Guayaquil

As I write this, everyone is plodding around the house, trying to work off the food coma we just got ourselves into and attempting to pack for our weekend trip to Guayaquil, Ecuador. I can already hear my dad’s reaction as he reads this, “You are traveling...AGAIN?! Isn’t every day down in Ecuador like a vacation?” Well dad, this weekend is Festivals de Guayaquil, ie. all of Ecuador has a national holiday, so what we’re really doing is experiencing Ecuadorian culture in its truest form.

:)

I can tell you that none of us are excited to get on another overnight bus, even if it is 2 hours shorter than last time.

For a study in how small the world really is, while in Guayaquil I am going to visit a friend from Belleview Elementary School, Carrie, who studied abroad in Ecuador, fell in love, and subsequently married her handsome Ecuadorian med student. They live in Guayaquil, and we are going to meet up this weekend. Carrie and I haven’t been home in Colorado at the same time since high school, and here we are, thousands of miles from home, about to have a reunion. I love you, Ecuador.

Holly

(orange mountains as seen from San Francisco)

And so it goes...

(Today's guest blog comes from Dana Conway, the newest PD to join the Manna Ecuador family. Dana hates 10 hour bus rides, has awesome taste in music, gets an amazing fresh fruit platter for breakfast every morning at her home-stay, and is the only one of us girls to have been facebook friended by Eliah. Lucky, lucky girl.)

"I've been spending my days in Quito doing language school for three weeks while everyone else is in the valley. While at times it gets a little lonesome without the crew, whom I bonded with literally upon arrival, I have been enjoying getting to know this massive city. Coming from Boulder, I´m not use to tall buildings, busy streets, hurried people. However I am easing my way into the chaos.
Yesterday was my first day exploring on my own taking public transportation, hailing cabs, asking locals for directions, etc. After a day of thrilling success I woke up this morning anticipating the same luck. To my dismay, I was kidding myself, to say the least. On the agenda was simply to venture into Old Town, check out the basilica, and make it back for class by 1:30. I hopped on a bus, and before I knew it was no where to be found on the hand held map I grasped in my palm. I quickly departed and began staring off into the midst of surrounding skyscrapers when a local Ecuadorian, at least 60 years old, asked what it was I was looking for. Upon telling him I was trying to find the basilica he insisted on escorting me the whole 25 minute walk through all kinds of hills and winding streets, enthralled by my Spanish ¨skills¨ or lack there of, (its hard to say,) literally to the front steps of the church, thank god, I never would have found it. And thank god, it was a maravillosa.
With the calculated perfect amount of time to return for class I headed in what I was now certain was the right direction to catch a bus back to my neighborhood. As I approached the doors to enter the parada, I was informed that the bus was not functioning and I would have to catch another line that may or may not be headed in the direction I needed to go, a blue one would be "best". I dogged the traffic of the maniac drivers that travel these streets and was lucky enough to find a blue bus that slowed down long enough for me to ask if it was heading in the right direction. With a rather ambiguous response I jumped on, bus still in motion, and crossed my fingers that I hadn't just purchased a non stop fair to the coast.
With broken Spanish, lots of patience, and a trying smile, the driver told me when to hop off and that I was now closer to home than I had been before. Perfect, right? Well 10 minutes till class and I had no idea where I was. Street names all ringing a bell, but not a single building I had seen before. Again I threw my head back wondering which direction next. A few more blocks, another corner, and finally, I saw the sign of an all too familiar travel agency I pass by everyday ´Happy Gringo¨. And that was when I realized I was home again. But not just home to the neighborhood I have been living in for the last two weeks, or home to the still foreign city I have been exploring, but home to what it is that I am doing for the next year, home to the experiences that will fill each of my days, and home to an adventure that has already been so fulfilling and satisfying, that I literally can not wait to get lost again."

(Dana and Serena trying to force their way into the Medical History Museum in Cuenca)

Alphabet Flash Cards

Our Apoyo Escolar program, for which I am the "point" PD, has really taken off this month. Up to 15 students, the course is teaching us a variety of lessons, first of which is how to do long division Ecuadorian style. Let me tell you, it is CONFUSING.

