Hello Families and Friends!

We sure had a busy day today, but we had the most fun!  From learning about the Puruha people from Cacha, Chimborazo to learning how to dance folk dances, it has been the best day so far. We learned all about the Puruha culture and how women were the faces of their road to independence-which was inspiring for us ladies. Even if history is starting to forget moments like that, we learned that we shouldn’t follow that path and preserve the honor of the women and follow their legacy.

We also had the chance to participate in a cultural ritual that acted as a purifier for our negative energies. Natural herbs were burned for the ritual that were then rubbed on us to cleanse us. We were all thrilled to be part of a one time opportunity! For lunch, the people of Cacha fed us a traditional plate called “cuy” (guinea pig), which we were scared to try, but did so anyways to experience the moment and show respect towards the Puruha people.

Later on, we had the pleasure to learn how to dance three typical Ecuadorian dances which was exciting because we all tried something new. The people guiding us even provided us with traditional garments like skirts called polleras and the men wore samaros which we appreciated because they put effort into interacting with us. Lastly, at our nightly meeting we had a very deep and open-minded discussion comparing Indigenous experiences to those of minorities in the United States. We discussed how us, young people, have the ability to make the world and America’s future brighter. As leaders for the day, seeing the group showing compassion and being open-minded inspired us to act up on it. We were proud to see everyone coming together despite coming from different places. This idea summarizes our day as we were faced with new things, but we were eager to try them. Thank you families and friends for keeping up with us and have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

Warm Regards,

Luz and Sydney

 

Leif eating cuy

Cuy para almuerzo (guinea pig for lunch)

IMG_1583 (video of Bryan getting cleansed)

group at Pukara Tambo

dance in traditional garments

 

Michaela with Michaela

Samara getting cleansed

view of Chimborazo

Zach getting cleansed