Cultural Trip

Playing with the kids of Mascarilla

Bottle Dancing

Scenery of Mascarilla and roof puppies

The view is that great, nice looks TAM and TOM

Our first cultural trip was of the weekend of June 18^th, we headed to a small town in the north known as Mascarilla. The towns name has origins in Kichwa, and the carilla means strong, so then the name of the town means more strong in reference to the men of the Afro-ecuatorian community. We travelled about 4 hours north of Quito and stay in the community for a the weekend. The weather was extremely hot, but refreshingly not as humid as I would have anticipated. During the day, after of the community members taught us about the history of Afro-Ecuadorians in Ecuador, specifically how their ancestors were Slaves who were on their way to a coastal city, when their ship crashed in a storm and only 4 survived and from these four ancestors came majority of the population of the Afro-Ecuadorians. We then participated in some traditions of the community, such as mask making and various dances. There was one dance that was particularly cool, as they like my host family, put a bottle half filled with water on top of their heads and started dancing, while in the same instance balancing the bottle. Our host even was able to do some push ups with the bottle on her head. Talk about impressive. That night after finding our host families for the night, we played soccer in their little indoor cement court. It was incredible how good the kids were. Their level of skills was insane. The other volunteers and I found ourselves playing futbol against the 14 year olds in the community. They were incredible. It was interesting to note as well that the traditional sickness known as Mal de ojo is believed here as well. It reminded me of the lectures that I had in Guatemala. It also really drove hope the importance and impact of these traditional enfermedades and their cures are to small communities. I know that balancing the traditions of my future community and my perspectives will be a challenge, but also an interesting chance to learn more about such a critical portion of the lives of my community members.