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...

The first week of school!!

I guess I haven't posted in more than a week, so I should probably get on it.
This week was a really busy week because school actually started in earnest on Monday. The first day of school wasn't crazy because here (in Cuenca at least, maybe in all of Ecuador) parents go with their children for the first day of school. Mainly the international team was responsible for going to each classroom and introducing ourselves, which we did. I also hung out in the preschool classroom where I'm going to be working quite a bit. All of the kids were really cute, especially this one who would not stay in the class. I ended up running after her when she went to the playground. She's two, so she doesn't speak a lot of anything, much less English. However, after a few rides down the slide and some swinging, I managed to convince her that we should go back inside and see "Mommy" (good thing the same word is used in English and Spanish). Unfortunately, she didn't come back the rest of the week, but I think that was more that her parents might have decided she was too young for preschool rather than me taking her to the playground.
Tuesday was the first real day of school, but things were still on the relaxed side. When Slocomb and I arrived at 7:25 (5 minutes after the appointed time), Liv was the only teacher there. Things didn't get started up until about 8:15 that day, but since this week was more to gauge what the kids learned last year and review stuff, it was okay to miss 45 minutes of class time. Oh well. Besides hanging out with the preschoolers and kindergarteners, I spent a good bit of time painting the "Multi-purpose" room, which I plan to use a good bit for my library sessions. The library isn't really big enough or set up well for hanging out, so I'm thinking I'll have the kids pick a book from the library and then take it to the Multi-purpose room. I'm decorating it with an underwater theme, so I painted kelp and coral all this week. Tuesday morning I also worked on an electronic catalog of the library, because the one that we had from a long time ago got lost in a change of administration in the school. Bummer. So I decided to make a new one! Just trying to be useful...
Tuesday evening I decided to get industrious in the kitchen. I made rice pudding (because I had made WAAAY too much rice when Jen and Liv came over on Saturday), vegetable soup, and empanadas. The pudding and empanadas were really good, and the soup was pretty good, but in all I spent about 3 hours cooking. It was mainly the chicken for the empanadas that took forever, but they turned out really well. I'm thinking about making some more today, but I'm going to go vegetarian so it doesn't take and hour and a half to make the filling.
Anyway, on Wednesday, all of the international team was supposed to rotate to each of the classrooms. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to all of them. I would get involved with something, or the national teacher would have to do something, so I ended up spending about 45 minutes in the preschool and kindergarten classes instead of 20 minutes in each. I also got to visit the 5th graders (Juana's class) on Wednesday. Most of them have been at CEDEI for several years, so the for the most part speak English really well. There are a few who won't speak back to you in English, but they all understand what you're saying (unlike the kindergarteners). I played scrabble with the older kids, and they loved it. I'm kinda bummed that I'm not going to have them in class at all.
Thursday was more rotation, and I once again didn't get to all the classes I meant to. I did visit the second grade (Caro's class), which is a handful. There are more special needs students in that class than the others, and its about 15 boys and 4 girls. Whoa. Caro does a good job with them, but she was very excited for the international teachers to come and take them off her hands for a while. There are a few second graders who have really good English, but for most of them its a struggle. I'm not working with them at all this year (except in one-on-one tutorials), but I'm sure that they are going to be a challenging class.
On Thursday I also visited Ale's class (fourth grade). They are very similar to Juana's class: well-behaved for the most part and very good at English. I'm going to be their library teacher, so I'll see them twice a week. I also went back to kindergarten on Thursday, and they are also a handful. There are about 20 kids in the class, and only one or two have much English at all. Also, Vero, their teacher, speaks no English, so I try to speak Spanish with her. Sometimes the message gets across, but its hard when I need to say one quick thing to her, like, "What's his name?" or "What have you done this morning?" and it take several minutes to get it across. I'll be in Vero's class about 4 hours a week, so it'll be an incentive for me to learn Spanish.
On Thursday afternoon, we went to this vegetarian restaurant, Good Affinity, which is run by the parents of two of our students. The food was really good, the students' mom was really exited to see us, it was inexpensive, and we got free dessert! We're thinking about making it a weekly thing to go to Good Affinity. We're thinking Thursday so it'll get us through the last of the week.
Friday we rotated in pairs, so Slocomb and I went together ( The international team has natural breaking points into pairs - Slocomb and Me, Jen and Liv, and Maria and Erin. I guess we should try to work on branching out, but those are the pairs that live together and know each other best.) Slocomb and I started in Vero's class because it is also a challenging class, and we were only going to stay for 15 minutes. But then one of the students got sick. On the floor. In the middle of class. So Vero had to go deal with that, and we ended up being there for about 35 minutes. We also stopped by preschool, but they were getting ready for snack, so we just distracted them until Tami got back with food. There was enough left over for us to have some, so we stood outside the class to eat. There is a big window into the class from the hallway, so Slocomb and I played silly games with the preschoolers by appearing and disappearing at random points in the window. Quite fun.
Slocomb and I also made it to Juana's class, where we played hangman, boys against girls. Slocomb is all about playing boys against girls, especially once you get to fifth grade, because they all are really competitive. We ended up switching to a sort of Wheel of Fortune game so both teams to could play together. I think I'm going to work on making a wheel for Wheel of Fortune because it could be a really great language game with the older kids.
So here's a summary of the week: hung out with kids (preschool and oldest kids are the easiest to work with), made good food, ate good food, painted decorations on a room, started cataloging the library, didn't speak enough Spanish, and went to bed about 10pm, got up about 6am every day. Except for the Spanish part, it was a really good week.
Also, we went shopping on Tuesday afternoon I think it was, and I bought a Harry Potter en español (Harry Potter y las reliquias de muerte) book. We were so inspired by this find that we also bought the movie dubbed in Spanish (all 5 harry potter movies on on DVD - $1.50). I watched Prisoner of Azkaban, but I think my Spanish needs some more work to really get everything. I would have been lost if I hadn't seen the movie before.
Also also, I got fitted for my uniform yesterday. Its not required at school, but I'm actually really excited for it. Its essentially just a track suit with comfy pants and a jacket with the CEDEI logo on it. We also will have t-shirts and a polo shirt. The whole outfit will be $40, which is kind of expensive in Ecuador terms, but not in US terms. What I've found is that food, lodging, and transportation are all really cheap, but clothes, shoes, and school supplies are pretty expensive comparatively. Anyway, I'll put up pictures of the uniforms once we get them.
Last thing: Mark (the director of the CEDEI foundation) has invited us all (like all of the CEDEI employees... its gonna be nuts) over tomorrow. He has NFL gameday, and so we're gonna go watch the Redskins game (Mark's from New Jersey so a Redskins fan). I'm a little bit nervous that Slocomb and Mark (and maybe me... I do kinda miss watching football) are going to be the only ones watching and that everyone else is going to be wondering about us. Whatever, it'll be fun nonetheless! I'll take pictures and update tomorrow...

