Anyway, yesterday was Easter. It wasn't quite the same as Celebration of the Egg, but it was fun to celebrate an Ecuadorian Easter! People here celebrate with a type of soup called Fanesca. It's a soup that contains an unknown number of grains. Some people say seven, other say twelve, but all I know it that there's a lot of stuff in it. We attended a ward activity on Saturday, and the whole ward came together to make it. We got there at 11:00 to help peel the several different types of vegetables in quite possibly the largest pot I've ever seen. No joke, you could have fit Hermana Giles in the pot! It was awesome! The Fanesca had to cook for like three hours, so while it was cooking, we got everything else ready for the Easter feast. We also had to make arroz con leche, peel potatoes for mashed potatoes and while we couldn't participate, we got to watch everyone play soccer. To be totally honesty, Hermana Giles and I didn't do a whole lot to help prepare the food, because in the time it takes us to peel one potato, the Ecuadorian women peel eight. But there were parts of that Fanesca that we did help peel so it counts! Plus, it was nice to spend some time with the members. We don't get to know them very well aside from our mamitas, so it was cool to work with them and celebrate Easter with them! These people are just so amazing. All of the kids help with the work without being asked and without complaining, so even if they aren't like super good friends or anything, they still work together because that's just how the culture is!
Oh man, Elder Christofferson is such a boss! He spoke to us for an hour and a half IN SPANISH!! I got to shake his hand, and seriously there are so many thanks that I wanted to tell him, but it was just like Comic Con! You go up, shake his hand, then have to move on, because there are 100 more people waiting, so I just had to smile as hard as I could and try to convey how awesome I think he is in my handshake :-). But I did get to read a scripture for him in Spanish, and I was the only Gringa to do that, because #YOLO and I would have regretted it if I hadn't volunteered. Aren't missions just the coolest? He was here in Ecuador for leadership training, but he took the time to speak to the missionaries too!
So, more funny things about Ecuador:
The traditional clothing here is so rockin'! The women have these gorgeous embroidered shirts. They're usually white with flowers, and it's kind of awesome because they actually don't look very good on super skinny Gringas! #blessed :-). The skirt actually depends on the region. The women in the more indigenous parts (actually in the campo) wear these pleated skirts that match the flowers on their shirts. In the lower regions, they wear a slip underneath with a wrap-around cotton skirt over top. The shoes are called Alpargartas, and though they look flimsy, they're actually super durable. And I have serious hair envy here, and not just of the women. A lot of the men have longer hair than the women, and both wear their long dark hair in these perfect braids. The traditional clothing for the men are these straight-legged white pants with black ponchos and white Alpargatas (the women's are black). Mark would love it.
Also, everything here is so dang cheap. I can buy a sweater made completely of alpaca wool for $19 (and that's without bartering). All the stuff here is so dang beautiful, and when I come home, I'm leaving almost all of my stuff here and bringing two suitcases full of Ecuador home with me :-)
The people here LOVE to talk. No joke. You say one word, and they tell you their life story. Ward council can take up the two hours because we have to give our progress report of investigators, but we can say their name and what help they need, and suddenly someone else will remember an activity that they need to discuss with everyone, and fifteen minutes later, Obispo will turn to us and ask who else we have.
Sometimes it is really hard being a Gringa. We get stared at all the time, and it's not like the people are super subtle about it either. And people are always telling me how red I am, and I'm just like, "Yeah, you would be too if YOU lived here and had my skin color." Not out loud, of course. Also, we have people (men especially) that will say things in English because they think we don't speak/understand Spanish.
It's cute though. Because Ecuadorians add -ita/-ito to the end of everything. We aren't Hermanas. We're hermanitas. A dog isn't a perro. It's a perrito. It's so fun to walk up to the house of an investigator and have the daughters call out "Hola hermanitas!" And women always kiss each other on the cheek when saying hello or goodbye.
I seriously love this place. I love being a missionary, and I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father for sending me here. Seriously, sorry for the handwriting, but I'm writing on the bus from Quito, and the buses here tilt and shake and are stick-shift, so they lurch a lot too! I love you guys so much!
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
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