Party Time!

Since my last blog, there have been 2 major weekends of parties. The first was a new event, a sort of cultural art festival with various dancing groups and also booths for each of the communities participating where they displayed locally made products. These ranged from guinea pigs to sweaters. My host dad even brought one of his stoves to show. It was fun watching all the dancing. There were even groups from the jungle who were rather scantily clad in the cold weather. I guess they were suffering for their art. The day of cultural exchange was naturally capped off with a large dance party and lots of drinking till the wee hours.
This past weekend with the festival to honor the patron saint of the town, Saint Michael. During the day there were various soccer games and a parade. On both Saturday and Sunday night there were large parties. People here really know how to party. I was very pathetic and only made it till 10 pm at the parties before I wanted to be back in my bed. I´m just not much of a partier and people here are pretty used to me ducking out. They do make fun of me for it though.

Rest of the trip and pics

Yikes, it´s been over a month since I posted. I meant to write when I was in Quito at the end of the trip, but didn´t have time. Since then I´ve been at my site and there isn´t really reliable internet now that the phone lines aren´t working well. The last two weeks with my parents went well, we spent a week at my site and a week at a jungle lodge in the amazon basin. Getting to my site was interesting because I forgot that Thursdays the bus I usually take doesn`t leave from Latacunga but from this other town 15 minutes away where there is a big market. So we got on the other bus that goes to my town, but unfortunately there was a big group of exchange students on the bus and there weren´t any seats. As a result we stood for the first two hours of the ride. But we all survived so it´s all good. We then spent a week doing my favorite hikes around town as well as attending the social highlight of the week, the soccer games on sunday. After that it was off to the jungle lodge, which was in a beautiful location right on one of the largest rivers that feed into the amazon. One of the pictures is of the grubs that are a local delicacy there. They are quite tasty roasted, although the locals also eat them raw which is a bit much for me. We saw a lot of birds, as well as the smallest monkey in the world (the actual name of it is escaping me at the moment).

My favorite part of the trip was floating down the river. One of the lodge boats would take us upstream a bit and then we would hop out and float back down in our lifejackets (well technically we were supposed to wear them but seeing as they hampered our swimming ability they were quickly shed). I don´t think there´s anything better after spending a morning hiking and getting all sticky then going swimming afterwards. To get back to Quito we took a two hour canoe ride in the pouring rain (at least it was warm) and then a 30 min flight which is the shortest flight i´ve ever been on. the funny thing was they actually served us snacks and drinks on the flight, whereas in the US you don´t get food even on a cross country flight. Plus there were seats for about 120 people but there were only 20 people on the flight. So a very strange flight all the way around! We had one more day in Quito where i got my fill of sushi and ice cream and then it was back to my site. It was very nice finally having visitors (I admit I was a bit jealous of the other volunteers who´d been traveling around with their friends and family). Thanks to my parents for the pics, and i´ll try not to take so long to update next time.

Playing the Tourist

I'm back in Ecuador having fun traveling around with my parents. We spent last week on the beach in Puerto Lopez, near Isla de La Plata (the silver island). The island is known for its blue footed boobies as well as being a playground for the humback whales. The island is about 25 k from the beach and it was a very bumpy ride in a pretty small boat. There was a little Ecuadorian girl sitting across from me who laughed the whole time (while not exclaiming "yee haw!"). One whale came very close to the boat and you could even see it swimming under the water. There was also a mom and her baby, and the baby kept breeching and playing around. On the island we did a three mile hike through hunderds of booby birds at various states of maturation. The ones that were molting looked a little sad. There was also a sea lion playing in the surf as well as several other types of birds. The snorkeling around the island wasn't real interesting but it was nice taking a dip after the hike. While in town we saw a soccer game being played on the beach and enjoyed going to the market and eating very ripe bananas and pineapple. The president of Ecuador, Rafeal Correa, also might have been there while we were there. I say might because we didn't acutally see him. There was a big motorcade that went through town, and later there were a bounch of security people around a restaurant. We tried to peek in but I didn't see anyone that looked like him although the locals all said he was there. who knows? I don't know if I'll make another trip to the beach while in Ecuador, the bus ride was a bit too long for my taste.
The past couple of days we've been in Quito, wandering around old town and the various churches. The bicentenial of Quito is happening right now, commemerating August 10th, 1809 when a group of Ecuadorians took control of Quito from the Spaniards. Although this takeover only lasted 25 days, I guess it was considered important enough to consider it the founding date of Quito. In one of the plazas there was a military band playing and several speakers talking about the event as well as the battles when Ecuador actually gained independence. Tomorrow we head to my town and then we go to the jungle. More pics to follow!

