Feria, Fiesta, & Fish

September 7, 2015

Feria, Fiesta, and Fish encompasses the past week and a half of my PCV life in Puerto Lopez.

This past Saturday, my counterpart organization had a fair for inclusion.  The idea of the fair was to raise awareness of disabilities in the community and promote the idea of inclusion in Puerto Lopez.  At the fair, we had “expositores” who were mothers from the foundation selling the beautiful crafts they make.  My favorite is a Mom who makes purses, wallets, and jewelry from fish skin.  They are gorgeous.  We also had many different games.  Some were just for fun, like bucketball. There were others to raise awareness of disabilities and what life would be like with a disability.  We had a dice to roll and depending on the number it landed on there was an action.  One was to walk with crutches, another was to write with your eyes blindfolded, and one more was to repeat the words someone said with your ears plugged.

Covering the child’s face with a blindfold for the game

Writing while blindfolded

Listening while ears are plugged

There were mothers at the fair selling all types of magnificent Ecuadorian food, and even tiramisu.  There were three different talks throughout the day to speak about disabilities in the community.  And finally, two bounce houses.  A child’s dream come true.

This was the first fair the foundation has had and this was my first event with my counterpart organization.  Overall, the event was a huge success and I cannot wait to see how this organization grows in the next two years.

In other news, this past Monday was the anniversary of the cannonzation of Puerto Lopez.  There was a huge parade during the day which I participated in with the foundation and a ginormous fiesta at night.  People were out dancing until four in the morning, I only lasted until 1am because of work the next day.

Representing Detroit!

After a night of fiestas, a typical “Chuchaqui” meal or hangover meal is encebollado.  It is essentially a soup with tuna, yuca, rice, onions, lime, and cilantro.  Then for mix-in’s you can add chifles (my favorite), popcorn, mustard, ketchup, oil or whatever your hangover desires. I usually just stick to chifles. It really doesn’t sound like something you would desire when you are hungover, but it is delicious! And on Tuesday morning, after the fiestas, my dad made fresh encebollado.

Because my dad is a fisherman, we typically have fresh fish everyday for at least one meal.  And the fresh encebollado was no exception.  I asked my dad to take me out fishing with him one day, he laughed and said “are you serious”?  He explained that it typically isn’t something women are interested in doing.  When my dad goes fishing, he leaves between four and five AM.  They are out on the boat all day with nets and fishing lines.  They leave the nets in the water overnight and sleep on the boat that night.  The following day, they continue fishing off lines and bring in the nets with the fish.  They clean off the fish and separate them by type.  Then they usually return by 5pm the following day and sell their fish on the beach in Puerto Lopez. I’ll let you know how it is…if I work up the courage to go.

And because the sunset is beautiful every night here in Puerto Lopez, I wanted to share with all of you a piece of it.As always–sending all my love!

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