The rest of the week

Well, we we last left things, I was very frustrated with the training for school this year. But that was three days ago, and things have gotten better each day. The organization has increased significantly each day, and I think we will be mostly ready for school to start on Monday.
I don't really remember what we did on Wednesday, except that it mostly had us all sitting in one of the classrooms in really small chairs and talking about stuff. The really small chairs actually give you a really great leg workout because you either have your legs bent and tensed (working your muscles) or stuck out and stretching. But I digress.
We finished about 1pm on Wednesday, which was nice because it meant that Slocomb and I could go downtown and do some stuff. I have some pictures that I want to print out for the staff lounge (the flowers of the home states of the international team as well as a rose for Ecuador), so we went in search of a photo shop. The first place we went couldn't read my 4GB memory card, and when we arrived at the second place, we discovered that I'd saved the pictures in the wrong format so they wouldn't print. So I'm still working on the pictures. We also went to the post office so I could mail a few things to the US. Unfortunately, it costs $2 to send something to the US (about as much as you should pay for a quick lunch in Cuenca). So I won't be sending tons of letters and postcards, sorry.
We had pizza for dinner at a place called La Fornace, which offered a personal pizza, soda, and ice cream for $4 (the same as I spent at the post office, urrg). It was actually really good pizza, but next time we go, I'm going to get plain cheese. The sauce reminds me of pizza sauce in England, so I want to be able to taste it next time. After dinner we went over to Jenn, Livia, and Erin's place (they live in a big house in downtown that has about 8 rented bedrooms on one side and the family still living on the other side). We just hung around and chatted for a little while before Slocomb had to come home for his fantasy football draft. I didn't complan, because this whole getting up at 7 or earlier thing is really a bummer.
Thursday we were back at the school (in the little bitty chairs) for another day. Our topic for Thursday was the special needs students at the school and how to design lessons to include them, etc. We had several interesting discussions. In the morning, we broke into two groups, national teachers in one and international teachers in the other, with two of the special needs teachers in each group. We talked about how to make sure that both the special needs and regular students get what they need and whether or not a completely inclusive classroom meets everyone's needs. I'm currently of the opinion that inclusivity should be balanced with individual therapy so that the special needs students can fully learn the skills they need (in therapy) and also have the opportunity and need to use them (in the classroom). But I'm completely a beginner at this, so don't take my ideas for much.
In the afternoon, we went outside because they were working on the roof in our classroom and continued the discussion about special needs pedagogy. We broke up into our groups again and talked about the practical matters of inclusivity at CEDEI school. It was a little frustrating because there were only three people in our group of eight who had worked at the school before, so we weren't really able to evaluate how the school is doing. Once we got back together into the big group of all of the teachers, we had a really interesting discussion about difference in Cuenca society. The national teachers (actually about 4 of them) did most of the talking, so it was almost exclusively in Spanish. For me, it was really cool because I was able to follow and take a lot from the conversation, even though I definitely didn't understand all of it. One of the first discoveries that we made was that there is no neutral way to say "different" in Spanish. When you say "differente," it always implies either better or worse than. Different often has a negative connotation in English, but it is possible to say, its just different without making a value judgment. Not so in Spanish. Which makes it a lot more difficult for a group of people to talk about their differences.
Our second discovery (at least for the international team; I think most of the national team knew this already even if they hadn't really ever talked about is) was that Cuenca is a very conservative and traditional city. People here often spend their entire lives in Cuenca, and the social hierarchy in which people will live their whole lives is well defined. This means that a school like CEDEI school which emphasizes difference, both in nationality and in, lets say, ability, goes against the grain to a great degree. Not that Cuenca is hostile to CEDEI school, but it is something that people don't understand and don't really want to understand.
The last thing we did on Thursday was to design a mock lesson plan including the special needs students. I was in a group with Pris, Gladis, and Jonatan, and Pris is the only one who speaks any English at all. It was quite interesting for me (and my bad Spanish skills) to try to work with this group, but it turned out really well. We designed an English lesson about identifying fruits. We thought that it would be really fun to incorporate some of the blind students by having the entire lesson based on the other senses besides sight. We would have the children be able to feel, smell, and taste the fruits, learn the English names in the process, and have a quiz based on the names and the senses at the end. We did work very slowly, and my ipod translator came in very handy, but we designed a cool lesson despite the language barrier.
Today was a much more practical day. We laid out the entire school year's monthly themes, cultural events at the school, found out when the holidays were (not nearly enough!!), and decided on some of the field trips. It took about 3 and a half hours, but we got through it finally. It was actually really fun to work together, and the language barrier wasn't actually a huge problem. There were a couple of times where the national teachers went off on a tangent, giggling and yelling and carrying on, but then the international teachers did our share of distraction as well. We're not really at the point where we can have jokes and tons of laughter as a whole staff yet, but I think that's primarily because several of the international teachers (myself included) don't really have a sense of humor in Spanish yet.
This afternoon we got into setting up classrooms for Monday. I worked mainly with Tami and Vero, the two preschool teachers, and we cleaned and arranged furniture mainly. Tomorrow we are all coming in to do more decorating, but hopefully we can get things squared away in the morning so we can all have a Saturday afternoon.
Some things are still really frustrating about school, like the fact that none of the international teachers have books yet, but things are definitely much better than they were at the beginning of the week. I guess I should mention that the international team is only observing for the first week, so we have a little bit longer to get ready before beginning our own lessons week after next. Its going to be busy, and I'm going to have to go out of my way to use Spanish since I can't speak Spanish at school, but I think its going to shape up to be a really fun school year.

