Day 5 Morning - By Jongyoul and Elissa

Our day started with pancakes, scrambled eggs with cilantro, watermelons and other assorted fruits, some yogurt and some cereal.  This was followed by a 2-hour bus ride to the days work site. On the way we stopped at the first Catholic Church built in Ecuador, Maria Natividad de Balbanera, which was founded on August 15, 1534. The designs on the front of the church reflects both native and Spanish influences; for instance, the angels on the walls have faces of natives, and bodies of Spaniards. There were also Spanish crosses decorated with Ecuadorian flowers engraved on the wall. Javier explained this mixing of symbols helped the Spaniards covert the local people to Catholicism. Inside the church were 2 statues of Virgin Mary, one of which had a wig made of real hair, and the other one was originally from Spain. Most of the bricks of the church were lost during an earthquake in the 1700’s, leaving the building with only 25 percent of the original brick.

         

Virgin Mary with real human hair!!

We then arrived at the women’s community Pulingi where we met several indigenous women who taught us several of their daily tasks; shearing sheep, spinning wool into yarn, and knitting/looming. This women’s community has been working with Me to We for a number of years. Me to We helped to show the women how they could make a secondary income if they not only made the yarn but also wove the yarn into merchandise.  All profit is then divided evenly into 4  shares: one is used to buy the raw materials (not all wool is raised on site), one share is used to pay the cost of the store, one share goes to the community bank to be used for loans to community members at lower interest rates than the state banks and the last share is split among the women. After we enjoyed these tasks we entered a room filled with their handmade knitted products, learned about their difficulty competing with cheaper machine-made clothing, and were allowed to purchase as many articles of clothing as we wanted. The products range from bracelets to alpaca-wool blankets, and are extremely soft and fluffy. Most of the smaller objects like hats and scarves range from $6 to $11, while larger pieces like alpaca ponchos cost from $15 to $30.

         

For lunch, we were served roasted chicken, lentils, white rice, veggies, and delicious strawberry juice. Lunch was a bit hectic—some students ate lunch after buying their hats, ponchos, and scarves which took a while. Thus, most people were still paying for their purchases while others had already finished their meals.