All kinds of news updates for you! After a few short nights, lots of hard work, and a little extra stress, I made it through a week of teaching alone, without a supervising teacher! It was a challenge, but it actually went pretty smoothly and I feel more accomplished and hopeful for the possibility of a future career in this. Entertaining classroom moments this week included: one day a girl asked me if I was a farmer and told me I could totally pull off "farmer girl" if I bought a pair of overalls. I took it as a compliment... who wouldn't? Another day, I was reading Is. 40:6-11 out loud, when I got to the word "bosom" at the end of the passage. If you know me well, you know that this word is my weakness. When I got to the word, I started laughing. Real mature teacher-lady, real mature. But I think half my students were in la-la land and the other have just laughed too. Woopsies.. hehe.
This weekend is a special annual celebration in Quito in commemoration of the city's founding in 1534. In honor of this celebration, Friday we only had classes until noon, and then in the afternoon we went on "Chiva rides" which is basically an open bus, with a DJ, disco ball, loud speaker, and dance floor instead of seats. It has some seats on top for musicians too. They drive around the city (mostly at night) and they are basically discotecas on wheels that serve "canelazos" - a typical Ecuadorian alcoholic drink made from cinnamon, naranjilla, and other things. Of course, when we did it for school, it was during the day, and there were no canelazos, but rest assured, there was plenty of dancing.
Today I spent the day working at an Extreme Response Christmas party in a dump by Zambiza. There were over 500 volunteers and over 3000 people that came to receive food gifts, play carnival games, listen to worship music, speak with our evangelist teams, get nails/face paintings, and take pictures with Santa. This is an annual event, and it was super cool to be a part of it.
This evening I participated in some of the Quito Days celebrations by going to a street party put on by a church that had lots of live music, dancing, and a sick street dancing/acrobatic routine by the "Casa G boys". Casa Gabriel is a Christian boys home for kids that come off the streets from addictions and rough street life. Many of the boys are very talented musicians and dancers, so they have this pretty sick routine that they do as part of their ministry. So Wes (a recent Houghton grad), Rachel (a fellow teacher), and I spent the night hanging out with the Casa G boys, enjoying the fiestas, and learning how to dance. The fiesta we were at had a lot of free give aways, and one of them was for the people who could come up with a short poem about Quito. Somehow I made it up on stage, shared a 4 line poem, and won a free plate of "Seco de pollo" (typical ecuadorian food). Here is my poem:
Quito, Quito
Mi amiguito (my little friend)
Me gusta estar aqui (I like to be here)
Comiendo el cuycito (eating guinea pig).
Mi amiguito (my little friend)
Me gusta estar aqui (I like to be here)
Comiendo el cuycito (eating guinea pig).
FOR THE RECORD I have not eaten Cuy, nor do I plan on it. I used to have a pet guinea pig, and could not bring myself to willingly consume that for her sake (RIP, Precious). But the poem was a hit. And I got free food and ten million cool points. It was a fun night. But now that it's almost 2... I'm going to cut it short. I'll keep you posted with more cultural tid-bits and exciting snip-its from my adventurous life here.
