Meeting the Niños!

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Yesterday I went up to my school! Larcacunga. Up in the mountains. Usually we take a public bus for half and hour and then hike up the mountain for 30 minutes but once a week we take food up for the school and on those days we ride in a pick-up truck. So I still haven't done the hike yet. There are 3 of us volunteers at this school. Lalita and I have the first and second graders and Matt has the 3rd graders. I officially have the first graders but there are only 3 so most of the time we'll have them together with the 8 second graders. There is another teacher for grades 4, 5, 6, 7 and then the director. The other teacher started on the same day as us, so before that it was only the director teaching 42 kids over 7 grades. Needless to say, they're pretty far behind!
The kids are adorable! They're very affectionate and definitely like attention! And right now we're still a novelty so they actually kind of listen! We spent most of the day making and decorating name plates to help us learn their names. They don't get to use markers very often so it was very exciting and by the end they had colored all over their papers, the table, and our clothes! Then I worked with 7 of them on counting. In the mornings when we first get there we feed them breakfast: some sort of hot drink that I have yet to figure out what exactly it is. Then class. Then at 10:30 we have lunch and recess for 45 minutes to an hour and then class again until 1.

We get back to town between 2-2:30. Then somedays we have spanish classes, or helping in the high school, lesson plans, etc. We can also just hang out at home or at the GVI house where there are lots of resources for lesson planning, movies, etc. It's a place where we can go if we want to get away from home or want somewhere to relax. At least at the house there's a chance of running into other people. There are never many people at house. The boys aren't usually home and they'll be going to college soon. Areselli (8 year old) always has tons of homework which our grandma helps her with, and the dad works in Quito during the week so really it's just the mom. I usually talk to her in the evening but I want lots of spanish practice!

Today I had spanish lessons again, this time with a different teacher. I like my other one better. She's better at explaining things. We're still mostly reviewingthough sotomorrow I'm going to ask to work on specific things. Like subjunctive...

Weather here... well it's their winter. And even though we're practicallyonthe ecuator, we're really high up so it isn't that warm. Mostly 60s or 50s. Sometimes warmer if the sun's out. So kind of like Alaskan summers. All the locals are cold but I prefer it to -15F!

Every Wednesday night all the volunteers go out for dinner. So that's tonight! I'll actually get to control how much I eat! What a concept! I always feel like I should eat everything they give me but they give me so much! Lunches are better when we take them to school because then it's only a sandwich and fruit.

Our homestays are a business for the family so it's almost more like a hotel. Better than a hotel because we're livingwith locals, but not much emphasis is puton becoming partof the family. Which really kind of sucks. I'll have to try to change that...
Alright, enough for now...

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