Final Week!

The final week of my adventure was filled with mixed emotions. On one hand I'm very happy with the work we have done here, the connections made with the staff and students at the schools, and the knowledge exchanged. On the other hand, I am very sad that I will likely never see the kids again. All things considered I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to help such amazing people have a better school experience and gain some perspective about the world outside of their country.

Monday was an interesting day because Sara and I were given the opportunity to teach a geography lesson about Canada. We taught the students about our provinces; how many provinces we have, the capital city of Canada, our population density, and our animal/plant life among other things. The students used the internet to look up Canadian animals and were quite fascinated to see that the star nosed mole (arguably one of the world's most "interesting" looking animals) lives in Canada. At around eleven I began to feel very sick and was had to head back to the hotel to have a nap.

On Tuesday Blair (a retired teacher who is a facilitator for the program) was giving a presentation to the teachers at our school. This meant that Sara and I were in charge of the entire school of students for most of the day. In the morning we taught the students an English lesson, played sports with the students, and also taught the students the 'Boot Scoot'n Boogie'. For our English lesson we had the students create an "About Me" poster in English. Some of the students wrote "my happy birthday is..." or "I touch guitar..." which was kinda funny. However that being said their grasp of English has certainly improved during our time here. The students said I could keep their "About Me's" so that I will never forget them. During the Boot Scoot'n Boogie some of the students really enjoyed the dance while others were not very interested. They found the Canadian form of dancing to be fairly difficult. After these lessons the students worked on a webpage for a while then we had a group discussion. I asked the students to list off what they remember learning from Sara and I. It was amazing to hear them talk about all of the things they have learned from us. They were all shouting out that Canada has 10 provinces and our capital city is Ottawa, that they learned several different games from us, the different English lessons they learned, and other things which they have learned from us. All things considered Sara and I had a great day and did our best teaching a large group of students on our own (40-50 students each).

Wednesday was a day which I will never forget. After teaching English all day we had to say our goodbyes. Both the 2nd Bach and 3rd Bach had work experience on Thursday and Friday so Wednesday was our last day with them. The 2nd Bach was our first goodbye. In this class two of the students actually made me a card saying that they are very thankful that I came to Ecuador, that they have learned a lot from me, that I am a very funny nice friend for them, and that they like me a lot. They gave me this card and a hug, and all of the students wanted pictures with their Canadian teachers. It was a sad moment saying good bye, but a nice moment knowing that the students have learned from us and appreciated our help. Next we had to say goodbye to the 3rd Bach class. The students did not want us to leave. They swarmed us with a big hug, told us how much they enjoyed having us at the school, took pictures with us and then gave us a huge group hug. I have never felt so valued before in my life. The students were all so nice and the day was great. My cheeks actually started to get sore from smiling so much. They were such a great group of students and I will never forget them.

Thursday Sara and I went with Dana and Andrew to Inca and taught them English and Physical Education for the last time. It was a nice day, working in a classroom with the students for the last time. We taught all of the students a chant to get them ready for the Olympics we had planned for them on Friday and develop school pride. The students were a little timid with the chant at first, but after a few practice rounds we were able to get them yelling the following chant:

Every where we go-oh, (Repeat)

People want to know-oh, (Repeat)

Who we are-rr, (Repeat)

So we tell them, (Repeat)

We are H.M.Martinez! (Repeat)

The Mighty Mighty Martinez! (Repeat)

Once the day was done we took a few photographs with the students and a student named Patricio made short work of me in a game of chess. Only one day left which I will post about in another blog. Until then enjoy a few pictures of my final week at the schools;

Swarm Hugged by the 3rd Bach Class

Sara and I With the 3rd Bach Class

Sara and I With the 3rd Bach Class

Marithza and Leslie Giving me a Card

Sara and I With the 2nd Bach Class

Sara and I With the Zambiza Teachers

Inca Students

Oswaldo (Our Driver and Possibly the Nicest Person in Ecuador) and I

The Grade 9 Students With Their About Me's

Patricio and I Playing Chess

Weekend in Mindo!!

Two blogs in the past 15 hours, definitely back in the blogger's groove.

