day nineteen - yesterday's adventures

today is probably going to be pretty chill but i haven't had a chance to write about yesterday yet, which was crazy in a good way. The day started out like a normal day. I got up, got dressed, and went to the baby room to start changing diapers and pick up the ones who are crying. Then Glenda comes in and says "well aren't you going to the parade?" me- "ummm what parade?" "only the biggest parade in all of riobamba!". Apparently Riobamba has been celebrating it's independence and there's been lots of stuff going on. Dancers come from Columbia and Peru and stuff to dance in this huge parade. So i was really excited! I ran and got changed and I went with Alicia and Lisa and Cebolla to the parade. It was sooo amazing but so long. We couldn't even stay for the whole thing but i loved it.

the only thing is that it's hard to predict the weather here. I left the house wearing a sweater so i only put sunscreen on my face. well at the parade it got so hot so i took my sweater off and i got burned reaaaaally bad. It's my fault though, i need to wear sunscreen every time i go out.


after the parade we walked home. On the way we stopped at a hospital so Lisa could get a stitch taken out of her leg. She either fell in the galapagos or on her Inca Trail hike in Peru. If only i had a few thousand more dollars....

We quickly grabbed lunch at the ark then Alicia, Jessalyn, and I went into town to get coffee and go to a bull fight! The busses ended up going weird routes because traffic was so bad so we ended up on this bus for almost an hour haha. We finally got our coffee and bought our tickets to the bull fight but realized it was later than we thought. so we hopped on the bus back the ark, grabbed our coats because it gets cold at night, and Ron and Glenda were going into town so they drove us. I was a little nervous going to a bull fight, i didn't know what to expect. I don't really like animal cruelty but at the same time i didn't want to miss a cultural opportunity. It was actually really cool! It's more of a sport than i realized, with actual rules. There were about 7 fights I think, and once the bull actually won and got to live. The crowd went crazy because it's more exciting when the bull wins.

So basically the bull comes out and there's all these matadors with pink capes that tire the bull out and distract it, then a guy comes out on a horse and stabs it. this part is dangerous because sometimes the horse gets knocked down and the guy has to run and jump over the fence. then there's these other dudes that go out with no cape but with two spear things. they have to run and jump and try to stab the spears into the bull without getting gored themselves. This part is dangerous too because they don't have a cape to distract the bull. Then the official matador comes out with a red cape and this is where it's decided if the matador wins or the bull wins. I'm not sure exactly how it works though. But if the matador wins, he kills the bull with a sword and it gets dragged out with horses.

Right after the bull fight was the street church so we walked to the park and found the group. But it was so loud downtown we had to go to another place. People piled in Isaac's truck and we got a taxi. We went up this hill in a quieter neighborhood and prayed. It was really great. Then we went home and had tea.