Since returning from our visit to the U.S. our social calendar has exploded. Not long after we returned we were being invited somewhere or people were stopping over. And there-in lies my story. It is a custom (among many customs) in Ecuador that when you are invited to an Ecuadorian home that you bring along a little gift: a potted plant, flowers, candy, baked goods, etc. as a show of appreciation for their hospitality. While it is a custom often practiced in the United States, it is alive and thriving in Ecuador and we are still adjusting to it.
Since we returned from the U.S., my wife took on the pleasure of helping a bilingual Ecuadorian woman improve her English five days per week. Almost every time she comes she brings a bag of fresh fruit, vegetables or a bouquet of flowers. A few weeks ago I started working with her younger sister on her English 2-3 times per week and, yes, she also brings fresh fruit and vegetables from her garden.
To further add to our produce larder, when we moved here I brought a bunch of vegetable seeds from the U.S. hoping I would have the opportunity to plant them. Not finding such an opportunity, I gave the seeds to some friends with a large garden area. Now we receive an abundance of produce from them also.
Some of the veggies from our gifted seeds.
When we were invited to two different friends homes for Christmas dinner and a pre-New Years dinner, we brought our offering only to come home with far more than we brought, including a whole, freshly killed chicken (head and feet stuffed inside).
Our small apartment now rivals some of the smaller produce stands down town. We’ve politely tried to say, “no mas, por favor”, but that has not worked.
This past Saturday, my wife’s English student invited us to go visit her mother. My wife had just baked a couple of loafs of zucchini bread from a small portion of a zucchini the size of Cleveland (well, it was big). She had duly intended to bring it with us but in the rush to get out and on our way, we forgot it. While at the mother’s home, we decided to visit the other sister a few blocks away. She and her husband were working in their garden. You guessed it! We came away with two bags of tree tomatoes and various vegetables. Annnnd, before we left her mother’s, “mom” gave us a bag of lemons, avocados and passion fruit. My wife stayed up to the wee hours making a large pot of vegetable soup to try to reduce our vegetable stores. She only made a dent.
As I write this, my wife’s English student arrived bearing a bag of potatoes.
As if this has not been challenging enough, before all this gift-bearing began, I planted a salad garden of leaf lettuce and a couple of tomato plants off our balcony. The lettuce is nearing harvest time. I think we will have to enlist the help of some rabbits I saw for sale at the pet store, but then we will have to find room for them in our small freezer in a few months next to the chicken and the whole Christmas turkey we have not been able to get to.
No, I’m not complaining; to the contrary, it has been a very pleasant blessing and we thoroughly enjoy our Ecuadorian friends and their thoughtfulness and love.
Ecuador Life and Culture 