First day of school...

Today was our first day of school. It was... different. It actually was only our first day of training with all of the teachers from the CEDEI school (except there were still two people absent for some reason), but, as Nellie keeps saying, "Its the first day of the rest of your life!" That's true to a certain extent; this is the first time a job will be my primary occupation. Up until now, I've been a student, but today I became a profesora.
The day started out well enough for me. Unfortunately, Slocomb woke up to no hot water in the shower (I only shower every two days, so I didn't have to overcome that particular obstacle today). The hot water pump is light sensitive, so it only works automatically when it is sunny. Though it was light outside, the light hadn't yet turned the pump on. So poor Slocomb had to go outside in the cold to turn the light on over the pump to have hot water. But he did get his hot shower... eventually.
Everything else went smoothly this morning, but I was very glad that I had packed lunch the night before. We ended up leaving at the very tail end of our planned time frame (7:50), but it ended up being okay. We power-walked to the Feria Libre, about a 20 minute walk (16 this morning). As we were about 200 feet from the bus station (really just a curb), we spotted the bus that we needed, the number 27. Unfortunately, it pulled away before we got there. Luckily, the next bus came about 3 minutes later instead of the scheduled 10 minutes between buses. I had just been considering going to get a soda at the market when the bus pulled up, so I'm very glad that I was feeling lazy. Otherwise I would have missed the bus...
We ended up on the same bus as one of the other teachers from CEDEI, Jonatan, the school psychologist. I saw him get on the bus, and I somehow just knew that he was headed to the school as well. I wasn't courageous enough to ask him on the bus, but we had a good laugh once we got to the school and saw him standing there. He had gotten off of the bus two stops before us, meaning he had to walk up the hill instead of down, but he still beat us to the school.
Slocomb and I were the first international teachers who arrived this morning, which was fine. We met Gaby and Priscilla when we got there, and then the other teachers who trickled in, including Juana, Gladis, Carolina, and Tami.
About 8:45 we all went up to one of the classrooms and started talking about the year. We did some introductory games (i.e. draw a name out of the box and guess their favorite color, how old they were for their first date, and what they would be if they weren't a teacher). Unfortunately (but primarily due to the language barrier), the national and international teams were separated. I drew Slocomb's name, so it wasn't really fair. But I still didn't get all of the questions right: I said that he would be a football coach, but he said he'd be a professional student. Oh well. I was very proud of myself because I managed to answer the questions about Slocomb and then about myself in Spanish. Slocomb said that I used all of the right words, but that I "didn't use any grammar." Oh well, I guess its a start.
We toured around the school in the late morning, and the national teachers squabbled over who would get which classroom. They ended up resorting to "pick a number between one and ten," but interestingly, they kept picking until one person chose the right number. Priscilla won the classroom, by the way.
We also talked about expectations for the coming year, and went over some personnel policies. Then we talked about this monthly thing that each classroom does called "Projects." Its a way to sort of establish a theme beyond the curriculum and to tap into student interests. It sounds really cool, but I guess I'll elaborate more when we actually do one.
After talking about the projects, Ximena (the academic director of the school) started going over some other stuff that didn't for the most part pertain to the international team. I suppose it was good in a way, because I didn't understand hardly any of it. I think by this point (it was about 1pm), I was tired and hungry and so not able to concentrate on understanding. But Erin, the international teacher who probably has the most Spanish had a puzzled look on her face most of the time too, so I think I'm not the only one who missed a bunch. It was really frustrating at this point because the national teachers were discussing what was probably very important information for them, but there was really no point in having the international teachers there. We could have been off in a meeting with Maria talking about the important things that we need to know, such as what our schedules are, whether or not we're going to have classrooms or simply rotate to the grade level classrooms, what our curriculum is, how to talk to parents despite the language barrier, etc. Instead, we just ended up getting dizzy, confused and frustrated because we didn't understand enough to know whether or not we should try to understand!
So today ended on a sour note for a lot of reasons. I am still trying to be patient and wait, hoping that we will end up getting the information we need eventually. We were told that we would get the school calendar later on this week or early next week (yay!). That's been a personal source of stress, so I'll feel a lot better when I have it in my hands. Hopefully soon.
I also asked Maria again about adjusting the schedule so that I could teach something I wanted to teach (i.e. not computers). This has kind of been frustrating from the beginning, because I requested Art or Library (not knowing there was a social studies option) back in March. Instead I got assigned computers in July. And I wasn't super comfortable saying at that point, no I don't want to. So its partly my fault because I didn't bring it up sooner, but I'm still hoping we can get it worked out. I had talked to Maria about this last week because the more I think about it, the less comfortable I am with teaching computers. It really made me mad today, because on Friday she had said, "Oh, no problem. We'll set up a meeting with you (Leslie), me (Maria), and Ximena, and adjust the schedule so that you can be comfortable with it." However, today, she kinda gave me this exhasperated look and said, "Well, that means I'll have to change the whole schedule, and I don't know who to switch you with because everyone else is happy." The really frustrating thing is that I've talked to the other international teachers (the people with whom I'd need to switch), and they are all committed to making sure that we ALL are happy, not just 4 out of 5. I feel like we could work the schedule out on our own, but unfortunately, we have no concept yet of what the schedule even is! We're supposed to meet later on this week as the international team, and maybe we can get it worked out then. In the mean time, I'm still in the dark as to what subject I'm going to be teaching, much less the curriculum or supplies I need.
Perhaps, the hardest part about today was the fact that most of it centered around the national teachers, all of whom are already familiar with the curriculum and the way that the school works. The people who really need the orientation and planning time are the international teachers, but there was very little directed towards us besides general personnel policies.
I guess I should qualify all of this a little bit. This year is the first year that the international teachers will be teaching specific subjects instead of simply partnering with a single national teacher and staying with one class the whole time. And this is Maria's first time being the English coordinator, so she's trying to figure out her role as much as anyone else. But, so far, things have been very disorganized and haphazard. Maybe its a cultural thing, so the Ecuadorians don't expect things to be prepared ahead of time and well organized, but it was really frustrating for me to try to navigate the unpredictable mixture of Spanish and English, national teacher and international teacher, and pertinent and superfluous information.
All in all, probably not my best first day at school. All I can hope is that each day will get better from here.

The rest of the story!

