milk pudding in the center.) I am meeting shopkeepers and it is safe for me to walk around alone at night. Locals describe it as one big family (of 3,000).
Stay tuned for things that do not rule in Ecuador (preview: 1) the keyboards- my fingers are dying here!)
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
In Ecuador
There´s a lot to say but at the same time not much.
I took 4 hours of Spanish lessons today and got to this weird point where I had no word retrieval in English or in Spanish. Most of the volunteers only speak English but there are a lot of Ecuadorian families on the farm. And about a million kids who walk up to me and ask, Como te llamas, or que haces? What is your name or what are you doing. Little kid Spanish kills me every time.
The mountains are totally unreal, as are the sunsets.
I am in Tabacundo, the nearest city, right now, just had pan de piña as a pre-dinner snack. My little brother made me a tazer out of recycled materials for my birthday before I left- best present I have gotten in a long time- in case someone tries to rob me.
I am beginning to read Lolita. Damn good prose style, Nabokov.
I took 4 hours of Spanish lessons today and got to this weird point where I had no word retrieval in English or in Spanish. Most of the volunteers only speak English but there are a lot of Ecuadorian families on the farm. And about a million kids who walk up to me and ask, Como te llamas, or que haces? What is your name or what are you doing. Little kid Spanish kills me every time.
The mountains are totally unreal, as are the sunsets.
I am in Tabacundo, the nearest city, right now, just had pan de piña as a pre-dinner snack. My little brother made me a tazer out of recycled materials for my birthday before I left- best present I have gotten in a long time- in case someone tries to rob me.
I am beginning to read Lolita. Damn good prose style, Nabokov.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Using up my internet cafe time minimum
For my 21st birthday, I bought myself a package of 15 chocolate liqueurs at the airport. Didn't even get carded.
My flight is delayed an hour, and I'm hedging my bets on emailing my airport pickup because it's 13 dollars to call Ecuador. For 13 dollars I think I'd rather walk to the hostel.
Don't worry mom, just kidding about walking.
So I'm stuck in Atlanta, and I've already smelled almost every perfume they have in the duty free shop.
I realized something I have never seen is birds flying out of an airplane window. Not at any height. Where are all the birds, I ask you? Are they as frightened of airplanes as I am? Impossible. So for my birthday, I have decided that is what I want: birds flying next to my window.
My flight is delayed an hour, and I'm hedging my bets on emailing my airport pickup because it's 13 dollars to call Ecuador. For 13 dollars I think I'd rather walk to the hostel.
Don't worry mom, just kidding about walking.
So I'm stuck in Atlanta, and I've already smelled almost every perfume they have in the duty free shop.
I realized something I have never seen is birds flying out of an airplane window. Not at any height. Where are all the birds, I ask you? Are they as frightened of airplanes as I am? Impossible. So for my birthday, I have decided that is what I want: birds flying next to my window.
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