Otovalan Marketplace

The group bus wound its way up the side of a mountain for over an hour before we reached Papallacta. We traveled over the top of that mountain before the thermal springs were revealed on the other side. I thought the best part about Papallacta was going to be the thermal pools, but it turned out to be the hike. A bunch of us decided to go walking into the mountains along these trails marked mostly by cattle fences and muddy hoof prints. We wound our way up the mountain, ducking under trees and crossing thin bridges. I’m not sure if this was a cloud forest, but judging from the distance between us and the white wisps overhead, I’d say it must have been. Eventually, we came to a trail that seemed to go straight into the forest, mercilessly up the mountainside. So—naturally—we decided this was a good trail to take. The trail was extremely thin and very muddy (which made it really exciting getting back down) and lead us to a pretty spectacular waterfall. After descending, only enough light remained in the sky for us to make it home. Then, we relaxed.

This week was my first week of practice teaching by myself. That is to say, even though I’ve been practice teaching for over a week now, Thursday was the first day I ever had to practice teach without any other volunteers to teach with me. Teaching on my own went really well. Between Friday and Saturday, I taught my students how to tell time, numbers 0-1000, days of the week and months of the year. They are extremely eager to learn. They are also extremely gracious. On Friday, in fact, I ended class half an hour early because my students had planned a surprise for us teachers. One student had brought in a cake and all the others had teamed up to buy a buffet of Doritos and packaged candy. After only seven days of practice teaching, this was my students’ way of saying thanks to us. I was blown away when one of my students, Gustavo, stood up to deliver a heartfelt thanks to all of us before we dug into the snacks. Another student actually shed a tear. Incredible, hey? I didn’t quite believe it myself. Maybe she just had something in her eye. I really don’t deserve that kind of appreciation.

I’m continually amazed by the diversity of people in this country. Essentially, Ecuador is split into three main regions: the Oriente (jungle), the Sierra (mountains) and La Costa (coast). The people living in each region are as varied as the region itself. This past weekend, I got my best taste of the indigenous people living in the Sierra by traveling to Otovalo, a small town located north of Quito. Otovalo is known for its market; in fact, the indigenous people operating there are actually the most profitable of any indigenous group in all of South America. My host father, Miguel, grew up in Otovalo, so we had the perfect guide to show us around the market. A long street runs from the base of a hill in the south and up this hill to the north. Along this street are the vendors. The must arrive sometime in the morning and set up shop, because by the time we arrived sometime in the early afternoon, the place was hopping with all manner of locals, Ecua-folk, gringos and gringo-wannabes. The selection of indigenous crafts you can buy is extensive: chess sets, blankets, panchos, backpacks, wallets and a bunch of different foods you’ve probably never dreamed up.

One of the most fun parts was watching Miguel and Marcia haggle over prices on my behalf. I’d see something I wanted to buy and I’d basically whisper to Marcia that I liked it, which was enough to set the wheels of commerce into motion. Before I knew any better, the vendor had brought about fifty different colors of the same style of item. We’d make a game out of unfolding the blankets even though they all looked the same; this was customer service at its finest. Getting the price reduced from $12 to $10 was fairly simple for the Pazmiños. Getting the price reduced from $10 to $9, however, was a different story. Miguel and Marcia’s strategy was toughness, “We’re not paying more than $9,” or Marcia would simply repeat “$9, no more” with a scowl on her face. The vendor, on the other hand, elected to use the Ecua-whine. I’d been educated about the Ecua-whine in orientation and I’d seen it used sparingly in the past, but never to the extent that I saw it used in the Otovalan marketplace. Basically, what it means is that the vendor whined to encourage the price she wanted. She would say things like, “Oh please, miss, $10, the blanket took so long to make,” or “Only one more dollar—please—the blanket is so big and required so much material.” Where assertiveness (and occasionally anger) work in the United States, humbly belittling oneself works here. In the end, I have no idea whether I paid a fair price or not, but I’m inclined to say that I did, because we must have been bargaining for about half an hour to get the price down a dollar. At a number of points I considered stepping in and saying that I didn’t care about an extra dollar, but, to be completely truthful, I really wanted to see how things would going to play out without my interference. (Maybe I ought to put that extra dollar in the bank.)

I took a long run this morning, which was painful because my lungs haven’t quite acclimated to the altitude yet. I carry a rock with me, so when dogs start to run after me (two dogs came after me today) I’m prepared with a threat they understand. Just pretending to throw a rock is enough to scare most dogs away, but I’m not willing to shoot blanks in a pinch. Seriously, though, I’m less scared of these dogs than when I first began. I think we’re beginning to understand one another. Many of these dogs are territorial, so once I’ve crossed a certain point, they could care less about what I do. I’ll either get very good at sprinting or become a very good aim with a rock before the end of the year.

After the run, we went to the park. Today we had a picnic organized by my volunteer organization at Parque Carolinas, which is this huge public park in the middle of Quito. I ate a ton of rice and beans and guacamole while chatting it up with all the other host families. In general, all of us volunteers are very happy with our host families—and we should be because they’re the coolest. We played some soccer and then a bunch of people went to climb Pichincha, a nearby mountain that has one of those carts that can carry you halfway up for a small price. I chose to catch up with my family and friends instead (well, as much as I was able to—international phone call charges stack up pretty quickly). Don’t worry, though, I plan to make the climb on my own sometime later this week. With that said, the most important thing I did today was to see that Brett Favre threw three touchdown passes and had over three hundred passing yards against the Chargers. I immediately sent a text message to Josh, a volunteer from North Carolina, because whenever we don’t have anything else to talk about, we argue whether Brett should retire or not. I’m going to give him so much shit tomorrow….