FIESTAS!

This past weekend has been fun and full of parties, so I thought I should add a quick update!

On Thursday evening after our full day of work, we all went to this event honoring Padre Juan for the 45 years of the Working Boys' Center. It's pretty cool to be part of an evolving mission and live with the founders! Father John started the Center living in the roof of this beautiful Jesuit church downtown, La Compania, with some of the working boys. Then Madre Miguel came and it evolved, and eventually they bought their own building. Now there are 3 Centers (La Marin, Cotocollao, and La Gota de Leche) and whole families are involved in the Centers. This is why I teach classes from 6 years old to parents.

Anyway, the party was a fundraiser for the Center, and it was basically a bunch of rich Ecuadorians and then also some of the teachers and the directors of the Centers. There were some speeches, the chorus sang, and Padre was presented this huge painting of himself. It's actually a really nice picture I think, but huge, and he was joking afterwards with us about "what the hell he was going to do with it." He told us he was going to put it in our rooms! He's a funny guy! After the presentation, there was wine and whiskey with hors deourves....like sushi (we were all laughing), humitas, chicken, and some sweets. It was really a beautiful event, and it was cool to see how many people came out to support the Center.

Then Saturday, I played soccer with a bunch of the Center members. It was mainly moms and then some of the colegio (middle school/high school) girls. Both games I played in ended in a tie. I played goalie in the 2nd game....yikes. They're all pretty bad though, so it is more just a fun, active, social event. I do have some battle wounds though, so it's aggressive just bad! I'll probably try to play most Saturdays if I'm in town.

Saturday night I went to the wedding of the brother of one of La Marin Center directors. The wedding was in the Compania church downtown, which was absolutely gorgeous. Then we walked over to the La Marin Center for the reception. It was a late event though! We didn't eat until about 11:30pm, and then I left at 1:30am as I was exhausted and they hadn't even cut the cake yet! It was cool to be invited to the event though and dress up and such. Today, I went to my first LIGA soccer game of the year! I love the games! It is so much to in the sports arena atmosphere and the fans get really into it. It was a big game too, Liga v Barcelona, which is a big rivalry as they are the two biggest teams from the two biggest cities, Quito and Guayaquil. Liga from Quito won 4-0, which was amazing and a great celebration. Then I got another one of those delicious ice cream cones...raspberrry and chocolate today!

So it was a fun weekend and now time for another week of school. We might not have class tomorrow though as there are supposed to be huge protests by the indigenous population that is supposed to shut down all the ways in and out of the city. We'll see though... Time to watch The Wire and head to bed!

La playita

Last weekend I finally got out of Quito for a bit and went to the beach! It was such an awesome break to totally get away for the weekend. Albeit a little crazy, five of us decided to actually go...leaving Friday night after classes at 12AM for a 6 hours bus ride to Atacames and arriving back Monday morning at 6AM ready to teach at 8AM! You're only young once, right!?!

The beach was an awesome time to connect more with some of the volunteers and just have fun exploring together. We were definitely an active group, which I loved. I took a bunch of long walks up and down the beach, went whale watching on this crazy little boat, drank AMAZING batidos, and danced all night long (despite no sleep), even finishing up dancing on the beach to the music from the ocean side bars! What a great escape! Only effects I'm still feeling are my sunburned chest and legs - and I even reapplied and it was cloudy the whole time.

Well now I'm back in Quito, but things are starting to fall into place. I feel like I am slightly catching on to this teaching thing a bit more, but still there is quite a bit of room for improvement! It's better as I am getting to know my classes better though and understanding their levels and speeds for learning. The first weeks are hard to gauge.

My best story this week was tonight's adult class. It was only our 3rd real class for adults, but it was already one of our (Adam and I) student's birthday. We definitely wanted to celebrate, but still keep the class going and getting into a routine. Adam and I decided to buy a cake from the bakery and a big thing of Pepsi for the party. I got the soda and cake and Adam went and got the cups, napkins, and plates. Super cute: Adam kind of did a typical guy thing, but so thoughtful. He wanted to get party plates so he looked at the options and picked out one with people dancing, because it looked like a party. Well, they were actually wedding plates and they said "Nuestro Matrimonio" (nuestro matrimonio). We all laughed in class; knowing it was super thoughtful.

Anyway, we started the class learning a little basic English (please, thank you, my name is), then some math review from the day before, and read The Giving Tree (in Spanish) and asked some reading comprehension questions. Then with about 20 minutes left in class, we said we wanted to teach them a couple more English words. I wrote Happy Birthday on the board and asked if anyone knew what it said. One lady knew happy was feliz, but then no one knew what birthday meant. So I asked Luz (the birthday girl) if she perhaps had any idea. Finally someone said "tal vez cumpleanos"....and I of course wrote that on the board "Feliz Cumpleanos Luz." We took out the cake and soda and sang to Luz. She almost cried...it was so sweet! Definitely a success!

God continues to bless me with the most sincere hugs and kisses on the cheek here! I don't know how I would be getting through without them, but still get just as excited and feel just as loved by every one of them! I pray that each of you receive (and possibly even initiate) one of these agape hugs this week! Love you! Taylor

College in Action!

