Quiet and pensive
My thoughts apprehensive
The hours drift away
Leaving my homeland
Playing a lone hand
My life begins today
Last weekend a Shuar indian friend of mine, who lives in the rainforest far away from any towns, invited me to a wedding reception. I had to travel on an old dirt road by bus for one hour, and then walk half hour to get to the guy´s house, which is off some tiny dirt road up butting up against the rainforest.
Anyway, in the afternoon I gave a family planning workshop to 15 teenage mestizos and Shuars. I talked about relationships, STDs, AIDS and contraceptives. They seemed to like it, especially when I used a banana to show them how to put on a condom.
Then, after having lunch with the Shuar family (Meals in Ecuador usually consists of a plate full of rice and yucca, accompanied by eggs, beans or some other form of protein. Vegetables are few and far between), I sat with my Shuar friend, his wife and the grandmother. My friend and his wife speak Shuar and Spanish. The grandma speaks only Shuar, so I could not communicate with her, although I learned many new words in Shuar, such as nando (moon), and etza (sun).
We sat for a couple of hours, and the married couple told me what times were like 30 years ago before the arrival of roads and missionaries. Back in the 1970s, all of Southern Ecuador was virgin rainforest and there were no roads. Everyone traveled by boat, and the only people that lived in the area were Shuar indians, who lived in thatch-roof huts. At that time, there were wild animals everywhere, including tigers, guatusas, monkeys and lots of snakes.
After talking into the evening, we had dinner (more yucca and rice, no veggies) and then walked one hour in the pitch black of night to the wedding reception. The wedding reception did not start until 10PM. It was a strange affair. People did not exactly dress elegantly. Most wore t-shirts and old pants. The only person with a tie was the groom. He´s 22 and his bride is 18. She wore a typical white wedding dress.
We all ate dinner there at about 11PM. There were about 100 guests, and we all crowded in and around the groom´s decrepit, wooden house. Dinner was served in shifts at one single dining table, which had no chairs. Groups of about 14 were called to the table every 15 minutes or so, and we devoured our soup and main dish standing up, crowded around the table like cattle. The main dish consisted of rice, yucca, veggies (yes, we had some cooked carrot), and some unidentified meat which I passed on to my neighbor.
Decorations consisted of a few ribbons here and there. No, folks, there were no personalized matches or giveaway flowers, or cute little candles, or any of the other stuff you see at U.S. weddings. There were no cloth napkins or precious silverware. We ate our dinner on paper plates, styrofoam bowls and with plastic spoons. This was a very simple, humble wedding reception that did, however, include a wedding cake.
There was no champange. Instead, some fellow carried a box of wine in one hand, and a plastic shot glass in the other. He made the rounds and gave people shots of the cheap, boxed wine. Everyone shared the same little plastic shot glass.
After dinner, there was a dance. Everyone crowded into a tiny little room where a DJ blasted cumbia tunes. If you have never heard cumbia, it´s the Latin American equivalent of country music. It´s O.K. at first, but after a couple of hours it gets a bit annoying.
We finally headed home at about 2AM. Once we got home, the Shuar indian showed me to my room. I slept in one of his daughter´s room (who had to sleep with one of her sisters in a tiny little house across the road) on a tiny little bed that had no mattress. The bed was too short for me, so my feet hung over the edge. I fell asleep to the sounds of rats crawling around in the rafters.
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