Mother´s day here in Ecuador was indeed different than any other Mother´s day that I´ve had in my life. Granted I haven´t been with my mother for every single Mother´s day but I have been in the same country as her (well except for mexico). Because I live in the land of the flowers and fruit there were people selling flowers EVERYWHERE!!! Im sure they jacked up the prices for the holiday but compared to the states it was still relatively cheap. I have always AT LEAST bought a card for my mother on Mother´s day and call her to say hi. When I have the opportunity to be in her presence and spend time with her we usualy do things that she enjoys-family games, walking in the praire etc, etc...In Ecuador the tradition is that you go out to eat, buy flowers, everything is pretty much the same. Something different that they sometimes practice is serenading at midnight. Groups of friends, usually guys will get together and drive around to the different mother´s houses and serenade them at midnight, how sweet! I asked Chino if his friends and him ever did this...he said no.
Because we are in Ecuador and you can do everything pretty much last minute, I went with Mayra and Chino at about, oh 10:30 the night before Mother´s day to pick out flowers. There was still quite a selection and they ended up picking out a really nice arrangement for 25 dollars, it consisted of all red roses and white lilies, something that would def be wayyy more than 25 dollars in the states!
On Mother´s day we were supposed to go to Patate and eat but ended up changing plans and going somewhere in Ambato. We went with all the aunts, cousins, grandmas, etc...Of all 12 of us chino and his dad were the only males, lol. Then we went back to the Aunts house and slept till Chino had his basketball game. By this time I was really sick, I had been sick the previous days as well. We came back and I drank agua de oregano like no other! A pretty relaxed day, no family games (like we would´ve done in the states with my mom), and no walks around the neighborhood (like we woud´ve done in the states with my mom). I was very grateful to be with a "family" and do "family things" but have to admit it wasn´t as fun as it would´ve been with my family back in the states, oh well.
So as most of you know that when my parents came some of my stuff was stolen, including ALL of my makeup. Im not a huge make up person so it wasn´t like life or death when I didn´t have make up. I did end up picking up a few things at the mega-maxi which was dissappointing because they had the worst selection. I also lost my eye-lash curler with my make up. Like I said, NOT a huge deal. There were no eyelash curlers to be found in the Megamaxi....and then I remembered that my coutnerpart for example, uses a lid of a lip balm container to curl her eye lashes...and that I´d seen one of Chino´s cousins uses a SPOON to curl her eyelashes...talk about resourceful. Then I got to thinking. They probably have never used an eye lash curler or don´t really see the necessity for one. So I grabbed a small spoon from the drawer and gave it a try. I´m not gonna lie I did almost poke my eye ball out once or twice but besides that I´ve pretty much become a professional at eyelash curling with a spoon! Who would have ever thought. I think that these little experiences are just what Peace Corps told us about in training. You aren´t always going to have the materials available that you are accustomed to and so what do you do? You use what you have around you to make things work.
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