Monday, July 28

Whew! I'm exhausted, possibly a little drunk, and have a stinging slice in my writing thumb from a sharp crab I just ate. this morning Daniel took Sara and I to check out an orphanage run by nuns and inquire about working there in the coming week. We thought that even though Ecuador was in their period of vacationing that surely the orphans could not be on vacation! But, sure enough, they had been sent off to stay with their godparents (which seems like kind of a tantalizing thing to do to kids who are told they have no one to care for them!)

Then to sara's chic apartment with old fashioned furniture- dark wood and wine-red velvet, artsy sculptural ashtrays, a vase of bright flowers and a large Picasso print. The monsoon of discussion began, as it always does when our mouths and minds are put in the same room. We decided we'd go back to my house to read on the terrace. We had only just settled down before my family, then Gabriel and Estaban, and then Lau Lau all showed up. We lounged around on my bed and debated the new Ecuadorian consitutional reforms (well, not my family but the rest of us). Miryam, my volunteer liaison, called and confirmed that absolutely all the volunteer organizations I was interested were absolutely and positively on vacation. I, musingly, said to sara "maybe we could go to Baños tomorrow" and before I knew it a trip had been planned for the very next day to visit this beautiful village with thermal baths and waterfalls!

The plan for the evening was that Lau Lau and I would meet Daniel at five, go to a café and have a drink, and then meet back up with Sara and Gabriel for the new Woody Allen movie in the casa de la cultura. I should mention that this Woody Allen movie is one in a string of many timely coincidences that have been occurring. One night a couple weeks ago I had a sharp craving for a Woody Allen movie (sort of strange, since I'm not really an aficionado or anything). The very next day, I went to the cinema in the Casa de la Cultura to check out the showings and in the middle of the week of Brazilian cinema, they had stuck a Woody Allen movie!
ANYWAY Daniel was about an hour late (suprise suprise). He picked us up in his car and said we were going to pick up a friend. I said "look- that's all I have time for because I have to make it back to the movie theater in 10 minutes to meet my friends." Daniel and Lau Lau then embarked on the most obnoxious campaign of hornswaggling in which they tried incessantly to convince me to go out with them instead. "You're gonna see these friends all the time." "It's just an American movie." "They're a couple--they'll want ot go by themselves." I should have called to mind my D.A.R.E. peer pressure resistance tactics (cold shoulder, strength in numbers, etc). Instead, I said politely "I really don't like to just change my plans on people at the last minute" (perhaps reacting to what's become somewhat of a cultural frustration for me here of chronic plan-changing at the last minute). They kept at it for seriously another ten minutes despite my continued polite but firm "no thanks. sounds great, but I already have plans" before I hauled out the harsher voice and said "Please! I can make my own decisions!" Then Lau Lau said "well, if you don't go, I can't" which I found extremely frustrating that she hadn't told me that from the beginning because of course then I felt bad and that dampened my conviction a little. Ironically, all this was for naught because at that very moment Sara and Gabriel called and said they might come into the movie part way into it because they wanted to talk alone for a while. That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I went with Lau Lau and Daniel and Daniel's friend, and it ended up being a blast. First, we wound our way down these spiraling, European cobblestone streets into this tiny village with a Quitchuan name. It was very surreal because we got there, we looked into a dark church with only the holy figures lit up, and then left, and I never had any idea where in the world we were or how this cute Euro-town was able to emerge at the bottom of hill. Then we went to an ancient colonial street in the Centro Historico that has been beautifully preserved--lights strung above, between whitewashed buildings with geraniums flooding out the windows. Because it was Monday, all the "cultural bars" with live bands, were closed, so we climbed endless stairs to a talltall restaurant with a vista of the entire glittering city rising up and around us into the mountain tops. The waiters lit heaters and served us this drink of hot liquor, fresh squeezed oranges, and brewed cinnamon. It was an interesting mix of people- these nice 30 year old men (a professor and a banker) and these two 19 year old foreign volunteers. But a rollicking good time, nonetheless, with laughter to spare!

much to do before I leave for baños!