Roommates United in Ecuador Part II.... Tabuga

For those who have had the incredible opportunity of visiting Tabuga, I am sorry to say that Carmen's week in Tabuga tops all. In March when Carmen was attentively watching ticket prices I had mentioned to Carmen that sometime in the month of September fall the fiestas of Tabuga. Apparently Carmen has good Karma because her trip dates were perfect allowing us to spend a week in Tabuga, working, playing soccer, dancing and just living the life. Entertaining, captivating details follow:

The fiestas of Tabuga this year were planned by a Tabugan who recently returned from Spain with big hopes of putting Tabuga on the map. His new 'modern' ideas learned from Spain led to a 6 day full schedule of local traditions, futbol, gambling and a huge dance. Carmen and I missed day one in order to white water raft which was definitely a good choice. Day two we arrived after an overnight bus and I went to work on my environmental center well Carm got her beauty sleep.

The center is doing incredibly well. After it's inaguration in June I have been working to get it ready to be full functional to open it and put a local employee as the receptionist/welcome person etc. This all gotten taken care of just fine and Carm and I really got the last minute details in place for the big opening Thursday, Day 4 of the fiestas. The girl who is working in the center is 23 and studying at night in the University in Jama. She has a 'husband' and a kid and is super PILAS and awesome. I plan on writing a blog about my work so that you all know how much I do work and that it isn't a party all the time but in short, this Environmental Center has sucked out all of my energy and creativity and to have it now open is a huge success in my Peace Corps service, plus, it was cool for Carmen to help out.

Enough about work, the fiestas are all about playing and you should see Carmen dominate indoor. Indoor is played outdoors on a concrete slab and it´s huge here in Manabí. Everyone in Tabuga is still talking about Carmen and her sweet indoor skills. Highlights from the soccer match include a Tabugan shooting off a gun, 4 times, in celebration of one of Carmen´s goals. Luckily I had warned Carmen about this and she didn´t dive to the ground in fear like I did the first time it happened with me...where do the bullets land? Also, my favorite, was when Carmen schooled a girl, breaking her ankles (figurtively), scored a goal and upon celebrating running towards mid-court a teethless neighbor of mine, in a intense burst of enthusiasm grabbed Carmen´s arm and ran with her in celebration. The ultimate weird indoor experience was definitely the disputable red card. After the ref made the call that the girl from the other team grabbed the ball with her hand while on the ground in the box (not disputable, always a red card), the men in town stormed the court. The men from the neighboring town weird so mad, everyone was yelling. All the girls,those of us playing, moved to the side. Poor Carmen just stood confused wanting to finish the game while I took the opportunity to talk about feminist stuff. For example, why were there a bunch of men yelling when all of us just wanted to play. Then, we realized why, they all had bet mad cash on the outcome of the game.

THe overall indoor highlight was the championship game where Carmen dominated scoring 4 goals and then I chipped in with one perfectly arched left footer to win the game. Gringa RUE domination... very nice.

Besides fútbol Carmen and I enjoyed watching card tournaments, getting drunk with the old men, teaching some locals college drinking games, getting dressed up and dancing the last night and of course the inhumane treatment to a chicken. The Tabugans burried a chicken in the ground up to it´s neck, blind-folded teenage girls, spun them around, handed them a machete and gave them three tries to behead the chicken. It was ludicrous. The best part being when the 4th girl succeeded I took off running and screaming in fear. With embarassment I crouched down to the ground only to see Carmen out of the corner of my eye doing exactly the same thing. All the people who had been eagerly watching the horrific murder of an innocent chicken were turned, watching the gringas run in honest fear and discust. Just mark that up on the list as a HUGE cultural difference.





















In order for Carmen to get a full Andrea lives in Ecuador experience, Carmen and I took Friday night off to party in Canoa. It was a blast and included good fresh sea food, happy hour specials, reminising about Alex Crosby and la uña de la gran bestia, a shot of strong caña alcohol that is left to ferment for 3 months with a scorpion, centipede and maryjuana. I think Carmen liked it.



















After the dance that had people in Tabuga dancing until 7am, literally, Carm and I took a bus to Quito, spent our last R.U.E moments together and departed at the airport. I then headed back to Tabuga on a nightbus.