Yah.

5-24-11

It’s been a week since I arrived to Ecuador.  Again, I’m still getting used to things around here but I am getting a little more confident with my daily tasks.  The kids from Muñequitos are also adjusting to a new person working with them and are getting a little more friendly/ “needy”, especially when they want to be pushed on the swings.  I’m slowly but surely teaching them out to swing by themselves… “Adelante, Atrás”.  Here, I’m trying to teach independence. :-)  There are about 40-50 kids and only about 3 helpers, so you can imagine that we stay busy watching over the children.  I can’t believe how violent 3 and 4 year olds can be!

Now that I have been here for a week or so, there is more of a set-schedule: Muñequitos in the morning; “el comedor” for (older folks) “los ancianos” mid-day.  Later in the day, I go to the FEVI store.  Today I sold many things (2 shirts, some candy, and other sweets), which was a huge success!  I now have a working cell phone from the girl who came back to visit for a week or so (who is also from Kalamazoo), so now I feel a little more safe knowing that I can contact someone if need be.  Also, a retired doctor is coming tonight to help in Tonsupi, Ecuador and we are all going to take a trip there this weekend so we can see what type of medical needs there are and also to see the other school.  This afternoon I worked a little bit on a rough ‘lesson plan’ for the English classes we are going to start up next week.  At the store today, there were a couple of women interested in this class.

When I got home, my host siblings and I watched “Piranhas” (in Spanish of course)…what a frightening movie!  “Aytyetye” is the way you pronounce the word in Quechua that means How gross!  I said that many times during the movie. Haha.