This past weekend we all traveled down to Mindo (A smaller town, full of adventure!). Our group was set to leave on Friday at 3 pm, and as of 2:45 pm I was unsure if I was going to come or not. I finally decided I would come because as Blair said "I can be sick in Mindo as good as I can be sick in the hotel". It was a good thing that I went on the trip. Friday night in Mindo was fairly uneventful for me since I went to bed early to rest up for a jam packed Saturday. On Saturday our group woke up early to book our adventure. We decided that we wanted to Zipline, White-Water Raft(Tube), and go Canyoning (Repelling) that day. The Ziplines were first on the schedule. These Ziplines were amazing. For only $8 we (along with instructors) went through a total of 13 Ziplines ranging in length from 100 to 1000 feet long, heights from 50 to 500 feet high, and in speeds from what they described as slow to moderate to fast. This all took place overtop a beautiful view of jungle, wildlife, water, mountains, and other people Ziplining. It was amazing. If you are ever in Ecuador it is something you need to do. All for the price of a popcorn at a movie theatre. Next we went on our tube/raft ride. We were all supplied with helmets and life jackets to make sure we would be safe. Our tube was six tubes tied together with rope handles to hold onto. We also had guides come along for the ride and steer us clear of anything too dangerous. That being said it was still a very rocky, bouncy, wild ride. If anyone let any part of their body outside of the tube it was likely to be cut up by rocks. Even through the tube a few of us got some bumps and bruises. Our final adventure was Canyoning/Repelling. For this we were driven down a gravel road to a point that appeared to be the middle of nowhere. At this point the vehicle stopped and our guide said everybody out. Some people in the group were certain we were going to get robbed or worse based on our location, but the guide explained that from where we were we had to walk twenty minutes further into the bush. "Reassuring" to say that least. After quite the hike (including climbing up to the top of the hill where the waterfalls were) our group began repelling down. We were all instructed to lean backwards, but it was very tricky to overcome the natural urge to lean forward (or at least the urge to not completely lean backwards over a steep rocky waterfall). Despite a few people with some uncomfortable moments with heights we were all able to repel down the 3 waterfalls to the bottom. For me it was a chance to push my boundaries and engage in an activity I have not had the chance to prior to the trip. I loved it! As I got more confident I began trying to bounce my way down but it is not as easy as it looks.

The rest of the trip was a different story. That night we all headed over to the "Frog Concert". The frog concert occurs at a special preserved area which attracts different species of frogs. At night they are all croaking away and it sounds really neat. We also got to walk around the area, looking at different species of frogs, insects, plants, and other wildlife in the area. Some interesting things I learned here were that some frogs eggs hatch tadpoles, while others hatch little baby frogs, that there is a type of plant which glows in the dark, a lot of the wildlife requires a certain humidity and temperature to exist, and that frogs will croak during certain seasons or when something is not quite right (for example the temperature was 3 degrees higher than normal, so a species of frog which normally does not croak in may was croaking). The next morning a student took us on a birdwatch/nature hike. We set out looking for toucans and other large birds but were only able to see smaller birds. It was still a nice morning which included a hike down a mountainside and a few more interesting facts; butterflies fly at different heights depending upon their colour (In order to use the Sun as camouflage and avoid predators), Lizards can not run and breathe at the same time. That is why they seem to run in spurts, because they use the same muscles for locomotion as they do for breathing. Following our guided birdwatch/hike we decided to pay a visit to the butterfly sanctuary. It was home to 25 species of butterflies, which was a good experience (especially if you like that kind of thing).

Our weekend in Mindo was a great experience! I expected to use the time to recover but that was not the case because there was just too much awesome waiting to be experienced.

Repelling Down a Waterfall

View From the Tube While Rafting

The Group and Our Guides After Repelling Down 3 Waterfalls

View of the Treacherous Waters we Conquered

A Butterfly we Spotted in Nature

Beautiful View

Map of Our Route Down the Mountain (The Vertical Green Portion is Our Walking Route, Opposed to the Yellow Road Route)

Butterfly at the Sanctuary

Dana, Sara, and Meghan Walking on a Path Through the Jungle

2nd week complete!

Hello again, it's been awhile since I blogged you last. I have been sick for some time and unable to muster up the strength to blog. But now I'm feeling good again, ready to make up for the lost time. I know it's late, but thanks to an accidentally 7 hour nap (from 5 pm - Midnight) I can't sleep. Sorry this post is a bit late, hope it's worth the wait.

