Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hola Chicas & Chicos
Dia de los Ninos
Right sorry I haven�t updated my blog for a while but I have been emailing various people so most of you sort of know roughly what I have been up to. Anyway I will update you a little on the last 3 months but first I am going to start by telling you about our dia de los ninos which is a day for the children..like in England we have Mothers day and Fathers day in Ecuador they also have Children�s day (good idea don�t you think). So for all the children from the street outreach programme we decided to have an animal theme. Each market had to be a different animal...we decided on monos (monkeys) for our market and the other 2 markets were Tigres (Tigers) and Tortugas (Tortoises). Off course the monos looked the best in my opinon..ha ha but there could be some debate over that especially by the volunteers from the Tigres who were getting very competitive on the day. Anyway a couple of days before Dia de los ninos all the children made some head bands and ears so that they had little monkey ears and we also drew some monos for them to decorate and stick around the neck as neckalaces. All the children loved this besides the older boys who thought they were too cool to be monos and wanted to be Tigres but after sending them to the library to talk to Claire who convinced them that monos were ultimately the coolest animal ever they soon came around! Unfortunately on the Dia de los Ninos it was raining so the plan to go to the big park nearby had to be cancelled and instead all 3 markets gate crashed our room as we are the only market who has one! We started off by giving them the freshly baked break that poor Bridget and a few others had spent hours and hours baking only for the kids to not really like the bread..who wants bread when you can have chocolate! Around 10 the sun came out (phew) and we could all go out and play. The children had a Patatoe sack race..well our equivalent of patatoe sacks, which was hillarious to watch and then after we all played "pato, pato, ganso" (duck duck, goose)..this was good fun as we normally only have 15 kids but we played it with about 50!.After the games they all got a little goody bag of sweets and we all sang "estrellita donde estas" (twinkle twinkle little star) all 50 children sang in time..I was impressed! All in all it was a fun day out and a good way to celebrate Dia de los Ninos.
Other Happenings
So let me think what other stuff that has been happening...right so in my last entry I was living with Martioni in a homestay and moving into a hostel. Well I lasted about a week in the hostel because I didn�t really like it..I mean the people were friendly but everyone was always travelling so only staying there for a couple of days and it is not ideal to stay in a hostel when you are living somewhere. Anyway luckily enough as fate would have it I got chatting to Bridget the new Volunteer Co-odinator from England (who is a good friend of mine now). She told me about a spare room going in the apartment opposite her right in the middle of Old Town so is surrounded by beautiful colonial buildings. I went to have a look at my room, and Kieran (the previous person living in my room) Bridget and I had a couple of drinks on the balcony to get a proper feel of the place and I instantly fell in love with the room and the apartment! Anyway I moved in after having 2 weeks off CENIT..one week as holiday booked and the other because CENIT closes for Semana Santa (Easter). The first week I went to Puerto Lopez a little fishing village about 12 hours South of Quito. It was very beautiful there and I had a lovely relaxing week enjoying the beach and drinking beer while watching the sunset. The 2nd week wasn�t quite as relaxing but really fun...I went to the Jungle again but this time in with 7 others and Claire�s boyfriend was our Jungle guide. We also did White Water Rafting..which was SCARY...but I loved it! Luckily our raft didn�t capsize but there was no way I was going to get away with not getting in..I got pushed in a couple of times as we all did! Poor baby Claire though (the younger Claire) fell in at a rapid and the boat went all the way over her and Tuti the Kakaying guide had to give her an oar to hold onto so she could get out of the rapids and into the calmer water! The Jungle was really good, we did all the usual stuff like treking, etc...but the strangest thing was the Shamanic experience. We had a shaman do a spirtual cleansing on us which wasn�t as good as I expected..firstly he asked before hand did we want the Guaqusa a drink that you take which is all herbs but basically is a hallucinogenic. You are suppose to take it and an animal comes to you and then the Shaman tells you what it means..but Diego (our guide and friend) said "if I was you I wouldn�t take it, it is really strong"..so most of us decided against it ( I mean if a Quichha Person thinks it is strong there isn�t much hope for us) but Anna and Megan were like "oh we will give it a try what have we got to loose"...oh how were they going to regret that decision. So they take it and next thing during the Shamanic healing experience Anna runs to the toliet getting sick..(one down) so I look at Megan and think ah she is OK at least but then her eyes start rolling backwards and she has a mini fit...but the Shaman thinks nothing of this and carries on with the healing..meanwhile we are all obviously a bit panicked. Luckily both were OK but we had to hold there hair while they got sick and try and calm them down as they were all over the place..the next day there fine though just a little embarrssed and not feeling very spirtually cleansed..lol!
Other happenings..for my birthday we went to the Papallacta Springs which are hot springs about an hour from here and then after we had a party in the apartment..it was really good fun...we made mojitos and danced Salsa and Diego bless him sang happy birthday to me on the gutair. Last weekend we went to the Bosque Nublado (Cloud Forest) to visit one of our friends Maria who was volunteering there. Because it was Independence Day and a bank holiday weekend there was a massive fiesta.Part of the fiesta included a beauty contest and everyone in the little town nicked named ´Nanny G´ were out to watch. The girls in the beauty contest were only about 15 it was a bit mad really but they did traditional Ecuadorian dancing and stuff so good to watch. After they had finished we got to see Paulina a well known Ecuadorian singer, she wore some glittery silver outfit and was a bit tacky really but it was all very amusing...once finished the music came on and there was a massive outdoor party...wicked!
Next week I am leaving for Peru so very excited and then after Peru I am coming back to Quito for another couple of months to do a different volunteer project in CENIT..probably the Summer Camp. I will then fly to Argentina in September so should be home the 1st week of Oct. Anyway hope you are all well, email me with all your news!
Ciao xxx
- comments