Crazy Kids

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I apologize to all the dedicated blog readers out there for my tardiness in writing a new blog entry. To be honest, I have been swamped with work - sometimes I feel like I don´t even have time to stop and think about what I have to do - my body and mind just go from one item of work to the next as though I am a drone programmed to keep doing work for my counterpart and unable to say ¨No, I don´t have time to do that!¨

Anyhow, Sue and I did manage to free up enough time in our lives to make a short weekend trip to Mindo with our friends Heather and Matt. We stayed in the El Monte ecolodge with them and it was absolutely stunning. Mindo is set in the cloud forest west of Quito. It has become something of a tourist resort town, but where we stayed, we seemed to avoid the mad rush of tourists. The lodge is gorgeous and without a doubt, one of the nicest places I have ever stayed. It doesn´t have the amenities of a Hilton, but who cares, each private cabin is made of natural materials and is tastefully decorated. The cabins sit next to the Mindo River and the lodge itself is spacious and comfortable. The food was excellent and abundant as well. The real joy though were the myriad of trails through the forest. We went birding numerous times and saw 40-50 different types of birds. Matt and Heather are avid birders - Sue and I were along for the ride so to speak. Though now, I have the birding bug and have become better at spotting them. I still have no idea what any of them are called, but that´s ok, I´ll practice.

I found that I became really good at picking out birds we had already seen. I´d spot one, call everyone´s attention to it and then Matt or Heather would politely say good job Jeremy - great eyes, however, I think we saw that one already - but wow, it’s a pretty bird isn´t it?. They are nice like that - making me feel useful and good.

We also managed to take a short tubing trip down the Río Mindo. It was fun, but not challenging in anyway. We were on a raft of six tubes tied together. Our guide (a 15 year-old boy) explained all the safety issues and what to do if we fell out into the 1-2 foot deep river. We didn´t have the heart to tell him that we were all experienced rafters and that tubing was not really challenging. We had a blast though being goofy so that made it all work out ok.

Early in the morning we got up (4 am) to go see a very rare bird in these parts - the Andean Cock of the Rock. We had to take a ½ hour truck ride then hike another 45 minutes or so to a viewing spot. The birds appeared around 6:00am and we got a number of photos and excellent views. We spent the rest of the morning spotting birds with our birding guide.

We eventually returned to the lodge and had breakfast. After breakfast we hiked again and went birding. Unfortunately, Sue and I had to return to Puyo Sunday night so after lunch we hitched ride back to Quito and then a bus back to Puyo. I was starting to feel ill and spent most of the bus trip shivering and trying to keep from crapping my pants or throwing up. I assume that I ate something bad, or perhaps the amoebas in my system decided to act up. The good news was that we had the luxury bus that had reclining seats and footrests so that you could almost completely lay down. This was the first bus I had ever seen like this - I liked it.

We got back to Puyo around 1:30am and tried to go to bed. Sue had to leave for a trip a dentro at 6:00am and I had to start my summer science camp at 7:00am. We were both feeling ill-prepared and wishing that we could have stayed in Mindo with Matt and Heather.

The next morning came - Sue left - and I spent a good hour trying to muster enough energy to leave my apartment. I was sick - very sick - puking, crapping, you name it. I finally got the strength to leave and went to camp. Luckily for me, my system behaved during the day and I didn´t have any embarrassing moments in front of the kids. Katie was amazing and really took charge of the camp the first day - there is no way I could have handled 25 kids in my condition.

Each day of the camp, I started to feel a little better, but really didn´t feel good until Wednesday evening. As I was walking home from work at 7:30pm, I stopped to get a bag of potato chips. I was hungry from not eating for 3 days. In a 20 minute walk I ate an entire bag of chips - 8 servings. I also saw something rather funny on my way home.

About 100 yards ahead of me, a cab pulled over to the side of the street. I saw the cabbie get out and walk around to the back right rear tire. He then preceeded to take a piss on his back tire. 5 seconds into his pee, he apparently set off his own car alarm. This of course drew peoples´attention to him. Poor guy was fumbling for his keys, trying not to piss on himself, and wishing that his car alarm was not going off. It was at about this time that I walked by him and laughed. None of his actions were ¨rare sightings¨ in Ecuador. People urinate in public, people stop their cars in the middle of the road all the time, car alarms go off all the time, but taken together and combined with the fact that he was peeing on his own car just seemed a little funny and odd. There was a perfectly good tree a few feet away from him, why he didn´t choose that nobody will ever know.