During the second week Sara and I were able to accomplish more with the students here in Quito. On Wednesday there were four Canadians at Zambiza school (Me, Sara, Dana and Meghan). That morning we taught our own English lesson to the 3rd year bach (graduating class, students ranging from 17-20). We included questions such as "Which University would you like to go to?, "Where would you like to travel?" and "What career would you like to have?" as well as other questions which would inspire students to think about their future goals and life beyond the city of Quito (if that was something they were interested in). It went over really well. It was nice to hear that a lot of the students had University in mind. While some students had career goals of working in a candy factory or other labour fields other students had goals of becoming doctors, veterinarians, and environmental engineers. Sara and I were very pleased to hear these career goals and we praised these students for their lofty goals and encouraged them to work towards them. Based on my experiences in the school so far it appears that the students are not praised very often and meaningful discussion about their future is not common. This leads me to believe our work is necessary and beneficial here.

For the second half of the morning we taught the grade nine class (students ranging from 13-18 years old) "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" in English. The students then taught us the Spanish translation of the song, and we all had a great time singing the song. These students for the most part do not have enough English to maintain a conversation but are very eager to learn and have a ton of energy. A lot of the students in this class have a passion for and love of sports. The high energy level and love of sports helps me feel a real connection with these students despite the language barrier.

Following the morning classes we played volleyball and dodgeball out in the recreation area. It was great to see a lot of students up and playing. In particular I have noticed a difference in some students who were too shy to join in the games when Sara and I first arrived. Students who during the first week I had to say "Juego!" and "Acqui!" (Spanish for 'Play' and 'Here!') while waving them over or essentially pulling them over to game to get them to come play were now playing confidently and asking others to join the game. There are still a few students who do not play despite our best efforts, hopefully next week we can get these students to join in.

The afternoon was a bit hectic. The computer programming teacher was away at a technology exhibit so Meghan and I taught the grade nine class, while Sara and Dana taught the 2nd year bach (students ranging from 15-19). Meghan and I had the students in the computer lab so we decided to get the students to make a web page about themselves (in English). Meghan wrote about herself on the whiteboard as a guide for the students to use. The students were unable to use the internet since the computer programming teacher needed to take the internet chords with him in order to give his presentation. The students asked Meghan and I a few questions and we were able to interact with the students about the assignment as well as other things. It was a good chance for us to see the students expressing their interests, families, and other things about themselves. The students may have relied on the template Meghan gave a little too much however, with a couple of the students claiming to live in "Winnipeg, Ecuador".

To finish the day Sara and I taught the 3rd year bach physical education class while Meghan and Dana taught the grade nine class an English lesson. Half of the physical education class was writing a test while half of the class was outside with us. We played a low organized tag game and did some dynamic stretching for a warm up. (As compared to other warm ups we have seen here; running laps, or unsafe deep knee bend jumps). We then played a round of doctor dodgeball. Once they finished the test we worked with the other half of the students while our original students went to write the test. We did the same activities with this group, noting that both groups had a hard but fun time with lunging, apparently not a common exercise for the students.

On Thursday Sara and I joined Andrew and Dana at Inca. The day began with English and helping the students with their pronunciation. We went through the entire alphabet practicing speaking English. From a-z we went over every word the students knew of (also adding a few new ones including supercalifragilisticexpialidocious). Our group worked well together, taking turns being the leader and also mixing in a lot of humour to keep the students attention.

We then had physical education at the park. We taught the Inca students some dynamic stretching as well as how to play dodgeball. Although I was having trouble keeping my energy level up I had a lot of fun, it's always fun to play sports. Next walked back to the school and I began to feel quite sick. Our next class was a double period of physical education at the park. I told everyone to go on ahead and that I would meet them at the park when I was feeling a bit better. About fifteen minutes later I was able to head to the park, however I had forgotten how to get there. It was about a twenty minute walk, and I had turned too early. I saw a few locals who looked like students. One was even wearing an AC/DC shirt and carrying a Harry Potter book. I asked them how to get to the park and they explained the directions, and when they saw the puzzled look on my face offered to walk me to the park. Once we got to the park we had a brief conversation and I learned their names, ages, school as well as some of their interests. Being able to have a conversation in Spanish was a nice confirmation that my Spanish is improving. This physical education class was similar to the previous one. I played when possible but due to my illness did some observing and cheering as well. After this we walked back to the school. The walks to and from the school are a great opportunity to talk to the students about their interests outside of school, share some of my interests and experiences with the students and if possible trick the students into practicing their English with me.

