Follow my time volunteering in an elementary school in Tumbaco, Ecuador!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Time is flying by...

Time flies by so fast here that I don´t realize how long it´s been since I wrote a blog! Sorry! I haven't been doing much traveling lately, since things have been getting busy with the school as the end of the year draws near, but that doesn't mean nothing's been happening. First off, we've celebrated several special occasions. A volunteer from Germany named Lara, who's been here since last August, had her birthday a few weeks ago and to celebrate we all danced the night away at a salsa bar with a rocking live band. Our salsa lessons have been paying off! Great fun. Then, we had one volunteer, Natalie, leave for her hometown in Sweden, her 3 month stay here having flown by. We threw her a party and said our goodbyes =[ We miss you, Natalie! Mio, a volunteer from Switzerland, also left. We miss you as well! I also attended a family lunch to celebrate the graduation of cousin Alex from "doctor school." Mountains of food were consumed, resulting in a house full of very sleepy and full people. For Mother's Day, we took our mom shopping (my host siblings and I) and spent the day in Quito together. Afterwards, we returned home and spent the rest of the evening cleaning. We were doing such intense cleaning (I mean, on our hands and knees scrubbing the floor to death type of thing) that my brother kept joking, Hey look at Leslie. She's like Cinderella! And other such nonsense. But the reason for all of the cleaning was that...we had another minga, or building party! My wonderful mom in the States helped me get the word out that my school needed funds for several projects, including building a new classroom, buying computers, and buying a concrete top to cover the dangerous well in our yard. And guess what! You all raised more than $1300!! We're hoping to finish the classroom this week, we bought the lid for the well so that our kids won't risk falling in, we repainted all of the classrooms, and we hope to have enough to buy one computer! THANK YOU EVERYONE!!

As for life in general, every day we are entertained by our baby bunny, Pascualita, who is turning out to be the strangest bunny ever, one who gobbles up bits of orange and bread and refuses to touch a single carrot. My host mom treats her like a new baby, giving Pascuala her first bath (she looked like a wet rat. Poor thing), feeding her anything to her heart's desire, talking a mountain of baby-talk to her, and fiercely defending her from my host sister, Chavela, who wants to eat her when she's big enough. But now that we have a pet bunny, my host mom swears that she will never eat a rabbit ever again.

At work, I've started giving private lessons to our two special needs girls, Talia and Xiomara. This has been a nice addition to break up the endless parade of English classes that I teach the rest of the week. It's very difficult, though, because I'm not quite sure how to get things through to the youngest, Xiomara. I hold up a red crayon, ask what color, and she says "Yellow!" (In Spanish. We haven't even started with English in the private lessons, though, in regular class, I've heard her say, in English, "My name is Xiomara!" which just makes me swell with pride. Hopefully, it will stick in her head.) So that's been interesting but great fun. Mostly we just play with dolls or read stories to help the girls gain confidence and independence.

This is the beginning of my fourth month here at the school, and I'm realizing some things. I understand now that this school is for special kids, not special in the same sense as Talia and Xiomara, but for kids of all different kinds. It's a truly "integrated" school as they call it. We have kids with major behavior problems, physical disabilities, issues at home, medical conditions, you name it. Some examples: I have a student who comes to school looking sad sometimes and when asked she tearfully says, "My grandfather doesn't love my mommy." Apparently, there were issues with her parents' marriage which resulted in major family drama. Our special needs girls also have been struggling with family issues, having recently discovered that their mom has cancer and their dad having recently returned after abandoning them. We have several kids who suffer from fits of anger that arise spontaneously and cause them to be escorted from class to calm down almost every day. And we have a girl who has a physical disability that causes her to walk funny which probably, untreated, is doing damage that will worsen her legs in the future. And also, there are two brothers whose parents have a horrible relationship; before their parents' divorce, the boys were forced to witness violent fights, once even involving a knife. Now, the eldest especially is prone to acting violent and only likes activities that involve hurting people or guns. All of this makes it really difficult for our kids to learn and behave appropriately. I compare my school to the schools of other volunteers and realize that my school is different. Not different in a bad way; it just makes teaching more of a challenge. But I'm getting used to that challenge, and finally I feel totally settled at the school.

And of course, I also had my 19th birthday last week! I had an absolutely wonderful day, despite it being the first birthday I've ever celebrated without my family. The kids at school made me birthday cards with help from the art teacher, and we made a pizza party with them all. Then it was off to a great salsa class, and when I returned home, I celebrated with my host family. We ate tons of junk food and they gave really sweet speeches and I blew out a candle they had stuck in a pizza. It was really chill and just fun.

To celebrate with my friends, we all went to Baños this weekend! It's a cute town tucked into the Andes mountains with lots of cool stuff to do like hiking, horseback riding, rafting, taking a dip in the thermal baths for which the town is named, and tons more. We ended up taking a nice hike in the afternoon and then celebrated in the evening with ice cream cake and candles. The next day we went rafting! So much fun! We floated for an hour and a half down the river, paddling away and trying not to get thrown out of the raft! (I failed, often.) Our guide let us jump in the water sometimes and made it all really fun. Overall, it was a really great birthday, and I'm so glad I got to spend it here in Ecuador! (And here's a shout out to my dear sister, Elise, who shares my birthday. Hope you had an awesome day as well, love!)

Besos a todos y que les vayan bien!

3 comments:

  1. Hey les,
    wow i really wish i could meet your host family and bunny!! They sound like such awesome people! So do your students. It must be so cool to watch them learn, despite their numerous troubles. Only one day left till SUMMER BREAK for me and julia. Maybe I'll treat us to Starbucks; maybe I won't lol. The boys are doing well, and Jordan sometimes accidentally calls me Leslie. They are both getting BIG, and Wesley is beginning to really help me out when Jordan acts up. Oh yeah, and i have tendonitis now. I can't play cello for three weeks and i have to wear an arm brace that looks like a sneaker for arms. Really wierd. And annoying. But glad that you seem to be having a blast, and we'll see you in a month!

    love,
    elise

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  2. Ah yes, now that you're totally settled, it's almost time to go. :) As it often works... Had to laugh about the rabbit, CanUUdle was at UVic (University of Victoria), which has a rabbit problem... literally hundreds of rabbits all over the campus. Glad to hear that your birthday went well and that so much money was raised for the school as well! See you soon!

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  3. Les!
    I must second Tim's comment about rabbits. I will never think of them in the same way. I'm sure the university would love to ship its rabbits to your host sister to eat. I promise to tell you all about Canada! I had a great time. I miss you like crazy but I am glad that you are having a good time. It sounds like you are really getting the hang of the system! I love you crazy girl!
    Ro

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