Cotopaxi

Futbol.

We spent the day in Cotopaxi on Saturday. This was the second week of the program that MAP and ChildFund are starting in the community.  The program will last 3 years, with monthly meetings on Saturdays. We thankfully took a van, since there were 8 of us going, instead of the car we usually take. When we arrived, the school we were supposed to use was locked, so we went through town to another field to play futbol and voley with the kids first. Then we played a name game and got the program started. They presented the results of questions they'd answered during the session last week. Then we did an activity know as the "10 Seed." This is a strategy MAP uses to identify the kids' perceptions of problems in the community, resources they have available, and their uncertainties/fears. The kids brainstorm and then choose the most important/biggest issues. Then they work through as a group deciding who has the most influence over the issue. It was really interesting to hear their opinions and thought process.

Holger and Emily facilitating the 10 Seed activity.

The completed chart.

Pizza Party

$8 peanut butter.

 When we returned from Santo Domingo we made pizza for Maggy and Giovanni for dinner and Amanda wanted to make fudge for dessert (they had never heard of fudge; people don't really bake here). We first had to go grocery shopping for some ingreedients - both Meg and Amanda were experiencing some culture shock. We couldn't find anything to make pizza dough, only pre-made crusts, and Amanda couldn't find a few ingreedient for fudge - like chocolate chips. I was shocked when I walked down an aisle and found Jif peanut butter, and even more shocked when I saw that it was $8 a jar! Peanut butter isn't very popular in other countries, and is usually imported so its expensive. We spent a long time finding everything we needed and while I was waiting with the cart an ecuadorian boy approached me and asked me if I was German. He told me that I'd caught his attention - I guess that's what I get for being blonde. We finally found everything, or at least substitutes for what we needed and then went to Maggy's house to cook. It was a pretty small kitchen and an even smaller oven, but we managed. The pizza was well worth it - and well documented, Givoanni was taking video of the whole process. Unfortunately Amanda's fudge did not turn out so well - it never became solid. It was really fun coaching Maggy and Giovanni on how to pronounce "fudge." They had a hard time saying the "dge" sound, so we suggested that they say "fu-Giovanni" since his name starts with the same sound. So that's what they called it. We stayed at Maggy's practicing salsa moves and showing "American" dances like the electric slide until almost 2am! 


Making pizza.



The final product!

  

"Making" chocolate chips.



Emily and Holger eating "fugiovanni."

Santo Domingo



The unfinished cathedral in Santo Domingo.

Meg, Amanda and I went on an overnight trip with Maggy and Giovanni (MAP staff) to Santo Domingo, northwest of Quito. It was a good drive through very windy roads to get through the mountains - we drove through a cloud forest on our way! This trip was like most of our trips with MAP - the "schedule" was not exactly what happened. We were going to observe students that MAP had trained to lead workshops in their schools. We arrived and went to a school, but the time had been changed for the workshop we were supposed to observe. So we went to lunch and then had a meeting in Maggy's mom's house about a project that MAP is helping with in Valle del Toachi (I'm working on translating a document about this project, so I was excited to hear more about it). They are going to build a health center in the community, but not with your typical building materials. The building is going to be constructed using plastic bottles! They fill the bottles with sand, creating these plastic bricks. The whole community comes together to fill the bottles. MAP is trying to get the schools in Santo Domingo involved in collecting bottles for the project.
We also visited an all girls school and observed and participated in workshop they were giving about sexuality. They started with a game of telephone to show how information is passed from person to person and in the end isn't correct. I held up the game trying to understand what the message was.

Playing telephone, en espanol.

It took us a really long time to leave the school because girls kept asking to get their pictures taken with us - everywhere we go, its like we're celebrities. Everyone wants a picture with a gringa...


Students leading the workshop.



Introducing oursevles to the group.

La Mitad del Mundo!

View of the mountains.

Feeding the horses.

Saturday morning Meg and I got up early and went with Lois to see her horse, Majestic, and the property that she is interested in buying. It was just under an hour outside Quito, but it was so beautiful! There was mountain after mountain, and such green country. We took a drive up to see the view and then went down to get Majestic. We were greeted by several horses and fed them some corn that we had picked up on the way. One horse was very intent on getting corn from me and wrapped his head around me to get it from my hand - I was in a head lock! We took turns walking and riding, but Majestic was a little fiesty since he hadn't been ridden in a little while, so I didn't ride for too long. It was hard work walking though...








Meg and I in different hemispheres.