The final two periods of the day at Inca were Geography with their strongest English speaking class(That said they still speak and understand minimal English aside from a couple of very skilled English students who help translate a few words on occasion). Sara, Dana, Andrew and I were given the opportunity to give a lesson on Canadian geography. We split the class into four groups and rotated around the class. I taught the students about the animals of Canada. Of particular interest were Beluga Whales and their ability to sing underwater as communication, Bisons who are 2 meters tall, 4 meters long and weigh 900 pounds, Polar Bears who are also quite large, live in frozen conditions, and have black skin but appear white thanks to white fur, as well as Beavers who cut down trees to build dams which control water levels, tap their tails to warn other beavers of danger, and are Canada's natural animal. It was a bit difficult to explain all of this information and more about Canadian animals (in Spanish) but thanks to some hand motions and help from the students I was able to. At the end of class the students told us that Humpback Whales are the largest animals in Ecuador. After our lesson we left the classroom to a chorus of "noooo's!!!" from the students. (due to them enjoying our company, disdain for the upcoming test they had to write, or a bit of both). The students are generally interested in learning about Canada and seem quite thankful to have us in their schools. This makes for a great working environment for us and we have been having a great time working with the schools.

On Friday the sickness became too much. I will not go into detail on that, but I will say that I was too sick to make it to school unfortunately. My Friday consisted of rest, which was definitely needed to be ready for the weekend in Mindo (More on that in my next blog!)

Thanks for being patient, I hope you are enjoying reading about my experience!

Students Playing Dodgeball

Students Playing

Jonathan, One of the More Expressive Students at Zambiza

Students Playing Dodgeball

Zach, One of the More Competitive, Passionate, Athletic Students at Zambiza

2nd Weekend/Monday at Zambiza

Another great weekend here in Ecuador. Friday night we went for Mexican food which was delicious. After that I was very happy to see Detroit get a big win thanks to Winnipeg boy Darren Helm. Saturday we headed out to Otavalo Ecuador, a city with a huge Saturday market. At the market we were all able to make a few purchases and barter with the shop owners. I bought a really cool chess set, which depicts the Inca tribe vs. the Spanish settlers. We also saw a large number of people begging for money. Poverty is a part of the world everywhere you go, and is very common in Ecuador. On our way home from Otavalo our driver (Oswaldo) and his son (Andreas) had a surprise planned for us. We stopped the van at the centre of the world (the equator!). This spot was determined using GPS and shows up as (0, 0, 0) on a GPS. At the equator we posed with different body parts on either side of the world and walked along the equator to feel the effect of gravity on each hemisphere. Oswaldo also showed us a gravity trick which makes it easy to resist force on one side of the equator but difficult to resist force on the other side (due to a decreased force of gravity). This was really neat and had us all disbelieving until we tried it ourselves. On the van ride home our group sang a lot of songs, from "Hey Jude" to "Afternoon Delight" and almost every song in between. You know it is a special group when every member is singing along to "Hakunah Matata". Sunday was a nice, refreshing day. We played sports outside, did yoga on the rooftop, and relaxed. In the evening we all worked on some lesson plans and I was also able to enjoy another Detroit win. The weekend left me feeling prepared and excited for the upcoming week in the schools.

