mother's day festivities

Mother's day is a big deal in the schools here. It's an all day program, complete with dancing, class presentations and games. I went to two of the mother's day programs, one down where I do the shampoo making and one here in town. One of the games involved pushing one of the moms in a wheelbarrow while she tried to thread a pen through a keychain that was hanging on a rope across the courtyard. The first couple of tries they didn't do so well but then they got the hang of it and started winning more. Each of the grades recited a poem or sang a song for their moms and then presented their (very cute) homemade cards. There was also a soccer game with the moms which is the only time I've seen women here playing soccer. After all the organized stuff there was a dance which went on till the wee hours. I have some pics but forgot to bring my camera so hopefully I'll get them posted next time I'm in town. This was an impromptu trip due to the fact that my bosses were visiting me to do the one year check up so I hitched a ride back to Latacunga with them (anything to avoid the early morning bus ride). We have a new coutry director so it was nice meeting her, as well as meeting the new ag program manager.

less frequent postings

I haven't posted as regularly the past couple of months because the phone lines in town have been on the fritz, and therefore the dial up internet. So I've only been able to post when I've been in Latacunga, which I am at the moment getting some shopping done. Things have been pretty slow because some of the members of the community group have gotten jobs working a ways away and so we haven't been able to have many meetings lately. I've helped plant a few more gardens, but it's heading into the dry season so we probably won't do much more with that for a bit. The shampoo group has branched out into making celery shampoo which is supposed to be good for dandruff (the results are still out on that). My english classes are going alright, the other week we used the song "Fridays I'm in Love" to practice the days of the week. The kids enjoyed the change of pace although I don't know how effective the song was in teaching anything.
Mateo (the youngest kid in the house) has developed a fascination for maps and wants me to repeat the names of the countries over and over. I have a world map in my room that luckily has the names of the countries in Spanish becuase I don't know those very well. He is especially interested in Australia and the fact that there is only one country on the whole island.