Went to a Christening

Saturday December 13

I went the local market to get some food.

Then Jayne and I got ready to go to Matt’s house. We got there at 12.15pm. I gave Matt the money that I owed him along with extra money for New Year’s Eve.

The other day Matt invited us to be with his family for New Year. He suggested that we come over on Sunday Dec. 28 and spend the night so we can leave with him in the morning to go to his farm. He said Amparo will leave on January 31.

It looks like Amparo will be going to the farm on a bus with the baby. I would think that would be difficult, but we’ll see.

We were the first guests to arrive so I guess the others will arrive at the church or come after the church services to go to his house for the party. However, shortly after we arrived another guest came. His name is Ray and is an American. I met him earlier in the year when he was with his wife. He’s from Atlanta, Georgia.

Mathieu asked me if I wanted to be the photographer and I said yes and that I have my digital camera with me. I asked if it would be ok to take pictures in the church and he said yes.

Mathieu left for the church before the rest of us and took his son, Juan-Carlos with him. The church is about 3-4 blocks away.

A few minutes later Amparo was ready with the baby. So it was her, her son who is being Christened (François), her daughter, Bernadette, Jayne, Ray, and I. On the walk to the church we met some friends of Amparo who is the Godmother of Francois. (The way to pronounce his name is ‘Frans-sway’).

The church is very nice with a nice small park in front of it. I don’t know the name and I think it was built a couple of hundred years ago.

When we got to the church there were some other people there.

The first thing that caught my attention and Jayne’s is a statue of some guy next to the wall on the left hand side. Jayne and I bought thought what the heck that was. It looks like someone that was dead or dying sitting in a chair. It has what is supposed to be light rays come around his head but it looked like metal blades. It looked like he was killed by it!

We both thought how gross and it gave off negative energy. I don’t know how others would not have the same impression of it and the same negative feeling. I wonder what ‘Saint’ that was!?

Finally the ceremony started. I positioned myself at the front nearest to the group. In the group were Amaparo and Matt’s family, along with the woman who is the Godmother and Eduardo who is the Godfather. (Eduardo is the father of Judith and Maria whom I’ve talked about earlier in this diary.)

I saw Nancy there, who is the mother of Katherine – part owner of the Secret Garden hostel.

I took pictures while the priest talked. He kept talking and talking and by the time it was over it was 30 minutes later! (In the Protestant Church the ceremony is short.) This is the first time I was at a Catholic Christening and didn’t know it takes so long – or this could be an Ecuadorian thing.

Anyhow, when I was standing and listening I saw a dog walk in the church. He walked up to the altar, rolled over, scratched his back and then just layer there still with all four paws in the air – like he was dead!

Typical Ecuador!

I think the dog is owned by the church or priest as it was sitting by the door when we entered. By keeping the door opened and allowing it to walk in and do its thing – I’ll never understand. It should have been put in a room or tied up somewhere.

I was thinking of taking a picture of the dog with ‘all fours’ up in the air, and I should have but I thought that others would get offended. I should have done it anyway. Though I don’t have a picture of the dog you be sure it’s the truth.

In one of the pictures of the people in the pews I took, if you look at the background you’ll see the statue of the dead guy in the chair.

So, that was two things that turned me off being in the church.

Some of the other people who were at the church was Juan and David (Judith’s brothers), and Cecelia (Judith mother).

Then we all walked back to Amparo and Matt’s home. On the way back we saw Judith. We asked why she was late and she said that she had to go to university.

When we got there I noticed two tables were set for a formal occasion in the main eating area. It was really done first class with a glass for champagne, white wine, red wine and port.

There was Apmaro’s his regular worker there along with another woman and a guy to serve the food and drinks. Also, Amparo and the Godmother worked serving people, too.

We were offered to kinds of drinks while we were all standing around. One was a cocktail of some kind and champagne. Also the waitress brought a tray of crackers and a spread – that was delicious.

We all chatted and had a good time.

Mathieu had name tags for everyone’s plate. He announced that the gringos will be sitting in the back room. Of course that would include Jayne, Ray and me.

This was ok as the two tables were not big enough and the room that it was in was not big enough either for everyone. The room where most of the people sat is right under the sky so if it rained they would all have to move.

I didn’t mind sitting in the other room. Matt an Amparo should be sitting next to their Ecuadorian friends.

Jayne asked Matt what person that statue was of, and he said of some Judge in Quito. She didn’t remember his name that Matt told her. But this is strange! First, when did the Catholic Church have statues of people that they don’t consider saints? I’m sure this guy isn’t a saint – or can churches put their own graven images people in churches? Then why would a person be represented like they are dead and something that looks like an instrument that killed them? I know that the Catholics have Christ dying on the cross, so maybe this is in line with their beliefs.

Then it came time for the dinner. First there was white wine served with the soup that looked like a cream potato soup. For the main meal there were mashed potatoes, another dish that that had some kind of starch in it with peas, rice and tongue of cow – Ug!! I didn’t eat the meat and neither did Jayne. Red wine was served with this.

Why tongue of cow was served, I don’t know. There are many people who do eat meat but don’t eat organs of the animal. Roast beef, chicken or some other meat could have been served.

Desert was a cake served with port. After that was coffee.

Before dinner Maria del Carmen came and she sat next to me. Now we had five people sitting at our table – Maria, Judith, Ray, Jayne and me.

Maria will be leaving for Spain Monday to see her husband, Melano, who is going to University in Barcelona. She was busy earlier in the day to finalize the work in her office. She said that she hired a woman lawyer to work in the office while she’s gone, as she’ll be away for one month.

When her father came over to the table to talk he invited Jayne and I to come to his house tomorrow for lunch at 1.00pm. So, it looks like we’ll be going there Sunday.

After the meal gifts were given to everyone which was figurines of children with wings. This was unexpected. Matt and Amparo really thought of everything. Jayne got one of a girl and I got a baby girl with her behind showing.

We all had a great time. I didn’t expect things to be first class, but Jayne told me that in the Catholic Church a Christening is a big thing. Well, everyone was dressed nice – guys in suits and gals in dresses. This is something that you rarely see in the U.S. and the U.K. as people think it’s cool to dress as slobs.

Jayne and I left about 5.30pm. Mathieu went with us to the front door to get a taxi. It was raining before we left and continued to do so, so every taxi was full. Not being able to stop a taxi, Jayne and I walked to a restaurant on Plaza Grande.

We didn’t eat much and I saw that the other people at our table took small portions, too. The reason why is, that we didn’t know how much food there would be as the food was not served buffet style, but was brought around to us, and the bowls were not filled with food. We were not told to ‘please take more’, so we didn’t. Later when I went to the kitchen I saw that there was still a lot of food left. If we were told there is more food we would have taken more.

When coffee was served, I got the end of the pot. So the waitress brought back hot water to fill the rest of my cup up! Looks like they didn’t make enough coffee though they could have put another pot on.

Thus, I had coffee at the restaurant and some fries, where Jayne had coffee and potato-cheese soup.

It was still raining when we left the restaurant about 7.15pm. We still couldn’t get a taxi. Finally one stopped and he wanted $14. That was too much so we took a bus to the main bus stop and took another bus home. We got home about 8.30pm.

So ended a very nice and enjoyable day.