Monday is a day without English or Physical Education at Zambiza. For this reason I have come to expect Mondays to be a tough day. This Monday (May 9th) however was a very inspiring day. In math Sara and I were able to assist the students as they worked through problems. They were working on factoring equations and using the quadratic formula to solve for a variable. Next period was biology and this was purely observation. Before lunch Sara and I took a prep period to eat lunch and prep lessons. At lunch we taught the kids how to play handball. Sara and I played with the students and they all seemed to have a great time. All of the students have a positive attitude and for the most part they all participate and have fun. This has made teaching at Zambiza a great experience. After lunch Sara and I observed a computer programming class. The students were working on a Mother's Day website. We walked around the class talking to students about our weekends, our mothers, presents we gave to our mothers and our weekend at Otavalo. When the class was over most of the students left to head to their next class. Two students stayed behind and called Sara and I over to their computer. They wanted to show us a separate web page they had made. It said "To Sara and Justin because we love them", and it had a picture of roses and a heart. Sara and I were very happy to see this and we hugged the students then headed up to our next class. During this class their was a test, which half 0f the students wrote while half of the students studied in the hallway. We sat out in the hallway and the students asked us a lot of questions. They asked us about our money, politics, dating situations and favourite foods. We were able to talk and joke around with the students for quite awhile which was really great for us to get to know all of the students better, as well as for the students getting to know us better.

After our day at Zambiza finished Sara and I met up with Dana and Andrew at Inca campus. Here we helped teach the accelerated English class (for students who previously dropped out of school). We made paper fortune tellers with the students. We instructed the students to write in questions for each flap and use these fortune tellers to practice English. This class is more rowdy and off task, but also would seem to need us for motivation more than the regular classes do. We finished the day off by playing volleyball with a couple of these students. Our day finally was over at 4:30 pm (making it about a 10 hour day for us in the schools). The time spent is definitely worth it, and I am enjoying meeting and interacting with all of the students here in Quito.

Ecuadorian Lawn Mower

The Group With a Llama

Beautiful Family!

The Group With Our 'Barter Faces' on

Oswaldo and the Group at the Equator

Andreas and the Group at the Ecuador

Gravity Tricks

Paper Fortune Teller

That's all I've got for you today. Wednesday Sara and I are planning a lesson for English class, I am looking forward to that. Blog ya later!

First Week of Teaching = AMAZING!

We have just finished our first week of teaching. I think I can speak on behalf of myself as well as the group when I say it has been an amazing experience. The students and teachers are all warming up to our presence in the schools. We have been able to inspire both confidence and motivation in the students in our schools.

On Wednesday Sara and I had English scheduled all day. We taught English all morning (7 am - 1030 am) but after that our focus shifted. In the afternoon (10:30 am - 1:30 pm) a teacher was not available to teach the grade nines due to a soccer tournament. This meant that Sara and I were able to teach the class. We were not give a specific lesson or even a topic to teach about, which gave us a lot of freedom when choosing what to teach. We began the afternoon by teaching and playing basketball and volleyball. Sara taught volleyball, while I taught basketball. I was able to show some of the students proper shooting form when shooting a basketball. The impact was instant and the students were making a lot more of their shots, while also shooting a basketball with correct form. After playing basketball we moved into a classroom and played Heads up, Seven up (or Cabezas Arriba, Sieta Arriba in Spanish). It took a few practice rounds before the students understood the game but soon enough they were understanding and enjoying the game. Whenever a boy who picked a girl (or girl who picked a boy) was guessed correctly the students would all say "oooOOooOOOooooOOooo!" This was really funny and I had a great time playing the game with the students. After this we took the students down to the computer lab to work on some computer programming. They asked Sara and I for a topic, and we choose Canada. The students designed a web page including pictures and information about Canadian culture, geography, animals, and other information about Canada. The students seemed very interested in learning about our home land, especially about the animals in Canada. A few of the students in the classed repeatedly asked if they could go play soccer. I told them if they worked hard we could play sooner. I feel I can relate to these students since I also would much rather be playing sports than working in the classroom.

On Thursday Sara and I joined Dana and Andrew at the Inca Campus. We taught English to a very shy group for the first two periods. The teacher broke this class up in to four groups and we each worked with one group. To start the class it was difficult to get any of the students to speak in more than a whisper. By the end of the class (thanks to a bit of encouragement) the students began to open up, work harder, speak louder, and speak English with more confidence. It was amazing. This was the first class were I felt a noticeable connection with EVERY student I worked with (thanks to the smaller groups). I also observed a very noticeable increase in the students motivation and self-confidence. The rest of the day was Physical Education classes. We walked over to a park for these classes. During the walks to the park and back to the school I was able to have a few simple conversations with the students. It was a great chance to get to know each other and form a bond with these students. Once at the park we played soccer and taught the students how to play handball. They had not played handball before and they really seemed to enjoy it. The students in physical education class on this day were far more active than they were on the days we observed them. It is very nice to see the students enjoying physical activity. Not just the students who love to play competitive sports like soccer, but all of the students. Even the most shy students can not resist the Canadian teacher peer pressure to come join the game.

