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Gracias todas por your comments! Im V. surprised so many people are reading this, which has spurred me to try and carry on with this, a little better than i was doing before......!
I realised that although Ive been going into great detail about my travels, I havent really shared much about my daily live in Cuenca, and my two jobs, or even if i have the dynamics have changed a little now anyway. So here goes....
...My morning job, the reason that I have to get up a 630am every morning (which you will all know is unheard of for me!), and go and catch the school bus, which you will all be impressed to hear, I have never missed! Yus, anyway, I work at a small school for children and adults with learning and physical disabilities, and the age of the students range between about ermm 8 and i think the oldest student, who had his birthday the other day is 41. The younger kids go to a school/classroom part and for the older ones there a kind of practical skills centre, which includes a bakery (hah, Not surprisingly, you'll find me working there most days) a ceramics room, art room, sewing and costumery, woodwork, and a physiotherapy centre. So if all goes to plan Ill come home with many skills, like erm being able to bake bread, and sew and paint, and built a shelf with my eyes closed....hah, or not! All the kids put me to shame, actually tell me that Im doing things wrong and how I should really be doing it, and everyone at home knows my shocking inability to draw/paint, and will not be surprised to hear that one guy, who admitidly is an amazing artist and painter, just shakes his head at my attempts. In a of disappointed "I feel a bit sorry for you" kind of way...This guy, called Laurie, is deaf, there are only a couple of deaf kids at school ( I say kids they are actually my age or older, which makes teaching a bit strange sometimes....) but most of the other students know at least a little bit of sign language, which amazes me, and makes me jealous, so at some point I really want to learn to sign if i can. At the moment I just make some crazy gestures and act out what I did at the weekend or whatever, whatever you can do to get your point across. It does however mean, and there are two specific culprits of this, that two students can stand either side of me and sign to each other about me, and i dont have a clue whats going on! Hmmm, not sure I like that at all!
One thing I have been doing recently at school is helping take english lessons with another english speaking volunteer....of course, this usually ends in hilarity. We decided that, for the kids that literally after 5 lessons of how to say hello, cant remember a thing, and most find speech in spanish very challenging, a musical theme would be interesting- yes thats right, action songs. Which basically ended up with me and Corinne at the front singing and acting out 'Old Macdonald had a farm' (Pointing at the kids when they should say mooo, who just stared at us like we were crazy, I can understand why though, as every time they didnt moo, we mooed with more volume and emphasis than the last, until we literally had teachers from other rooms coming to look in the window at the strange foreigners...through this we also found that spanish chickens apparently make the noise "pio pio". Im not convinced...) 'If your happy and you know it' and 'heads shoulders knees and toes', which were a little more successful, most people joined in. Lets just say it was an experience. Muchos fun!
Most of the students at school are the most loving and adorable people you could come across, and I know that every morning when I get to school I am certain to get huge big hugs and kisses from evryone ( even when you dont really want them!) So everyone is very affectionate. But that goes for everybody in Ecuador actually, when you meet friends the custom is a kiss on one cheek and a hug, actually that also goes when you meet someone for the first time or you're being introduced. This is also what you do when you're saying bye....If you're meeting with a big group of people, as Im sure you can imagine, the greeting ands goodbyes can just go on FOREVER hehe. But its definately a habit that all of us have picked up, so apologies in advance to everyone if when I get back I launch into you trying to get a big hug and a kiss..Im sure you'll all apreciate it anyway! hah.
However I realise its not always so interesting listening about the good kids at school, its the ones that act up that you'll want to hear about! And in the past couple of weeks, for some reason there has been a fair few incidents....I dont know whether its the weather (summer is just starting here...wooo a day without rain! Incredible!) or what but somethings definately in the air. Firstly there is a boy called David, who is known for his violent outbursts, someone has to be with him at all times, who usually follows him round saying "cuidado cuidado" which means 'be careful!'. The first day he came to school he said nothing, didnt even make a noise, but just took all his clothes of and ran around the playground, refusing to be caught, stealing peoples break food, and whacking the cactus' with a massive stick. To be honest, nobody is gonna put up much of a fight to keep their food when the person stealing it is a manic looking naked boy with determination in his eyes. He has improved though, keeping his clothes on he says a few words and makes some noises....and can be calmed by music. However, the other day he arrived in a rage, shouting "Pio pio" (dont ask) and flailing about, so whilst he was being restrained by one of the other volunteers, Anna luisa, I, unfortunately was standing in front of him, at which point he decided to spit in my face....nice.
