Carnaval

Since we now live in South America, we're discovering just what Carnaval means (in Spanish it's spelled with an 'a' in the middle).  On Friday the fun began.  The school had two hours worth of water-play to get the season kicked off right.  Apparently it is Ecuadorian tradition to douse unsuspecting people with water or anything else you might have handy; since we live in a rain forest, water's pretty handy here--as a matter of fact, as I type this, the rain is pouring down by the truckloads. 

It began with a beautiful sky which is such a rarity here--in all of January and February, we've had, we think, 3 days of sun--and dry students with water pistols in tow.  First we played a game of shoot-the-ping-pong ball-till-it-crosses-the-line... 

 ...and there was throw-water balloons-at-the-opposing-team's-king-while-you-smack-your-aggressors-with-a-flour-filled-sock.....

 .....there was the balance-a-small-cup-of-water-on-a-paddle-held-head-high-game....

 ....and then one of our sons made up the sit-your-bum-in-a-bin-of-water activity.

Needless to say, fun was had by all.  Even the teachers weren't free from the mayhem.  Each had to sit in a chair while their students tried to hit the mark.  When the student made contact with the target, a water balloon was popped over their head.  Even Doug had his time in the hot seat. 

Before the kids headed home for the day, there was one last all-out water fight.

Even Doug had a super-blaster water gun which he used against all would-be-attackers like a pro.
In the end, everyone was soaked to the bone and, praise God, able to dry off in the sun.

Once we got home, the water free-for-all continued on the compound.  The kids formed teams, made water balloons out of plastic bags, and took turns blasting each other with those and water pistols for another few hours.  I even spotted a few of the boys (not ours) on a roof so that gravity and the element of surprise would work in their favor.

Yesterday we decided to meander outside of Shell to see how the rest of the country (or at least Banos) celebrates Carnaval.  We took the 8 am bus and headed westward.  After about thirty minutes a few of us got off and took a hike in the foliage--our friend Debbie is here and she's a huge nature buff and lover of Geocaching--if you don't know what that is, you should find out.  It's really a lot of fun.  So we hiked for about two hours right around this particular river bank and discovered some waterfalls and really neat things along the way.  These were butterflies resting on a rock.

Debbie found the largest bean any of us had ever seen.  We likened it to what must have been dropped by Jack just before the beanstalk sprung up.

Then, we saw what are very typical leaves from the jungle plants here.  Huge too.  It is about four feet in length.

Finally after our jungle tour we took a bus the rest of the way into Banos and had a Mexican food lunch.  At one point, Jacobey turned to Doug to ask him if he could hear the angels singing. I'm certain they were since it was a glorious meal and the food tasted just like home. Even the salsa was tasty.

Next we were privy to a parade that roughly reminded us of Mardi Gras.  People on floats threw out candy, roses, tomatoes (in a bag), and oranges.  Since Ecuadorians are fairly short people, we could actually see pretty well over their heads.  Jacobey took these pictures for us:

It was a wonderful opportunity to learn about Ecuadorian culture and history.  Thankfully we never got pegged with water or shaving cream--we became more savvy as the day wore on.  We made it back home at the end of the day having had a fairly successful outing. 

Thanks for reading,
Blessings, kim