On Friday Sara and I were once again at the Inca campus. It was a short day due to the election in Quito on the weekend. This meant that school was over at 10:30 am. However the teachers requested that the students stay from 10:30 am - 12:00 pm and that each one of us (Andrew, Sara, Dana and I) teach a class during this time. We agreed, happy to have the opportunity to work with the students. The day began with a physical education class with the very shy group of students. We taught them how to play dodgeball. I do not think that they have ever played dodgeball before. This did not stop the kids from having a blast. We played about seven rounds of dodgeball (including two rounds of teachers vs. students). Although the class was a shy, and there were a lot of screams as dodge balls whizzed by, the students definitely had an awesome time playing. I will never forget the huge smiles on each and every student's faces. After this class we went to teach English. The students were reviewing for a test and we were there to help them with their pronunciation. Some of the students in this class had really, really good English. One of the students(Patricio) even challenged me to a game of chess. I will keep you posted on who wins when we play. After this we prepared to teach an entire class by ourselves. This may seem like a daunting task, however our group is tremendous and we all made it through quite well I think. We read the students "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss. We also had the students write down the story, and underline words which they did not understand. We then taught the students the meaning of the words they did not understand. The students all listened and were well behaved. While going over the story I was able to display of my silly humour and the students laughed a lot. I love the class atmosphere here. Although the students are often shy and lack confidence it is clear that the students respect their teachers, value their education and appreciate having students from Canada in their classes. It is very refreshing to be in a classroom in which the teachers are respected and a classroom in which the students do not have the 'too cool for school' attitude. Also, whenever a class or the day ended and we had to leave the students would all say "Noooooooooooo!" Today the students seemed to really enjoy being around us. We finished the day off by teaching the students a line dance to Boot Scoot'n Boogie, followed by some volleyball. Dana took a few pictures of this so here they are:

The Students Boot Scoot'n

Andrew and the Students Dancing

Playing Volleyball With the Students

This weekend we are heading to the markets. I am looking forward to haggling with the shopkeepers and making a couple of purchases. I hope you are enjoying my blog, have a great weekend everyone!

2 days of teaching in the books!

Hello everyone! So far we have put in two days each at our schools. There have been some triumphs and some challenges so far, but we have all stayed positive and we have all made progress at each of our schools.

Today is my birthday! Today being my birthday made today a very interesting and wonderful day at the school. We'll get to that later. Our first day teaching was Monday May 2nd. On this day there were no English speaking teachers present in the school. Because of this Sara and I found the day to be a challenge. For me personally it was also a very frustrating day. We have been mainly observing classes for the first couple of days, in order to get a feel for the school atmosphere, students, and teachers. During our lunch break we have been running activities. On Monday we observed biology, chemistry, anatomy, as well as computer programming. Due to the difficulty of these classes and the lack of communication with the teachers I was not as involved as I would have liked to have been. I also felt some potential resistance from the teachers in the school to our presence. Our school day at Zambiza campus ended at 1:30 pm, however our driver was unable to pick us up, and about an hour later his son arrived to pick us up. He tried to explain the problem but Sara and I did not quite understand. Later we found out that there was a large landslide and the roads were not open for our driver to reach us. Finally we made it to the Inca campus to meet Dana and Andrew and help with the accelerated program (for students who had dropped out and were returning to school). This meant we were in the schools from 7 am until approximately 5 pm. After this day along with our exciting weekend I was drained. I was also concerned due to the frustrating day. I was able to remain positive thanks to some discussions with the group as well as a very relaxing Monday night.

