Guinea Pig: Pet or PrimeRib?

So, I'm starting to run out of cool pictures to put up and I don't really have anything all that interesting to say, but here's something that I figure would be interesting to all of you: Life with the indigenous people of Ecuador. So, to the right is a picture of the general people I'm working with on a day to day basis (not taken by me).

Generally, the indigenous people are reserved but respectful, so it's taking me a while to build up my group of contacts and friends in my town, but little by little I'm beginning to get to know more and more people. The Kichwa learning has been slow because the town I'm in is sort of mixed, so people speak Spanish a lot (although people still speak to me at times in Kichwa either because 1) they don't know Spanish at all or 2) they just think I won't undersand and it will be a good way to make fun of me).

In one of the communities I work in, about half of the population doesn't speak Spanish so I get to sit through a number of meetings understanding next to nothing for about 40 minutes at the time.

The last time I was out in the community, I sat and watched kids play strange games I had never seen, some I had (3-legged races, potato sack races, etc), and then was served a meal fit for a king (in their terms). They take me inside and sit me down at a table and bring me a meal of tons of mote (a relative of corn) and an entire cuy (aka, Guinea Pig). Then they left me by myself to eat the food. I just found it culturally interesting that they would only serve me and leave me by myself in the room to eat in silence while everyone else was outside playing games and such. I ate about half of the cuy and some mote and asked for a bag to take the rest home (also a very typical custom in Ecuador, especially among the indigenous). For me, this served as a great way to conserve some food for the dog for later and get out of eating all of that cuy (don't worry, I didn't give the dog cuy since the bones are bad for them).

Anyways, that's the interesting stuff from this week of work. Tonight I'm going out and visiting a friend's site who lives in a REALLY indigenous site (read: 'hardcore Peace Corps'). Thanks for being patient with this boring phase in my blog, hopefully I find some way to spice it up in the future. Take care and I'll look forward to hearing from you all soon.

More dog pictures

So, The dog has been good for me thus far. He forced me to stay in Licto for pretty much the whole weekend, which is what PCV's are supposed to be doing for their first 3 months here anyways. He wasn't perfect, but he's about as good as you can expect for a 2 month-old puppy. The only really angering thing he did over the weekend was poop AND pee all over my nice hiking backpack... Other than that night he has been really good about just waking me up when he needs to go to the bathroom during the night and going right away as soon as I let him outside (in the right part of the patio, too!)

Me and Killu outside the supermarket in Riobamba.

Is it just me or does it look like Killu is playing air guitar in his sleep? The mohawk was the result of having to wash his head after a drop of motorcycle oil dropped on him while he was waiting outside a restaurant.

My new Yellow Friend

Well, as some of you may have heard through the grape vine (or by me annoying you with a text message), I finally bought a dog. The name I have given him (after much stress and many sleepless nights) is Killu Mashi Moore. That's Kichwa for Yellow Friend. In case you were wondering, you don't need to worry about formality with my dog, you can call him by his first name. For those of you who don't speak Kichwa, the pronunciation is approximately "Key-shoe"
I'm very, very happy with him so far. While he DID poop and later pee in the office only a couple hours after I bought him, office etiquette is thankfully much different at INNFA than it is in most American office places. Additionally, he's learning bathroom training really quickly. In the one grass area of my patio is where I'm taining him to go to the bathroom and so far he already seems to have it figured out. He slept in my bed last night and behaved himself superbly. Every few hours he would wake me up and I would take this as a sign that he wanted to go out. I walked him over to the grass and he unfailingly went to the bathroom without harassment. That doesn't mean he's perfect, but I personally was pretty impressed how fast he is learning. That's why you don't get stupid breed. Long live labs! Now, here's the part you actually care about. Some pictures:

Killu taking a little nap on some dirty clothes.

Killu says hello. (aka a picture of Killu yawning)

Killu being a goof.

A tripod picture with the perfect dog.

A perspective picture...(angle makes the difference in size more exaggerated than it really is)

The entryway that I fixed up recently. I tore up some of the weeds, got rid of the loads of garbage and put the bricks down to distinguish between Killu's poop area and my walking area.

Just looking adorable.

Again, adorable...

Streching Killu (this is beginnning to feel like a modeling shoot, isn't it?)

Killu after taking his first bath. He wasn't happy about it-.
The post-bath shot. Definitely worth it.

By the way, Killu is the softest dog in the world. I'm not kidding, look it up in Guinness Book of World Records. It's in there.

Well, they're dogs

So I still haven't been able to find a suitable dog down here, but I figured I'd put up some dog pictures of my brother Aaron's dogs since I got my hands on them the other day.

Brisha is the white dog who is an Dogo Argentino and is something like 5 or 6 months old (she's a big sucker, huh). Hozho is a few years old and is the Golden. Both wonderful dogs.

Random Purdue pictures

Now that classes have started up stateside (they started here today for the kids), it's made me miss the fellowship of friends that I had back home. I'm not saying I don't have good friends here, too, I just miss Purdue people. So, here are some random pictures I found on my hard drive recently. Good times...

Steve, Me, and Dan out in Colorado for Spring break. Dan missed the memo about making stupid faces.

The night we "Wabashed" TJason. Man he was a fighter.

Looking stupid...