somewhere under the sky

inti raymi

is the festival of the sun, or of the harvest. and i returned to Saraguro for a week to see and participate in this festival, after my mom had left from her visit in Cuenca.
it was about 3 and half days of festival, food, dance, music, rituals, and community. i stayed with one of the families i had stayed with before-with the father i mentioned earlier. and this was great because i got to know the family better and i just love them...there are 4 young kids and they are shy and cute and great, but opened up to me as well and i love them. and the mom is first of all, an excellent cook, and whenever she laughs at something i have to laugh, it´s contagious.
my favorite part of the festival were 2 rituals that i participated in, the first was of fire, which was very early in the morning but beautiful, and the second was a bathing ritual, which was very late at night. the water was absolutely freezing, freezing, but it really does have the cleansing effect and feels great afterwards.
after the festival ended, i spent two mornings in the school in the community. these children are beautiful!!! they are so open and well mannered and curious and it´s all part of the education this community has been developing over the years, actually based on principles some german guy brought over to Saraguro a couple decades ago. as well i worked some more in the foundation with the tourism branch.
maybe the best part of all this was my last night, although i cried a lot, my famiy made guinea pig for me, which is only for special occasions, and i learned a bit how to cook it. and then after dinner, the father told me stories, fables i mean. i love stories and i think culturally, stories are one of the most important factors in a society. first, i was happy because i could understand everything he said. but more importantly, i felt so privileged that he shared with me these andean fables that he had grown up with, and he would ask me at the end if i understood the moral, and sometimes i needed it explained :) but anyway...i can´t describe how i felt.
Saraguro has also given me another specific reason that i learned spanish. my philosophy has developed over these couple of years about learning languages and for me, learning the language is by no means the end. it is not my goal, but rather it is the way...the way to see through a culture and learn who other people are. learning spanish has let me learn about saraguro, because nobody there, thank god, speaks english, and about a people completely different than anything i would have known, and in a much more real way than from a textbook in a classroom.and for that, i am so thankful.

posted by leah v @ 7:05 PM