last weekend...

so, after celebrating in Guayaquil Aquila’s pre-birthday and Diane’s departure from PC Ecuador until 4 am on Saturday…I take the 1 o’clock bus back to manglaralto, and arrive to my buddy’s 40^th cumple bash…delish food, yummy caipiriñas and dancing to the rhythm of the music for another 7 plus hours, I get home from my party extravaganzas completely exhausted…I throw my tired body onto the bed and with the intention of sleeping until noon I close my eyes…5 minutes pass when I start to hear my host family loudly waking-up…doors slamming, bathroom water running through the drains, deep voices muttering words in the dark…and a car’s honking announcing someone’s arrival…but, WTF???!!!!! IT’S 3:30 A.M.!!!!!! Tonight out of all nights, my host fam decides to slaughter their 300-kilo pig…did they have a sudden attack of the midnight munchies and find nothing else to eat around the house?? No…is it someone’s birthday, baptism, retirement or any other sort of celebratory event that was forgotten and now was the time to make up for it?? No… then what was the reason behind getting up so f’in early to slaughter the piggy??…well, after much deliberation, my pooped cabeza finally figure it out…they did this to simply kill temptation…see, my town received a group of evangelicals last month who would come-in knocking door-to-door to “teach” people how to interpret the bible…once they passed some oral exams, the fortunate ones would then be baptized in the ocean at dusk…my host family was amongst these fortunate ones…then the group left, and my host fam began questioning what to do with the pig they’ve been feeding in the backyard for the past year…the original idea was to have a feast on new years’, but now with their new path, eating a piggy is completely out of the question…so, let’s kill temptation…they called some guys up to do the deed in exchange for some vino and a pound each of the piggy meat…my host dad chopped up Eloy into many little pieces and by 5:50 A.M. the work was done…my drained self thought, well the nightmare is over, hopefully now I can sleep, but no…6 A.M. hits and so are the neighbors at the door asking to buy a piece of the animal who once was named Eloy…one by one people from all around town come to the house to find a bargain, $2/lb of Eloy…it’s 11:25 and I can’t take it anymore…I step out of my room and head across the street looking for some much deserved peace and quiet…I order my encebollado (chuchaqui soup) and ask the lady to hold the meat.

from the land where the river meets the sea, and the house pets are doomed to the sharpness of a blade…i salute you all with my dull dagger which i only use to carve.

sending heaps of peace & love,

--caro

¨may the force be with you¨