Chancho and Rotary

I woke up Saturday, December 12, to my brother Juan José yelling outside for me to open the door. A proclivity of his is to arrive in the wee hours of the morning, after my father has locked the door. The only ones with keys to the door are my brother Fernando and my father. So when Juan José gets locked out at 3:30 am, he whispers loudly from below my window "Logan, abre la puerta." This has happened maybe four or five times. Side story: one morning, after I had gotten sick, he came in my room and whispered his line, to which I responded by hopping out of bed and grabbing my glasses. I then realized that he was in my room with me, just checking on how I was doing. He got quite a chuckle from that. So now if I see him asleep I whisper "Juan José, abre la puerta."

Well, the point to him yelling for me this specific morn was because my family had hired a family business to prepare a whole pig for my brother Andrés' birthday. I snagged my camera and hustled downstairs in my pjs. There were about five people fixing vegetables and side food when a big meat truck pulled up outside the house. We opened the large door of the gate for cars and in came a man running with a pig on his shoulders, slamming it on the table outside. From this they prepared misturiado (a mix of the pigs innards), fritada (fried pig), chicharrón (fried pig skin), caldo de tubo (a nasty soup with a bunch of chewy pig intestines), and seco de chancho (the meat of the pig in a sauce served with rice).

After I saw the start of this production, I got ready and went to the Rotary club. I met up with other kids from Interact and with some Rotarians to present two houses to some very poor people in an underdeveloped part of Machala. After that, we all went to my counselor's shrimp farm with Rotary clubs near Machala. There, we also ate pig (caldo de tubo, chicharrón, and seco de chancho). We had a competition between Rotary clubs and the exchange students. This included 3-leg races, egg-on-a-spoon-in-your-mouth races, tug-o-war, hula hoop, a kayak race, top spinning, and sack races (I did that and won!). Headed home with Uncle Roberto and ate more pig at home for Andrés' birthday. So much PIG.