Last day at school! Did a quick revision of stuff, particularly what I've particularly struggled with but she recommended practising and listening carefully and said that there was no way round memorising the irregular verbs! No kidding!

Then we did possessive pronouns (all their different variations, including genders and plurals) before we watched a DVD with the sound off. The DVD was a short 10-minute film about how the indigenas use cuy (guinea pig) to cure people. So they don't just eat guinea pig as a speciality, in Ecuador! I was to see and observe and ask any questions if I didn't understand and afterwards, I was to recount what I'd seen.

Anyway, the gist of it is that the guinea pig is thought to have a lot of energy and can absorb any bad spirits when rubbed against the patient's body. There are two parts to the healing: diagnosing (using the cuy (which is alive) and then killing the cuy to diagnose/interpret what's wrong. The guinea pig is buried (because it has now absorbed the bad spirits) and cannot be eaten. Then, the shaman or curadero (curadera, if a female healer - there is no word for shaman in Spanish, apparently) then needs to balance the patient's body by rubbing some sort of alcoholic liquid all over the patient's body (or at least trunk, arms, hair), whilst also blowing smoke (air) - water and air, being complementary elements. The healer then also rubs two eggs against the patient as the indigenas believe that an egg represents all four elements. Afterwards, two rocks (representing the male and female side) are rubbed against the body. They are also making sounds whilst doing this to help heal the patient (not that I heard that with the sound off, Cecelia, my teacher told me so).

Then, I watched the end of the video (sound off then too) where an anthropologist, a doctor and a psychologist gave their opinions. Cecilia told me what they said, and then I had to give my opinion on what their opinions were! Of course, I'm not saying that my conversation was sophisticated and very fast but I pretty much tried to say that I didn't think physically the ritual would work, but that the mind was a surprising thing and it could produce some effect if you believed it would (thinking of the placebo effect) and was perhaps why this worked only for the indigenous people as the anthropologist said (but which also involved a different diet from non-indigenous people. The indigenous people don't have processed sugar but from sweet cactus, or something).

I then listened to a song on a CD (didn't take a great deal of notice of who the singer was) and had to fill out the blanks in the lyrics, from listening. All missing words were verbs which I was told were all conjugated in the future tense. It took me a few goes to get them all, especially when you're trying to figure out the word and the spelling which meant I'd miss the next missing word! Then, of course, I had to see if there were any words I didn't understand and I got a bit frustrated with the poetic licence taken with the lyrics because the sentences didn't make sense to me (but she said that they wouldn't necessarily be grammatical, which made me feel better because I couldn't make out the few passages I attempted to translate). Then I had to come up with my own examples of how to use the future tense of the verbs in the lyrics. (Very short sentences too! I mean, how do you use, the word "to sound" in a sentence in the future tense! Anyway, with some examples on that one, I managed).

At the end of the class - I feel that I've been let out with abysmal Spanish! - I was given my certificate of attendance (which you had to request 2 days before completion), stating how long I did the course, how many hours, what we covered, and what we discussed (economics, politics, general conversation, written and oral practice). You have to ask two days in advance, and I thought I would, and see what it said.

Afterwards, I met Fiona for a touch of lunch (cake and tea for me at the same panaderia as before) and then we walked to the Parque Itchimbia which apparently gives a nice 360 degree view of Quito. As luck would have it, I hadn't expected to do much this afternoon as the dawned cloudy and rainy and we cancelled trying to do the TelefériQo, which is a cable car system from the lower slopes of the volcano Vólcan Pinchincha. It was interesting going with Fiona, because her route was a much shorter one than the one I did to see the old town! I did an extra corner (lasting several blocks) that I didn't have to and although we stayed on the "mountain," the Basilica was clearly visible and I don't think it would have taken long to get there compared to what I did the other day. Of course, it rained during the circular path we took…and after I got back home too!

Tonight, about 9 of met at 7:15 to get an Indian curry, as most people are moving onto other parts after this weekend, and it's pretty much a farewell meal. However, I am hoping to go to Otavalo by public bus tomorrow and meeting some of the others at 7 as we have to take 2 buses and it will take us 2 hours to get there. Apparenty, it's already packed at 7 at Otavalo as most of the traders (who come from around 70 towns) get there the Friday night.