Juegos tradicionales

“In Ecuador they have games very similar to party games that you would play with you friends and family in the United States, but they all have their slight differences (sometimes in name alone). We played about three about three hours in all, and I have enjoyed most of them thoroughly. Playing them with everyone was a great to experience the slight, and major, differences of growing up in different countries from other people. The games were basically the same as their equivalents in the US. Cat and mouse became gato y ratón. Even still just getting that small window into how everything is different when you go to a new place was a great time.” Felipe Felix 

*Marc will be posting media shortly! (Here you go!! – Marc)

Video-2dh0vno

Sneak preview of our dance party…

More videos of our dance party will be released later today.  Here’s a sneak preview for now!  Three things about this video:
First: That’s a 3 year old. Second: Just watch Zacarías Elijah in the background. Bad Ass. (Yes, I just said an inappropro in English.) Third: Please don’t pay any attention to my gringa dance moves. You won’t bother once you focus on Zacarías busting a move.

Video-2dh0vno

La finca de Adolfo (el 25 de mayo)

Yesterday morning Adolfo (Agosto and Nacho’s host Dad) took us up to his terreno. He’s written 5 books and is a biologist. We learned so much about the natural flora and he takes care of 🐝 s and cuyes. 

*Marc will post more photos from our farm adventure here soon since I’ve just lost a good connection. 🙂

(and here they are! -Marc)

  

In the afternoon we played many traditional Ecuatorian games with a famous drama teacher from Cuenca. I had so much fun watching our kiddos interact with their host siblings and other community members in such a lighthearted, fun way. Ill send Marc some goofy videos of us playing tomorrow. 😬

We had an emotional council meeting the other night. This is the time where we start to really miss the comforts of our home, and people dear to us as the excitement of everything new tends to wear off. We are all healthy with the exception of a mild tummy bug, a mild fever, and poor Elena has wicked allergies. 

Elena, Zacarías Elijah, and myself went for a jog and only lasted 15 minutes because we felt like our lungs were going to burst. Our sea level legs and lungs are definitely not used to running at almost 9,000 ft. It was a challenge to say the least!

We explored Cajas National Park today at 13,000 ft as it dumped buckets on us and surprised Miss Estrella Gwen with a dance party and invited the whole village. But more on that later…Buenas!

Ama

Un día normal según ⭐️

“We have started to get into more of a routine the last 4 days. We wake up around 7:30, and we have breakfast and coffee with our families. After we say goodbye to our host parents we make our way up a seemingly endless set of stairs to arrive at the school we teach at. We get to the school around 8:45 and we go to our separate classrooms to teach. All of the kids at the school are cheery and excited to see us everyday. We teach from 9 to 10 and then we go back to our host houses to help prepare lunch or to talk with our host parents about our lives back in the US. At 2:00 we have Spanish classes for 3 hours. After this we go back to our host families to be with our host siblings and eat dinner.
We eat lots and lots of food. Our families are more than generous with portions and they love to cook for all of us. They have very specific ways of eating food. What goes with what and what time we will be eating. It is all very specific.
Teaching has been a great experience for all of us. It makes us all step outside of our comfort zones and stand into the of a class. We have all enjoyed the connection teaching gives us with all of the kids and there culture. All the kids are amazingly sweet and endearing and have big eyes and a love for learning.
Our host families have been amazingly welcoming. They love to converse with us and ask us about our lives in America. They ask us about our food and our everyday lives.
We are all full of happiness…. and food.” Estrella Gwen

-Typical meals: rice, choclo (corn), potatoes, fresh fruit/veggies, eggs, animal protein (chicken, cuy/guinea pig, trout, pork, beef), paintain, Nescafé, soup, aguita (hot water/herbal tea) – photos from Elena’s plates.

-Typical break for the kids at school: soccer, volleyball, and lots of active games on the school’s central court (la cancha). Children, adults, teachers, parents, men, women, alike all play LOTS of sports here…all weekend long.

-Prepping for teaching / our walk to school every morning.

Plantas medicinales 🌿🌱🌾

“The 3rd day of Spanish class we learned about medicinal plants that you can grow in the mountains.  We prepared questions about a certain sickness and we went to the market in Paute to find answers.  Maria, the friend of Ling Chei, grows medicinal herbs on her farm and sells them at the market.  We asked her about yellow fever, depression, asthma, common colds, and altitude sickness.  She knew all about what to use to cure these illnesses and how to prepare them.  Nacho(Hans) and I were asking about altitude sickness, sorroche in Spanish.  She gave us a couple of herbs to make tea out of that would help.  She gave us violet(Violeta), lamb’s ear(oreja de burro), pata companga, and horitja.  She was very specific in the way you should prepare the tea.  For example if you are drinking it in the night you should put cocoa butter in the tea.  If you are drinking it in the morning you should put aspirin in the warm water with the herbs.  The medicinal remedies functioned for other sicknesses too like fever and the common cold.  The herbs might be the same but the way that you prepare the tea varies.”

-Ezme Ela

May 23 – a day in the life of a teacher

It’s incredible to watch them teach today! They are all improving and the kiddos adore them, of course.

May 22

Noticias de Nacho y Uly

*Fotos and videos coming soon courtesy of Marc!*

“I have had soup for every meal. There’s the same base: water, chicken broth, carrots, and peas. every once in a while there’s a surprise hunk of chicken or an eighth of a potato. my home stay mother, Zara, is worried i am not eating enough and has made me a minimum of two plates of food every meal. i tell her i only need one, but she thinks i’m saying it out of kindness. i’ve only finished one meal so far. when she saw the empty plate, she took it back into the kitchen and made a second helping. finishing a meal here feels like bailing a boat with a hole in the haul. i love it though. i don’t have a worry about hurrying through dinner. i can sit, run songs in my head, and solve puzzles with my home stay brother and cousins—the word for puzzles in Spanish is rompecabezas, literally head-breaker. my family has also taken into instructing me with the local idioms, most of which come from quinchua, the dead language of the Incas. most of the time i smile and nod me head, or quickly take another mouthful of soup, when they speak with idioms, but i catch every other idiom or so. my family cringes whenever i put my three drops of hot sauce in my soup, even though they have two open bottles, one on the table and one in the kitchen. the kids, especially the one who’s learning english, reminds the family to speak slowly for me. whenever a passionate topic arises, usually concerning food or cuyes (guinea pigs), they forget and speak muy rápido.”

Felipe Uly Gavin

“We are two days into teaching English a los niños de Bulán. Nosotros empezamos las clases a la 9 en la mañana y enseñamos por una hora. Nosotros somos en grupos de dos y enseñamos diferente grados.. Enseñamos los grados primero a cinco. Los niños son muy simpáticos y buenos estudiantes.”

Nacho Hans

 

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