Cajas National Park

Hola everyone!

Today we went to "Cajas National Park" in Cuenca, Ecuador. We all rode in a bus together for about half an hour up the mountain. The park was super high up above the sea level and was so cold! The tour guide recommended we all buy candy so we all stocked up on chocolates, oreos, and chips beforehand. When we got off the bus, it started raining a little bit, but we toughened up and began hiking through the woods (rain forest?) in our heavy jackets and hats. Oh my goodness it was so cold!! At first we were all super careful with our shoes to not step in any mud/poop/water and basically jumped around on rocks, but it got to the point where there was just soo much water on the ground that sooner or later we ALL got our shoes and socks soaked sooner or later. It was super funny when we were crossing this one area where there was no place to go but through a huge puddle of water, and one by one as we stepped into the puddle we began screaming as our shoes soon became pools of water. We squished our way through the rest of the trail in the park and finally ended up on the bus. What a relief! With our soaked socks and cold shoes, we plopped on the bus and vowed not to hike any more for the rest of the day. After another half hour bus ride, we got to a higher part of the mountain for a second hike. While a few of us decided to brave the cold and continue hiking up the mountain, the majority of us chose to stay on the bus and sleep :) After the brave ones finished the hike, we went to a restaurant where we got such a good meal! We started with chicken soup, and then received our entrees, which consisted of avocado, tomatoes, rice, french fries, and trout! It was sooo good!

The rest of our day was pretty relaxing. We went back to our host families' homes and just chilled out. At my host house, we watched Harry Potter 7 part 1 in Spanish and had a great dinner with zucchini bread! Soo yummy :) Our host mother's granddaughter came over who was sooo cute and we played for her for a bit. Our host dad then showed us photos of when he was in college and had great bonding time.

Can't wait for our free day tomorrow! (zip-lining?????)

Love,
Alice

En Ingles es...

So today was our language exchange activity at the school. I can honestly say I enjoyed this day because I learned Spanish and they learned English. I was in a classroom with Alice drawing pictures of things and putting the English word and calling on the kids to come up to the board and write the Spanish word. The kids were between the ages of 8 and 10 and they were so enthusiastic about answering and correcting each other. It was a lot of fun! We also read books to them that had Spanish and English translations. I read the English part and let them take turns reading the Spanish translation to me.

Another thing that was really nice about today was that we got to give out pens and pencils to the kids for them to keep and they were ecstatic to have them. Some of them didn't think they could keep it and asked me if it was theirs to keep. They were so happy when I told them they could! We also taught them how to do the Soulja Boy dance and listened to lots of music and endured puzzled stares from the locals driving  past the school. The kids were having so much fun dancing to the music we were blasting, it was a sight to see. (Pictures and videos coming soon on facebook!)

On a personal note, Annie and I love our host family! They are so funny and friendly. They treat us like we are their own family. Today, Sonia, our host mother, had her 85 year old father, three kids, grand-daughter, sisters, and in-laws over for dinner and coffee. Needless to say, the house was booming with laughter and funny conversation. Today they had about a 45 minute conversation about how far away a beach was from Cuenca. It was a joy to listen to them disagree with each other and joke about their views. Oh and don't forget Martias, the dog who is always barking and trying to be heard by everyone. Most of everyone's host families are similar to my host family in one way or another so we are definitely receiving a one of a kind experience.

We only have two more days with the kids and we're all trying to make as big an impact as possible before we leave. We're already getting sad but it's not over yet! More updates to come tomorrow night!

Coming to you live from Cuenca, Ecuador,

-Lebona Hailu =)

Si! Muy bien!

So these past couple days at the school have been so much fun. The drive to the school takes an hour, but with the drivers that we have driving 10 miles per hour, it literally takes like FOREVER! And they drive so carelessly and its so scary! Anyways, we have really bonded with the kids, we all definitely have "favorites". We break up into separate groups of art and physical activity. I did art, and we taught the little kids how to make boxes and fishes. They were so adorable, and they caught on so quick, it was amazing to see how smart they were.After every step that they made, they would hold it up and be like "Asi?!" and I don't think i've ever said "si, muy bien!" more times in my life. Shaina did physical activity with the younger kids, and we started out by showing them how to dougie. We also played duck duck goose (gato gato perro). The kids brought us up onto a hill, and we played 20 vs. 20 soccer. The kids showed us up with their soccer skills, and they were amazing, they could definitely be pro in the future. We also started building the bookshelves today, and the kids were so eager to help, especially the older boys. They picked it up so fast and knew exactly how to do everything, while we just stood on the side and handed them nails.

