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.

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.

Holy week and elections

Well, I´ve finally added some new pictures. The reason for the delay was that I had loaned my memory card to the daughter of one of the community members. She had to make some recordings of herself teaching a literacy class and then make a CD of that. It ended up taking longer than I thought, which means I didn´t get any pictures of holy week. Oh well! The pictures are from a political rally this past weekend, as well as my decorated house. The others are from a Saturday morning when I was letting the kids take pictures around the yard.

Anyway back to Semana Santa (holy week) which was more like holy 3 days. On Maunday Thursday there was a mass which followed the normal schedule except that there were 10 guys up front who all had one of their feet washed by the priest. On Good Friday was the Via Cruces, a reenactment in 10 scenes of Jesus' week from Palm Sunday to the crucifixion. The scenes took place at various points around the village square. The only problem was the lack of microphones which made it hard to hear especially since some of the actors were a bit shy and quiet.

Plus it was pretty cold and rainy, which I guess was good since it put you in a sadder frame of mind for the proceedings. I felt bad for the Jesus actor and the other 2 guys on the crosses since they were basically striped down to their boxers which had to have been pretty cold (I was cold wearing my winter jacket). The easter service was Saturday evening as opposed to Sunday, and about 10 kids were baptized that day too (I think people wait for a special holiday to baptize so there was a wide age range in the kids). So that was holy week in my town.

The political rally was not real different from ones at home, except for the fact that between speakers a song would be played and all the canidates on stage would start dancing. I think this is a tradition that should be started in the states, it would make the debates more fun. Anyway the canidates all got up and talked about how they were going to improve the roads and the schools and give lots of money to the local women's groups for training. What was more interesting were the hecklers in the crowd who would yell out things like "you´ve been saying you´ll build that road for 20 years and it hasn't happened yet!", and other things along those lines. I guess politics is the same everywhere, they promise all kinds of things and then when they get into office they just try to make as much money as possible for themselves. We'll see what happens after these elections.