Some images from the weekend

Some images from a weekend in Quito. Normally I travel, but this weekend I stayed home. It was nice to explore Quito. I went for a long run (thinking of doing the Quito marathon at the end of June). I ran from my apartment in the North of Quito down to Quito Centro Historico. Beautiful early in the morning with the cobblestone streets, beautifully preserved Spanish architecture, balconies, flowers…I felt like this before, but it was like running through a postcard. Then it was brunch at Mr. Bagel, a gringo place with wonderful bagel flavors, natural fruit juices, coffee drinks. (plus used books and magazines and wi-fi)

Also, on the weekends, Quito city government closes the main road to car traffic so it’s all bikes, runners, walkers, roller bladers, etc. Frequently, when I’m home on the weekends, I’ll rent a bike and ride Quito. It’s pretty hilly but I love the variety of sights. Here’s some things I saw…

·        In Quito’s Centro Historico (which was named the Cultural Center of the Americas) there are always street performers, jugglers, painters, dancers, musicians). One that I saw this weekend was a puppeteer. He did some traditiaonl stuff-his encore was hilarious! Michael Jackson doing Beat It. Pretty random.

·        Also, an indigenous man playing Andean flutes. One zamponia (Andean pan pipe) that he was playing was taller than he was and he had to stand on a ladder!

·        A Carnaval band playing traditional carnaval music. Then the audience began to dance. A man who must have been in his 90’s was just having the time of his life. Wow, he was reliving some intense moment of his youth, you could see it in his ecstatic face. Although his movements were slow, they were precise and he was enjoying himself so much.

·        At the park, Carolina there is all day aerobics on the weekends. Now, I’ve done Zumba in the US, but would not even attempt it here! The Ecuadorian women have hips made of rubber bands. It was so fun for me just to take a break and watch them dance! Although Zumba was choreographed, these women made it look like there were on Dancing with the Stars or even better, enjoying a night out at the Salsotecha. Merenge, Salsa, Bachata, Reggeton…they made it all look so beautiful. I think you have to be born in the culture to be able to move like that! No matter how many classes I take, I won’t be able to do that, that’s for sure!

Feeling relaxed and refreshed for a busy week ahead. Love you! Rachel

Looking forward to Carnaval!

One more week before Carnaval Holiday. I plan to write lots and take lots of photos (with my new camera!) at Rio Muchacho. (www.riomuchacho.com) That's where I'll spend 3 days-escaping the cold water that most throw during Carnaval! It's a working sustainable farm plus there's other outings like horse riding, coffee production, tagua (vegetable ivory) carving, cacao production. It will be kind of touristy I'm sure, but hey, it's a new experience in a beautiful place :-)

Not much else is new here! Love you and miss you.

Love,
Rachel

Just a Quick Update

Just a quick update!

Report cards are due soon…always a bit stressful writing personal comments for each and every student. But I got it done, so I feel good J

Visited my friends in Puyo this past weekend. I realize that I’m getting just a little bit older because it was Hector’s birthday. The party didn’t start till like 8:30PM. The music was SO LOUD, there was so much alcohol and I just wanted to go to sleep! The problem is…my little room in this tiny wooden house offers zero buffering from the noise of the party. I was so exhausted, though from a long week of teaching  my little 2^nd graders that I slept, even through the drunkenness, the loud music, the party. I’m just content to visit with folks during the day and sleep at night! (just realizing things about myself that I’ve known for a while. The nighttime is not my most energetic state!) So, Puyo was fine, the family is good, it was nice to see them. But, I love my own space, my own routines, etc. So, I’m now in Banos, getting some planning for the next semester done, going for some beautiful hikes (I may even indulge in a massage, we’ll see!)

In other news…Carnaval is coming! This is like the last hurrah before Lent. Ecuadorians play “Carnaval” with water. Luckily it hasn’t started yet. I’m going to travel to the coast because we get 2 days off of school. Haven’t been there yet this time around, so that will be fun.

I’m really happy and life is good J Love you all!

Quilotoa-There and Back!

