Clothing

Walking down the street also is great for people watching!  Some look as if they just came from the jungle, with big rubber boots all muddy, old baggy jeans for the guys and skirts for the ladies, carrying their babies in bright slings, barely holding them on, just tension and a big diaper!  Then after them come people dressed no different than you’d see anywhere in the States, jeans, t-shirt, shorts, etc.  Next to them could be a woman dressed up so much that she looks like she’s going to a fancy restaurant, but is really just getting home from work, wearing her uniform.  And then after that could be someone dressed in their traditional clothing, that hasn’t, as far as I know, changed for centuries.

The first time I saw an indigenous lady in traditional clothing I had the hardest time not staring.  Then the first time I saw an indigenous lady from a different village I again struggled with not staring.  The clothes seem so foreign and exotic at first.  But I soon realized that it's a normal every day thing for many to continue wearing traditional clothing all the time and not just at reenactments, like in the States.  Now, I've gotten used to it and can even tell, to some extent, what region the lady comes from, based on her clothes.  Most of the ladies in town, in traditional clothes, come from the areas around Riobamba and Ambato, in the highlands and wear long black or navy blue wraparound skirts with embroidery on the bottom.  The most amazing part of it though, is the belt they use.  It's a really long strip of brightly embroidered fabric that they just wrap around them a bunch of times, tuck in the end, and that holds up the skirt!  I was slightly shocked the first time I saw a younger lady, around my age, dressed in the traditional skirt with a t-shirt on top and zip-up sweatshirt!  The combination traditional and contemporary seemed odd at first, to me, but appears to be the way they've allowed themselves to "modernize" while still carrying on tradition.  But after seeing them, I was still taken aback when I saw a lady from Otavalo in town.  They're very easy to spot, since they always wear white, lacy embroidered shirts, with a double skirt underneath, at least that's what it appears. :)  It looks like it's a tan skirt underneath with a black one on top.

 I was beginning to think that all of the indigenous people from around Macas had completely assimilated, since the only ones I saw dressing traditionally were from the highlands, until I was getting ready to leave Macas the 2nd year I came down and was at the airport waiting for the plane to land.  The plane was hours late and I looked out the window at the airport, and saw a crowd gathering to meet the incoming plane.  That wasn’t the odd thing, though, but how some were dressed.  It was all men in suits, but over half had yellow and red feathered crowns on their head and were wearing long loops of what looked like beads, but I knew were seeds.  They were looped across their chest, crisscrossing their bodies.   Others just had the seeds.  My friend, who was with me, said that the feathered crowns were for the shamans or heads of the clan.  They were meeting some dignitary, which is why the plane was so late.

Walking

As I sat and looked out my window on a little corner of Paradise, I was trying to think of something to write, since it's been so long and I have so many stories, that at the time I want to share, but as the days go by and I have no time, I forget the details and they're not as interesting anymore.  And then along comes a guy pushing a cart and advertising his wares.  His voice is loud enough that it easily carries up to me, on the second floor, with my windows closed, but I can't understand what he  says.  I look at him and see that in his handcart are coconuts and that he's selling coconut juice.  And it reminds me of my walks home from school.  I don't usually see the handcarts near my house, since it's not a commercial area and they don't really do as good of a business here, but there's many downtown, on nearly every corner, actually.  It got me thinking, too, of the things here, that have become normal to me, but that are anything but in the States, or at least in Salem. :)  So I tried to think of all the things that I've seen here in the past week, when walking home, or taking the bus.

The cobblestone streets at first made me feel as if I were in Europe a hundred years ago, but then I looked up and saw the tangle of electrical wires and realized that I had to be at least in the 20th century. :)

Getting ready for a parade wouldn't be worth it if you couldn't string banners from the bucket of a front loader!

People are dressed in so many different ways, the styles are so much more varied than in the States!  But that's a whole 'nother blog post.

The next block I'll most likely see one or more of my students, yelling "Teacher!!!  Es mi profe!  Mire mami! (It's my teacher!  Look mom!)  Teacher, teacher, hola!!"  Sometimes they'll be walking along with their parents, other times hanging out on the front stoop of the store while waiting with their parents and other times with their head hanging out the car window as their family drives by.  But nearly every single time I'm outside, I see at least one student or parent of a student.

Then I see a flat bed truck with wooden sides and a wooden pole above, running down the middle, sometimes with a tarp over, sometimes not.  I never know what I'll see inside the trucks.  A cow or 2, a horse or 2, even a pig or goats.  But often the trucks will be full of people.  If a trucks empty, people will often pull it over and pay to take them somewhere, if they're going in the right direction.  I was surprised, last week, when I saw a particularly high truck with guys riding in it, well, not in, in, more straddling the sideboards, at least 2 stories off the ground, as if they were riding a giant horse!  Usually they're on the bed of the truck :) but this one must have been full, either that or they felt like being more adventurous than normal!

One day I was sitting on the bus when it pulled over to pick someone up, totally normal, but up walked a boy carrying a chicken.  Now this isn't really abnormal, but this chicken was alive and just tucked under the kid's arm like a football.  It was really hard not to laugh, what with everyone from the States asking me if the buses are anything like the infamous chicken buses of Mexico and Central America.  Up until then I'd seen many things get on the buses, both city and intracity buses, but never anything live, that wasn't human!  People often get on buses carrying huge buckets, sacks of grain, machetes, sugar cane, all sorts of things, but I'd not seen a live animal before!  Still haven't on the buses between cities, just the regular city buses, that really aren't all that different from Salem's city buses. :)




There are dogs all over the place, some confined behind fences, some allowed to roam free and some that are without owners.  A lot of times they band together, especially at night.  I'll often hear them after I'm in bed, all howling together.  So, at first I didn't think anything of the 2 dogs I saw on the sidewalk last Friday.  But then I looked closer.  There was a tan one and a black one, but the black one looked a little weird.  I'd already passed them, so I turned to look again.  No wonder he looked a little funny!  That was no fluffy tail, but a corkscrew pig's tail!  He was a little piglet about the size of a terrier and running around with the dog. :)  I guess he can eat the garbage from the garbage  pails as easily as the dogs do, but it still made me laugh to see.  Then of course, there's the millions of chickens, although not usually in the downtown area, but once you're not in the 3 or 4 blocks of  main downtown, most houses have them. Although, most families keep their chickens behind fences, every once in awhile, they'll be out on an insect hunt, in the streets or sidewalks.

On nearly every block you see someone with a little stand, either stationary or rolling, trying to sell something. Whether it's the man carrying 10 brooms all strapped onto his shoulder, the lady with balloons tied onto a really tall pole, a man with icecream on a platter with a cone stuck on top, the rolling carts selling orange juice, coconut juice or nuts, or the grills set up in front of a restaurant, doorway or just on a corner with fried plantains, grilled plantains, empanadas or meat on a stick, you can nearly find just about anything you want from these roving salesmen.  In fact, I think that might be the only way you can actually buy a book in Macas, aside from the school's bookstore and textbooks.

And that doesn't even take into consideration all of the little stores, each fairly specialized, that line the streets of Macas. :)