Second trip to the Amazon, part two.

The parade.

Although most of our time was spent working and running the sports camp, I have plenty of other memories from the jungle. First of all, I was able to ask one of the missionaries about what it's like to reach this culture with the Gospel. Apparently, this can be very difficult because of the witch doctors still present in many jungle towns. Many locals prefer to keep their witch doctor because it brings in tourism. This means that the witch doctor is in control, and no churches will be allowed into the town. This witch doctor aspect is pretty serious; one of Roberto and Charmai's adopted sons was the son of a witch doctor and had a really, really hard time emotionally and spiritually because of it. Some of these people are also afraid of losing their indigenous culture, as in the past Western missionaries have forced them to give up their culture to receive the Gospel. Because of this, they close their towns to Christians and North Americans. So, although Ecuador is supposed to be a Catholic country, there are a lot of dark spiritual powers still at play that come from the ancient indigenous religions. Besides that, many Ecuadorians are Christian or Catholic in name only and do not know what it means to truly follow Christ. Much like the States, in fact.

Antioquia kiddos.

As I said in my last post, there was a lot of celebrating going on throughout our time in Misahualli. Part of the program included a dance contest for local high school students. Before the high school boys and girls performed, however, we had to watch the Baile de la Vaca Loca (literally translated, the Crazy Cow Dance). At first four preteen boys came out and pranced around in a circle with some paper mache animals, including the crazy cow of course. The fourth boy was dressed as an Ecuadorian rancher and he was in charge of chasing the cow. After awhile I was getting a little bored of this, but little did I know, it was about to get really exciting! A man lit fireworks on each paper mache animal, one at a time. Initially these fireworks looked like innocent sparklers, but before long they started to explode and shoot uncontrollably in all directions, including directly into the crowd. People were screaming and laughing, and I thought for sure someone was going to get burned or something would start on fire. Of course, there is no fire department in Misahualli. It was hysterical! Only in Ecuador, where safety standards are way less important, would you get to experience this Crazy Cow Dance. 

Ladies and gentlemen...the Amazon jungle. Much prettier in person.

After that we got to watch the students perform traditional dances in traditional clothing. The clothing for the girls consists of a bra and mini skirt covered in shells and beads, along with a headband and bands around their knees, which really does resemble traditional indigenous clothing. Although I'd heard from the missionaries that the young men end up a little too captivated by the clothing aspect (or perhaps lack of clothing), it was a great cultural experience for me.

The next morning we came out for the parade of schools to support Antioquia. Like many events in this part of the world, the parade didn't start nearly on schedule and no one seemed to be able to say when it would start, other than "soon" (which can mean two hours from now in Ecuador). 

On Wednesday morning we got a reprieve from moving rocks and hiked through the jungle to a waterfall. I got to experience being bitten by a giant red ant on the way, which is really painful. It stings like a bee sting, and the dumb ant attaches itself to your skin so it's hard to get off. But pretty soon I was fine. The waterfall was well worth it, and some of us swam in the pool at the bottom.

Finally, we spent our last night making chocolate as a treat. Cacao fruits grow everywhere here, and on a sunny day you can see people laying out the seeds to dry on the roads. To make chocolate, you dry the seeds in the sun, roast them, grind them, and then mix them with hot water (or milk) and lots of sugar. I tried the dark chocolate, and it was very dark so I actually liked it. It really doesn't taste like what you buy from the store, but that's because it's real! You can also eat the cacao fruit--you just pop a seed covered in fruit into your mouth and suck on it like candy. It's kind of sour, but really good.