Thursday was a relaxing day for the most part. Slocomb and I slept late and, after a lovely lunch with Nellie, went to find a phone. Nellie dropped us off near the center of town (near the plaza de hippies were they sell all sorts of jewelry) and found a phone store. We had planned to just get a new one, but the cheapest phones were $50. So I decided to try to get my US phone unlocked and just buy a sim card here for it (thanks for the suggestion, Natalie!). After spending a surprisingly short period of time on the phone with AT&T (1800 calls from skype are free, btw), I got the code that I needed to unlock the phone. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the code with me to the store, and the guy at the phone store wanted to make sure it worked before selling us the sim. So we left empty handed. We then walked back to the house (about a 30 minute walk) and got the code for the phone. There are phone stores on pretty much every block of Cuenca, so luckily we didn’t have to walk too far to find another store. We got the sim, and I tried to get it to work on my phone. Unfortunately, the AT&T person to whom I spoke forgot to tell me that I had to enter *#*# (then the code) *. Luckily I’d seen a youtube video about unlocking the phone, so we went back to the house (after convincing the woman at the phone store that we did indeed want the sim even though it didn’t work yet). I followed the directions on the video, and now the phone works (yay!!!). Too bad it took talking to AT&T, going to two different phone stores, and watching a youtube video in order to get the phone to work. ¡Que complicado!Thursday night we went out with Erin, Maria, Livia, Jenn, and Maria’s cousin, Javier. First we went to the local microbrewery, which was pretty cool. It had a very pub-like feel. Unfortunately, I was the only one who actually liked the drink I ordered. Slocomb and Erin ordered the microbrew (as well they should), but they said it was really hop-y and tasted like it was watered down. Livia and Jenn both got cocktails which were too strong. Jenn’s mojito tasted like Crest toothpaste. Maria just got tea or something, and Javier had the popular beer from Guayaquil, Pilsener. I guess Javier and Maria were happy with their drinks, but mine was definitely the best. It was called a Laydybeer (lady beer, but it needs the extra “y” in Spanish to make it a long “a”), and was Pilsener with amaretto liquor and grenadine. Very yummy.After the disappointing round at the microbrewery, we went in search of a place to dance (because Maria wanted to dance). Maria drove the girls in her car, and poor Javier and Slocomb walked. They were wearing more comfortable shoes tho... Anyway, we first tried this place by the river, which turned out to be completely empty. We found another place back on Calle Largo which ended up way overcharging us (Maria got stuck with an extra $20 in tax at the end), but the music and dancing were fun. I really wanted to dance, but Slocomb, not wanting to draw attention to our gringo selves, said that we really needed to take some dance lessons before we went out dancing. He said he would, so I’m going to hold him to it.Friday was another half day of meetings at CEDEI. After the 12 (but really 12:30) meeting with Ximena and the other international teachers, we had a little time to walk around the city. Jenn and Liv took us to see the house where they are staying, on Mariscal Sucre. It used to be a family compound essentially, but now the family rents out 8 of the rooms (yeah, there were 8 extra bedrooms). It has a beautiful enclosed courtyard in the center, and lots of CEDEI folks live and have lived there. Its a very convenient location, but there’s no family to practice Spanish with or laundry included, so I think we’ll stay put. And I don’t think there are any vacancies right now anyway.We met back up with Ximena at 4 to figure out how to get to the school by bus. Ximena was about 25 minutes late, so we ended up just hanging out in Parque Calderón with Simone, the Professor from Minnesota whose student teachers come and spend several weeks working at the school. I was wearing leather shoes, and I was offered at least 4 shoe-shines for $0.30 or so. Ximena arrived eventually, and we began searching for the proper bus. The only bus that goes anywhere near the school is the #27 bus. Because there essentially aren’t bus maps anywhere in Cuenca, we wandered around a little bit (probably a good 10 blocks) looking for a place to pick up the bus. We found it, paid our $0.25 bus fare, and were on our way. I mapped the route so that Slocomb and I would know where to catch the bus, but unfortunately the closest stop is about a 20 minute walk from our house. There is a but that would connect us (#11), but there’s no such thing as transfer tickets here, so it would cost twice as much. Anyway, the number #27 bus drops off near this big church, and you have to walk through the church yard and down this dirt road for about 5 minutes before getting to the school. I mistakenly wore my brown wedges, so my feet were quite unhappy at this point. I guess the moral of the story is to wear comfy shoes when riding the bus.

We caught the bus back to the center of town (running to catch it next to the church), and Slocomb and I just took a taxi home from there (still only $1.50). Friday was a long day, so we went to bed about 9:30. Lame, I know.

(Flowers in Yunguilla)

Saturday we went to Yunguilla to spend the weekend at one of Maria’s uncle’s houses. Lots of Cuencanos have vacations homes in Yunguilla because it is a good bit lower in altitude (about 3000 feet) and so a lot warmer.

(Jenn relaxing in a hammock)

