Burro=Breakfast of Champions

This week I accumulated another ¨weird breakfast food¨entry: burro (aka DONKEY). It was actually pretty good. I asked what it was, and Monica, my host mom/counterpart, was like well it´s similar to cow...but it´s donkey. I was like ummm I didn´t think donkey was similar to cow, but whatev. It´s apparently healthier and not as fatty.

This weekend was the end of fiestas for Loja and their Virgen del Cisne. This is their Virgin Mary and the story I´ve heard is that this doll of the Virgin ended a drought Loja was having in the 1500s and now she´s the Virgin Mary of Loja. All the buses and cars say ¨Virgin del Cisne¨ (El Cisne is where she appeared) as a form of ¨protection¨.

So Friday I traveled to Loja with a doctor that I work with. He showed me around a little and then I went and met up with the other volunteers who live in Loja. They are really cool and super laid back...I am really happy they are my new support system.

Then, Friday night seven of us took a chiva, which is a bus without doors or windows, and we sat up top. For about 2 hours the bus drove us around Loja, with us on top blowing whistles and bopping to music. It was a fun way to see the city at night, especially while it was in fiestas. Afterwards, we went to the Parque and watched fireworks. It was hilarious because the fireworks are shot off literally 50 feet away from you and they all look like they are going to drop on top of you. It´s pretty scary, actually, as some flames dropped into the audience. It also makes you appreciate how anal the US is with their fireworks regulations...

We drank some big ass beers for a dollar and then went to a bar with live music. That was one of my favorite parts...the band was awesome. I didn´t realize how much I missed concerts and live music until we went to that bar.

On Saturday, we hung out, bought some bootleg DVDs, and watched the Ecuador-Bolivia soccer game (we won!). Saturday night, another volunteer, Akul, and I went to this club. There is an ex-volunteer, Zach, who lives in Loja. He married an Ecuadorian woman and her family owns the best night club in Loja and it was pretty cool. Very mafia like...

But now I´m back in site. We cleaned the hospital last week, actually shut down the hospital so we could clean it...didn´t think that was possible to close a hospital. But the president is now coming this week so we had to prepare...I kinda felt like the Wizard of Oz...buff buff here buff buff there...