So now I´m in Tena! I got the bus early on Saturday morning. Was sad to say bye to Magda, she´s such a lovely lady and made me feel at home. She bought me a present when I left too! I got picked up from the house by Jorge, an Ecuadorian dude with a moustache and aviator shades haha. He took me to the bus station and waited til I got on the bus. The bus station was an experience, big and busy, people lugging around fruit&veg, puppies etc, and Ecuadorian women in their panama hats with babies strapped to their backs using pashminas, so cute! The bus journey was long but the views through the mountains were amazing. I got picked up at the bus station in Tena by Bilma, the lady I´m living with, and Caroline, the other volunteer staying in the same house. The place we´re staying is so cute, and so different to Quito! I have my own little room with a door straight to the outside, and the (cold) shower is in another little shed thing. We have so many animals living with us, it´s like a farm! A monkey, 2 dogs, 2 cats, loads of chickens and a very noisy cockerel!! On Saturday night we went out in Tena which was an experience! We had a few cocktails and then some Quichan people took us to la discoteca! On Sunday we got the bus to Misahualli, about 40 minutes away from here. We had a 3 course meal for $2.50 and then went on a boat trip on the Rio Napo. There were loads of spider monkeys playing by the river, didn´t get too close though as we´d been warned they steal from you! I started my placement yesterday, the first hour or so was a bit scary as no-one speaks English. There are about 20 kids aged between 3 and 7 and they´re all very poor. They have breakfast and dinner at the nursery, and for some of the kids that´s all they´ll eat. I helped them with cutting and pasting, and played with them ALOT, it was exhausting! They wouldn´t leave me alone, at one point I had about 5 of them jumping all over me, they´re so cute though. One of the little girls lives next door to me so I´ve been walking her to and from school, she won´t let go of my hand the whole way, she´s so cute. The teacher, Laura, was really grateful for all the things I took them, especially the English nursery rhyme cds which she put on straight away. I work from 8 til 12 and then go back to the house for lunch. The longer I´m here the more I love how resourceful the family are - we drink juice out of jars, and they have a fridge door nailed to the kitchen wall instead of shelves!! After lunch yesterday I went to the Parque Amazonica where Caroline (another volunteer here) is working. Saw so many animals, my favourite was the Toucan! Oh and the cute naughty monkeys. The food here has been really nice so far, apart from dinner last night, which was "the most disgusting thing I´ve ever eaten"....words can´t explain how disgusting it was. Breakfast this morning made up for it though - pancakes and hot chocolate! That´s enough rambling for now, it´s red hot here.....going to try again to upload some pictures then home for dinner!