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!)
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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
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