Needless to say, my diet here is understandably different from what I am used to. Where I am living, breakfast usually consists of a hot drink that looks like coffee (but tastes like hot chocolate. I’ve been told it’s coffee, but I am convinced that there is chocolate in it), sometimes there’s a hard boiled egg or a scrambled egg, sometimes there’s a little bit of hot yogurt with a little cereal mixed in or there might be 2 pieces of white bread with what looks like a white hot dog inside & does not have much taste. Yesterday I had a sort of mashed corn mixture with a few beans wrapped in a large leaf. You don’t eat the leaf. Lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day, always starts with soup. It is not uncommon to put pop corn in your soup, which immediately sort of dissolves or at a minimum becomes soggy, adding a little additional substance to the soup. The meal is usually a large white starchy one with a large portion of rice, which may or may not have a few beans in it & is often accompanied by pasta. There may be a small piece of chicken and/or some beans or lentils. Sometimes there are tomatoes or beets, which add some color to the plate. Dinner is generally the same meal as lunch, but smaller in portion. I neglected to add that mote (large white corn kernels) are a staple in Cuenca and are on the table and eaten at every meal. I find that mote has no taste & frequently the outer part is unchewable. Beverages are one kind or another of fruit juice.
Sunday night I had dinner at the home of a local family whom I met a week ago. I had cuy* (guinea pig) again. It was very good. As I have said, I have had guinea pig before, but this was the first time that the whole head was on my plate, including the teeth! When I asked if I was supposed to eat the head, I was told that some people only ask for the head. Of course I ate it. There wasn’t much meat on the head & looking at the eye sockets was a bit strange.
New friends
All work and no play is no good! Life outside of the school where I teach and the family with whom I live is key to my happiness here. I met a woman a week ago, who asked me if I might be available to help her with her English. I said yes & suggested that she might be able to help me with Spanish. She called and we got together on Sunday. She and her husband live in a beautiful home, surrounded both indoors and out with magnificent plants. It was like being in an arboretum. I taught her the meaning of having a green thumb! We really hit it off. She swims regularly at an Olympic pool, that I did not know existed in Cuenca. I hope to get there sooner rather than later. She also has a home on the beach, several hours from here, where she said she would like me to come some time. She asked me what kind of music I like & when I said that I like music from Latin America & shared that Marco Antonio Solis is my favorite singer, her husband put on a song of his without words & he belted out the words. How special!! I feel that this is the beginning of a new, special friendship. It was at her home where I ate the cuy* with the head.
