We are 4 weeks in to our summer program at Nuevo Mundo. I am teaching history and English every morning to 5 girls who have won scholarships to the morning school at Nuevo Mundo. It´s been a blast to work with these kids because they can really take the information and run with it. We are also running a book club of sorts with the rising decimos (9th graders) which is slightly less formal and can look a lot more like a bunch of people sitting around on the floor playing competitive games of Bananagrams than a serious reading group, but I think they are enjoying it. They are working on abridged versions of some classics. I am also finishing up Modulo 2 of the adult class at John Drury. The course feels more like an English opn house than an actual class, which I have varying patience for depending on the day (You can guess what kind of day today was). In the afternoons I have been going to Semillas every day and have loved the chance to hang out so much with all our kids. I will definitely miss them when I go back to school in April. So, that is the blitzkrieg version of what I have been up to work-wise.

A couple random weekend activites from the past couple days so you get a feel for what we do: Saturday I went to an artisan market and saw Saw 7 (yes, they made 7) in Guayaquil. Sunday I hung out at Sugey and Lisettes and Monday I after Semillas I went to Cynthia´s to celebrate her graduation from college. A little of everything, and all good except maybe Saw. There was a mysterious spot of blood on my shirt on Sunday and now Danielle and Ricardo, who work with us at program, are trying to convince me I´m the next victim.

Happy Wednesday!

While I have a break from summer school, I thought I would check in. Last night I swung by the house of two women I`ve befriended in my English class. I was expecting the usual, hang out at their house talking about Ecuadorian cartoons or why the English language makes no sense, but we jumped in the car and drove into Guayaquil. 20 minutes later I am sitting in this neat fish market with a plate of coconut-milk shrimp in front of me (I now eat seafood). This fish market is at the pier where the boats dock, and at night all these little counters open and prepare local concoctions with the catch of the day.

Another fun fact: we were pulled over on the way in (driving in the commuter bus lane.. whoops) by a transito offier. Ecuador has special officers for traffic control that are different from police officers (we don`t see many of them in Duran). Apparently you can sometimes bribe the transito officers so you don`t get a citation. He gets $10, you don`t pay a ticket... interesting system.

Back to summer school. Today`s topic: writing outlines and discussing Napoleon III.