Hola Ecuador!

Greetings from Ecuador! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I arrived in Quito in the afternoon of July 22. Only one other person from my group had arrived, the rest of the group flew in together late that night. For the first 3 days we had orientation learning how to stay safe and healthy during our time in Ecuador. On Sunday evening we moved in with our host families. In my house is my Mamí and Papí, an older sister Yasi (23) a younger brother Oscar (18), my abuelito (Grandpa), 2 dogs, 1 cat, birds, and apparently some squirrels although I have not seen the squirrels myself yet... Oh and I believe some Guinea Pigs too : ) It is not uncommon for me to come home from school and see additional extended family members hanging out at the house as well. I was also very excited to find out that my family are evangelical Christians. I get along very well with my family and am really enjoying getting to know them. Last night they were trying to teach me some spanish tounge twisters (trabalenguas). For the adventurous I have included one at the end for you to try.

I take 2 buses each morning to get to school: approximately a 40 minute commute. When I get to the University we have an hour of culture class and then 2-3 hours of Spanish class. In my Spanish class there are only 3 other students so we all have plenty of chances to talk, practice our Spanish, and get corrected :) Then we have 1-2 hours to get some lunch. Some days I go to the local supermarket (Supermaxi) and buy some bread and fruit for lunch for a little over 1.00, while other days I will go with some of the other students to one of the little restraunts that sells Almuerzo (lunch) for 2-4 dollars. Today I was able to get Almuerzo for 1.75. In the afternoon we have some other cultural activity. For example, yesterday we visited a ceramics museum and today we had salsa lessons.

The country is beautiful, the flowers rich in color, and the people very friendly. I will try to post some pictures soon. Please continue to pray for me as my brain is stretched with the constant Spanish and as I continue to relate with me Ecuadorian family. Now for you brave in heart is a few trabalenguas... bueno suerte!

Tres tristes tigres comen trigo en un trigal.

Pablito clavo un clavito, que classe de clavito clavo Pablito.

El amor es una locura
que solo el cura lo cura,
pero el cura que lo cura
comete una gran locura.

Goodbye Cusco... At Least for a While

I am sitting in my hotel in Quito Ecuador as I am writing this update. How did my ten days in Cusco come and go so fast?!?! I decided to give you a bit of a picture tour of my time in Cusco.

This is the entrance into Promesa where I volunteered during my stay. The glass windows you can see are the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th grade classrooms.












These three boys are some of the ones who enjoyed pretending to throw spiders and snakes at me :)













In this picture he is pretending to be a ferocious Tiger that was getting ready to come eat me.















One night we went to the home of one of the families in the church to visit and play games. The family was the host family of one of my friends who was in Cusco about two months ago. They just got this new puppy who was quite the character.









Most of my time in Cusco I was actually in the outskirts of Cusco. One day we went into Cusco to eat and do some shopping. This pedestrian walkway is in the middle of the divided highway. The statue of the man on top of the tower is an Incan leader. If you pay you can actually climb up to his feet.
















Another day we went to the nearby food market. There were rows and rows of fruits and vegetables and grains. I think there were two or three rows dedicated to some of the hundreds of types of potatoes grown in Peru.

