Fruits, Flowers, and Farewells

Well, the Festivals of Fruits and Flowers came and went in a flash. And what a crazy time is was! I can safely say now that I have had the true Carnival experience. And I understand why this only takes place once a year, because it’s exhausting! So much happened over the course of last weekend, but I’ll just fill you in on the highlights. But first, a little background on the history of the festivals.

Ambato suffered a terrible earthquake in 1949, which destroyed the majority of the city and some surrounding towns. This is why Ambato now has no Colonial architecture- the city pretty much rebuilt itself completely in the years after the earthquake. In order to empower the Ambateños and to give them a renewed sense of pride in their city, the Festival of Fruits and Flowers began in 1950. In 1951, the festival was aligned with the celebration of Carnival (or the period before Lent begins, much like Mardi Gras in New Orleans), and the tradition has carried on ever since. Ambateños are very proud of their rich agricultural heritage, and the immense variety of fruits and flowers they produce. Ambato also has the most famous bread in all of Ecuador, so of course that must be included in the celebrations too! There is a permanent committee in Ambato that works on the preparations for the festivals all year long, and thousands of visitors comes every year from Ecuador, other parts of South America, and beyond!

So now we get to the festivities themselves. Early Saturday morning I went with my host parents to the Cathedral for an outdoor Mass. Every year, the festival officially kicks off with the blessing of the city’s fruit, flowers, and bread that will then be used for the duration of the festivals. The scene was beautiful- a gorgeous blue sky set the backdrop of the white Cathedral and the thousands of people in the crowd. The most incredible part, though, was the huge mural made only of fruits, flowers, and bread that adorned the front of the Cathedral. It’s a tradition every year for the city to hang a mural such as this one on the Cathedral for the festivals, and there is a team that works all through the night before creating it with care. Every year the mural is different, and I actually saw an exhibit that showed photos of murals from the last 15 years. Incredible! This year’s mural showed Jesus with a family, and had an inscription about being disciples of God and missionaries of peace. Looking at it from afar, you would never believe that everything was made from entirely organic goods; it certainly is an impressive work of art.

I felt like a member of the paparazzi because President Correa came to Mass, and I couldn’t control my excitement or the amount of photos I took. I actually sat directly ten rows behind him, so I had a great view of him the entire time. I think I was more excited than the Ecuadorians to see him (in the photo President Correa has just received a basket of blessed fruit,and part of the mural is behind him). He did a reading at Mass, along with Ambato’s mayor and the newly elected Reina de Ambato (Miss Ambato, if you will). As you can tell from that lineup, being the Reina is a huge deal, and the weeks leading up to the festivals offered all sorts of pageants and events for the six candidates. The new Reina was sworn in while I was at the beach, so I wasn’t able to go to the ceremony, but it certainly was fun seeing her sitting a few seats away from the President himself! Can you imagine Miss America accompanying President Bush to all the most important events? Well, maybe it’s better not to answer that question, and to just leave this tradition to the Ecuadorians…

Then two other volunteers, Mark from Santa Elena and Sarah from Guayaquil, came to visit for the day. It was fun to play tour guide with the other Ambateñas and to show them all the sights, especially when the city was in celebration-mode. We ate an amazing dinner at our favorite restaurant, and then we went out dancing!  On Sunday morning we gathered downtown with every other Ambateño it seemed, to watch the parade. I have never had to fight so hard to see a parade in my life! Cars blocked the street entrances and crowds of people jammed the sidewalks. We fought for nearly an hour for a spot, eventually having to go down a hill and through the insides of three homes to get down to a street below! But Dan and Carla had saved us spots on the back of a dump truck, so it was well worth the effort. We had a great view of the parade and it was wonderful to see all the floats made with fruits and flowers (see the photo of one of the many high school's reinas on her float), and all the dance groups in costumes as well.

Right after the parade, we all headed to the town of Guaranda to meet up with some other volunteers. Guaranda is famous because the entire town “plays Carnival” throughout the festivals. Basically this means that for the weeks leading up to Carnival, and especially that final weekend, everyone in the town is subject to being sprayed with foam, getting flour thrown on them, being hit by water balloons, or having water dumped on them from roofs. My host family couldn’t believe that I was putting myself in such a situation, but it turned out to be such a blast! Even within our first minutes in town someone dumped a bucket of water on us, yet we quickly learned how to fight back. We all bought cans of foam and sprayed with vengeance. I felt like I was in a real-life video game, having to watch my back and every turn, trusting no one, and existing purely in survival mode. So walking in the street turned out to be a challenge in itself, but we found a huge dance party and ended up staying there for the majority of the afternoon. So picture this, hundreds of people in the street, foam flying everywhere, flour-masked faces at every turn, buckets of water being dumped on people, and of course salsa dancing! A fabulous combination if you ask me. My fellow volunteer Katie Skipper put it best when she said, “This is one of those moments when I think to myself, how did my life get to this point?” It really was a surreal experience, but all the more fun because of it.

