Cotacachi Intercultural Indigenous/Expat Christmas Celebration

You are invited to help bring some joy to an indigenous child’s Christmas with your donation to the first-ever Cotacachi Indigenous/Expat Intercultural Christmas Party.

Local leaders have been meeting for months with me and Linda to discuss ways to improve intercultural relationships between the growing expat population and the indigenous communities. They were most enthusiastic about the idea for an intercultural fiesta.  The locals love to party and are awaiting this event with much excitement.

The First Intercultural Indigenous/Expat Christmas Celebration will take place this coming Saturday, December 19th, 2009.   We will celebrate the life we all share with fun, good food, more fun, music and dancing.

Animal Cracker/Candy Traditions

Typical gift-giving, with months of shopping for lots of gifts, is not normally practiced in the indigenous communities at Christmas.  But the children have come to expect one small gift—a little plastic bag tied with ribbon and filled with animal crackers, hard candy, and if they’re lucky, a chocolate bar.   The reason for this is simple.  Most indigenous parents don’t have the financial resources to do more. 

For a child to go without this bag of animal crackers would be like an American child not having Santa arrive with his bag full of toys.  So we expats are going to play Santa and bring a bit of joy to a large number of children.  In return, the indigenous communities will gift the expats with a day of entertainment by the children and a feast of local foods. 

In each of four villages, El Batan, Asaya, Cercado, and San Pedro, the children of the villages will perform cultural dances, sing songs (I’m certain we will hear at least one Spanish version of Jingle Bells), and gift us with enough smiles to warm our hearts for the rest of the year. 

When we reach San Pedro, our final stop, the villagers will serve a traditional meal which will include a taste of a specialty that is only served to honored guests.  That is the highly-esteemed cuy, know to us as guinea pig.

Tour Details

We will fill Christmas bags for about 750 children in four villages.  This is no small task, so volunteers will show up at the Eagle and Condor office on Calle Bolivar right next to the cultural center today (Tuesday) and Wednesday, Dec. 15th and 16th.

Then, at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 19, we will board the Santa Express, a bus that will take us over the river and through the woods to the indigenous villages.   Leading the way will be a pickup truck, volunteered by one of the communities, carrying all the goodies and a bona fide real-life Santa Claus, or as they say in Spanish, Papa Noel.

Fortunately, local expat Robert Baker has volunteered to be the fully-costumed Santa Claus for the 750 children.

We are asking for a donation of at least $45 per couple and $30 per individual, or more if you are so inclined.  Any donation will be gratefully accepted, even if you are unable to attend. 

More will be greatly appreciated, since the local Cotacachi indigenous organization UNORCAC, has also asked us to solicit the expat community to provide food baskets (rice, sugar, oil, salt, plus a candy bag for each) for 150 indigenous women from 45 communities.

These are very deserving and dedicated women who freely volunteer their time during the year as birth mothers, community leaders, teachers of traditional cultural techniques and other volunteer activities.    

Any costs not covered will be subsidized by Eagle and Condor Internacional and by Rio Tuctara Investverde, S.A., our partner company.

Donation Opportunities

We sincerely hope that all costs will be covered by donations, and that there will be some left over.  If this happens, the remaining money will be donated to the UNORCAC high school scholarship fund.

I am going to write more about this fund in a later blog, but in a nutshell, here are some facts.  Only 30% of indigenous sixth grade graduates go on to high school, and of those 30%, a very small percentage actually finish.  Less than .02% goes on to a university.  The reason for such dismal statistics:  lack of economic means.

The good news:  for only $16 per month, or $192 per year, the three-year-old scholarship program will send a deserving child on to high school.  The student’s parents will furnish the remaining $100 needed to cover expenses.

If you want to make a contribution, please send a Pay Pal payment to gary@ecuadoredg.com.  If you don’t use Pay Pal, write to me and I will give you instructions on how to donate.  Any payment, large or small, will be greatly appreciated.

If we cover all expenses, Eagle and Condor Internacional and Rio Tuctara Invest Verde will each make donations of $192 to send a student to high school.

If you only want to donate to the high school scholarship program, that’s okay too.  Just let us know.  We, and the children, really appreciate your support.  And your donation will go far in showing the new mayor and local population that we expats are here to be part of their community.

Pictures of Previous Events

Ed and Joanne Rogers and Linda and I have provided Christmas bags for kids for two previous years. You can look at a photo album of our previous trips.

http://tinyurl.com/yajo68e

My e-mail is Gary@pro-ecuador.com. 

Ho-Ho-Ho