Lovely, Lovely, Lovely

Today I hung out with the school librarian and her family.


The school librarian and I have this kindred connection because we both love books and solitude, neither of which is too common for most people I know here. Most people I know here love talking, talking, talking, talking to relieve stress. When I get stressed at school, I run into the library, where the solitude of the books and the sweetness of the librarian soothe me until I have enough courage to go bakc out and teach yelling kids.



Today the librarian and her daughter, who is my age, her DJ son, and her daughter's daughter, who is three and adorable, went to a pool in a nearby village called Ortega. Ortega is tiny. It has maybe one tienda, and if it has a restaurant, I've never seen it. It is up in the mountains, surrounded by green green trees, and when you go you always hear the sound of running water from the river.


We went to a "pool" which consisted of:

A volleyball court (Necessary, for Ecua-Volley, a version of volleyball, is insanely popular)

Two pools

A snackbar area


Pretty normal, pretty standard. The difference between this pool and a normal American pool were the animals. A white dog guarded the pool and followed us around wherever we went, begging for attention and food. Roosters wandered around on the volleyball court and the grass. Reggaeton music blared out of the speakers.


The water was freezing freezing freezing, but the three year old kept jumping in with her big inflatable duck "Pato" and kept throwing her duck at us. I taught the librarian how to do some kicking and then the three year old mimicked us.

Then we went home, the daughter and I made oatmeal raisin cookies, we listened to the DJ brother's electronic mixes, and the three year old learned how to take pictures, so she ran around documenting her whole life: her mom cooking, her Barbie, her Pato, her uncle. After eating tamales and coffee, they paid for my taxi all the way back to Zaruma, and sent me home with a giant bag of grenadillas (passionfruit) and oatmeal raisin cookies.

What a fantastic day. I can't believe how generous and full of life the people here can be. I want to bottle today up and remember it forever. This is the Peace Corps at its best.




PS. Here is a grenadilla:

So cool.