Now for my birthday, Tuesday May 3rd. The day started off well when one of the teachers who I had thought was not happy to have us in the school allowed us to observe his class. He was teaching a math class on patterns and solving pattern equations when different variables were known. Sara and I had some positive discussion with this teacher and I now realize that he is glad to have us in the school. The next class was anatomy, however the teacher was not at school today due to a meeting. Luckily our translator Carlos was at the school. He asked the class to share with us their names and ages so that Sara and I could get to know the students. After telling us their names the class told us that they were learning reproduction/sexual education. They had prepared a skit for this class and they decided to show us their skit. The skit covered everything about relationships from courtship, to dating, childbirth to divorce. What was very interesting about it was that it went from a drawn out marriage scene, to the students saying "then they went on their honeymoon, and then they got back home from their honeymoon and the girl was pregnant." There was very little information about sex, but a lot about relationships and the responsibility involved in having a child. That being said the skit was very funny, and after the skit we were able to play basketball and volleyball with the students. The first day at the break approximately ten students played with Sara and I. Today approximately thirty students played with us. It is nice to see increased participation. Although it has only been two days I feel as though I have witnessed some of the student's confidence increase.

In the afternoon we observed biology. The class was discussing respiratory diseases with their teacher. This class had not heard of cystic fibrosis. They said that they did not think cystic fibrosis was a disease which affected people locally. Thanks to Carlos I was able to explain to the students what the disease was as well as what steps the University of Manitoba have taken to fundraise (Shinerama) for research into a treatment/prevention of the disease. Our next classes were with the youngest students(grade 9 students). These students were very eager and excited to learn. The class was very loud, but on task. Near the end of the class a few of the teachers and staff members of the school entered the class and said "We have heard it is your birthday. We know it must be difficult to be away from your family on this day, and we want you to feel like we are your family and you are comfortable and feel welcome." They also brought in a birthday cake, and got the students to sing happy birthday to me in English and Spanish. It was really nice of them to do this for me and I am very grateful for how nice they have treated me. Although I do miss some of the people from Canada I would not say I am homesick. The people in Ecuador have treated us all so well. Everyone here seems to have such a positive attitude and it is a refreshing change from a lot of the negativity I have experienced in Canada. I have also been living in the moment, really enjoying the city and all it has to offer. Nearly a week into the trip and I am happy to say that I love the city of Quito!

As promised last blog, here are some pictures from our awesome afternoon at the farm, catching, gutting, and cooking our own fish.

View from the farm

Me Fishing

Enrique (My Teacher/Minister of Education) Filleting a Fish

Jen (and The Group) Cleaning and Filleting Fish

Our Amazing Host/Driver (Sonya/Oswaldo) Cooking Dinner

First Weekend in Ecuador!

Saturday we visited the old city which was nice, I was able to buy a few gifts for some friends. We also went to eat at El Boca De Lobo (translates to the wolves mouth). The food here was amazing, I even tried mussels as well as cobayo (guinea pig). Our group ended up staying at the restaurant for over 3 hours, enjoying the food, drinks, and company. Sunday was a surprisingly eventful day. The day began with yoga on the rooftop with a few members of the group. After yoga we headed over to the house of a local principal who had invited us to her farm for lunch. We expected to eat a quick lunch. We were wrong. Enrique (Minister of Education in Ecuador) and his wife Monica joined us. It seems we can never know just what to expect when Enrique is involved. That being said his surprises have always been for the best. When we arrived at the farm we were all warmly greeted with a hug and kiss on the cheek by the principal. She led us down a steep grassy hill to a small pond filled with fish. Here we all had to catch our dinner. We all individually hopped into the pond and caught fish using our bare hands and a plastic strainer. I must give Justin props for catching the most fish, but he loses points for accidentally splashing our hostess in the face with water. Next we took our fish back up to the house and we cleaned, scaled, and filleted them. Although we all had various levels of experience and comfort with fish we all contributed to the process. Once this was done the hosts cooked the fish in a big outdoor oven. These fish were delicious. It seems the fish here in Ecuador always taste good because they are always fresh. To end the night we returned to the hotel and prepared for tomorrow. Sara and I went over a few plans of activities to play with the kids, as well as how we are going to introduce ourselves. I am both excited and nervous for tomorrow. I really want everything to go well, and I am confident that Sara and I will have a great first day.

I will be posting pictures from our fishing adventure as soon as they are uploaded.

Hope you are enjoying reading my blog, I have been having a great time here in Quito!