Working at Promesa

My time in Cusco has been flying by! I arrived in Cusco on Tuesday morning very exhausted from the trip. In addition to sleeping a lot the first day I also met many of the teachers from Promesa, the school that I am volunteering at while in Cusco. I am staying with three of the English teachers:Emily who teaches 4 and 5 year olds, Malinda who teaches first grade, and Rebeca who teaches 2nd and 3rd grade. The school is a bilingual school so the students learn their core classes in Spanish and then have English classes as a special. As a volunteer I try to help fill in gaps and help wherever I am needed. Two days I worked mostly with 4 and 5 year olds. For part of the time I was just an extra person in the room helping keep the kids focused and help them with cutting or pasting or whatever needed to be done for the class to run more smoothly. At other times I was left in charge of the kids while the other teacher had to step out of the room. Another day I helped run stations in an English class for 3rd graders and helped prepare notebooks and homework for the first graders. I have also served as computer monitor for the 5 year olds and gate keeper at the beginning of the school day. I also have worked some in the library organizing books. If I get a chance this next week I am going to put some of the books into the computer. A couple words that I have found very helpful while I am at school are ven: come, sal: go, sientense: Sit down, escuchame: listen to me, cuidado: careful, muy bien: very good, and Que Bonita: How Pretty. Sometimes things get interesting when I mix my words up. For example I was trying to ask a student if I could borrow her eraser: borrador and instead asked for her boring: aburrido. Another time I was trying to tell a student to close: cerra his notebook and listen to the teacher and instead I told him to get close to: cerca his notebook and listen to the teacher. Both times I quickly discovered my mistake as both students just stopped and looked at me like I was going crazy. :) I have learned that children are very forgiving and my blunders can be the source of laughs for both the children and myself.
My favorite part of the day is after school when I can spend time with the kids on the playground. This also has helped me expand my vocabulary. For example one day some of the kids decided it would be fun to pretend to eat me. As they would "eat" my different body parts I would respond with, "No come mi cara!"(don't eat my face!) or, "No come mi brazo!" (Don't eat my arm!) If they started to eat a body part that I didn't know the name for I would stop and ask before continuing the game. Another time some of the kids decided to run around and pretend to throw arañas (spiders) and serpientes (snakes) at me. Finally I thought it would be good to stop and ask exactly what arañas were.
Working at the school has been very stretching as I have had to learn how to work with my language limitations while interacting with both teachers and students; however, it has also been extremely rewarding. Friday after school was the first day I had kids come up to me after school and tell me goodbye. As I heard them say, "Miss (pronounced like meese)Risa, Miss Risa, ciao!" as they gave me a big hug and kiss I had to smile.

Traveling

What an adventure and I haven’t even reached Cuzco yet! My family dropped me off at the airport and after a few tears and lots of hugs we said goodbye. Before I reached the first security checkpoint (while I was still a bit teary eyed) I met this woman who walked with me to my gate and gave me advice for my travels. She even gave me all of her contact info just in case I had any questions or needed help. The trip to San Salvador, El Salvador from Dulles included sleeping, eating airline food, and attempting to carry on my first conversation completely in Spanish. From El Salvador I caught a flight to Lima, Peru (where I am writing this). At the beginning of the flight I was asked to switch seats so a mother and her kids could sit together. I agreed and was a bit bummed when I saw my new seat was not a window seat like my original one. God had a plan though. I ended up next to a 6^th grade boy, part of a Peruvian family who lives in Canada. He speaks Spanish, French, and English. During the trip he gave me tips on my Spanish and life in Peru. He was quick to let me know that I needed to get rid of my American accent as soon as possible. By the end of the flight he said I had improved some :D Now I am sitting in the Airport in Lima with all of my luggage waiting until I can check my bags in at 3:30am for my 5:15 boarding time for my flight to Cuzco. Now a few lessons from the day:

-People are very gracious… especially when you smile a lot : D

-It’s amazing how much Spanish one can remember when it’s needed

-It’s amazing how little Spanish one can remember when it’s needed

-No one would need gym memberships or work out videos if they had to carry 2 bags that weigh approximately a total of 80 lbs while carrying a 25 lb backpack and a 25 lb purse and have people yelling “taxi” at them while people are pressing in all around as motivation to keep you moving.

The Count Down

Three more days until take off! Monday I leave for approximately 7 months in Latin America. For those of you who are interested in the overview of what I will be doing while away, please continue reading. For those of you who have already heard or simply aren't interested in the overall timeline of the next 7 months of my life, please feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph! : ) Monday I will leave from Dulles and head to Cusco, Peru. I will spend about a week and a half in Peru volunteering at a bilingual school (Promesa). On July 22 I will once again board a plane this time headed for the middle of the world: Quito, Ecuador. I will be studying at a university there through an organization called Brethren Colleges Abroad (BCA). I will meet the rest of the group in Quito for the first time. Then we will begin an intensive 3 week language and cultural course before University begins. I will be taking classes at the University of San Fransisco Quito until mid December. At that time I will fly back to Cusco where I plan on joining my brother and Sister-in-law, Dano and Tara, for some backpacking endeavors. Our travels will take us to Peru, Bolivia, Panama, and Costa Rica. I plan on flying back to the states on January 22.
As I depart on this journey I ask for your prayers. The next couple months are full of opportunities and adventures for me. I also know that along with adventures often comes misadventures and frustrations. A few things I would particularly appreciate your prayer for are: my travels (I have a lot of flights, connections and layovers), the process of learning a new language, and transitioning to life with a host family in Ecuador. On another note I love getting emails so feel free to send me a message at smilee9007@gmail.com.

Risa