Of C̶a̶b̶b̶a̶g̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶K̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ Turnip Greens and Beads?

Dear Readers, you have been very patient as I left the last post up for nearly a month in an effort to get as much support as possible for our Peace Corps / Kichwa Sustainable House Project. Many of you have donated to the project, for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart. We are over halfway there in terms of raising funds, and hopefully we will be able to begin construction in the new year. Without your support, this project would not be possible!

And now, in the interest of cramming in every little update of what's been happening outside the realm of the house project, here's a recap in photos...

Part of Marcelo's school project that materialized by my front door. Fortunately there were no extraterrestrials inside. Otherwise I woulda had to whip out the lightsaber.

...comes hand in hand with any school project, I suppose.

Fryin' up some verdes to make patacones. If that doesn't sound like English to you, it's because it's not. (Side note: there are so many photos of food that I would love to post here...but that's what this other little site is for. I will get back to updating that right quick.)

I guess "Ecuador" and "Jamaica" look alike...they have the same number of letters...and they both have C's...

The garden: it grew!

Ooh, it must be near Halloween - or, as celebrated here, Day of the Dead - because these are ingredients to make colada morada (aka, gooey purple drink of the gods). Doesn't sound appetizing? Just wait till next time, I'll walk you through it.

...with extra protein, yum!

And speaking of Halloween:

Decorations!

Cookies!

Masks! All in the name of sharing Halloween across cultures.

Colada morada strikes again. I lived on this stuff for about a week.

A trip to the Malecón with las chicas. They had never hiked the 444 stairs to the top of Las Peñas.

So, of course, we went.

At the hottest time of day. Every few steps we had to buy ice cream, and water, and ice cream. It was horrible.

The garden grew and grew! Man, it's really starting to look like a jungle in there.

We realized it was time to harvest some of the veg.

We started with the chives.

Don Braulio the innovator went to work with some fibers from the leaf of a banana tree.

Lovely handiwork, no?

Then we moved on to the more serious issue of the turnip greens.

This nearly turned ugly. In fact, the very next day - which I missed - it did: poor Mike, left all alone to defend the vegetables, became the arbiter of much heated divarication regarding who merited what portion of the harvest. Thank goodness there were no tomatoes involved.

In the end, however, everyone left happy.

New project: jewelry workshops with some of the women from the community. Their excitement was reminiscent of those days back in summer camp when we would gladly spend an entire afternoon making lanyards.

Knotted silk with silver beads and charms. Classy, right?

My Program Manager was kind enough to teach our very first class. It was a big hit. Now the ladies and their daughters are anxious to plan some clases de belleza - as in, beauty school. I told them only if we all wear pink satin jackets and invite Frankie Avalon to be our mascot.

Home decor, and a little piece of Tarjay makes its way to Ecuador (thanks, Aunt Sally!).

Just enough to be cute, not so many that it goes all Alfred Hitchcock on you. I like 'em. (Pay no attention to the cluttered kitchen shelves. If you're nice, I just might post some pics of the apartment soon enough. But there's no way you're getting to look inside my fridge.)

I'd say we're pretty much up to speed, so that's all for now, folks. Hasta pronto!