Yesterday, I took a school field trip (just staff, not kids!) to Quilotoa…next time I”ll know to go and spend the night because it was way too long on the bus. 5 hours there, 5 hours back. So we left early in the morning and were making good time. Then we hit a huge traffic jam. The entire Pan American highway shut down a little bit south of Quito. My friend and I got out and just started walking to see what was keeping us from moving. Better than just sitting in the bus, right? So we walked, and walked and walked along with other folks. We passed jam packed cars (like 6 people in the backseat of a tiny tin-can car). Lot of folks in the pack of trucks, animals loaded up for market. The walk actually made me feel better about the situation. Cool fresh air, a little exercise, seeing the sights. When we got to the beginning of the jam (after about 2 miles) we discovered that the cause of the jam was construction…but that was 5 miles up ahead! The police were letting one lane at a time pass by in order to not “overwhelm” the construction site. OK, we got the answer…then it was walking back to the bus. On the way back almost every driver asked, “What’s going on? What’s causing the jam?” It felt good to be the expert for once and be able to tell them what was going on! So, we finally got going again and it was time for an ice cream stop on the way to the Laguna. We stopped at La Avelina where they made rich, creamy vanilla ice cream bars covered with dark chocolate. Homemade ice cream bars on a stick. Yum! (Definitely work the traffic jam!)

Then we turned onto a dirt road for our windy drive up and around and up and around to the volcanic crater lake. Passing by patchwork quilts of mountain crops, thatched roof shacks, beautiful blue mountain sky…we definitely weren’t in Quito anymore! When we finally arrived to Quilotoa we had just enough time to hike down to the shore of the lake then up up up again. Some of my companeros went by mule up, but I learned my lesson last time! It’s much better to have a sore butt because of walking than because of riding a mule J. I’ve been to Quilotoa plenty of times, so for me being there for just one hour wasn’t a big deal…I just feel bad for my teacher friends who traveled such a long way not to be able to enjoy it longer…I told them next time stay in one of the beautiful cabanas around the lake to really enjoy all the hiking in the area.

        Then it was time for the long journey back to Quito. (5 hours more!) Good thing I had good company in the bus. I really do enjoy all my teacher friends…such neat people, so we passed the time chatting.

We stopped for dinner at La Cienega an old Spanish style hacienda dating back to the 1700’s. Apparently a lot of important Ecuadorian government documents were drafted and signed there. Also, according to local legend, the entire Hacienda is haunted by ghosts because there were some murders there way back when. The grounds were gorgeous-huge trees, beautiful gardens and old structures on the property. The food was pretty mediocre, disappointing after hiking all day and sitting on the bus, we were all ravenous. Veggie soup, steak (yuck), French fries (who serves French fries at a high class restaurant?) this yucky gelatinous strawberry hot pink dessert. The highlight was the musicians (folklore music with quenas, zamponias, charangos playing Andean music). We got home late to Quito. Over all the trip was worth all the time on the bus, however, I think we should have stayed overnight to break up the travel! Oh well, live and learn, right?

On the Challenges of...

On the challenges of working with privileged children…

When I started my teaching career in MCPS I was working in Gaithersburg, a school with many immigrant children from all over. For the most part, they were living below the federal poverty line. In most instances, parents were working several jobs and then barely scraping by. But I noticed that kids seemed to love being in school! For them, school was a place to “escape” the harsh realities of poverty (sleeping in an apartment with 12 other people, not eating at home simply because there is no food, taking care of little brothers/sisters, no structure and routine). For these children, teachers and school was something regular they could count on.

Now, the reason I’m writing this is because I’ve been thinking about my new situation. It could not be further from my job in Gaithersburg!

Although I don’t have much experience in other parts of the world, I’ve heard that the following is true all over. In developing countries there are extremes…wealth beyond belief (several BMWs and Mercedes, nannies for the kids, drivers, several palatial homes) and then you have folks just barely scraping by (begging on the streets, living in slums). I’d say Ecuador is somewhere in the middle. While there is extreme poverty, it affects a small percentage of the population. And there is also extreme wealth, also a very small percent of the population (namely the kids I teach!) Most Ecuadorians are lower class or middle class.

