Trying to catch up!

I’ve been asked several times when I’m going to update my blog, so I guess two weeks of silence is enough... Unfortunately that means I have a lot to cover...
School has been going very well. Some days are better than others, of course, but I’m definitely settling in. My favorite class (not that I have one, but whatever) is probably the pre-school class. I teach art, science, and library to them, but that means we do a lot of coloring and reading books. There are ten of them total, but usually a few are gone for one reason or another. Its also a really boy-heavy class (Renata is the only girl), but that isn’t really as much of a problem as it could be. They learn so quickly; they are like little sponges!
The primero de basica (kindergarten) class is probably my hardest. There are 20 students in that class, and its also boy-heavy. There are also two children with vision problems (one with severe light-sensitivity, one completely blind) , and its really hard to try to work with them and the whole class. We’re meeting tomorrow with the special needs specialists, and they’re going to hopefully help us with how to work with them. The primero class has good days and bad days. Today was a good day, but yesterday was a bad day. I ended up having to sit them all down and give them a serious talking to. Maybe that’s why they were good today...
I also teach math to the segundo de basica (first grade). They are very well behaved for me, and their national teacher, Pris, is incredible. We are working on learning the names of the numbers in English mostly because they can add and subtract in either language and the answer comes out the same!
I also teach library to Quarto (third grade) and Quinto (fourth grade). Last week and this week we are working on short book reports. Most of the year, we are going to be working on reading comprehension and writing, so I thought a book report would be a good place to start. I let the kids choose their own books, and so many of them chose Dr. Seuss!! I guess silly pictures and fun rhymes have a world-wide appeal.

Anyway, enough about school. Outside of school, Slocomb and I have gotten to do several fun things, mostly on the weekends. Our school day is from 7:30-1:30, so we have all afternoon to do as we please (mostly nap). We usually have lunch out. You can get an almuerzo on pretty much every corner for $1.25-1.50. Almuerzos include soup, a main dish, rice, and fresh juice. And you totally can not make that big a lunch for $1.50.

On the weekends is when we’ve done a lot of our travel/touristy stuff. Last weekend we spent Saturday (the 20th) afternoon in the park near the river Tomebamba. We saw all sorts of things, like people playing fetch with their dogs,playing Ecua-volley (volleyball with a higher net and a soccer ball - ouch!),doing laundry,and other sorts of every-day stuff. It was a fun, very Cuencano experience.

On Sunday (the 21st), we went to Baños, a town about 20 minutes away from our house. The number 11 bus goes right by our neighborhood and then to Baños. We spend most of the day at the spa, Piedra de Agua for only $10. They had Turkish baths, several hot and cold tubs, and a nice large pool. On our way out of the spa, Slocomb spotted a large rock ridge that he decided had to be climbed. At first I was skeptical, but then I climbed up too and saw the beautiful view.Of course, Slocomb had to show off how tall he was.Towards dark, we walked up to the town square where they were having a market and went inside the church. Even in a town as small as Baños (probably a town of several hundred), the church was huge and ornate! The view when you walk out of the church was really incredible too.This Saturday (the 27th), we went to the Museo Banco Central, one of the best museums in town. Before Ecuador moved to the dollar, Banco Central was sort of like the Fed except that they sponsored cultural and social works in Ecuador. Now that they don’t have to worry about regulating interest rates or anything, Banco Central is mostly about the cultural stuff. So they have a great museum.
Part of the museum is the remains of Pumapongo, the center of the Cañari and then Inca city where Cuenca is now. It is clear why the Cañari built their town center where they did, because it is an incredible natural nodal site.
Also included in the museum is a bird preserve, with lots of birds native to Ecuador.
Yesterday was Slocomb’s birthday, so we went out for tapas with some of our co-workers. We were all a little surprised with how expensive the place was (the bill for 5 people was almost $50!!), but then we remembered that that was still really cheap in the grand scheme of the dollar. Its funny how quickly we’ve gotten used to how little things cost here...

