Bonita.

7/7/11

So I’m loving where I’m at right now.  I’m sitting at an internet café (an actual café that has actual coffee) that has its own character; planted flower pots surrounding the outside of the door, a ceiling that looks a little like the Bitter End in Grand Rapids, MI, and Spanish music playing in the background.  I’m currently sipping on a Mocacchino, writing my blog, and looking out into the busy town of Quito, Ecuador.

Caffe Caffe-- sitting in this coffee shop for 3 hours drinking coffee and writing my blog.

Caffe Caffe--my wonderful "dinner" of fruit (watermelon, strawberries, papaya), yogurt and granola. Yum :-)

The whole city thing isn’t quite attractive, but who’s complaining when they are waiting for a bus to leave to go to Tonsupa?  Danielle and I meant to buy tickets for a charter-type bus that was supposed to leave at 3:00 PM.  We rushed to arrive here really early (2:15PM) and found the line to buy tickets to be extremely long.  I was worried this would happen; of us not being able to buy tickets because the bus would be full since it’s Thursday and a lot of people leave to go to the coast for the weekend.  Since we were already in Quito (about a 30-45 min drive from Lumbisí) we figured we would take the next bus, which leaves at 6:15PM.  Oh great, I wonder what we’re going to do for 3 hours, waiting in the small bus ticket station with nothing to do.  I got this great idea to just walk around the block, looking for things to do and places to discover while Danielle watched our stuff at the bus station.   I came across a bakery which smelled delicious, but remembered that sweets in Ecuador aren’t going to be as sweet/moist/great-tasting as in the States.  So I moved on, walked around the block, then came back to a place that was called “Caffe Caffe”.  I got excited as I was thinking it would probably sell real coffee and other pastry-type things.  My thoughts were correct.  I entered the quaint little café and saw an older couple eating at a table with no one else in the store.  I asked for a menu and we got to talking about why I was here (that I was waiting for the bus to leave and that I was trying to find a place to stay for a couple hours) and found out that the older couple owned the café, welcomed Danielle and I into the place to store our luggage for the time being before the bus left, to use the Wifi, and to eat a small snack.  It was great to talk to this older couple, as they were extremely patient and attending to our every need.  I was able to also meet their son and we talked for about a half hour as well.  What a great place to end up and spend some time where we otherwise would have been uncomfortable in the bus station. 

Enough about the internet café.  The past few days have been tiring, very busy, but fulfilling.  Monday the students from the University of Illinois started their summer course teaching English (ELS), arts and culture, sports, and environment.  The first day not many kids showed up, which was expected, but it was still a lot of work.  The professor from U of I asked me to take control of the ELS course the first day, that I wasn’t very excited about since I wasn’t one of her students and was just there to help, but I obeyed and tried teaching the younger kids the Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes song.  Many of the students already knew some of the body parts, so it was successful, but the kids were still pretty naughty and wouldn’t pay attention very well.  It’s definitely a work in progress.  The students are starting to learn my name (many of them even say Jolie), so Lumbisí feels even more community-like.  By the time we’re done working at the vocational courses with the kids (ages 7-15) at 5PM, I’m spent.  That’s pretty much a full-time job, working 8-5 everyday.  I’m feeling pretty confident with Spanish more every day that I’m here.  I’m able to understand what is being said to me and explaining things to other people who I come into contact with.  Tuesday and Wednesday I bounced around from group to group at the vocational course, just to see who needed help controlling the kids and what not.  This was much more successful as I wasn’t the main “teacher” in the class.  I also had the chance to work with some of the special needs kids who attend the course.  As the title of this blog suggests, one of the kids who has DOWN-syndrome comes up to me (and all the girls who lead the class) and says “Guapa” (or pretty) and just stares.  Let me tell you, it’s good for our self-confidence haha.  However, you also know that he’s saying that to everyone.  The kids who are special-needs actually impressed me because they are able to understand things, talk to you, and even draw, color and write.  It’s really fun to work with them!  Sometimes after the course, I go for a run in Lumbisí.  One of the times I ran to an ecological park up the way in Lumbisí; the other time I ran around in the stadium, which are just a few soccer fields and a basketball court.  Even though this isn’t as exciting as seeing nature, I’m able to run around the perimeter of the soccer field on level ground, looking into the mountains. Win-win.

I’m impressed with the community feel in Lumbisí.  I can walk around town, talk to the women running the small “farmer’s market” and am surrounded by family members.  I respect all of the women because they are so hard-working and very welcoming. This week was also the last week working at Muñequitos with the kids. I was able to take a few pictures of the kids but I will definitely miss the kids because I have been working with them for 2 months! :-( 

The professors at the day-care and I (Jenny, Maria Jose, Silvia, me and Jaime).

Two really cute girls painting each others fingernails one morning.

Maira (a volunteer from Ecuador) and I on my last day.

Evelyn and I (my favorite at the day-care)

  Whenever I go outside of Lumbisí, I am taken aback by how good I really have it living with a great family and how different every else is that I go (Cumbayá, Quito, etc). I am blessed to have this opportunity to serve and to be served while having an incredible experience in another country.