Graduation Time

Sorry about the long delay between blogs - I've been traveling in the states and before that was helping get a summer english class going. The pictures are from the primary school graduation ceremony, both the first grade and seventh grade got diplomas. I'm not sure why the first grade had a graduation, perhaps because they survived one year of school? My little host brother was quite excited about getting a diploma. My host sister is headed off to high school this coming year. She has to take an exam to see if she can go to the high school in the larger town near by.

One of the german volunteers is teaching some summer english classes and i was helping her get them organized. we had one class for those that need to prepare for the high school entrance exam, and then divided up the rest of the kids based on their skill level. The week and a half I was helping out a fair amount of kids showed up which is pretty impressive since they're on vacation.

so now i'm back in the states, enjoying my cheerios and going swimming regularly. i also went to a cubs-nationals game in DC while visiting a friend and checked out some of the museums there. well that's all for now, hope everyone is having a good summer =)

soap making and dancing preschoolers

Last week we had a soap making workshop with the local women's group. It was lead by 2 teachers and students from the Seattle area that were here as a part of a service trip. The chem teacher spent a little too much time going into the chemistry of the process which was a bit much for the women but other than that it went well. I think it might become a regular business for them if the local hostels are interested. My only concern is working with the lye since that's pretty nasty stuff (the lye recommended in my peace corps soap making recipe is drain cleaner you get at the local hardware store). But as long as we find a safe place to make the soap and use the proper precuations I think we'll be alright.
In other news, Friday I went to a dance competition for the local preschools in my unofficial role as community photographer. The kids were so adorable although to call it a dance competition might have been stretching it. The teachers were more or less herding the kids through the steps. But it was still cute. I got roped into being a judge, mostly on the fact that I am a gringa. I was very generous in my grading (figuring that these were little kids and there was no need to give a realistic score) but the other judge was really harsh in his grades. I guess they don't mess around here!
For those of you wondering, my host dad did win the election the other week. He starts as town board president in August. And yesterday I saw the most incredible rainbow ever. I tried to get a photo but it didn't do it justice. I think it was the first time I've ever since the full half circle of the rainbow. It's the right time of year for them since it's sunny but can get a little drizzly in the afternoon.

local elections

This Sunday we had what is basically the equivalent of town concil elections. I'm still not sure who won because it was a close race and they were still counting up the votes yesterday. Right now I'm in Latacunga so I'm not sure if they figured out who won today or not. My host dad was running for president, and it seemed like he had a fair amount of support. The voting system was changed when they changed the constitution and it's a little confusing. For instance you can either vote for a party, or you can vote for individuals. I think there are 5 slots on the council, so if you voted for a party you picked all their members for the 5 spots. Or you can pick and chose your favorite people from different parties. However if you do that your vote for those people doesn't count for as much. It's all very confusing.
Not much else new to report. This week is my last english class for the school year. I just finished writing a fiendishly difficult test for them (just kidding about the difficult part). I think during this last month I was finally getting the hang of this teaching thing and figuring out what worked and what didn't with the kids. So I'll be better prepared next year.

new pics

Okay, the internet hasn't been cooperating as I've tried 2 times to post some pics and it hasn't work. Hopefully third time is the charm. These are pictures from the mother's day festivities as well as some I took while out walking. Nothing much new to report. I'm on my way back from Quito after out midterm conference. It was nice seeing everyone and commiserating about our shared difficulties.