What else is new?
Did I ever mention that my family and extended family is obsessed with bulls? Well they are. I have been to a couple of Corrida Del Toros, but the most recent one in the larger city of Cayambe was intense. The bulls were massive and the arena reminded me of an ancient Roman Amphitheatre. Once I post pictures you will see what I mean… I somehow was able to watch the event in the press box as well because my host brother was the designated lasso-er for the event, damn he is good. Anyway, also at the event I witnessed a couple of crazy things. There is a wooden barracade between the spectator seating so that people fleeing from the bulls can safely hide behind a nice wooden partition…but one bull wasn’t having it. He made his way through and did some damage. Mass chaos ensued, but luckily they got the bull out and the Ecuadorian Red Cross was there to carry the wounded out on stretchers if need be. Oh yeah, then later an older gentleman’s dress shirt got caught on a horn and he was dragged around the ring until the bull’s jumping tore his shirt. That was about all of the excitement for that event.
THE Most Important News: I received my site placement for the next 2 years on Friday. I will be located in the pueblo of Gualleturo in the Cañar province. I leave tomorrow evening to visit the site which takes about 13+ hours of travel to get to, should be fun. Since I cannot locate it on Google maps I have a feeling it is going to be a good spot, I am also the first volunteer at my site (or so I think) which is exciting. I will be working on waste management and health education.
I went to my first Ecuadorian dance party (other than the festivals) last night in my small training town of Cariacu. It reminded me of the 6th grade dances in the Knights of Colombus hall in Good ‘ole New Braunfels Texas, with cane alcohol though of course. The music was electronic at first with a LASER LIGHT show 
I found it impressive for a town of 200. Many people sat on benches and there were about three circles of all men showing off their club moves and socializing (which includes passing around small cups of beer or the cane alcohol mixed with warm té aromático. Wasn’t all that bad. After the laser light show there was a live band who played musica folklórico, they were great as well.
The fun stuff: This morning I woke up at 4:45 to help my family milk the cows in their new moutain location (we all moved them up to the new land by foot last week, well we had one horse to carry the fencing). We were going to go via horse this morning, but one of the horses got out at one point during the night so we ended up hitching a ride in the back of a neighbor’s truck. After the milking we found the renegade horse grazing in the mountains and then we headed to my uncle’s house, I had no idea what was in store for me. When we arrived my uncle’s family was all mounted up and ready to ride, I asked what for and they told me that they were moving their toros bravos to another pasture to graze (there are about 15 or so in all). I too received a horse and a mount (along with a pair of spurs, YEE-HAW). The ordeal took a couple of hours because these spunky, aggressive bulls weren’t taking the relocation well. They bolted onto any field that they could get in to. I watched in awe as my host brother and my extended family rode BARE-BACK and corralled the bulls back on track. I got used to the horse after a few minutes too and even was able to herd a (pregnant) bull back to the pasture all by myself (because the rest of the party went after and had to lasso a bastard bull). One hell of a first experience on horse back in Ecuador…and the landscape is incredible. I sure am going to miss this town of Cariacu. Hopefully my new site will be just as intriguing and beautiful.
Hope that this entertained a few of you. My life here is great and I hope that you all are well. I will be posting more about my assignment later and I will definitely need some imput on community development…
Until next time,
Thank you for sharing your amazing stories and experiences! Keep having fun mate!