Los Colibríes

This is a stellar view of Nanegal (thanks to pbase), where Arik, Lindsey and I rode the bus to from Quito and met with Doña Norma (below) and Cecelia for a short drive into Santa Marianita. It is a sweet and fun place that seemed to be living on "island time", only in the mountainous cloud forest.

Here is a view of the town square...basically surrounded by small houses, one small general store, a school and a church. This picture is old, so the grass is short. When I was there this past weekend, the grass was about six inches high and was not cut beacuase there is only one weed whipper in the village and the last time they cut it, the grass was so high it damaged the whipper. So, it sits as it is and is still played in. When I asked why people did not play much futból ("soccer" to the silly gringoes) the Peace Corps volunteer, Jeanette, said that it rains too much. The sport of choice? Volleyball! Under a roof, of course...


After one morning in the garden, we got to see the inner workings of Las Colibrís Womens Artisan Cooperative, the joyería, or jewelry shop (colibrí = hummingbird). Doña Norma, who met us in Nanegal, is seen here sawing materials for the many crafts and jewelry made in this small shop.The large seeds on the table are tagua, a type of palm tree seed. It is also called vegetable ivory...the reason is obvious, as it is a very strong, polishable, and, eventually, white seed. These seeds come from these huge, gnarly, spikey clusters the size of a basketball, and the seeds are removed from that big cluster. (Thanks to Mary Finn for this pic and the those following, RIP camera.)

Below are some polished tagua seeds that are fashioned into salt and pepper shakers.



Tagua is used for a lot of things...these ladies make what you see above, earrings, necklaces, keychains, candle holders with coco, or coconut, as a base, and containers (salt shaker minus holes...). Below is a picture of the tagua seed in raw form, husk removed, slightly polished, etc....



Doña Norma was super friendly, accomodating, powerful, and creative. Here she is holding some of the home-made paper that they make into cards and also use to display and sell earrings.



Arik and Lindsey, my friends form West Va. that are on their luna de miel, or honeymoon, were entranced by this gorgeous little town. Had they not made prior commitments, they would have stayed here for another week! I would have done the same...but classes are a bit of a priority!

We went to the river on Saturday, where the locals have a few thatched rooves to cook food and eat, a few big swings in the trees, and, of course, a volleyball court. It is all situated on a small island that is surrounded by a swift, chilly, and beautiful river. Sorry, no pics...yet!

We had some time to play with the local children. If your heart is cold, they can melt it!!! Arik an I had a game of basketball with some locals...good for the heart, and later we went to a lucha de gallo, or cock fight, and got a good taste of local happenings.....and some mighty delicious local liquor, flavored with piña, pineapple, and heated to a nice toasty temperature. One dollar for a large beer bottle full....not bad. Miguel, a little pal I met whose papa had a cooster fighting, got some blood on his hand and showed it off like a trophy. It was quite gruesome but I sat through it more for watching the people get so into the scene.

The next day, Arik and Linds had to leave early and I stuck around and got into the jewelry scene. Doña Norma, on her day off, got me set up, with another Canadian lady, Alexandra, sawing tagua and polishing them into the beauty that lies beneath the crud....hmmmm, kind of like a human heart and mind. Lots of potential for shining grace, if we would only pick up our internal tools and patiently put them to meaningful work...as Wendell Berry puts it: ...for patience joins time to eternity... (thanks Chipop). What better time than NOW. What only time but now!

Alexandra had been there for two weeks, and 14 year old son asked, for the second time, to stay another week there! Nice place, to be sure.

Well, off to class. Keep in mind that you have those tools within your Self. Use them and see what you can dig up.

Adios,

Cory