Buenas tardes! (Good Afternoon)

Sorry for the slow update time. Our internet was out yet again…and has been for almost a week now. There is still internet in the main office, but it is scary to go over there at night when all the lights are off and everything. Think about not having a cell phone or internet...in the States, a month ago, I don’t know how I could live without them. It makes your world smaller, but I guess it does lead to better direct communication because you have no other option!

The coolest story from the last week, or at least the most prominent in my mind, happened Monday. I got to see something I learned in college actually put into action. I took Child Psychology last semester, and we watched this video about these street kids in Brazil that were so quick with doing practical math, but had no idea how to do a written math problem. I wrote in my last update about how I have “special ed” in the afternoons, but with no teacher…just me and another volunteer, Sarah. Last week we started with Jasson who had never been to school before and this week Arsenoa also started school for the first time at about the same age (13).

Yesterday, I started going over vowel sounds with Arsenoa and basic reading from that (ma, me, mi, mo, mu, etc). After an hour and a half of reading, I decided to see what he knew about math. I tried to start easy, a simple subtraction problem. I asked Arsenoa to write in his notebook 10-6, but he didn’t even understand how to write a subtraction sign. So I decided to back track a little bit, knowing that all the kids here work on the streets, I asked him what he did. He said he washed cars and that it cost $8 to wash a car (I guess it must be a really good wash ). So I asked him if people ever give him a $10 and he said of course, so I asked him what the change would be, and he quickly replied $2. I told him to write it as a subtraction problem, but he couldn’t, so I showed him how. I was so amazed, so I wanted to see if something similar was true with basic multiplication/division. I asked him what he buys when he goes to the store, and he told me he always buys bread for 10 cents. I asked him how many pieces of bread he could buy with 50 cents, and he quickly replied 5. I was hoping to keep going on this theme, so I asked him how many he could buy with 30 cents….and his answer was 1 piece of bread and 1 yogurt! I just couldn’t stop laughing; his response was so honest and cute. We had to work through how many pieces of bread that would be, but he knew that was exactly enough for bread and yogurt.

Another highlight from last weekend was enjoying lunch over at the Arguello’s (my host family) and then hanging out with them for a while. With them I also discovered the best deal in town (and also possibly my demise), a 2 scoops waffle cone from Crepes and Waffles is $1.45 – and it is delicious! I got a scoop of brownie ice cream and a scoop of caramel! Other than that I am starting to figure out this teaching thing a little bit more and am enjoying knowing more of the kids and hearing my name called all the time. I am still having some rough times, but I appreciate all the prayers and emails and continued support. The plan as of now is to go to the beach with some people this weekend, which I hope will be refreshing and I can enjoy a delicious batido or two!

Amor y paz (love and peace)
Taylor

starting this teacher thing

Hey Everyone! (if anyone is even actually reading this)

I started teaching yesterday! Oh goodness, this is sure going to be interesting. Things are not necessarily the most organized here...and we are all brand new teachers. I am teaching this one boy, David, every morning, which should be cute but also takes a lot of patience. There are 5 kids that are in the "special" special ed...so it is intimate, but also each students takes a lot of personal attention. David is sweet though and shy, but I hope he will warm up after a bit.

I also have to plan activities to do with the girls 3 days a week to sell and make money for their family. I love doing arts and crafts with kids and stuff like that...but making stuff that is actually nice to sell will take some work. Anyone have ideas???

Then I had "special ed" again in the afternoon for 2 hours....well, no special ed exists in the afternoon. So, I spent a while walking around with the elementary school director trying to figure out what I should do. She ended up pulling these two boys out of their 4th grade class, Jasson and Sebastian. They both were old for their grade, 12 and 13, so that is why they got pulled out. When I got them for 1.5 hours alone, well actually Sarah another volunteer came for a while too, (neither of us knowing at all what to do) I started to find out more about them. Yesterday was Jasson's first day of school ever! And yes he is 13 years old. He is smart and really knows math, but can't read at all. It's hard pulling him out though too, because today we were talking and he was saying that he hadn't really met any friends yet. Talk about a totally different life...school, a home with more than 1 room/ 1 bed for 7 people, and not working as a child are things that I completely took for granted!

Also I give out towels for an hour a day....everyone in the Center is required to take a shower everyday (but then still put on dirty clothes, so often don't appear that much cleaner). Well I thought this would be a super easy job...yikes. It probably will become an easy job and fun to get to talk to a bunch of people, but these past 2 days it has been super confusing trying to figure out everyone's last name to X them off and making sure they get their towel back, which need to be counted so they don't get stolen. Some of the little ones don't even know their names or don't pronounce it very clearly which made it even more confusing. I'm glad it's been busy though, otherwise it would be boring just sitting there.

I haven't started my adult classes yet, but I will be teaching the highest level..level 3. I guess this is actual grammar and such...really wish I had my high school Spanish material here with me to bust out!

Well, some parts of these past couple weeks have been a difficult adjustment, but I still definitely believe that God has me here in Ecuador for a reason. It is a lot of different cultures for me to adjust to (some unexpected), which has been at times lonely, but I think it will make me stronger over all and I will find 'home' here in Ecuador. Also the amount of hugs I receive in a day can't keep me down too long!

I love and miss you all!
Abrazos (hugs),
Taylor