Back to school!

Week 10

6th- 13th November 2011

A fun packed week of excitable children, english lessons, fat lips and attending two fiesta´s in one day...again!We have more of a structured timetable at school now and help out in most english lessons and pe lessons as well as acting as a general teaching assistant which has helped us in preparing games/ songs/ worksheets for lessons. It has been interesting to see how the children build on the little english learnt aged 2-3 years (currently they are learning the numbers 6 & 7) to the standard of 11year olds (who are learning the names of the planets in the solar system). The folder our dear friend Holly gave us and other resources such as posters and cds have come in vbery useful in the lessons.We are enjoying being of use in the school and becoming better friends with Elizabeth the English teacher who is currently studying at university alongside working at the school. We have tried to help her with her English University work on linguistics but it has flummuxed both Robin and I.

We are also discovering more problems with the children advancing in their educations. The simple lack of a pencil or even pencil sharpener can leave a child sat twiddling their thumbs doing nothing for an entire lesson as they lack the basic equipment to write in their exercise books. The school does not provide pencils, pencil sharpeners or rubbers to the students if they have forgotten theirs or if their parents haven´t bought them any (which apparently is more likely). This has been highly frustrating for both Robin and I to see the children who are capable of working sat doing nothing so we have purchased some much needed items of equipment which we carry at all times in the school. A pencil, pencil sharpener and rubber which gaurantees that the few students who dont have the correct equipment in the lessons we attend can now participate.

On saturday we went to the Compassion project which had 200-300 children attending. They were incredibly friendly and Robin and I spent our time getting mobbed by young children asking us our names and endless questions as we got pulled this and way that. It was great fun as we played versions of football, volley ball and dodgeball in which I got a ball to the face! Bindi also acquired an injury when playing football with the older teenagers as he headed the ball and smacked his face into the back of one of the boys givign himself a fat lip! The children arrive at the compassion project at 8:15 in the morning and recieve breakfast and leave after lunch at rounghly 1pm. It was great to get stuck in and help in handing out the food and both Robin and I left totally exhausted but happy. The most amazing people at the Compassion project are the volunteers some of whom have been working their for the past 10 years giving their time freely to cook and wash up for 300 children every thurs, fri and saturday. No mean feat!

On Sunday we somehow found ourselves attending two fiestas. Carlos´s family where having a bbq complete with dance music and badminton. We were invited to come and it was great to feel part of their family. Carlos´s family have been very welcoming and kind to us here. Pati and Cesar have allowed us to borrow their camera until ours is fixed which has been fantastic as I can finally take some pictures of where we work and what we get up to. Later in the evening we went to Barrio de Naranjos where Robin and the step team had helped build the church. The church held a special service in honour of the step team and Robin returning to see them. It was great to meet Gabriel, Louis and their families. The ladies got rather excited by the fact that Robin has a wife so got me to dress up in the clothes of Quichuan women and declared that I was now a Ecuadorian woman. In the service we met two little girls who where named after Bethany and Kristen from the step team they were very cute! Robin gave a sermon in the church in spanish and got to meet Marianno and the two Pedro´s. We even visited the house the step team stayed in when they were here.

It has been a great week and we are really enjoying our time here in Ecuador. Please pray for inspiration for creating fun and useful games to help the children learn english and for good relationships with the teachers, students and children at the compassion project. Also please pray for our health and safety out here.

Check out pictures of Santo Domingo and the school by clicking on this LINK. (coming soon)
Check out pictures of the Compassion project by clicking on this LINK. (coming soon)
Check out pictures of Carlos´s family fiesta and the fiesta at Barrio de Naranjos by clicking on this LINK.

Lots of love from Ecuador xxx


Other things that brought us laughter this week:
- Never trust chicken soup you never know what part of the chiken you will get! To my delight this week I managed to get chickens feet in my soup complete with nails attached! Needless to say i did not take a nibble on it.
- The lovely children aged 3-4 years who thoroughly enjoyed our pencil sharpeners so much so that as soon as we sharpened them they snapped the nib off so we could sharpen it again!
-Bindi causing two Ecuadorian women to burst into laughter by nearly walking into a young boy who was weeing in the middle of the busy street.
- One of the children asking if I was Robin´s mum!! How old do I look??
- Eating bright blue bubblegum flavoured ice cream which tasted just as nutritious as it looked.
- Getting dressed up a Quichua woman. See pictures of Barrio de Naranjos.