After the school, we headed back to Cuenca, where we did a deep reflection. We talked about our thoughts on the day, and then played a game where a whole bunch of "deep" questions were asked, and those who were yes were on one side, and no was on the other side. It was a really good bonding experience for our group, as well as SUPER emotional! To shake it off, we headed to the gym for salsa lessons, which ended being more like a zumba aerobic class. The lady was like twice our age, but definitely had more stamina than all of us, and she laughed at us because we had to sit down halfway through haha! To end the night, we all bought delicious empandans at the university, and after resting at our host families for a bit, we all headed to the hot tub, for... you guessed it! More bonding! Yay! (It cost $4, but def worth it!)

_______

We continued doing physical and art activities, except we switched the kids. Those who were with the younger kids got switched to the older kids. For art, we made cranes, and had the children draw pictures and write what their dream job would be. A lot of the kids wanted to be math or english teachers, and most wanted to teach at the school they are at now. A couple wanted to be nurses or doctors. One kid wanted to be ninja, and he even had the mask! (who knows where he got it from..) We played soccer again, and volleyball with a SOCCER ball, so the ball was so hard! All 7 bookshelves were finished, and they were all painted and put in the classroom. We're gonna hopefully put the books on it tomorrow, exciting!

We watched this cool medicine/cleansing ceremony. They put vegetables and plants in a circle, and there was violin music playing with drums and singing. (violin wasn't too great...) They led a prayer and gave thanks. Then, they started drinking this purple liquid, and spit it on other people, and whacked them with huge bushels of leaves! I (Shaina), got hit with a bushel, Kaltrina got "cleansed" with spray, and AJ got spat on.

Then we visited a musuem on the history on the Ecuador, called the "El centro de boring". HAHA, just kidding. The cool part was when we saw parrots and toucans. Pretty sweet. Then, we split up and some people headed to the market for some SHOPPING!!! wooot! We showed off our great haggling skills, and bought tons of bracelets, headbands, bags, and other cool souveniers that you'll all see! We all bought these delicious authentic kabobs on the street off a kinda sketchy stand on the curb, haha. But it was still delicious! Of course, we stopped for bread on the way home! 10 cents per bread! We headed back to our host families, and just relaxed for the rest of night!

Sophia & Shaina

¿Como te llamas? Me llamo....

Heyyy friends and family!!!

So today we met at a reallyyyy nice restuarant for breakfast and had an introduction from Ana who coordinates the work we are doing with the students. We had good food, including this white cheese that we were all obsessed with. Anyway we went to a orientation in a building of the University of Cuenca where we learned a lot about Ecuador and the culture. After that, we were finally on our way to the school! The ride was about an hour long and we were pretty crammed...15 of us in a fairly small van (hey, what better way to bond than sitting on top of eachother for an hour?) Anyway, when we finally arrived at the school, we were not sure what to expect. As we drove up....the kids were SOOO happy to see us. They were all grinning ear-to-ear, some of them were yelling "hola" and some yelling "hello". The directors at the school had prepared a welcoming ceremony for us with live music. It was really nice! We danced with the children and they immediately loved us. After about 5 minutes, I think we all had several kids attached to our hands. They were asking us how to say things in English, asking us our names and about our families, and were just sooo sweet. It was amazing how welcoming these kids were.

What was the most amazing part of this day was that these people were so generous. They gave us flowers, fruit,  and their love when they barely have enough to survive themselves. It really makes me think about how we live at home and the little things we worry about. The people we met today are working hard just to survive, and they don't seem to have a worry in the world. They couldnt have been happier and all we did was play with them. It was truly heart warming and I can't wait for the rest of the week!!!