Another boy, hmm how can I put this, ermmm, was found sitting on the toilet with the door wide open, playing with himself! And everybody knew about it straight away from the scream of the teacher who found him....
But it gets worse...and it is always the boys! A new boy started at school last week. He speaks about equal english and spanish because he just moved here from america, so of course everyone wanted me to talk to him in english. He is unbelievably fat! haha, and in ecuador no one is bothered by this political correctness malarky, so as soon as he arrived all the teachers were saying " Have you seen the new boy? He's hugely fat! Gordo!" which means fat. And if you are fat, the likeliness is your nickname will be fatty. Seriously, Im not joking. We've met a guy who is quite small but very well built and muscly, who bounces around and all his friends know him as " Piojo" which translates as "nit". lovely. Anyway, back to Gordo. As you may imagine, he is food obsessed. At break timne the kids get rice or pasta or something, and he literally used the fork as a scooping impliment picked the bowl up and emptied it into his mouth, wihtout so much as a breath. he then came into the bakery where I was working, tried to grab a biscuit out of the cabinet but was defeated by the pane of glass in front of them, so moved over to the big ovens where the bread was baking, and tried to get in there. Luckily someone managed to stop him in time. Otherwise he would have been a very burnt fat boy....
....heheh anyway the other day, thursday in fact, which tunred out to be a very crazy day in all, was the ultimate day for gordo, or Wilson. The day before he had been found in the toilets, having taken all his clothes off, I guess trying to wash in the sinks. Again, he didnt really want to put his clothes back on. So when he was a strangely long time in the toilets, we got suspicious, and someone when to investigate. Sure enough, he had just managed to take his shoes off. Needless to say, he was not impressed that soemone was going to stop him getting naked. To display his anger he chucked his massive size 11 trainers down the corridor at one of the teachers. He then came into the classroom I was in, picked up a mug and smashed it on the floor. Yup thats right I just sat and stared...hah not really I tried to get through, but the other kids decided it would be a good idea for them to gather round the fat boy who was throwing crockery...then he made his way into the ceramics part of the room, where all the finished work is kept and was about to smash more things, when I managed to get through and persuade him not to, purely because I was speaking in english and he prefers it. So eventually, we all got hime calmed down and started chatting and all that, thinking we'd won the battle, when we hear a huge metal clank, being the door to the school slamming shut, and see out of the window a huge yellow blob running off down the street. Of course, me and the female teacher who caught up with him couldnt persuade him to come back, and even put together, we didnt have to strength to drag him back by force...heheh....so we had to recuit some of the guy teachers, by which point wilson was playing by the river. I was chosen to go and talk to him, surprise surprise, but as i was approaching he obviously decided I was the last person he wanted to see, and blobbled off, actually moving at a surprising speed! Unfortunately he chose to run down a street where there were many mnay ecuadorian workers laying the road, so not only did I get lots of ?wooo' etc when I was chasing him, but he made his escape by running over the wet cement, leaving his monster size footprints behind, much to the pure delight of the workers.....or not.
End of school time came and he was still roaming the streets....I think eventually his mum had to convince him to go home with her instead. What with all the mayhem, I was late to the bus station to meet my friends to go on our long weekend to the beach. But what started as a crazy day, obviously had to continue. About 3 1/2 hours into my 4.5 hour bus journey to our connecting bus, having drunk a lot of water after chasing the escapee, I obviously really needed the loo. No problem, as there was one on the bus. I got the key from the driver, got in fine, blah blah blah....it was the getting out that was the problem. No matter how forcefully I threw myself against the door it wouldnt open, then realising I had the keys in my hand, and the lock was on the outside I suddenly understood why. No one could hear me banging over the immense volume of the crazy ecuadorian film that was being played. It was 20 minutes before kat woke up and asked where I was, before I got any help. (the others who were awake all the time, apparently not giving it a second thought that I had been pissing for 20 minutes...) I know, all my own stupidity really! It amazes me that we can plan trips over the country, and yet at the same time I can trap myself in a bus toilet...well eventually I was rescued from the trap of the bus toilet, grateful that I could breathe again, and we pulled into Guayaquil to catch our bus up to Montañita. Woop holiday time!
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Lucy
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Haha Soph sounds like you're having some well funny times! Miss you loads, what date is it you come back? x