So, back to the camp. The kids were a blast most of the week, however, we certainly had our moments where keeping 25 8-14 year-olds busy and interested was excruciatingly difficult. On Tuesday, I had one of those angry moments teachers and parents get when after repeated attempts to get children to settle down and listen fail miserably. I was looking at two boys who were screwing around and telling the whole group to listen. They did not - I moved closer and repeated my request. They continued to ignore me so I grabbed one kid by the head - literally palming his head and picked him up by the head and set him in his chair. I had no idea you could do this to a 13 year-old - but I did and it was effective. Later though, I was thinking that I would have to deal with his parents - that surely he would tell his parents that I had attacked him. In the States, I would have lost my teaching job if I would have done that. I didn´t hurt the kid at all, just got his attention. Anyhow, he left camp early that day and went home. The next day he showed up an hour late - came in and said he was sorry. After that, he was a model camper. The power of the human palm is amazing.

Another day we were playing a rousing game of Duck Duck Goose. The kids all thought that picking me or Katie was good fun so I keep running around the circle chasing people and I would of course lose - so as to not hurt anyone´s feelings. I was getting tired and decided the next one who picked me was going to get a race. It just so happened that the fattest kid at camp (a really sweet kid - but a little like Piggy from Lord of the Flies) called out Goose as he tapped my head. I swung my arm around to get up and managed to clip both of his legs. He fell straight forward - face first. Everyone laughed except him - he just started to cry. I picked him up and walked off to the side. We sat there as he cried. He was physically fine, just a little embarrassed. He was not a model of toughness by any stretch of the imagination. However, from that point on, we were buddies.

Two days later, we visited an animal park. This park had a series of rope swings set up on a steep hillside. These would be outlawed in the States, however, here, they were great fun. The swings would go out over the hill and at the apex of the swing one would be anywhere from 30-80 off the ground. The kids loved it - I was freaking out that one of them was going to fall. There were no harnesses, so safety nets, just a rope tied to a tree branch. No imagine 6 of these set up with kids swinging everyone. I finally gave up being worried - if one of them fell - it wasn´t my fault.

Near the end of our visit to the park ¨Piggy¨ was helping his little sister on to one of the swings. She did great - however, nobody grabbed her on the way back to help her off so she swung out again and again - each time, because of the slope of the hill, it was harder to reach her to help her off. Finally ¨Piggy¨ got ahold of her foot, however, he failed to stop her and the two of them swung out. Her on the rope, him holding he her foot. Of course, he lost his grip and fell about 30 feet, then slid down the hill rolling over stones and branches. I thought he was a goner - when he finally came to a stop, literally at my feet, I looked down and asked if he was alright - he looked up at me with frozen eyes and said - ¨I…..I think so¨ then he smiled and popped back up. I immediately told the kids that it was time to go and we loaded up the truck and left.

This brings up another interesting thing - we took two field trips during our camp. Each time the municipio gave us a truck to take the kids. Now, how do you fit 25 kids, a driver, and two Peace Corps volunteers into a Chevy S-10 pickup? We managed to do it - Safe? No! Fun for the kids? Yes! Each bump I was prepared to grab a kid to keep them from falling out.

Friday saw the end of the camp - thank god. Don´t get me wrong - it was fun, however, it overextended my patience for kids of that age. I don´t know how elementary teachers do it everyday; I don´t know how parents do it for years. I tip my hat to all of you. I can deal with teenagers with no problem, but a group of 10 year-olds is like the devil, a bunch of them. When you feel responsible for their safety and well-being everything they do out of your realm of control is nerve-wracking. Amazingly though, kids are able to hurt themselves pretty good but have an uncanny ability to bounce back.

Katie and I worked extremely well together during this camp. She is a great planner and organizer - and I am good at being a tall, funny, gringo, that barely speaks Spanish and loves to be goofy. My favorite activities were teaching them how to play red light green light and how to make paper airplanes.

Right after camp, Heather and Matt showed up in Puyo and we spent the weekend with them. I´ll write more about that in my next blog.

Peace,
Jeremy

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