Madrina del Sector Pastavi de San Jose de Quichinche

We live in a part of Quichinche called Sector Pastavi, which is a kind of neighborhood. Each neighborhood elects a president and other officials to take care of the neighborhood, call mingas when there are needs, and to try and foster a feeling of togetherness and amiability among neighbors. A couple of years ago, Carlos was the president. It is hard to be president, because people have conflicting interests and incomes range wildly even among neighbors in Quichinche. For example, some neighbors want to pool money to pave the road in the neighborhood, while others are just trying to stave off starvation. In addition to the elected officials, every neighborhood also chooses a madrina, or godmother. Apparently their function is to help watch over the neighborhood, provide refreshments on the minga days, and help to petition the city for funds. 

One night, the neighborhood officials paid us a visit.  Laden with gifts of pizza, sodas and a huge fruit basket, they came to ask Jorie to be the madrina of our neighborhood. Jorie was, of course, ecstatic. It was a shame that this came towards the end of our stay in Ecuador, as Jorie wouldn't have the opportunity to fulfill completely her madrina roles, but it was nice regardless of the neighborhood to accept our family as one of them.

 

Here you can see the excitement just oozing out of her as she holds the pizza and fruit basket.










A few weeks after they asked Jorie to be madrina, the neighborhood planned a mother's day party activity, concurrently with which they would officially designate Jorie as madrina. The ceremony consisted in the queen of Quichinche placing the banner on Jorie.












The queen and a few other folks said a few words to honor mothers, as did Jorie. She did a fantastic job, with a speech that she had written herself in Spanish. Most of the people in attendance knew that we were the gringos living in the neighborhood, but for people other than our immediate neighbors we mostly just exchanged "holas" and not much more.  They were all so surprised at Jorie's accent and fluency. We were pretty proud.
















After the speech, and while Vicente's band played, Jorie passed out roses brought from Carlos's flower farm, along with fresh home backed cookies and a mother's day note to all the mothers in the audience. Here she has just given the roses and cookies to Susana.















Before we left the ceremony, the president of the neighborhood made us promise to take a picture of Jorie all dressed up and in her madrina garb. He wanted to have a picture of the madrina to hang up on the neighborhood Christmas tree. We gave him this one.

Our road buddies

We don't know what their names are, and what relation they have to Quichinche. We do know that they are some of our favorite people. They sit up against this brick wall, directly in front of the t-intersection where our dirt road hits the main Quichinche road. They are there nearly every day, usually rain or shine. At first, when we would arrive at the intersection, they would look both ways and calmly indicate that there were no cars coming. It seemed like they had adopted the community traffic responsibility. After a while, as they realized that we appreciated their help, their indications of a clear road became increasingly animated and friendly. Enough so that the fellow on the right would literally bounce up and down in his seat, grinning and laughing as he signaled that the coast was clear. 

 

These guys are cool because they continue to be part of the community, even though they are both crippled, almost to the point that they can no longer walk, using the hand made walker and shuffling about. But despite this, they pick up a shovel and try to clean the gutter in front of where they guard the road. In addition, neither can say a word. They both can only grunt, moan and make make gestures. But their grunting and moaning is of a happy sort, as a smile almost never leaves their face. I can't help but think about these two fellows, serving their community and fellow neighbors in their own little way, continuing to feel useful. They can be an example to many in the US who, once their youthful vigor is slightly decreased, file for disability and spend their time in front of the television. I hope I am more like our road buddies when I am older.