I’ve never been around this kind of wealth before. I’ve been doing a lot of listening to my students and carefully formulating how I want to respond so that it is out of kindness and not anger.

Two examples:

-After we returned from the Christmas break, a lot of my students were talking about the places they went. For these children, breaks from school are fun and exciting! (Not like my students in Giathersburg, where many just sit in front of the TV) Disney, Argentina, Spain, Grandma and Grandpa’s farm away from the city. After all these experiences, school is kind of boring!

And the presents they got: It’s normal for 7 year olds to exaggerate, but I’m not sure who was exaggerating and who was telling the truth! Then it became a competition to say who got the most “stuff.” At first it was funny, then it just became annoying and then excessive. “Well, I got 4 iPads. One for the office, one for my TV shows, one for the Internet and one for…). Yeah, well I have blah, blah, blah. (I really DO think they were exaggerating, but again, it’s this mindset of…I have so much stuff and my parents do to and we’re so much better than you!) I proudly tell my students that no, I don’t have a car or a driver and that yes, I do walk in Quito almost every day! (no they don’t rob me and yes, I like being around everyone else walking in the streets-it makes me feel connected)

-In another case, one of my students told a story of how he and his dad were getting out of their car (of course driven by the chofer) and some begging street children came up to them saying, “Give me candies, give me money, please sir, please sir.” My student said indignantly, “My dad reached into his pocket to give him the candies and the street kid robbed him. I HATE THOSE KIDS, they bother me so much.” During this rant, I was working with another group of kids, but had one ear to that conversation between two boys. My first response was to tell them quite “teacher-like” something like “HATE is a very strong word. Did you really mean this? How can you hate these kids if you don’t even know them? How would you feel if you had no shoes, no mom and did not know where your next meal was coming from.” They kind of just stared back at me I think because that is so far from their reality that it’s impossible for them to imagine. My own tirade just kind of went in one ear and out the other.They both kind of just brushed me off and went back to their work. Not a big impact on my part. So I’ve been thinking, I would love for them to meet my friends in Puyo or my indigenous Quichua families I worked with in Pulucate. Just to get some perspective. The upper class here is SO isolated. They run in their own circles, play with their own friends, live in their own enclaves. I’m not saying I want my students and the begger kids to be best friends, I would just like to give both an opportunity for conversation and playing. Thinking about how I can do this…

For now, I’m going to show my kids slide shows of some of my experiences in the Peace Corps. When kids know someone (me) who has lived surrounded by so much poverty and survived (!) it doesn’t seem so scary. But I also want to be careful not to reinforce the stereotype of “oh those poor indian kids, no money, no shoes, it’s our obligation to send $50 a month so we feel better about ourselves.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am happy teaching these children! And not ALL my students are like this, just about half! (Just doing some thinking out loud…)

Talkin about the weather

Everything’s going well here! School is rolling along, I’m settled in after Christmas break!

Some people say that when you don’t have anything to talk about, you talk about the weather…so that’s what I’m going to do!

It’s actually pretty much perfect weather here in Quito. The nights are chilly (mid 40’s) the days are warm (high 60’s, low 70’s). The air is very dry because we’re at such high altitude. The only problem I’ve been having with the weather is the rain! When I first got here, we had bright blue skies almost every day. But now that we’re in the rainy season, it’s been cloudy and rainy almost every day. This is a problem because I don’t have a car, so anywhere I want to go, I have to walk or take public transportation. Walking gets complicated in the rain! SO, I’ve decided that I can’t change the weather…I need to change my perspective. I’ve started bringing my mini umbrella everywhere, as well as my raincoat. Also, dry-wick pants and Keens. I just anticipate that I will get wet and deal with it! I’ve been walking in the rain for about a week now, and now it’s just something I do. Good change of perspective.

Just a quick post

Just a quick post to let you all know I’m still here! I spent Christmas break at home in MD, it was wonderful to be with my family. Now it’s back to work and play in Ecuador! Last week at school was sort of a down week-I only had half my class the entire week, so it make teaching hard because I will have to reteach all the concepts again…oh well. Let me know how you all are doing! Once I have more exciting news to report, I”ll post again. Keep following J