Where Did October Go?

It’s been over a month since I’ve written and I have much to share so I’ll get right to it!

Cory, John, and Doug left a few weeks ago. It felt weird without them here at first, but I definitely felt confident and ready to use what they taught me and develop my own teaching style.

A few weekends ago we had a “meet-the-teacher” event for the high school (colegio) students, and I got to meet the majority of the parents of the girls that I had for my Sales Techniques class. All of the parents asked if the girls were getting their homework done and behaving in class. Fortunately I didn’t have anything bad to say because I loved that class (minus the few times that I had to confiscate mirrors or nail polish). Unfortunately, because it is a first-level course, the class changes every six weeks so that the girls can practice different trades and figure out which career path they ultimately want to pursue during their remaining years in colegio. That means that I already have a new class with new girls. My last class was sad to go, and I was sad to see them go, but I can tell that the new group will be fun to work with, too.

English class has been fun yet challenging, not because the girls have been misbehaving, but because all of my girls are learning at completely different paces. I gave a test a few weeks ago and three of the girls scored very well, two of them got mediocre scores, and two of them failed miserably. I could have predicted most of the scores before we even took the test based on how the girls participate in class, but now I’m struggling to create lesson plans that are challenging enough for the brighter girls and easy enough for the slower girls. Behavior has only been an issue on a few occasions, but luckily I was able to assuage a few potentially bad situations. One day, a girl named Jessenia decided to pass a note to another girl in the class named Rosa. I have no idea why Jessenia thought she could get away with passing the note right in front of me, but I was able to intercept the note before Rosa had a chance to read it. I gave neither of the girls stars on their star charts that day. Later when I read the note, I realized that Jessenia had written some pretty nasty things to Rosa. I went back to the classroom and gave Rosa the star I had refused her earlier, and confronted Jessenia the next time I saw her. More recently, someone (culprit still unknown) decided to put a note on another girl’s back that read “SOY TONTA” (“I’m dumb”). Luckily I snatched it off her back before she even noticed.

For several weeks of Girls’ Program we had no materials to continue working on our Christmas ornaments. The problem is that there are nine Girls’ Program groups at Cotocollao that have a total budget of $50 to spend on materials. Needless to say it was gone almost immediately. The girls are supposed to sell whatever they make to earn the money back, and they get to keep the profits. However, almost every single group is making something for Christmas, which means no one is going to sell anything until closer to Christmas, which means we have no way of making money right now. Therefore, we had no money to finish making our ornaments, and no way of earning any either. We spent a few weeks just doing busy work. One day I taught my girls some magic tricks with playing cards. Finally, the program director decided to loan us some extra money, so we’re back in business.

It’s officially rainy season, which means that it rains on-and-off almost every afternoon. Conveniently enough (not), it happens to rain during at least one of my gym classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. At first Andy and I weren’t sure what the heck to do with our kids when it was raining because it hardly ever rained earlier in the year. We had a couple of classes just watch movies. Finally last week I decided to make bowling pins by filling old plastic water bottles with sand. The kids LOVE to bowl! When it’s not raining, we’re in the middle of the basketball unit. The kids generally like to play, but they still ask to play soccer every week. We decided to make a deal with them that we’ll have four weeks of each unit and then the fifth week they get to play soccer (or watch a movie if it’s raining), but ONLY if they’ve been behaving well. Overall they’re getting used to our gym class routine, but we still have some kind of issue every week. At least one person ends up bleeding or crying by the end of the day. Last week some of my first grade girls decided that they were just going to cry the entire class because Andy took away their pinnies when they were misbehaving, so naturally everyone else in the class was distracted. I made them go to the other side of the field so they could pout away from everyone else. Some of the first grade girls also like to pretend their crying just so that I’ll tickle them to make them laugh, which is pretty adorable so naturally I can’t help but give in.

Laura and I have been continuing to learn some Ecuadorian songs to teach the kids during music class, but we’ve also been teaching the kids about different instruments (at least the ones that we actually have available here). Laura and I also started directing the choir, which is made up of first-year girls in colegio and kids from about third grade and up in escuela, from both La Marin and Cotocollao. Manuel (a former music teacher at the Center), his daughter Lizeth, and Saul (the head of the religion department who lives with us in the volunteer house) also help with the choir, usually with guitar accompaniment. Unfortunately, rehearsals for the choir are Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. That means that I had to give up visiting barrios on Friday afternoons (which was my favorite part of the week), not to mention a few hours of catch-up sleep on Saturday mornings. The current choir will perform at Christmastime, but the Madres told us that after Christmas new kids will be allowed to join, and we might be able to change the rehearsal schedule (hopefully!). Laura and I also have to learn all the Ecuadorian Christmas songs, with harmonies, to teach to the kids. The colegio girls are also playing some instruments along with the songs, but luckily Manuel and Lizeth have taken over teaching that part.

