Olla Número 40

There are councils/groups for everything in my town.  There is a general town council, a school council, a church council, a men’s group, two women’s groups, an agriculture group, an irrigation canal council, and two different potable water councils.  On each of these different councils there is a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and a head vocal.  Most people in town currently have, or have had at least one or two positions on the councils.  Leonor used to be the treasurer for one of the potable water councils.  This meant she was in charge of the money, as well as the tangible items the council owned.  This included a stove, rope, a couple of knives, and a large pot.  These items were used in the past to cook meals for the workers that were digging the well for water.  A couple of weeks ago the current president, secretary, and treasurer of the water council came to the house to collect the items that Leonor still had in her possession.  She forked over the stove, rope, and knives but was missing the pot.  She claimed that the last president had borrowed the pot and never returned it.  The council members argued with her for a little bit but then accepted the excuse and left. 

The next day there was a water meeting.  The meeting began as every other meeting does; there was a list of topics to be covered and each topic was discussed in turn.  The meeting was coming to a close when the last topic came up; the missing pot.  This is no ordinary pot, this is a pot of size 40, and apparently that is a big deal.  The current president begins with the fact that they recovered the stove in bad condition from Leonor.  Well, Leonor is conveniently not at this meeting and Pepito is there in her place.  Thus, Pepe is put on the spot and asked why the stove was in such awful condition and asked where the pot is.  Well, Pepe runs through a slew of excuses about how if you don’t use something for a long time it is going to rust/get damaged/etc.  And that the old president took the pot.  At this point all the attention turns to the old president.  Keep in mind that this is a large meeting of about 85 people who are all wondering the whereabouts of the pot, size 40.  The old president is caught off guard and claims he never took the pot.  At this point a lot of people start arguing and yelling and it’s hard for me to catch everything but I’m pretty sure he changed his story and said that he did use the pot, but that he returned it.  The meeting is in absolute chaos.  Finally, one wealthier and slightly crazy farm owners speaks up.  He yells out, “I’ve got lots of pots.  What size pot is it again?”  The group responds, 40.  He says, “Well, alright I’ve got tons of 40 pots.  I’ll just give you a size 40 pot.”  You have to know this guy to truly appreciate how comical this was.  But basically it was just this old guy saying, “Enough already, you want a pot?  I’ll give you a damn pot.”  Some people tried to protest saying the person who took the pot had to give it back, etc.  But finally someone changed the subject and the meeting ended normally.  Still though, two weeks later people are talking about the pot.  I was walking back from a cacao farm just the other day, when Jefferson and another lady starting discussing the whereabouts of the pot.  I have never seen a size 40 pot, but, geez, it must be something.             

Random Thoughts:

• My cat broke the leg of one of the chicks in the house while I was gone for the day.  Luckily my host family did not kill my cat, but they did cut off half of his whiskers.
• All the people in Guayas (a province of Ecuador) got together to grill at a pool in Bucay a couple of weeks ago.  It was great to meet new people and eat some great food next to the pool.
• While playing soccer with the kids the other day I was told that I run too fast for a girl.
• We are approaching summer right now which means cooler temps.  And by cooler I mean that I can now eat my soup at lunch without sweating into it.  People are amazed and extremely grossed out by how much I sweat.
• People normally ride 4 people to a motorcycle.  Sometimes women in skirts ride on the motorcycle sideways with a baby in their lap.