4th of July in Ecuador and My quest against the Papaya

so just in case your are confused, i am so not writing this on the 5th, but i am going to make 2 entries today, so i wanted to split up the dates. also, let me say big sorries for taking so long to write. pc staff wanted some time to check out our blogs so i had to wait a week, and then i was on a viaje (trip) for the last few days. anyhow, here we go...)

so basically once i arrived at my host family here in Tabacundo, they were like, "hi, how are you, whats your name, what are you guys planning for the 4th of july party?" basically, it is a tradition in this town the the aspirantes (trainees) have a party for the 4th. so, my group and i decided to take on the task and do it! we were worried because we had not seen ground beef since arriving in ecuador, but there are tons of butcher shops in Cayambe (the big city over) where they sell meat. we bought ground beef, a TON of hot dogs, made a potato salad, fruit salad and smores! i was in charge of cooking the burgers (again i have a picture, i promise that one of these days i will remember to upload my photos). just picture me and 11 pounds of ground beef gettin it done! i had a small breakdown when i lost hope about the grill arriving, but finally it did and we grilled about 50 burgers and 30 hotdogs at one time over this big ass fire! it was awesome! we also got a local panedaria to make a cake that looked like the american flag (i know, so not theresa style, but it was the 4th and the folks here were really into it, and there was a dude in my group who was all, go america! so we did it)

there are 3 other people in my group plus another 5 volunteers in another neighborhood...so with all of us and our families all together we had about 68 people! folks said it was the biggest peace corps 4th of july party that Tabacundo has ever seen! Sarita, who´s house the party was at, her brother is a dj here, so we had these HUGE speakers pumping the musica, i am pretty sure that the whole town could hear us! oh, it was fun!!!!

also, just before that day i learned a major lesson. i was sitting around with my host family (playing a little Uno, oh yeah!) and my host mom asked if i like kiwis (she wanted to buy some but they are an expensive fruit here, about 25 cents each, and she didnt want to buy them if i didnt want to eat them). so i said, yes, i do like kiwis....but...i really dont like papaya. the thing is that we had papaya for just about every single meal during my first week here, and i had scarfed it down trying to be a good volunteer and openminded to things that i dont like. however, as far as i am concerned, papayas smell and taste like feet and booty. i didnt say all that to my host mom, for one because its rude and for two because i dont know how to in spanish. anyhow, i fessed up to not liking the papaya. and guess what happened? she said, "you know, i didnt think you liked it because you never finnish it, but you kept eating it, so i kept serving it." she basically explained that she wants to give me different kinds of things to see what i like, so that when i am living on my own i will know what to buy and what not to buy. so, i went against the advice that we were given by peace corps (and every advice i have ever been given in social work classes, trainings, and traveling to guatemala in college) about always taking food from latino families. i went out on a limb and decided to just be myself and tell her that i dont like it...and it worked out way better! i felt like that small step not only helped me grow closer and gain trust with my host mom, but also, i dont have to eat any more yucky papaya! win win situation overall. the moral to the story...just be yourself, kids.