After a few weeks of working with the choir, Manuel asked me if I would sing in a concert with him, Saul, and a few their friends. Of course I said yes! The concert is this Sunday, October 30, at a church in Roldos, where Manuel lives. I’ve been going to Manuel’s house a few days a week to rehearse with everyone. It’s been so fun getting to know his family and friends. He has four kids around the ages of 16-24 (Lizeth, two other daughters, and one son). He also has two dogs, one of which is an adorable little puppy named Muchachito. He likes to nibble on my jeans during rehearsal. It’s so nice to be able to play with dogs that aren’t strays! The first time I went over was a Saturday afternoon. Since Ecuadorians eat lunch as their big meal (as opposed to how most people in the US eat dinner as their big meal), Manuel’s wife cooked us a huge platter of chicken, rice, fried potatoes, and soup (which had cow-foot in it… I struggled). I was stuffed! Another night when I went over it was Manuel’s birthday, so we all sang to him and had cake. We’re singing three songs in the concert, “Quien ha encontrado un amigo”, “Busqué el amor” and “Salvador yo te canto”. I’ll be singing and rocking the tambourine while everyone else is playing guitar and singing harmonies. Two other groups will be performing as well. The other volunteers plan on coming to watch, so hopefully I’ll have some pictures/videos to post next time!

We finished our art and culture unit in Adult Education with some lessons on the legends of Quito. It was an interesting week because I was learning the legends along with the adults, and I loved hearing the stories. We ended the unit with a Saturday morning field trip to Quito’s historic district, where many of the legends supposedly took place. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go on the trip because the Madres preferred that I attend choir rehearsal. I was quite disappointed. We’ve now started our music unit, and we’ve been teaching the adults how to read music. They’ve practiced drawing the G-clef and learned the scale. I’ve really been enjoying teaching the adults because I learn which parents go with which kids, and I gain a lot of insight as to why certain kids behave the way they do. It also helps to be able to tell the kids that if they misbehave I’ll have to talk to their mothers about it in class later that night.

Luz (the woman who brought me the avocados that our cooks ended up using by accident) brought me a new batch of avocados AND another day brought me a helping of some amazing chicken lasagna that she had made. It was all delicious.

The woman whose son fell ill several weeks ago started coming to classes again. When she first started coming again she told me that they had finally gotten her son to the hospital and the doctors told her that he would probably suffer from some mental retardation as a result of the illness. He became ill from drinking some kind of bad alcohol. There have been warnings out about the alcohol because people have died from drinking it. The woman also told me that her sister who had been there helping was trying to tell the doctors that they should send her son away because she doesn’t have the proper means to take care of him. She was obviously very upset. Miraculously, the next time I spoke with her about a week later she told me that her son was back to normal! He was back in school and no one believed that he was ever sick, except for the few of us who had seen him when he was extremely ill. I was amazed! Thank you to those of you who kept him in your prayers.

The cousin of one of the other volunteers arrived a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Joanie and she’ll be here helping until Christmas. It’s exciting to have a new person staying with us, and she’s been keeping me company and helping out with a few my classes including Girls’ Program, English on occasion, and Adult Education. We also had a group of ten visitors who are part of a gap-year program, which is a program that kids can join after high school and before college. They’re traveling all over South America and earning a few college credits. They were with us for about a week, though we really only saw them at dinnertime.

I have included some photos of my weekend adventures.  The first set is from the weekend we went to the Centro Histórico and climbed to the top of the Basilica del Voto Nacional. When I say climbed, I literally mean climbed on ladders to the top. It was definitely scary at times. You’ll find several shots of amazing views of the city from the top.

The second set is from our trip to Papallacta, a small town about two hours outside of Quito, high in the mountains. Papallacta is famous for its hot springs, so we spent a night at a resort where we rented two cabins with private springs. The journey there was quite interesting, because we had to hike up a mountain to get to the resort (we could have taken a shuttle from the bottom, but none of us realized how intense the hike would be so we ended up walking the whole way). While the springs were scorching, the weather was quite chilly since we were so high in the mountains. The contrasting temperatures felt amazing, especially when it rained. However, because it was so chilly and rainy at times, none of us thought to put on sunscreen. Naturally, because we were at such a high elevation ON the equator, many of us got sunburned (myself included, of course). It was so nice to go away for a couple of days, and we ended up meeting some really interesting people, like a group of women in the cabin next to ours who worked together and had decided to get away for the weekend.

The third set of photos was taken during a Liga (Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito) game at their stadium which is about a five minute walk from our house. The photos are from the first game we went to, which wasn’t a very intense rivalry so there weren’t as many people (and it was much easier to take photos). However, a few of us decided to go to another game on a Wednesday night when the stadium was nearly filled. On either end of the stadium are bands that are playing music constantly throughout the game, and fans standing on their seats chanting along. The first game we went to we bought tickets for a section where the view was better, but we learned for the second game that the real fun is in the sections with the bands. Liga won both games, but the second was definitely more exciting (though less conducive for photo-taking)! I befriended some Ecuas so that I could learn some of the songs they were singing, though I’ve forgotten all of them by now, unfortunately.

Last weekend I had my first visitors! Bill, an old friend from high school, and Lauren, his girlfriend, happened to be traveling around Ecuador and decided to stay with me while they were in Quito. It was great to see a familiar face, and we had a great time! They arrived on Friday and I gave them a taste of Quito’s nightlife, and then a group of us headed to Otavalo on Saturday morning. Otavalo is a town north of Quito that has a HUGE artisans’ market. We shopped and haggled for hours. Their flight home was super early on Sunday morning, so we spent Saturday evening relaxing. I was sad to see them leave!

Next week we only have classes on Monday and Tuesday and then we have off the rest of the week off for holidays (Día de los Difuntos and Día de los Muertos). All of the volunteers will be traveling. I originally had planned to go into the Amazon with a small group during the break, but our plans fell through so now I will be going with a bigger group to Montanita, which is a town along the coast. This time I’ll remember to wear sunscreen!