¡Vivan las Madres!

To say that Ecuadorians love their mothers would be an understatement. Second only to the Virgin Mary herself, moms are definitely the lifeblood of Ecuador. This was made apparent to me on Sunday when we celebrated Mother’s Day with the only thing that Ecuadorians might love more than their moms: a fiesta.

For my first 3 months living in Macas, I am required to live with a host family. I definitely lucked out in that department because my host family is wonderful, especially my host mom Monica. She treats me like one of her own kids and is constantly referring to me as her “hija adoptiva.” To show my appreciation to her for being such a great surrogate mom, I made pancakes for her on Sunday morning. Even though they looked pretty bad (I have a hard enough time making pancakes in the States much less in Ecuador) they tasted fine and she loved the gesture. Later on that afternoon, the whole family drove out to a river to enjoy a rare day of sunshine. Now I’m used to the American way of celebrating Mother’s Day, which usually consists of a nice brunch, some flowers, and a sappy Hallmark card. Very simple and relaxing. So when we got back from the river, I thought that the day of celebration was over and that we were just going to spend the evening watching telenovelas. This was foolish thinking on my part.

Around 6 PM, our neighbor came over and invited us to have dinner with her family. My family happily accepted and the two moms of the group (Monica and our neighbor) started planning what they were going to cook. An hour later, one of our chickens had been caught, killed, defeathered, and thrown in a large pot of boiling water on our outdoor fire pit. Our neighbor’s entire family had come in to celebrate Mother’s Day so by the time the chicken soup and yucca had finished cooking, there were about 15 of us crowded around a table to enjoy the meal. This is when things started to get interesting.

Our neighbor’s husband had brought over a few bottles of liquor to celebrate the women in his life. After dinner, we brought out the plastic shot glasses and began toasting the moms. After the bottles were emptied, the neighbor’s daughter was sent to buy more liquor and I was sent inside to bring out my guitar and sing songs in English. I fumbled my way through “Tears in Heaven” and “Hotel California” while the whole family clapped and tried to sing along. This went on till about midnight. Again, I foolishly thought the party was coming to an end. After all, it was Sunday and we all had to go to work and school the next day. About the time I was thinking that things were winding down, the neighbor’s daughter showed up with more liquor (this was her 3rd beer run of the night) and the guitar was replaced by the stereo blasting reggaeton. The chairs and table were cleared out of the way and the dance party began.

The rest of the night is somewhat of a blur, but I will say that all the guys at our party relentlessly tried to teach me how to dance everything from merengue to bachata to reggaeton. Around 4 AM and 13 bottles of liquor later, our neighbors decided to head home, only because it had started to rain. Out of the 15 party goers, four were under the age of 14 and therefore didn’t drink. Doing some quick math, we find that roughly each person had more than an entire bottle of liquor to themselves. ¡Viva el día de la madre!
All in all, the fiesta was amazing and I had a great time. Everyone spent the whole night talking, laughing, dancing, and celebrating their moms. The following morning was definitely rough, as was the whole rest of the day. But it was well worth it. Later on that day at work, my host dad asked me if I had enjoyed the party. I told him I loved it and that it was definitely a different way of celebrating Mother’s Day than I was used to. He just laughed and told me to wait until Father’s Day. Yikes.

As a side note, I’ve had leftover Mother’s Day cake as the main course for at least two out of three meals everyday since Sunday. It’s my family’s favorite breakfast food, and the cause of my mid-morning sugar crash. And I thought PopTarts were sweet…

Mrs. B, I talked to Kelly and she told me to tell you that she’s doing great and loving her site. She’s becoming fast friends with the guys who drive the garbage trucks, since she usually catches a ride with them on her way to the different communities. And while my breakfast usually consists of cake, Kelly is choking down pig skin and mote each morning. But other than that, she loves the people in Santa Ana and is becoming a master hangman player with all the kids at the schools where she teaches English. She says to say hello and to send more crossword puzzles!