There were about 15 people from CEDEI who went, mostly teachers from the English department as well as us Escuela (elementary school) teachers. Maria did an amazing job organizing food for all of us as well as organizing drivers, etc. Slocomb and I ended up riding with Jorge, one of Maria’s cousins I think, Diego, a family friend (?), and Maria’s daughter Isabella. Side note about drivers in Ecuador: they are all very aggressive and don’t tend to pay attention to the yellow lines telling you when not to pass, etc. So after a harrowing ride to Yunguilla, we settled into hanging out and playing by the pool. I guess its the nature of the job, but CEDEI seems to attract some of the coolest people. Sam has been teaching at CEDEI since January and has a side career as a hula-hooper. Her boyfriend Lawrence just finished his Peace Corps service in Botswana and is hanging out in Ecuador for several months before returning to the States. Julia started out as a CEDEI Escuela teacher about three years ago, but ended up meeting and marrying a Cuencano, Esteban. They’re eventually going to go to the States for grad school, but Esteban is already a successful architech, so there’s no real reason to go anywhere just yet. John Paul is originally from Toronto (and sounds Canadian) but moved to Cuenca several years ago with his family (some of whom are Cuencano). He’s a big hockey fan, and was really excited about going back to Toronto soon and seeing a Maple Leafs game. Kathleen is originally from Minnesota or Wisconsin (but mid-western invasion nonetheless), and her husband Francisco is Cuban. They tried to move to the States when they got married, but Francisco’s visa was denied, so they moved to Ecuador. They’re expecting their first baby at the end of November, so Kathleen is really hoping that Francisco will be able to get a visa so they can take their kid to the US to meet all of Kathleen’s family. Gamal, the former English Coordinator at the CEDEI school (and the guy who hired us), was also there. He’s from Los Angeles, I think, but has spent a good bit of time in both Chicago and New York doing stand-up comedy. He also was in the Peace Corp which is why he ended up in Ecuador. He served in Esmeraldas, a province on the northern coast of Ecuador which is home to most of the Afro-Ecuadoriano population. He came back to Ecuador to work with CEDEI and is definitely the travel resource.I think that’s most everyone who went with us this weekend, but as you can see, there was lots of very interesting conversation among us. There was a fairly good range of ages and a vast range of experiences, but it was very cool that we were all brought together. For some it was a sense of adventure that brought them to CEDEI, others more out of necessity, but it was a very cool interaction of different people from different backgrounds.

(One of the views from Yungilla)

We came back to Cuenca on Sunday afternoon after eating lunch in Yunguilla. It was kind of incredible because the lunch was a huge bowl of shrimp soup, rice, salad, and meat as well as a sort of iced tea for $2. Insane. I think that 17 of us ate for about $40. Whoa.

(the almuerzo or lunch plate)

After another harrowing ride back to Cuenca, Slocomb and I came back to the Colomas. We didn’t really do much yesterday afternoon, which was a relaxing end to a relaxing weekend (if you don’t count the driving). The only other bad spot about the weekend was the Yunguilla has mosquitos. Lots of them. None of them are malaria carrying (don’t worry mom, I checked the CDC website), but I still have tons of mosquito bites. I am very glad that I brought that Calamine lotion...
Today was another free day because our training this week is Tuesday through Saturday. It gave us a chance to get things together and ready for our (kinda) first week of school. Slocomb and I went to the Feria Libre market today and bought a head of lettuce, two tomatoes, an avocado, and a random fruit that I haven’t figured out the name of yet. For $1.50. And a six pack of toilet paper for $1. Yeah, it was pretty sweet, especially because I did most of the asking and buying. I didn’t really haggle (because it seemed so cheap to start with!), but I was able to ask, “¿Cuanto cuesta?” and figure out how many cents they wanted (though I did ask Slocomb for confirmation sometimes). It was kind of exhilarating.
We also went to the Supermaxi, the grocery store around the corner, for lunch meat, cheese, condiments, and other lunch stuff (we’re packing our lunch for school this week). I also picked up some salsa for Livia and Jenn (which ended up being about as much as we spent at the market) and ziploc bags. The stuff at the Supermaxi was about $15, and Slocomb bought bread at the local bakery (4 rolls and 3 pansitos for $1.14). But all toll, the stuff for our lunches for most of this week was less than $20.
Tomorrow is our first day of planning at the school. We have to be there at 8:30, but because we’re not super sure of the bus situation, we’re planning to leave the house at about 7:45. Not really sure what tomorrow has in store, but as long as we get ourselves and our lunches to La Misicata (the area of town where the school is), it’ll all work out!

Last Tuesday and Wednesday recap...

