Queen of the Pig's Kitchen 6/17

 

I know that no one will believe what I am about to say, but trust me when I say the following is true…

I woke up freezing this morning in Pulingui, but that didn’t last long, as I was immediately put to work. My morning was filled with cooking and feeding, but the recipients of my delicious food were definitely not human. To get to know our families, we spent the morning following them around and helping with their normal chores. For my host mother Paula, a very hardworking, sweet woman, this consisted of feeding the guinea pigs, chopping grass for the cows (she even trusted me with a small machete), and cooking bananos for the pigs. If I don’t say so myself, I think the pigs will eat very well this week because of my excellent cooking skills (thanks grandma)… you may now refer to me as Queen of the Pig’s kitchen.

After much more manual labor than I knew animals required, Paula took me up the nearest mountain to see the different plots of land she owns. She has 4 plots of quinoa growing as well as potatoes, corn, and every herb you could ever want, all on the highest peaks of every close mountain. The view from the top was incredible, and incredibly humbling to know how much work goes in to Paula’s crops. This woman was jumping up and down cliffs like Spiderman wearing a skirt… she’s incredible.

Finally in the afternoon my fellow interns and I headed out to a similarly small town name Chimborazo (if you realized that this was the same name as the volcano congratulations, and thanks for keeping up). Our job today was to publicize our upcoming campaign in which we would be giving free eye exams and selling our products, including our water purification products (which are a huge deal here). Chimborazo is about 45 minutes from Pulingui, but due to the horrible road conditions we had to take a truck and sit in the bed, where the pigs usually sit… it was quite a bumpy and cold ride… But, besides the adventurous ride, we were able to talk to a lot of people and successfully get our message out about our upcoming event.

So far this has been the craziest experience I have ever had and slowly I am getting more accustomed to living in such rural conditions. Every person you walk by is so friendly, and I have never felt so safe (except for the spiders in the outhouse). Stay tuned because this will definitely be an adventure!

Lots of love from Ecuador,

Jen