Well, that’s a (very quick) recap of what we’ve done the past two weeks. Now I want to share a few anecdotes from the time...
We celebrated Slocomb’s and Pris’s birthdays at school last Friday. I volunteered to bring a cake (and I made a chocolate dessert too), so I went looking around for one. At Supermaxi (the Kroger of Cuenca), the cakes were about $10-$15. Not bad for a good size cake. I decided to keep looking though, because nothing really jumped out at me at Supermaxi. I went to Punto, this bakery very close to our house. I saw a chocolate and strawberry cake that looked quite good, so I asked how much it cost. The woman behind the counter said, “Siete dólores.” I wasn’t having a good Spanish day, so I stood there and thought myself, “Siete. That’s seven right? That cake can’t be seven dollars. Maybe its seventeen. No wait, that diecisiete, so its not seventeen. Whoa is that cake really seven dollars?” So I told her I’d take it. It was a really good cake too.
Next story: We decided we wanted to go to Quito to see the Ecuador-Uruguay soccer game (its a world cup qualifier), so we went to this travel agency that we knew had a package deal. After visiting the agency a couple of times and finally deciding what we wanted to do, we were chatting with one of the travel agent while the other one confirmed our booking, etc. She asked us, So where are you from? How long will you be in Ecuador? Are you working here?, etc. So we answered all of the questions, and when we told the travel agent that we were working at CEDEI school, she said, “My son goes there!” So of course she asked, “How is he doing? Does he behave and follow directions?” We of course said that he did (even though he is sometimes a little rambunctious), and laughed about how small a town Cuenca was. Then we said, actually, we’re in a hurry because we have to get to the parent meeting at the school. The travel agent apparently had thought the meeting was the next night, so she was realized she was in just as much of a hurry as we were! We got everything squared away and got to the meeting on time, but we were newly aware of how small a town Cuenca really is...
Third story: After leaving Banco Central on Saturday, Slocomb and I were both really thirsty. We walked up to the corner store (half of which are really just large windows where you walk up and tell the person working what you want. We just asked for two bottles of water, and then asked how much it was (make sure you always ask how much something is here before taking it!! They sometimes will raise the price after they’re sure you’re going to buy it if you don’t ask!). We paid, and then went on our way. We then realized that she had given us an extra quarter in change, so we went back to tell her and get the correct change. The woman’s reaction was so interesting! When we first got to the store, she wasn’t that friendly (probably thinking, oh, these obnoxious tourists), but after we gave the change back, it was like we had made her whole week! Slocomb and I together are pretty memorable (because we stick out like sore thumbs), but I’m pretty sure that the woman that the tienda will remember us for a long time to come.
Fourth story: A few minutes later, we caught the bus to go home. We were riding along when the bus pulls up behind a taxi and honks. And then the driver gets off of the bus. We were so confused with what was going on because then a guy got out of the taxi and then on the bus to drive the bus! We figured out what was going on because there had been a kid at the front of the bus helping with fares, etc, wearing the same hat as the bus driver. Okay, we figure, the bus driver brought his son to work with him. Then when the bus changed drivers, you could tell that the new bus driver was the kid’s brother. So dad and kid started out driving the bus route, and then dad and older brother switch off so dad can go drive the taxi. Maybe you just had to be there, but this town just cracks me up.
Fifth and final story: Monday was flag day in Ecuador, so to celebrate at school, we talked the flags of all different countries. I turned this into a lesson about colors with the kindergarteners, so I had the flags of Ecuador (yellow, blue, red), Ireland (green, white, orange), Kenya (black, red, green) and the US (red, white, blue). I held up the flags one by one, asked the class what country it was (they were stumped on Ireland but knew Kenya because we talked about Kenya in September), and asked what the colors in the flag were. They were doing well until we got to the US flag. I held it up, and one of the kids yells (loudly) out, “La bandera de Nueva York!!” (the flag of New York). Apparently the kids at school associate the US flag with New York. We’ll have to work on that...