Hannah

Today was super exciting. Even though the people of the Shina community were clearly very poor, they were very generous and most importantly happy. After we got back from the school we took a tour of seven different churches in Cuenca. The architecture is absolutely beautiful. We also stopped for ice cream in the middle of the tour. Let me just say everything here is so cheap so we will be coming home with lots of souveniers!!! Hannah and I had dinner with our hot family...our dinner last night was pizza hut pizza?! Tonights dinner was more authentic. We had chicken (we think it was chicken), rice, salad, this yummy corn and the goat cheese. We almost ate the whole cheese block! We are exhausted but looking forward to tomorrow!!!

Kaltrina

We are Finally Here...(sigh of relief)

We spent our time at Reagan waiting for our delayed plane playing various games like Uno, thumper, and Kemps. Before getting on the air plane, we loaded up on food and magazines. However, most of us never got to read the magazines because we all got knocked out on our way to Miami.

We came to Quito expecting 50 degree weather and rain like it said on Weather.com but we were pleasantly surprised by the 75 degree sunny weather and Wonderful breakfast which included scrambled eggs and delicious tomato juice (Taste better than it sounds!). Shortly after, a large blue bus awaited us outside Las Posadas hostel, where we were taking group pictures. We were greeted by our lovely tour guide, Gabby, as we drove around Quito. Though we were tired, we managed to take many pictures on our way to el Mitad del Mundo (the Equator!). When we finally arrived, the sun unexpectedly emerged from the clouds and proceeded to tan (and even burn) our skin. Right away, we saw a large monument, where we took pictures with our feet in two different hemispheres. To our pleasant surprise we went to an outdoor museum called El Camino del Sol, an interactive experience where we conducted science experiments like walking on the equator line to test magnetic force, balancing an egg on a nail, and testing the Coriolis wind effect on both hemispheres. We will post videos of this shortly. 

By noon we finished with our tour and went back on the bus to venture into the old town of Quito. This is busy section filled with historic churches, street vendors, and artisan shops. What left all of us in awe was the street artist who created masterpieces simply using spraypaint--and proceeded to sell for only 12 dollars! A good amount of walking on hilly cobblestone terrain left us very hungry, which is why we were so excited when we finally arrived at the restaurant. Here, we ate grilled chicken, green salad, and cheese and potato tortillas. MMMM!!! Needless to say we were silent as we stuffed our faces with deliciousness. Afterwards our desert of the aforementioned tomato fruit with a slice of cheese came along, which was also surprisingly delicious. Without a doubt, the group discovered a new favorite fruit.

Following lunch we went to a church, called Iglesia de la Campagna de Jesus. Built in the 17th-18th centuries, this baroque style monument was filled with religious paintings and a blinding amount of gold. As a group, we were mezmerized to see how a place could be so intricate. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures to document this. After the church visit, we were all so tired we could not think of doing anything else besides wanting to get back on the bus and riding to the airport so we could get checked in and ready for our 45min flight to Cuenca. However, there was one more place we had to go to and that was the statue on the Virgin mary crushing the head of the snake. We rode the bus  from  2,850m elevation up to about 3,500 where the statue was. After we were all amazed at this and the view of the city that was offered from being so high up, we were finally ready to leave and go to the airport. 

After a tiring but exciting day, we finally made it to Cuenca. Seeing the faces of the host families were priceless and this whole week will be priceless. A pricetag can not be put on the experience we are going to have in the next 10 days. The families are welcoming and all smiles and eager to communicate with us despite the language barrier. We try our best and smile back, they laugh at our SPANGLISH haha and help us with how to say little words and phrases and they look to us to better their English and we help them with what we know in correspondence to what we understand from the questions that they ask in Spanish. The welcoming dinner was Awesome and after a few of us from our group met up at Aj, Tashnia, and Tim's host house to sort out our books and school supplies and decide how we were going to distribute them. Its been a great night and tiring weekend.

We have to be up tomorrow morning for our Welcoming breakfast at 8am and presentation/ history of indigenous people and the community we are going to in Shina (which is an hour away from Cuenca). Then we ride off to the school that we will be working at all week, to a group of children that have been waiting for a whole year. The looks on their faces will be priceless when they see us, the effect on our heart will last a life time.

AJ (trip leader) Kristen and Rachel.