The Family Life

I think I am fitting in very well with my new family. But my extended family is very large, and I have trouble remembering their names and faces.

My mom has five siblings (I think all but one of them is married). Her youngest brother is in university in Ibarra to be an electrician. Most of her other siblings have spent time at the farm since I moved in. And many of her siblings have children.

For example, I apparently have a cousin named Kevin. But I’m not sure if that is his name because I think I have also heard him being referred to as Daniel, DeMarco, and Pongi. It’s very unclear.

One thing that is very clear is that my three-year old cousin has one of the best names I’ve ever heard. In fact, I am going to create a feature on the right side of my blog because of it. His name is Pachulo. Think about how great that name is for a second and then you will understand where I am coming from. He is also very cute. So in honor of him, I will start a “favorite words I encounter” section on the right side.

My family’s farm is on the outside of town. It is actually my grandparent’s house. We live in the village itself. There is one main street and, literally, a beaten path that runs perpendicular to it where my house is located. Normally, they have a functioning shower, but it recently broke. So bathing has been a bit of an adventure around here.

To heat the water, we fill a pot with water and put it on the stove. Once it has reached an adequate temperature, we pour it in a big bucket. If the water it too hot, we balance it out with some tap water until we find the optimal temperature. Then I go into the bathroom with the big bucket, a small bucket, some soap, and a shampoo container. The bathroom is not closed off from the elements, and it is very cold outside. So having to bath yourself with a bucket of water in cold weather will take some getting used to, to say the least. But I found it a very refreshing experience the first time. Maybe that’s because I hadn’t really bathed in four days?

Now, if there is one thing that I haven’t really done in the mountains, it would be running. With altitude, going more than a block at any pace above a sashay has me gasping for air. But if there is one thing that I have done, it is sleep. In fact, I am writing this blog post at 9:20 p.m. That is the latest I have been awake since moving to the mountains.

For the last three nights, I have been in bed before 8:30 p.m. That is three more nights of being in bed before 8:30 p.m than I can remember in my entire life. You would have to consult my mom with the last time this happened. The benefit of being able to go to sleep early is that you wake up and see the sunrise, which I have done for the last few days. And it’s not just any sunrise. It’s a stunning one over the Andes. I have been sleeping until 6:00 and can’t sleep anymore. I feel like my dad, who is a real madrugador (someone who wakes up early).

I want to give you some information about Cayambe, where our training is based.

Cayambe is about an hour north of Quito. It has a population of about 30,000 and the downtown area is nice. It is famous for bizcochos, which are a type of bread/biscuit. As soon as you drive into town, you are bombarded with restaurants and cafes that claim to serve the original bizcocho, the best bizcochos, or traditional bizcochos. The town is also famous for a type of string cheese. I don’t know the name of it yet, but I have tried it, and it is good.

The area around Cayambe is one of the world’s leading producers in fresh-cut flower exports. Apparently, there was some international economic agreement with Andean countries that would give free trade on certain products so that they didn’t have to rely on drug money. It seems that Cayambeans have taken advantage of that because when you look down into the valley, it is covered with greenhouses.