After the Guaranda craziness, some volunteers returned to Ambato on Monday to see a different side to the festivals and to check out the nighttime parade. I ended up showing them to my favorite colada morada place in Atocha, and then I went and met up with my family to watch the second parade. Shenanigans broke out after the parade, though, with everyone spraying foam in the streets, even though it’s technically illegal in Ambato. Because of all my fun in Guaranda, I was over the whole foam experience at that point. I guess the rest of the Ambateños hadn’t gotten it out of their systems yet, though.

Yet finally on Tuesday the festivals came to a close. I loved my experiences over the entire extended weekend- from dancing with the Colombians in the park to spraying strangers with foam in the streets. Exhausted, I must admit that I was ready for a bit of a break. And with the festivals also ended another chapter of my life in Ecuador- my time with my dear fellow Ambateña, Eden. Eden’s last night in Ambato was Tuesday, and we certainly all lived it up together. On Aubrey’s request, we all took Eden to my new favorite restaurant in town- it serves grilled kabobs, choclo (over-sized corn), and plantains with an amazing cheese sauce over everything. I can’t begin to describe how delicious it was. Then we went to a fun park and went on some crazy rides. Let’s just say I will never forget what it looks like to see Ambato upside down from about 10 stories up in the sky. So after all the food and laughter, we called it a night…or so we thought.

At about 1am my host mom came into my room in such a fuss, jumping up and down and shrieking about the volcano…it was erupting in a fury! So of course she told me to hop in the car so that we could all take a look. I knew that Eden wouldn’t want to miss out on this her last night in Ambato, so she joined our pajama parade as well. Sadly, it was too cloudy to really see anything (though I would see lava from my classroom window in the following days), but we definitely heard Tungurahua and her rumbling. It sounded a lot like the ocean, though magnified about 100 times. When I got back home I went to bed with the radio reporting evacuations on the mountain and projected ash fall...yikes!

In the morning I came downstairs to about 8 huge buckets of water in the kitchen, which I was later told was in case of a water shortage because of the volcano. All high schools were closed for the duration of the week, people were encouraged to stock up on food, and everyone was told to have their masks handy (which I had!). It all turned out to be rather anti-climatic, though. Ambato hasn’t had any serious ash fall, though I know many smaller towns in the region have been greatly affected. My mom actually called to make sure I was okay because Tungurahua made CNN headlines. I really do feel terrible for all the poor men and women who have been evacuated from their mountainside homes, and for their significant loss of crops and animals because of lava and ash. Hopefully Tungurahua will settle down a bit soon, and the volcano will again fall back into the scenic backdrop of my Ecuadorian experience.

After debating Wednesday morning whether or not I should risk getting stuck in ash on the way to Quito, I decided that the blue skies were indication enough that everything would be okay. Thankfully that turned out to be the case! I traveled by bus on Wednesday night after my classes so that I could be with Eden, Aubrey, and some other volunteers for Eden’s last night in the country. I was so happy that I was able to be there! Aubrey and I took Eden to the airport on Thursday morning and it was such a surreal experience. I couldn’t get it through my head that she was actually leaving, because she has been such an integral part to my experiences here so far. But I know we will remain in touch and that she will still contribute so much to my time here. Not many people know what it’s like to walk down streets of Ambato, to teach English to Ecuadorians, to interact with my host family, or to experience all of Ecuador’s daily surprises. Now I am so lucky to have someone back home who I know will not only take interest in these aspects of my life, but will help me to understand and appreciate them as well. So Eden, you know I will miss you so much, but you are still here in my memories and will be a part of all my future experiences here too. I wish you the best of luck back in Ann Arbor and I’ll live it up here for the both of us!

So after a week of festivals and farewells, it looks like things will finally begin to settle back down into a normal (in the Ecuadorian sense that is) routine. I have passed my half-way mark here in Ecuador, and I just hope I am able to make the most of my remaining time in Ambato- through my teaching, my Spanish studies, my integration into the culture, and my own personal growth as well. Thanks for taking an interest in my journey so far, and I hope you stay tuned for part two! Mucho amor a todos.