Then Lois dropped Meg and I off at the Mitad del Mundo - the middle of the world! We went to both monuments. We went to the newer and accurate one first. We had a little tour with some older Americans who were in Quito for some international flute convention... It was an intersting tour, which included history about indigenous people and how they lived as well as some random facts about boa constrictors, an interesting fish, and shrunken heads. Then we went to see the equator line - calculated by GPS. Our guide showed us some different demonstrations about how gravity is effected at the equator - we watched water go straight down a drain as opposed to spinning as it goes down. We also got to try to balance an egg on a nail - I did it! And I even got a certificate! 

According to our guide, I am an "Egg Master."



At the original monument.

Then we went to the original monument - which in my opinion is much better, although its not on the actual line of the equator. I was in two places at once! One foot in the northern and one foot in the southern hemisphere. Meg and I wandered around for the afternoon going into little shops - as I unsuccessfully looked for the odd souvineers people collect. I have yet to find a golf ball or a snow globe - I asked one of the shop owners and described a snow globe to her and she said I wouldn't find one becuase there's no snow here...I might have to move here.

Teleferico

View while riding up in a cable car.

We were tourists for an afternoon and went to the Teleferico to ride a cable car up the mountain! We actually went up the mountain right next to the one that's behind our dorm. We rode up for about 15 minutes - my ears were popping. It was an amazing view from the top! I definitely understood how it could take 2 hours to get from end to end! The city looked so beautiful - we were fortunate to have a fairly clear day. It was a little chillier and windy on the mountain top, and even harder to breathe. We walked a short trail to another look out, but didn't go too far.  And of course we took lots of photos!

We were over 12,000ft up!

I don't feel bad not knowing where I'm going in Quito...

Amanda, Ruth, Heidi and I.

Everyday Adventures

What else would you do at an Arabian horse show?

There were some other Houghton students staying after the mayterm class they took in Ecuador. So our first weekend we went to an Arabian horse show with Lois - who is kind of in charge of us and works at Alliance Academy International (AAI). She love horses and invited us to the show - which was like a dog show in a lot of respects. The trainers paraded the horses around a ring and made them stretch their necks out to have them judged on their good looks. But there were a couple other components to the show. There were a two performances where the horses "danced" and in one (left) the horse made a few jumps over a flaming bar! We stayed all afternoon waiting for the raffle at the end - Lois was hoping ot win a colt, but unfortunately did not. So we've been doing odd jobs around the school - its been pretty busy because graduation is coming up! Our first day we were recruited to be subsitute teachers becuse they were missing 5 teachers that day. So I subbed in high school math - I've forgotten a lot since I haven't taken math since first semester, so I wasn't very helpful to the few students who asked me some questions. And we also helped test Pre-K students' English fluency. That was fun, especially the answers kids would give to some of the questions.

Working at a community in Cotopaxi.

We are also working with MAP International - a Christian development agency. MAP is based in Atlanta and has field offices all over the world.  They work to develop the region, in which they are located, through education and prevention. We have been joining them to start up a youth program in the communities in the mountains of Cotopaxi - a region to the south of Quito. We played a mixer game with the kids and then Maggy talked to them about the program and got a feel for who was interested in joining. We were gone all afternoon, and on our curvy drive back we drove through a cloud!

A first grade Spanish class at Alliance Academy.

The next morning at AAI I went to a first grade class and shared a little with them about my experience in Costa Rica - I showed them pictures and told them about the places we'd visited. They are so cute! And I found out that I'm going to be teaching 1st grade for ESL camp! That should be exciting! I obeserved some other classes around the school - including some high school Spanish classes and some ESL classes. We've basically just been doing whatever we're asked to do, and I anticipate that's how it will be for the rest of the month before I start teaching in July!

Ecuador means equator

Ecuador

So I've been in Ecuador a little over a week. For those who were curious, Ecuador means equator in Spanish, which is where this small South American country is located! I'm living in the dorms of an international school here in Quito. Quito is the capital, located in the northern central part of the country, and is huge! I am definitely a gringa here - there is no chance that I will ever be mistaken as ecuadorian. When I flew from San Jose, I had a connecting flight in Panama City. As I boarded that plane I noticed that I was one of two blonde North Americans on board. Quito has a population of about 2 million, the majority of which are mestizo - a mixture of Spanish and Indigenous people. They have dark hair and skin - both of which I'm lacking. Guess San Jose prepared me for being honked at.

Quito is in a valley, but is at an altitude of over 9,000ft above sea level (for comparison, my home town East Aurora, is less than 1,000ft above sea level). There is something like 30% less oxygen up here. I'm adjusting, but the first few days were tough - standing and singing in church, or walking, talking and eating at the same time would make me short of breath.

A view of a small part of the city.

