Back to school, back to school...

Here is a pic. of all of us at AJS (birthday kids in tie dye front and center)

I have officially survived my first week teaching! I have 2 sections of 8th graders (here they are called novenos) and one section of 9th graders (decimos). Starting this week Celso and I are splitting the sections so we can work with the kids in smaller classes which will be a big help because there is such a range of abilities and comfort levels with speaking English. We will be teaching history to the decimos and English, lit. and grammar, to the novenos. The first couple weeks will definitely be an adjustment (prep. work is not the most fun in the world, duh). We also assigned an absurdly difficult story to the noveos before we had a chance to gauge their reading comprehension levels and one of the kids told me ¨you´re a nice person but my class has a terror of you.¨ Aside from that things are going well and the kids are a lot of fun to work with. I am definitely going to have to seek out other outlets to practice my Spanish though- our classes at Mundo are all English immersion and the other teachers treat us a little like outsiders because we are the new uncool kids who have yet to learn the language. It´s great fun talking to little kids on the school bus because my grammar doesn´t bother them at all- they just keep climbing all over me and blowing bubbles in my face. Needless to say the bus is awesome.

I am also going to start teaching adult classes this Tuesday. My boss has a pretty awesome mullet and knows lots of English swear words so I think things will work out just fine. The classes are at the John Drury School (same place we have Semillas in the afternoons, 2 blocks from our house) and from what I´ve gathered it´s a pretty strange place- it´s a tech. school that never exactly opened. The guards, who struggle at doing their job of opening the doors (I have jumped the fence before) usually let Capitan and Principessa, killer attack dobermans, wander around with the small children and periodically they bring a goat as well? All standards for ¨normal¨ must be adjusted here which has actually been a pretty refreshing process- it keeps things interesting.

Aside from teaching we have been meeting some people in the neighborhood, being fed some delicious food, and learning some vegetarian cooking of our own (any recipes appreciated, the meat here can be a little sketch so we just have to be careful about where we but it). I believe we were fed some questionable parts of an ox´s body for lunch last week at Mundo but I´d rather not think about it.

Yesterday was spent baking bananna bread for our 150 closest friends for a church fundraiser where we had to, get this, perform a dance to Rock Around the Clock (not a joke and, yes, I warned them about my dancing). It was a ball. I will have to find the video.

Home sweet home!

We are all moved in! The part of the weekend that was not devoted to painting and cleaning was spent celebrating birthdays. Ecuadorians have a great birthday tradition that I will surely bring back, in which which the birthday boy/girl gets whacked with a belt (or a broom...) as many times as they are years old. Auntie Laura you would be so proud, we made homemade pizza Monday night (I didn´t have much to do with the dough but I watched) AND Auntie Andrea I made Tyler´s mac n cheese the other day but there is no cheddar in this country so it was a little off. My favorite food to date are patacones which are plantains that are friend, flattened and fried again (what´s not to love). The Yogosos (this frozen gogurts) are not to shabby either and only cost .15.

On a non-food related note, Mark, Celso and I had our first meeting with Pat, our boss at Mundo, and we will start observing classes on Monday when the kids go back to school. We will meet the department head and learn about the curriculum etc. In the meantime I am also exploring other morning placements (because the foundation school at Mundo runs from 1:30 to 6:15) and will likely be tutoring and teaching an English class to adults in the neighborhood. I am taking the shcool bus to Mundo at least the first day so I´m pumped! I asked a little kid at Semillas what time the bus comes to pick me up and he looked at me like I was crazy.

Father Jim, the founder of Rostro, is down for a couple days so we are all off to Mt. Siniai, the site of the new house, so he can bless the house and then we are all going out to dinner together in Guayaquil. It may only be the 3rd time we have eaten meat since we have been in the country (fingers crossed it´s not guinea pig). That´s all for now, Happy Thursday!