Blog, 31- Aug

So I promised a fuller run-down of last week, so here goes:
Tuesday was our first day of real stuff with CEDEI. We had met the director and gone to the school last Friday, but we got to meet more of the staff and talk more about the school on Tuesday.
We met up at the main office of CEDEI, which is on the corner of Juan Jaramilio and Herman Miguel streets in downtown Cuenca. Slocomb and I decided to walk there since it was a nice day, and the walk took about 40 minutes from our house. There we met Erin and Maria, as well as the main directors of CEDEI. Erin is a fellow American (Minnesota, to be precise) who studied abroad with CEDEI two years ago and is now back teaching at the CEDEI school. She actually started teaching in May, I think, and has been working doing other things at CEDEI all summer. In college, she studied Spanish education, so her Spanish is quite good. Also, since she’s been around Cuenca for a few months, she has been telling us all of the good places to eat and how much things should cost. Very handy.
Maria is the Coordinator for the international staff, meaning that she’s my boss. She is originally from Cuenca but moved to Minnesota (what’s with all of these mid-westerners?) when she was 13. A year ago, she moved back to Cuenca with her daughter, Isabella, who is the cutest kid ever. She’s also been working with CEDEI for several months and has been a great resource. She also has a car and doesn’t mind helping us run errands.
After meeting these ladies and the directors of CEDEI, Erin took us to see one of the other CEDEI buildings (where most of the study abroad action happens) and to get some yogurt and pansitos. Like I said, Erin knows all of the good places to eat in town, and so we got yogurt milkshake kinda things and bread for about $0.50. Yum.
Anyway, after that, we went out to lunch at this nice restaurant on Calle Largo (“Long Street,” but it is where a lot of the good restaurants and hang out spots are in Cuenca). At lunch, we got to meet Braulio, the Director of the CEDEI school (so my 3 boss, kinda) and Ximena, the Academic Director of the school (so my 2 boss). Braulio doesn’t speak a whole lot of English, but his English is better than my Spanish, so I can’t really say anything. Ximena has been really accessible for all of our questions, but sometimes the questions and the answers get lost in translation. As an aside, she’s a very stylish dresser, so I’ll have to ask her where she shops sometime...
Also at this lunch were the two other American teachers, Livia and Jennifer, both from California. They arrived at lunch straight from the airport, so I got a sense of how Slocomb’s and my faces looked when we first arrived in Cuenca. Jennifer just graduated from college with an education major, and Livia just finished getting her teaching credentials in CA. However, since CA isn’t really hiring teachers, Ecuador is as good a place as any to teach. Livia speaks a good bit of Spanish, but Jen is a beginner like me (yay!)
After lunch, which was about half in English, half in Spanish, we went back to the main CEDEI office to talk with Mark, the Executive director of CEDEI, a little bit more about being an American in Cuenca. He had lots of useful tips, including which places of town aren’t really safe after dark. Mark is a great resource too, and seems really excited about the crew of teachers we have this year.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this yet before or not, but things take a long time in Ecuador. The afternoon I’ve just described, which in the states would probably take 3 hours or so, lasted from noon until about 6. There’s a lot of hurry-up-and-wait that goes on here, but I’m getting used to it. As long as I’m on time, it doesn’t really bother me if the people setting the schedule choose to stray from it. A lot. But its all good. Just one of those cultural things, I suppose.
Anyway, Wednesday was a very cool day because all of the American teachers went on a tour of Cuenca and some of the surrounding towns, courtesy of CEDEI. Our tour guide, Wilson, was very informative and fun, and his dad, Mario, was our driver for the day. We started the morning (about 8 am) in downtown Cuenca, and we visited the San Sebastian church (originally the western edge of town) and the adjacent Museo de Arte Moderno. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time at the Museum (we were mainly just observing the mid-19th century architecture), but I am definitely going to go spend some more time there.
We then went to the central park are (Parque Calderón) which is between the old and new cathedrals. There is a big flower market just south of the new cathedral which is adjacent to a Carmelite convent. Wilson took us into the foyer I guess of the convent where the nuns sell different sorts of herbal remedies and religious paraphernalia. However, since part of these nuns’ vows is to never leave the convent or be seen by outsiders, there is a wooden revolving shelf (like a revolving door but just a window) where people go up, ask for what they want, put the money on the shelf, and receive their purchase, all without seeing or really interacting with the nuns. Very dedicated, these nuns.
We also went to the market next to the San Francisco church (a block from the Cathedral - no shortage of opportunities to worship here in Cuenca, so long as you’re a Catholic...). The market had fruits and veggies as well as clothing and blankets and the other randomness one is likely to find at a market. In the parking lot outside of the market is also where migrant workers from the surrounding area come to find work. While we were there, there were lots of workers but not anyone looking for laborers. Unfortunately, I think this may be the case more often than not. Maybe its just cause it is winter time and there is less agricultural opportunity, but it seems as if unemployment (or at least underemployment - people not getting paid nearly enough for the work they can find) is a rampant problem. In Cuenca, the “minimum wage” salary is about $215 a month, but I think that the migrants around here may only see that much money in a quarter if they are lucky.