Because Quito is in a valley, you can always see mountains in every direction. The mountains also limit the city's growth - it is very long and narrow. I was told that to get from North to South Quito it can take 2 hours, but to get from East to West only 20-30 minutes (I'm assuming these times might be figuring in traffic). Traffic here is crazy! Cars don't stop for pedestrians, as they did not in San Jose, and there aren't really speed limits - there weren't for a long time, and now they're trying to implement them, but people just drive as fast as they want. Also, because there's so much traffic, there are restrictions on driving known as Pico y Placa. During rush hours on weekdays, if your license plate ends with a certain number you aren't allowed to drive your car. There are also hearts painted on the street here marking where someone has been hit by a car and killed. I've taken a bus once - which is super cheap here, only 25 cents! However, when I got on the bus I tried to pay the driver - which is who you pay on ever other bus I've ever taken. I didn't notice there was a worker specifically taking bus fare sitting in a special seat, so I'd placed my money in a bowl that sat beside the driver, which must have been for tips or change? So I had to take my quarter out and give it to the woman - oops!

The far building is the dorm that I'm living in.

The weather has been nice so far! I haven't used my umbrella since I've gotten here - I carried it with me at all times in Costa Rica. There aren't really seasons here since Quito is on the equator, so its pretty consistent all year round. Its been nice a warm during the day and I'm working hard to avoid getting sun burned.

Tortuguero!

We went to Tortuguero - an island and National Park on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. This was my favorite trip! We took about a three hour bus ride, then had to get off the bus and get on a boat in order to get to where we were staying! We were on the boat for about 3 and half hours - it was about a 50K trip, but we were also stopping to see birds, monkeys and other wildlife that we encountered along the way!

This was our boat - the Francesca.

Tortuguero protects 22 miles of beach where sea turtles come to lay their eggs.  These turtles only come out of the water once a year to come on land and make their nests. They return to the sea without ever looking back, and the baby turltes later hatch and make their way across the beach to the water.  We weren't there during the egg-laying season, but we got to watch an informational video about it!

Traveling down the river - it ran parallel to the Caribbean Sea.

We finally saw some monkeys, which pleased many aboard the boat, but especially Christine and Jonny. I learned that monkeys travel in troops! Which made me think of girl scouts, and seeing these little guys with vests on selling cookies.

We stayed at Laguna Lodge - which was really cool! The architecture and designs of everything reminded me of Gaudi, the architect of La Sagrada Familia, which is still in progress in Barcelona, Spain. As soon as we got off the boat they gave us cool towels and a glass of some mixed fruit juice.

Our rooms were literally a two minute walk from this black sand beach. We couldn't swim becuase the water was too rough and the currents too strong, but I stepped in the Caribbean Sea!

Since we were on the eastern coast of the country, we decided it was logical to try and see the sunrise. We got up at 4:45am, but it was a little cloudy...



My artsy picture of Nate in the Sea.



Then we headed off on our open boat tour around the island. We left at 6:30am to try and see as many animals as possible.

On the open boat tour.



I really like this bird - but can't remember its name.



Spider monkeys!



Steve caught a turtle.

Un cocodrilo!

I really liked riding around on the boats and being out in the water! Below is a short video I took while riding on the way to the island.

Roblealto y Arenal

After our trip to Poas and La Paz, we spent the following afternoon playing with kids at Roblealto ministry. We set up stations of different games and activities and really stretched our Spanish speaking and listening skills - the traffic next to the school was super loud!

I had the play dough station.

The next day after classes we left for a weekend trip to el Volcan Arenal. We stayed literally at the base of the volcano.  We swam and lounged in hot springs - which are naturally heated by the volcano.  The Saturday we were there was a busy day - we went horse back riding, zip lining, and had our own worship service in Senor K's room.  Horse back riding was not like the typical ride I'd experienced in the US. Instead of going on an extremely slow walk around some trail we got to actually gallop on our horses! It was a little scary, but really fun.  Zip lining over the canopy was the most amazing way to see it! We got strapped into our harnasses and were given a glove - which kind of reminded me of my throwing glove - to serve as our brake. We also got to do a tarzan swing over the tree tops at the end!


Katie in front of the volcano.



Me, Katie and Steve on our caballos.

Zip lining over the canopy.



Me, Steve, Jonny, and Irene with our glove-brakes.



Quick Update

Today marks day 2 in Quito! I arrived yesterday afternoon - I woke up at 4:15am in San Jose, went to the airport with all my Mayterm friends, flew to Panama City for my connecting flight and then flew here! I got in about 2pm yesterday and will be learning what I'm doing in the next couple days!

Everyone who was just in Costa Rica will appreciate this - the toilet paper in my bathroom here also has the pawprints and little dog with a stop sign on it :)

I'll be posting a final Costa Rica post, so it will be a little out of order, but just wanted to let everyone know I got here!