Last night I ran sound for Gedeón again, and after packing up from the concert, grabbing a quick dinner at El Arbolito (“the little tree”), the only restaurant we could find open in the sector that late at night, and heading back to Av. Brasil to drop off people and instruments at English Fellowship Church, it was roughly 1:00 am when I finally walked through the door of my apartment in the north. So this morning I did something I almost never do here in Quito: slept in until 8:30.
Breakfast and a Trole ride later (the second most packed Trole experience of my life, I might add) I was back in the South at Lourdes’ and not quite sure what the day would hold for me. I had heard that the plan was to play soccer today, but it absolutely poured from lunchtime until just after dark1. Lourdes and José were out when I got here, and the store was busy enough that an extra body would have been more in the way than helpful, so I went upstairs to work on a few of my ongoing projects.
When Lourdes got back, we all had lunch together, including Adrian, who is not usually here in the afternoons because of his work schedule. Adrian finished up quickly and took off to his room. Lourdes explained that he had to go “practice.” About then there was a loud crash from his direction, and Lourdes explained that the restaurant where he works is somewhat on the showy side, and Adrian has to learn to juggle plates. After waking up the entire house the other night (apparently the one night last week I spent in the north) by breaking one of his mother’s dinner plates during a late night practice, he’s switched to plastic plates at home.
After lunch, Lourdes and José headed out to do some more shopping, looking for a couple of pieces of furniture for the new place. Adrian and Erica (Marta’s daughter) both had to go to work, so I was asked to hang out in the store with Marta. It didn’t turn out to be an extremely busy day, probably because of the ridiculous amount of rain (even for Quito right now). So Marta put me to work, measuring out 2- and 5-pound bags of rice and sugar, pricing, sorting, and shelving them. While we worked, she talked about the upcoming holidays and asked me about my family and about living in Quito, correcting my Spanish and always remembering exactly where I’d left off every time a customer interrupted our conversation.
Tomorrow will possibly be a soccer day, and I know the big Sunday meal is going to be pescado and I’m pretty stoked about it. Otherwise, I haven’t the faintest idea what the rest of the long weekend is going to hold2. Tomorrow is All Saints’ Day, Monday is Día de Los Difuntos, and Tuesday is Cuenca Independence Day3.
1Though we didn’t play, rain doesn’t necessarily stop anyone else. Cigarette Boy (see Oct 27 post) came in a little early today in his soccer shorts and jersey, totally drenched, and got some crackers in addition to his usual purchase.
2See Dana Artinger’s latest blog entry for the descriptions of the holidays that I’m too lazy to write myself.
3There are roughly a billion Independence Days over the course of the year in Ecuador. Because this isn’t the one for our city, it’s pretty much just a day off here in Quito.
