Sunday (15) we got 4 more volunteers. All of them had been in Peru for 6 weeks so they've all taught before. 2 of them are at Larcacunga, Rosie and Kaitlyn. They will be taking over from Susan and Maya when they leave at the end of next week, so for these first 2 weeks they're team-teaching. Maya only has 3 kids so they don't really need 2 teachers, so Rosie is working with me. It's nice to have another teacher, but sometimes, when we have both of us and Lucila it almost seems like we could be better used elsewhere. [View Full Entry]

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Added photos to the past 5 or so entries... starting with Día de la Bandera. Also Baños, Cotapaxi, and some school ones. Finally! Enjoy... [View Full Entry]

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Saturday (14) we spent the morning in the market. I actually bought some presents for people this time! Then at noon Kelsey, Katie, Betty, Maya, Aviv, and I got on a bus to Quito. We spent the later part of the afternoon wandering around Old Town a little, eating the biggest sandwiches of my life which were amazingly delicious with a really good sauce on them, and buying tickets for our evening adventure. We then met up with Tracey and Sophie to head to the Rumiñahui Stadium for the main reason for our visit to Quito. And guess what it was? [View Full Entry]

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This past week I taught science instead of just math and syllables! Maya and I did body parts together with the first and second graders on Wednesday. For one of the activities we had them color body parts on paper, cut them out, and then they had to tape them on the parts of their bodies that matched. So we had a bunch of kids running around with bits of paper taped all over them. It was really cute!!! Thursday I did the circle of life, which for second graders consists of birth, growing, reproduction, and death. Each kid made a [View Full Entry]

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Friday night was Elysia's last night so we all went out. Lots of fun but sad too! Elysia's been here the whole 7 weeks that I have and she's the last volunteer to leave who was here at the beginning! Sophie (intern) and I (and Tracey of course) are the only ones left! We went to a couple different places and then Elysia, George, and I ended up eating soup at a little street stand in Plaza de Ponchos at 2:30 in the morning. Saturday morning we went to Quito and got there a little after noon. We stayed at Hostal [View Full Entry]

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I'm working with the second graders now instead of first. A little more challenging, and I actually have to have more stuff planned because I can't just take them outside to play a game to fill up time. They actually have to study. I do try to include fun stuff too though. This week was my first week. Lucila only gave me reading (syllables) and math to teach. For the whole week. No science or social studies or anything. Maya (who's teaching the first graders) and I decided we would put our kids together and add in our own sciences: one [View Full Entry]

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So one day when we got to school the kids had a fire going in a cardboard box off to the side of the school. It was a cold cloudy drizzly day so it made sense to warm up but still, it's school so we weren't sure it was allowed. Only in Ecuador would we even consider that maybe it's allowed. We checked with Lucila and she said it was definitely not allowed. So we had to go break up the party. Nicole stomped on it to put it out but then the kids all ran away with it. It wasn't [View Full Entry]

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This past weekend Elysia, Katie, Kelsey, and I went to Baños, 6 hours south of Otavalo. Friday night we went out in Otavalo to say goodbye to Matt, Lalita, and Kate who left Saturday morning. We left at 7:30 Saturday morning (February 27) and got to Baños around 1:30. We switched buses in Quito, but there are so many buses going all the time to Baños that we didn't have to wait at all. At the ticket booths in Quito everyone was competing for our business. Even while we were in the process of buying tickets at one window, the people [View Full Entry]

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Friday (27) was Día de La Bandera all over Ecuador. Basically it is a celebration of the 7th graders, kind of like 6th grade graduation in the States. Except it's during the year. It is a recognition of the students' academic achievement. A couple schools get together at one of the campuses for the event. We (Susan, Nicole, and I) went to Tangaley, about 35 minutes away from Otavalo, with the 7th graders, Nancy, Lucila (teachers) and the moms of the kids. We weren't really sure what to expect, but it was actually pretty cool. Each school has an Ecuadorian flag [View Full Entry]

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So it's Carnaval here (February 23-24), which in Ecuador basically means that it's a nation-wide massive water/foam/flour fight constantly. Seriously, before there was some danger of getting sprayed, but now if you leave your house you're going to get foamed or wet. Ecuador is supposedly the only country that celebrates in this way and I definitely think we need to come up with some holiday in the States that involves the same activities. Not even joking. It's so much fun! Monday (23) Nicole, Elysia, George, Kate, Avive, and I went to Peguche waterfall, the center of the fun in Otavalo. Th [View Full Entry]

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