Week 1 Recap

Here we are in our the signature Rostro polos! (and showing our true colors) So legit now. Everybody has almost survived the first week of work (I don´t start Mundo til next week). Semillas has been a great time this week- we generally get anywhere from 45 to 70 kids (with a high of 115..) and run una actividad for the first hour, have recreo for the second hour and then give a quick charla before giving everybody bread, a banana, a vitamin (the delicious Flinstones ones) and sending them on their merry way. The little kids are maniacs but a lot of fun and we have been mildly successful calming them down with a story. Fun fact- Dr. Suess books ryme in Spanish also- you should check out Juevos Verdes con Jamon. It seems to be more of a crap shoot whether or not we have any control over the big kids during the activity but today´s tangrams, for those who remember middle school math, went surprisingly well. Maybe they were too stymied (as was I) to try to strangle each other.

Also, I quasi-passed my driving test so I am allowed to drive around the neighborhood under supervision of Brendan or Kipp. It´s like having my permit- parental supervision required. Traffic laws are pretty iffy so I should fit right in.

We are almost done painting the house, just the living room to go, and should be moving in later tonight Woo Hoo!

Still homeless but employed!

This morning we finally worked out our work placements. I will be teaching English (or History?) at the Fundation School at Nuevo Mundo, which is a prestigious private school that runs the foundation in the afternoon to provide high quality schooling for students from poorer areas like Duran. Check out more about the school here: rostrodecristo.org/community/nuevo-mundo.html

I have a sweet uniform- good thing I´ve always wanted to look like a stewardess.. There is a summer scarf involved. A couple times a week I will also be helping run Semillas de Mostaza, 1 of 3 afterschool program Rostro organizes. Semillas will start up on Monday and then Mundo probably the week after. Can´t wait to start working and hanging out with kids!

In shakier news (...) there was an earthquake this morning but aside from a very rocky bunkbed it did no damage where we are. Afternoon goal: eat a chocolate frozen banana.

Ganadores!

Yesterday we had a "test" to see if we knew the bus routes around the city. 12 hours, 6 work sites, 2 retreat houses, and a few historical sites later, we made it to the Malecon which is the gorgeous boardwalk along the water and climbed the 450 steps up to the lighthouse to check out the view. This area, Las Peñas, is really cool because there are lots of bars and restaurants on your trek up to the lightbouse. Once we finally got up there we felt the need to choreograph and perform a song we learned in honor of Don Bosco, which we learned along the way. Yesterday was the first time I had been to touristy areas of the city; the buildings there are very European looking and just so you don´t forget you´re in Ecuador, there´s an iguana park right in front of the cathedral where the little buggers just wander around. To check out pictures of our scavenger hunt day (and pretty much every other day) Megan Radek, our in country director, posts them on facebook more regularly than we can and you can access her pictures if you´re friends with me :) (and if you aren´t maybe I should be creeped out that you are reading my blog)
Also, rents, note how Meaghan and Mrs. Garvey have commented on the blog- it can be done.

Survived Week 1!

Here is a picture of all the volunteers from last year and this year! Those guys spent their last week in country getting us acclamated and minimizing our running around like chickens with their heads cut off (success?), which community mates have verified actually happens. Will confirm after first chicken slaughter. Anywho, they wee unbelievably helpful and went home this morning so we are on our own.

We spent yesterday at a beach house owned by Pat and Sonia, the women who run Nuevo Mundo, which is one of our placements. Playas is about a 2 hour ride and it was gorgeous there- we spent the day playing in the waves and got to play some soccer and do some running (the last 2 were not a joke). Also, the sand dollars are ginormous, so cool, so I will try to bring home a bunch if I don´t swash them in my suitcase.

Today I headed out to Monte Sinai, the site of our third and newest house, and cleaned up the place where the second year volunteers lived and brought a bunch of furniture to the new house. It´s almost finished and it looks great- bright and airy- seeing it made us so excited to move into our place at the end of this week! Parents, hope Chappy was great today I will definitely miss the Vineyard this week as I am cleaning houses and picking a work site but things here are great so far! Happy Sunday everyone!

We made it!

Hi! We are here!! We are currently living in the retreat house for 2 weeks of in country orientation and we have been busy learning bus routes and checking out the work sites (tbd next week) and going to the afterschool program (playing with little kids- life is tough)
TTFN!