We have a wide range of students who come every day; La Mafe, who does a lot of her homework in class and is our model student in terms of study habits and work ethic; Cecibel, who meticulously works on every language assignment she gets with as much attention to detail as would a cake decorator; Jonathan, who yells across the room at each Profe asking them to give him the answer to whatever he's working on (to no avail); Dennis, who at age 8 is still learning his alphabet yet has one of the most creative minds of any of our students. Each student has their own strengths and weaknesses; the challenge we as "Profes" face lies in identifying what needs we are capable of addressing and spreading ourselves evenly between each student.

Today I was working with Dennis, coaxing him with promises of time in "La Cueva" with rompe-cabezas (puzzles) and books if he finished his simple addition problems. 10 problems and 50 minutes later, we plopped down in the tent and began to read. Dennis still has not mastered the alphabet, and so reading is an embarrassing and painful task for him. To help him with his confidence, and to encourage him to learn his letters, Seth provided me with the idea of creating letter flash-cards to go over with him before every book. As we both lay under the colored sheets of the cave, we worked our way through the whole alphabet, getting a little confused between 'S' and 'C', 'T' and 'B' (not entirely sure how that works out...), but overall gaining confidence as he identified each letter and sounded his way through the accompanying word below (LEON! HOGAR! MAPA!). When we turned to his book of choice (Donde viven los monstruos; Where the Wild Things Are), he pointed with pride at each letter he recognized.

I couldn't have been prouder.

Good night from South America,
Holly

(La Cueva, site of daily reading and alphabet flashcards)

Billy Blanks

In anticipation of the start of our women’s exercise program on October 16, the girls have been spending a good deal of time perfecting our aerobic, tae bo, and yoga exercises and specific vocab. This means that, every day, we move all the sofas, chairs, rugs and tables out of the main “family” room in order to do a workout. A Billy Blanks workout, to be exact.

Just ask the boys how much they love Billy Blanks.

Not only did Billy used to be a platoon leader, he is also the owner of many many coordinated workout outfits and yells encouraging things like “Sound off!” and “Don’t you dare quit on me now! Make it burn, baby!” and “What is this? I can’t hear you? BOOT CAMP, BABY!”.

As we’ve gotten more and more accustomed to his various videos (Basic Training, Ab Boot Camp, Cardio Boot Camp, Ultimate Boot Camp), the amount of screaming at the computer in muscular anguish has greatly diminished, much to the boy’s relief. How these workouts are actually going to translate to our exercise class comprised of 50+ year old women, we have yet to see. I, for one, can’t wait for that hilarity to ensue.

Holly

(sun getting low on the walk back from Apoyo Escolar)

When the cat is away...

The mice will work on Saturday at our second Minga.

That was my weak attempt at a joke, trying to scare Mark (who is currently on a plane back to the states) into thinking all we're going to do for the next week is sit around feeding each other pineapple on our roof. He'll be gone for the next week, but honestly things are picking up so quickly down here that we really won't have much of a chance to even pretend to slack off in his absence :)

This post is late in coming today because we just got back from Quito, where we watched the Vice Presidential debate between Governor Palin and Senator Biden. Disclaimer: I promise I won't use the daily life blog as some kind of political platform from which to spew my ideas, unless those ideas include the establishment of a mandatory dessert hour. While we were all nervous (and some of us a little too eager) to watch Palin after having youtubed her interview with Katie Couric many times, overall both candidates presented their platforms in respectable manners. Which platform is respectable in its own right I'll leave up to you to decide for yourself.

I write about this because, for the first time in our lives, we’re experiencing a presidential election while not actually living in the States. Granted, most (all?) of us have only been able to vote in one prior presidential election, so a precedent hasn’t really been established. Yet it is incredible how passionate we’re all feeling about the whole deal. It’s as if the distance has made us even more involved, wanting so badly to taste the electoral anticipation and read as many articles and editorials as we can, to keep track of our state’s polls and to find key policy pieces which tie us to certain candidates. Maybe every young person experiences this as they become more aware of the scope of elections, but this time around it just feels different; fresher, bigger, closer. And that, written from south of the Equator, is truly saying something.

Holly

(colors in our curtains)