I had arranged to meet Fredy at his Hosteria today to help him work in return for a Spanish lesson. I headed out and caught the Blue bus number one as instructed, but had failed to ask which direction I needed to go. In the town of Napo I wondered about looking for the Hosteria. On my way back to the bus stop a young man by the name of Rooger stopped me. He is an eighteen year old native Kitchwa man. I went with him back to his home in Tena where I met his family and watched a Kitchwa dance video with his father and three year old sister. He served me my first Chicha, a traditional "juice" of the Kitchwa people. I have had it explained to me as a fruit drink fermented with the spit of the native people, but actually have no idea what it is.
Rooger invited me to come with his family to a matramony. With not the slightest idea to what I was agreeing to I piled into the Taxi with the rest of his family. The taxi took us outside of the city and into the hills of Tena. The ceremony was held under a large covered area outside of someones porch. It was raining hard and the tin rooftop was threatening to cave in from the wight. Multiple beds, a new refrigerator, a stove, a washing machine, and more house hold gifts were brought from one covered area into the other as a gift for the couple. I understood that it was a ceremony for two people, but at the time had not understood that I was witnessing a traditional Kitchwa marriage ceremony. The ceremony began with traditionally dressed young woman of no more then twenty feeding Chicha to the guests out of a gourd. Family members from most closely related good friends were called upon to present their gifts to couple. The groom was wearing a red and white checkered cloth poncho over his dress shirt. In the center of the poncho the church cross was embroidered in gold. In the back of him were two other men dressed the same way, but wearing white instead of checkered ponchos. The bride, groom, and other important people gave speeches after the gifts, in a mixture of their native Kitchwa tongue and Spanish. Music was put on electronically then a traditional meat and Yucca soup was served. Following the soup was a place with a yucca and bean based stew, chicken, rice, amazonian potatoes, and Anteater(?) ribs. Entire chickens, whole fish, cow hooves, and other meat was also passed around to the guests to take home.
Unfortunately I had to excuse myself at this part of the event because I needed to be getting home. Rooger wanted me to stay, but understood and explained to me that after the food there was going to be dancing and beer.
