I am blogging from the popular internet cafe in the center of the small town in Ecudaor where we currently reside, Banos. We have been here for 10 days, long enough for us to already have our favorite cafe´s and hangout spots. When we are not playing Spanish Scrabble, hangingout, and eating with our homestay families, we all love to get together at Cafe Hood, this cute, warmly lit cafe run by Italians. It is the perfect place to escape the nutorious beans and rice. I have been ordering Pasta Pesto and ice cream. The owners have become used to our joyus banter and the constant request to pull 3 table together, as there are 11 of us.
We have done great work in the past week. After carnival ended, the local kids went back to school at Raices School (where we attend our spanish classes) and we began our projects with them, teaching englsh, playing and doing art projcts. We worked with them for 3 days, and everyone will agree it was an extremely rewarding experience, while also being physicaly exhausting. On that note: we have had quite a few ¨sickies¨ this last week, but everone has been pulling through. Th classic febuary ¨flu¨ has been going around, fever, cough, suffed up nose, but everyone ha been takin care of their bodies, resting when needed, and Grant´s nutorious solution for everything, ¨drink more water!¨
This week, we are working at the local school, with hundereds of kids. The facility is extremely nice, comparable, if not nicer then many schools in the states. They have a forest for the kids to play in, two playgrounds, clean clasrooms, and a piano for music class. Also unlike most schools in the US, the program begins at 3 year old, completely free, funded by the government. We have split into groups, working with different ages. Some are workin with the 3 and 4 year olds, singing songs, playing this adorable verion of ring-around-the-rosy, where we hold hands, sing this song in spanish, walk around in a circle and then suddenly stop and everyone hugs each other. This age group is super fun to work with, because they are thrilled with litterely anything we do. Making a silly face can entertain them for hours, and it makes you feel warm to see how content these kids are. Even if they have a harder time at home, they are doing alright living very simply, many are extremely happy. It makes us reflect that maybe we dont need so much material to be happy. Other kids are working with the older age group, and they say its really fun teaching them english, but a bit hrd to hold their atention. Our daredevils Emily and Kai are teaching english for 4 hours a day to the 18-20 year old group, and extremely challenging task.
We all have been studying spanish for 4 hours a day, either one on one or with a partner. It is an extremely effective and imersive method of learning a language, and we are all improving at an alarming rate. We are also exauhsted. It takes a lot out of you to do 4 hour straight and we are working hard.
On sunday we took an open air tourist bus to the outskirts of Baños and saw some amazing water falls, a Jurasic Park experience. 150 foot falls, rainbows, pink butterflies, sounded by jungle plants. We also convinced everyone to do this terrifying zipline hundereds of feet above a canyon, laying flat on our bellys. Props tp everyone wh stepped out of their comfort zone for that!
What we are doing here is so important. For our selves and for the people we are helping. For some, every new experience have is an incredible feat to overcome, where for others, it is easier. But one thing is for sure: no body is completely in their comfort zone and that is a great environment to grow and learn.
We have 4 more days, and then we are on the 4 am bus to Otovalo! So much love! And talk to you all very soon!
Eli and Ivy