Anyway, towering over the parking lot full of migrant workers in Cuenca is the new cathedral (as well as San Francisco church, just a block away). The cathedral was started in 1885 because the old cathedral was way too small for the inhabitants of Cuenca (and heaven knows that there weren’t nearly enough churches....). Its is constructed in the romanesque style (I think) with the altar (in 24k gold leaf) modeled after St. Paul’s Basilica in Rome. The building itself is immense and (according to Wilson) the largest cathedral in South America, measuring something like ? x ? m. The stained glass windows come from Germany and Belgium as well as some designed by Guillermo Larrazabal, a Basque artist who worked in Cuenca for a long time. The inside of the cathedral is actually rather plain, excepting the three or four shrines on each side. There are plain wooden pews only in the center, and the largest statue is of Pope John Paul II, commemorating his visit in 1985, I think. Also, the cathedral is still unfinished, though work ceased in 1980 or so. Unfortunately, something went wrong in the design of the cathedral, so the two huge spires planned for the two front towers were not added because the weight would have caused the building to collapse. Oops!
After seeing the cathedral, we left Cuenca to go see some of the artisan villages in the surrounding area as well as two small market towns. Our first stop was in the town of San Bartolomé, another example of a town where a huge church dominates an otherwise poor area. In San Bartolomé, we saw an example of how many people in the more rural areas live, essentially subsistence farming. The house we visited was above a corner store, and the family also has a wood-burning oven where neighbors bring bread to break. This family, with their multiple pursuits (the store, the bread, the farming, as well as hosting tourists for tea and coffee), seems as if they may be fairly well of, at least compared to families who can only farm. In this family’s garden, we saw many interesting plants, including an amaranthus plant which is used to make tea, babaco, a squash-looking fruit that has a wonderful flavor when cooked, and several types of verbena. The family also had a larger plot where they grow corn, I think. Oh, yeah, and they also raise guinea pigs. They seem fairly busy, don’t you think?
After leaving the ‘down-town’ of San Bartolomé (all four or five blocks), we went out to a guitar workshop where a family hand-makes guitars, mandolins, and the small, 10-string Andean charango to sell all over the country. They come into Cuenca every Thursday to sell their instruments at the San Francisco market, and a simple guitar costs about $50. However, since it takes them a week to produce this guitar, it is not nearly enough to really consider guitar making and selling an efficient way to make a living. Many of the beautiful handicrafts from the Cuenca area are in the same situation, too time-consuming to be a hobby but still not enough to be a full time job. Because of this, many of the children of these artisan families are choosing (perhaps wisely) to abandon the handicrafts in favor of professional jobs in the cities or in other countries where they can make a much easier wage.
After leaving the guitar workshop, we went to the small market town of Chordeleg, a popular destination among tourists because of its inexpensive silver jewelry. None of us bought anything except for a little ice cream, but it was a very pretty square. You never know, we might go back. Unlike the regular tourists, all of the American teachers at CEDEI will have more opportunities to go back and do more shopping.
Just down the mountain from Chordeleg is the town of Gualaceo, where we stopped to see the large central market and the smaller fruit market outside. We also had lunch at this market. Sorry to anyone whose sensibilities might be offended by the idea of whole pigs roasting inside on the off chance that people come by for lunch, but there were at least 5 different people with 5 different pigs roasting. A plate of pulled pork (pulled right off of the pork, mind you) with mate (fried hominy), a tomato salad, and mashed potato cakes was $2.50. And that’s even a little bit expensive. Some places you can get the same meal for $1.50. Anyway, as if we didn’t have enough food already, Slocomb and I also bought a couple of humitas and a tortilla. Humitas are a sort of sweet-corn tamale filled with cheese and steamed inside the corn husk. They are also my favorite new thing that I’ve had since coming to Ecuador. Tortillas in Ecuador are not the same as those with which we are familiar in the US. In Ecuador, they are much more like a corn pancake, thicker and with more substance than the flat corn or flour ones that are more in the Mexican style. Add a bottle of water for $0.30, and my huge lunch was only $3.20.
After lunch, we browsed around the fruit market and saw tons of interesting fruits that I had never seen before. Slocomb is keeping a list of all of the new fruits we have had since coming here, and it is becoming quite immense.
Anyway, the last stop on our tour was another artisan workshop where they make scarves and shawls using a weaving method that predates the Spanish arrival in South America. They actually design and dye the wool different colors before weaving, meaning that the pattern is set into the thread rather than in the loom. Crazy amounts of skill... I broke down and bought my first souvenir of Ecuador, a beautiful (and warm) shawl made at this workshop. It is red, black, and coral, and I am waiting for a special occasion to wear it. I’ll make sure to take pictures when I do.
So that’s Tuesday and Wednesday. I think I’ll post now, just to not overwhelm you too much, but I’ll write about the rest of the week and the weekend later on!

