Gringos in the air and children on the ground

Since my last major update things have finally become to calm down and the MPI Ecuador team has started to form its regular weekly routines; nevertheless, this is not to say that we have not had our fair share of fun.

To begin with, several of us made the trek to the town of Baños (literally baths). A town on the eastern edge of the Andes famous for its thermal baths heated by the nearby, and active, Volcano Tungurahua. One such bath is fed by a thirty meter waterfall that leaves the mountain at 124 degrees Fahrenheit. We decided that one was probably a little too hot for us and went to the one on the other side of the mountain, tucked away into a river canyon with several pools ranging from 83 degrees to 105 degrees. Very relaxing…

Of course if a town is named Baths, the major attraction will be the thermal baths. There is another (apparently minor, who knew?) attraction that Baños is also known for: Puenting (literally, bridging). Puenting is an activity where someone ties a really long rope to the bottom of a bridge that spans a canyon 100 meters above the water, then swings that rope up to the other side, and then ties a person to said rope. This person is then, in turn, asked to jump off the bridge and swing back and forth on that really long rope before being lowered to the river bottom below. Slightly different from sitting in a hot spring…

Another exciting weekend excursion was to the town of Mindo on the western edge of the Andes, known for its cloud forests and waterfalls. My favorite part was jumping off of a ten meter waterfall, unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera when I was jumping into the water so the only really picture I got is of myself struggling with the mosquito net.

I’m happy to say that our regular programming has now begun. Our initial program is an after school, educational support program, which is co-sponsored by our partner UBECI (Unión de Beneficios y Educación con Colaboración Internacional). We work Monday through Friday from 2:00 to 4:30 in the community of San Francisco. The primary activity is for the kids to complete their homework. This may seem surprising in a program for little kids (our children are between the ages of three and eleven), but even in first grade most students have at least an hour of homework every night. In addition to providing an appropriate setting for completing their homework, as well as support when needed, we also provide the students with additional practice in various areas. Monday is language arts day, Tuesday we focus on social values, Wednesday is math, Thursday is art day, and Friday we teach English. Each of the Program Directors has separate responsibilities in the program and I have taken on the responsibility of being in charge of the math activities. In addition, I am also the primary teacher of the group of older students (eight to eleven years of age). After one week, there are about thirteen kids in my group and about ten in the younger group. We are continuing to advertise within the community to try and raise these numbers to close to twenty in each group. I have to say that I am very happy with the way this program has started. My kids are wonderful and I really enjoy going to San Francisco every afternoon.

A second program with which we have partnered with UBECI is their market program. Throughout South Quito there are neighborhood markets in which farmers from around the region come into the city to sell their food and other goods. These peasants have no other choice but to bring their children with them to the markets. UBECI provides an educational day-care service for these families with children between the ages of two and twelve in Chillogallo and Guamaní. We focus on activities that support the children’s physical and social well-being. Activities include songs accompanied by complicated yet doable physical movements, artistic creations requiring specific hand-eye coordination, and race style exercise requiring movements other than simply running or walking straight ahead.

Finally, I want to talk some about a four day excursion that we took to the region of Quilotoa. Quilotoa was a volcano until 1797 when it had its last eruption and completely blew its top leaving a circular crater where there is now a lake. Our first day we hiked all the way around the rim of the crater, which we completed in just under five and a half hours in order to make it back to the hotel by the time the rain started. In the rainy season in the Ecuadorian Andes (October-March) it basically rains every day at about two o’clock. For this reason we planned five to six hour hikes for the mornings throughout our stay in region of Quilotoa. Early in the morning, however, it is usually warm and sunny enough to where the high temperature of the day usually occurs around 10:30 or 11:00 in the morning before the clouds begin to roll in.

Our second day in Quilotoa we did the shortest of our three hikes (only about 10km) up to the top of a nearby mountain (about 14,000 feet). The most interesting aspect of this hike, however, was once we reached the top we realized that we were directly on the western edge of the Andes. From there we could look down several thousand meters and see an infinite flat bank of clouds all the way out to the horizon. Never in my life have I stood on solid ground and look down into a flat cloud that goes on forever. More interesting, still, was watching how these clouds crashed into the Andes. It was almost like watching the ocean crashing up against a series of beaches and heads. The clouds would hit the heads (mountains) and go straight up into the sky. Other clouds would flow into the beaches (valleys) and slowly move in until the valley became too steep at which point the clouds would jump up and do back flips in the air. These clouds then converge together above in a ballet in which the dancers are running and jumping and intertwining and splitting in all imaginable directions.

After our hike the six of us road the bumpy, muddy, and nearly vomit-inducing 23 kilometers to Chugchilán in a five passenger truck with a man and his wife in just under 45 minutes. Despite the means of transport, Chugchilán was wonderful. We stayed at Hostal Cloud Forest, where for only $8 we received a bed, hot shower, popcorn in the afternoons, breakfast, dinner, and the company and advice of the owner José Luis. This really was a wonderful hotel complete with hours and hours of Cuarenta, a local dance troupe, and maps and other hiking information.

I have to say the dance troupe was a complete surprise as we were all sitting around the fire reading our books when all of a sudden 15 seven to ten year old girls barge in wearing brightly colored outfits and all begin to say buenas noches to us. Totally shocked, we look up and greet them, and then look to each other trying to understand the situation. At which point the girls start rearranging all of the furniture and then turn the music on and just start dancing. Finally starting to feel somewhat comfortable and enjoying the show, all the girls come out into the audience and take us into the dance with them. I love to dance, but I have to say I was totally lost. Apparently nine year old girls are not the best dance coaches…I was just trying to keep up with her, but there were a couple of times when I really thought that she was going to throw me across the room.

Stay tuned for a couple of videos later this week!