Follow the Journey

Tomorrow morning we are all powering through a 4 AM bus ride as we say goodbye to Banos, leave our host families, and head to Otovalo and then the Tundanga Foundation for a little over a week of volunteering in a tree nursery. New host families, new adventures, and new fun times lie ahead!
But today it´s hard to say goodbye. Kai and I recieved homemade bracelets and a huge bag of bread and cookies from our group of English students who have suffered through our attempt at teaching our own language these past two weeks. After struggling every day to remember grammer rules and spelling of irregular words, it was actually really sad to say goodbye. They had so much patience with us, and tried to hard to learn the lessons we were teaching, that I´ll be sad to not have to act out different verbs (falling and tripping were the most fun) again. Teaching English was one of the hardest things I´ve ever had to do, especially when I entered the classroom with Kai thinking we´d be teaching fourth or fifth graders and realizing immediately that we´d be teaching 17-20 year olds. The idea that a guitar and teaching head-shoulders-knees-and-toes would be sufficient went flying out of the window. Coming up with lesson plans and explaining concepts over and over again made me appreciate my teachers and professors so much more.
I also had to say an emotional goodbye to Mayra, my Spanish professor for the past two weeks. She and I have had many silly moments of total miscommunication (confusing the word for embarassed, embarasoso, with the word for pregnant, embarasado… oops), and great discussions about our families at various cafes around town. I´ve made more progress with Spanish in the last two weeks than I have in three years of Spanish classes in the USA, and I´ll miss my professor and our classes.
I´ve enjoyed my experience learning more about the daily life of Ecuadorians in Banos while living with a host family, as well as getting to know the other group members while hanging out in Cafe Hood, Rico Pan, and around the school. Rock climbing near the river and ziplining over the waterfalls with the group have also been once in a lifetime opportunities.
Adios Banos, I´ll miss you!
Emily