Just a quick note...

Hi Everyone,
Slocomb and I are about to leave to go to Yungilla, a vacation town about a hour from Cuenca. One of our co-workers, Maria, has a uncle who has a home in Yungilla, complete with pool and warmer weather than in Cuenca. So we're going to spend tonight and most of tomorrow hanging out with our CEDEI co-workers and having a relaxing weekend.
It has been a very busy week, so I haven't had a lot of time to post. On Tuesday, we met the rest of the international staff, meaning Erin from Minnesota and Jennifer and Livia from California. Maria is the international staff coordinator and is originally from Cuenca but lived in Minnesota for 20 years.
Wednesday we went on a guided tour of the city and the surrounding area including the towns of San Bartolomé, Chordeleg, and Gualaceo (see pictures on my facebook). I'll write more about the tour later.
Thursday we had the day off, so Slocomb and I finally got the phone situation worked out. Our phone number (if calling from the States) is 011 593 08 144 6690. Incoming calls for us are free, so call us if you want. However, it'll probably cost you an arm and a leg to call, so maybe we should keep it to emergencies only.
Yesterday we had a noon meeting (meaning that it started at 12:30) about the school's teaching philosophy and mission. We'll get into the nitty-gritty of school stuff starting Tuesday when all of the teachers will be at the school planning. The kids' first day is September 7, so we have a lot to do next week!
Anyway, there's a quick recap of this week. I'll write in more detail tomorrow hopefully. Things are going very well here in Ecuador, and I hope that the same can be said about all of you guys!

p.s. I miss Ted Kennedy.