The teachers had another training again on Friday, seems to happen every week. So we had all the kids. We had a carnival, but the type that we would ahve at home with different stations. First we made Pasaportes de Divertido (passports to fun). Then they split into groups and rotated to all the stations, and when they completed a station we gave them a sticker in their passports. There was a basketball shooting station, beanbag toss, musical chairs, relay race with lines on a spoon and hopscotch, and the equivalent of an egg toss except we used bean bags. It [View Full Entry]

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So let's see... what's new? I'm officially allowed to be in Ecuador now! I had to register my visa because it's a 6-month one instead of the normal 3 month one but now everything's done! Woohoo! Friday once again the teachers weren't at school. I'm starting to see a pattern here... We made valentines day cards with the kids for them to give to their parents and then did a bunch of different types of relay races. In the evening we had another movie night at the GVI House after walking through the pouring rain. Saturday was more exploring of the [View Full Entry]

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Saturday night (7) I went to mass with my family. My whole family: 2 brothers, mom, grandma, great-grandma, cousin/sister, my mom's sister's family, and my mom's brother's family who came up from Quito. So basically a lot of people! We took up a couple rows. The church was completely full, even people standing. They're starting the special masses leading up to Carnaval. After that I went over to the GVI House for a movie/icecream night. We watched Australia. It was pretty good. Sunday was all about relaxing! Sleeping in for once, reading, lesson planning, exploring other parts of Otavalo. T [View Full Entry]

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The rest of the week was good. Teaching teaching and more teaching. The kids alternate between listening really well and being ridiculously hyper and non-compliant. The good definitely outweighs the annoyances though and I love working with them! I think it's going to be hard to leave! Friday the teachers were gone again for another meeting so we had all the kids. More beading and then a bunch of PE: relay races, obstacle courses... one of the races they had to put on big clothes over their own as part of it. It was hilarious, especially for the really little ones [View Full Entry]

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I added 2 pictures to the Ecuador entry, and then obviously to the Mindo one and this one. Monday ( Feb. 2) was back to school! We're still doing the same things (shapes, sizes, colors, counting) and the kids are starting to get tired of it. Even though we're doing different activities, it's still the same topic. Monday they were especially energetic and didn't want to listen, I think partly because they didn't get their colada in the morning because there wasn't any gas for the stove. Luckily we got some gas by lunch time. The hardest part about teaching is [View Full Entry]

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So Mindo. Amazing! It was our one included weekend trip. Mindo is southwest of Quito, almost 4 hours from Otavalo. We left Saturday morning and got back Sunday evening. Guess what happened to part of the road about 30 minutes after we drove it? It collapsed! Too much rain and bad roads are not a good combination! Kind of scary that we barely made it! Saturday went white-water tubing. There were 7 tubes tied together in a flower shape. We sat inbetween them, not in the holes (we would've had broken tailbones if we had done that). Then we went down [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday and today were teacher training days for the rural indigenous schools. So, we had the whole school (and the kids of course) to ourselves. 38 were there yesterday, 35 today. Because we had so many over such a large age range we did art projects. Yesterday we read ¨Where the Wild Things Are¨with the little ones and then made masks and the older ones made necklaces and bracelets with tiny beads. Today we switched. We also did some PE. We were going to do some other activities, math races, etc but they all seemed to be having a good time [View Full Entry]

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3 days down! It's weird that it's already Wednesday! It's gone by pretty fast, surprisingly. Usually the first days are the slowest! So I started my teaching Monday. At Larcacunga. There are only 3 kids in my class, Aida, Natali, and Anderson. But they're all young so they are full of energy and don't like to sit still for long doing work. They're first graders, but the grades here are a lot different than at home. They haven't really done anything with writing numbers and letters (although they can write their names) and any sort of reading is unheard of. We're [View Full Entry]

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So let's see... where was I? I think Friday (23rd). In the evening we were all going to go out, but the people who had been teaching all week were tired so we postponed it until Saturday. Friday, Elysia, Kate, and I watched a movie on Kate's laptop and then slept. Saturday we explored the market. Plaza de Ponchos is the block where the market is ever day of the week. On Saturdays, the size multiplies! The block was full, as usual, and then it extended out into the streets on either side and continued up and down for about 6 [View Full Entry]

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Hello again... let's see... the past couple days I've had Spanish classes from 8:30-12:30 and 2-4. Then I either do stuff related to the volunteering, go to the internet, or go home and do spanish homework. I think it's going to be harder to get really good at spanish than I thought just because there aren't as many opportunities to practice as I was expecting. I figured I would be living with a family so I would be totally immersed and by the end of 4 months I would be relatively fluent. Well, that would be nice but there are some [View Full Entry]

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