The Food Saga

Upon arriving, my host grandmother was very hospitable and told me that I could go buy groceries and use the kitchen anytime I wanted. However, she did not know about my inability to cook. I don't want to throw myself completely under the bus, I can cook a decent amount in the United States. Yet without a Meijer or the usual kitchen utensils, I am next to worthless. I found this out on my second day here when I was feeling ambitious and decided to do little grocery shopping. I immediately knew I was in WAY over my head when I went down to the market and discovered that the chicken was not packaged, but instead sold with head, feathers, and feet. Sadly I only managed to purchased some fruit. The problem seemed to have one simple solution, EAT OUT! So for the past week I picked up breakfast at a local bakery, I ate lunch at the hospital cafeteria, and for dinner I would pray that I'd be invited over to someone's house and if I wasn't I'd get dinner from the street vendors. This was going along smoothly, until I heard through the grapevine that my host grandmother thought I was starving myself. The grapevine also told me that my grandmother was the best cook in Shell and that if I gave her some money she would make me dinner. Well this seemed like a splendid proposition and so yesterday I went to ask her for help. On the way home I formulated my question in Spanish so it would sound something like this. "Grandma, can you please help me. I am not a very good cook and I was wondering if you could help me make dinner. Don't worry I will pay for the food." Everything went as planed until my last sentence caused Grandma to keel over in a fit of laughter. For you Spanish lovers, I had accidentally switched the word pagar for pegar. Which of course means that instead of telling Grandma "Don't worry I am going to pay" I said "Don't worry I am going to punch you." Well when the dust settled everything worked out A-okay and tonight Grandma is making dinner! I'm sorry I don't have any pictures this time, but I do have some fun facts instead.

1. Ecuadorian car insurance policy - if you get in an accident all the parties involved go directly to jail until the situation is straightened out. No questions asked.
2. Ecuadorian jail policy - there is no food served in jail, if you don't want to starve to death a family member or friend must bring you meals.
3. Ecuadorian currency - It's the good ole' American dollar folks
4. Galapagos policy - Entrance for gringos = $100      Entrance for Ecuadorians = $5
5. Ecuadorian stolen goods policy - If the amount stolen is under $200 dollars the robber will not be prosecuted.


Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Grace and Peace,
Kyle