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Published: April 18th 2009
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Last Saturday (11th) was mostly just hanging out in Otavalo. We were going to go to Peguche because some people still hadn't been there, but it started pouring so we didn't go. Later on in the afternoon, Carly, Rosie and I went to the Cotocachi leather fair. We had heard there was something going on in Cotocachi (20 minutes away by bus) so we decided to check it out. Turns out it was their annual leather fair. So basically lines of stands selling stuff, some leather, some other random crap. We walked through them, but there wasn't really much to see. Then we went to the food area. Basically like the Alaska State Fair just on a way smaller scale. We had just eaten lunch and we were going home soon for dinner so we weren't as hungry as we would have liked to have been, but we still managed to fit some in somehow... We all split a shwarma, a green plantain chicken empanada (definitely the highlight), and an icecream fruit salad. Amazing! Then there was a little bit of live music on the stage but not for long because it started raining and the stage was uncovered. Then home
for dinner and going out.
Monday (13th) at school was an amazing day for reading! I don't know if it was because the kids had two days off last week or if it was just a good day or what, but some of them were actually reading! Usually Lucila just reads the sentence word by word and they repeat it, so really they're just repeating instead of actually reading. It's hard to do it any other way with 8 kids though. You really need one-on-one to get them to sound out the words and such. So that's what I did Monday. I had them all writing sentences and then I went around to each kid and had them read. Some of them of course still can't do it, but there were a couple who I didn't even have to prompt! It was so exciting! Good to know that some of them are actually learning something!
In the afternoon we did paper mache. The goal was to cover half a balloon to make masks. We were going to do it on the fanesca day, but we ended up helping and just hanging out more than we were expecting. Lucila
like the idea though so we did it for the last hour on Monday. To say it was crazy would probably be the under-statement of the year. The kids of course didn't really listen to the instructions so some of them had 10 gallons of the glue stuff and others had hardly any. And most of them preferred putting whole sheets of the newspaper on the balloon rather than tearing them up into strips. And of course some of the balloons popped and splattered our flour/water glue mixture everywhere (we were all pretty much covered by the end). We were constantly running around trying to help all the kids at the same time. It ended up pretty well though and it was fun.
Friday there weren't teachers so in the afternoon we finished the masks. They actually all dried and turned out pretty well, ready to paint. We set up all the supplies during lunch rather than handing them out while the kids were in there which was a much better choice (we do learn some things from experience...). There was paint, sparkles, foam pieces, egg cartons to cut up for noses, and construction paper to make horns. It
Adorable!
Juan and Anderson would've been ideal to put the horns and noses on before we paper mached so that they could've been paper mached over to stay better, but that would not have happened with the craziness on Monday. So we just used lots of tape and made it work! It was go-go-go, constantly helping the kids, mostly with their horns, and I always had at least 5 kids around me all asking for help at once. I love stuff like that though, constantly busy and helping and everyone having a good time and it was a lot of fun! Some of the kids got really creative with their masks too! And I think all of them turned out really well! And I had english in the morning with the older kids which is always fun, so it was definitely a good day! It was Rosie and Kaitlyn's last day so that of course was sad. It's always so anti-climatic when people leave. All the kids say bye and then just go home like normal. There's no lingering until we actually leave for goodbyes or anything. I guess they're so used to it. There's always people coming and going and no one really
stays long enough to get really attached. Especially recently we've had people leaving every week so it's really not anything new anymore. And people leaving the next 2 weeks too. Hopefully the new people are good... There isn't going to be anyone new at Larcacunga next week so we'll be back to just 3 of us again. 3 when I came and I think it will be 3 when I leave.
Thursday night about 12 of us decided we wanted to make s'mores. We went to Peguche waterfall after dinner with the intention of making a fire. Some of the spanish teachers had said that there would be wood there that we would be able to find and use. Ok, there was no such thing. We ended up just walking around for a while and then walking back to Imbaya where we all live. It was still fun though, good to get out after dinner and good to walk. And we still did some of our campfire singing (just without the campfire). Then Friday after school we made our s'mores. In the oven at the GVI house. Sacreligious, I know, but still delicious! And none of the Europeans had
ever had them before so it was a necessary event!
This weekend is going to be another relaxing one. Saying more goodbyes, going out in the evenings. We're having a picnic at Peguche tonight (waterfall) so that should be good. Hopefully it won't rain... Only two more weeks teaching! Everything is going so fast!
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