black eye

Highlights and lowlights from my week:

• Going to the town of Shell to serve as "interpreter" for some gringo pilot who couldn´t speak Spanish. I waited around for 3 hours while the Waorani spoke Wao terero all around me, and I had no clue what was going on. The pilot never showed up. We ended up stopping at some missionary airline headquarters and getting an impromptu guided tour of the hangar where they were repairing airplanes.
• Jer makes the front page of La Prensa, the local paper....again. His "magic" show is a big hit. Kids in the street are eager to say hello and they call him the magician.
• Jer made crepes this morning (mostly because we were out of syrup for our usual Sunday morning banana pancakes). Last night he made homemade veggie soup and carrot cake with cream cheese icing. YUM!
• I attended a workshop on the Fair Trade market for artesania. It was put on by the Sinchi Sacha (which means big forest in Quichua) Foundation which has a fantastic new museum in Quito that features the art and handicrafts of all the different indigenous cultures of Ecuador. There were representatives from several different indigenous groups at the workshop. I only had 5 bucks on me, otherwise I would have probably bought a sh·tton of stuff. Beautiful handwoven wool tapestries, intricately handpainted ceramic bowls, super complex beaded jewelry and bags...all stuff I can´t resist...except when I don´t have dinero...
• Being told to pick out two fish....two live fish in a plastic bag...to take home and eat. I like fish. I eat fish. But I don´t like to kill fish or cook fish. I admit I have never done it. I don´t even like to handle live fish. I stuck my hand in the bag, hoping the fish had died a quick, quiet death by suffocation in the plastic bag during our 25 minute ride back into town...but no, they were still alive and pretty pissed (wouldn´t you be???). I picked up the fish the wrong way...was instructed how to pick up the fish. Then I dropped the fish on the dirt road. I picked up the fish (the right way) with my one free hand (the other held another fish) and said goodbye to my friends. I wasn´t quite sure what to do with the almost dead fish in my hands. Jeremy was out at his site for the night, so he couldn´t help me. I waited until the taxi had turned around the corner, then I gave them to our neighbor lady. She was thrilled (I think)... "que rico!" and then she realized that they were alive. She proceeded to drop one (sorry, dude). I then went home and ate leftover pesto pasta, feeling a tad bit guilty about it all. Maybe I should go back to being a vegetarian.
• My biggest highlight of the week was playing basketball with the Waorani. There is a big tournament coming up, and the women are really psyched about "training" for it. They take their sports pretty darn serious. We had an hour and a half meeting to determine: 1) Who would be on the team; 2) What number each person would wear; and 3) what colors our uniforms would be. The room was packed with Waorani women eager to chime in. Since the petroleros are paying for the uniforms, they picked out one of the more expensive ones...with the nice material and that have the logo of one of the French soccer teams. Anyhow, I showed up at the court on Friday night and one game was already underway on the lighted basketball court. One of the women from AMWAE rented a basketball for a buck and she started shooting hoops during the middle of their game. I kind of stood off to the side not wanting to interrupt their game. Soon we were invited to join the game. The court was packed, as I think at one point we were playing 8 on 8. Then, a bunch of little kids started their own half court game on one end...WHILE we were playing. Since it happened to be the end of the court where my team was trying to make baskets, I got a little annoyed by these little twerps interrupting our game. But no one in our game said anything or seemed to react at all. Adding to the obstacle course of the court was a dog. A boxer in fact. The dog liked to lay down near the foul line near our basket and I almost tripped over it several times. The dog didn´t seem to want to move, though. The other interesting part of the game involved the complete lack of celebration after great plays or awesome shots. At the beginning I shouted "¡Eso!" (that´s it!) after one of my teammates made a shot, or clapped. Then I realized no one else was doing it and stopped... As I later was informed, only extranjeros (foreigners) celebrate during the game...and that it is totally normal for people to just walk onto the court and start shooting when it is clear that another game is going on. I explained that I was used to other people waiting on the sidelines and maybe asking how much time is left in the game...but that is not the custom here. Well, it certainly made the game interesting. I succeeded in convincing the players that we should switch ends so that the other team would have the benefit of trying to dribble and pass around the 8 year olds and boxer obstacle course. Despite the distractions, I had a total blast. There were only a couple of good players (and I was one of them, if that gives you any indicator of the caliber of play) and almost everyone was a good sport. Since I was a good foot taller than most of the other women, I was the rebound queen. Somewhere during the game, however, I headbutted with another player going after a loose ball. We both saw stars. I was sure that I would have a big gash. Instead, I have a small scratch...and a black eye. But it was totally worth it, because I had a ton of fun. On our walk into town today, one of my Waorani teammates who I didn´t really know before, yelled to me across the street. We talked about the game and how sore we were and how we want to play again...maybe tonight. I often feel like the Waorani women often ignore me...not maliciously, but they just come off as being somewhat aloof. So, I have to admit it felt pretty cool to be treated more like a pal than just another stranger. So, I plan to hoop it up more often...even if I do have to sport another black eye.