How do you teach little children who don't listen?!

School today was a nightmare of a morning. We'd only had 6 hours sleep in 2 days (we arrived back in Jipijapa at 2am Monday morning and had to get up at 6.30am for school, and Monday afternoon we took a bus to Puerto Lopez [a beach about 1 and a half hours away] and stayed the night. We were drinking in a pub until 2.30am, then went back to the hostel only to get up again at 5.30am to get the bus back to Jipijapa to be in time for school! It was slightly crazy, and we were all dead today), and for some reason, for the last 2 days, the kids have had absolutely no concentration and paid no attention to anything we tried to teach them. It was insane! I was so dead that I really could not be bothered doing anything, plus was not in the best state due to alcohol the previous night. So we took the easy option and combined the kids, so the 2 of us could teach them together (i.e. 1 person talks while the other rests. It was a good option!). We tried to teach them about the environment, but due to their immense lack of attention, I doubt they remembered, or even understood, anything. Actually, they didn't, because we quizzed them about it later via a game (another easy way to teach, kinda like putting on a video, but we don't have that luxury), and they couldn't answer even the easiest questions. Ugh, how very frustrating!

Cuenca

We went to Cuenca for the weekend, it's the nicest city I've visited so far in Ecuador. Shame I don't have photos, or I would post a whole heap. It's also the cleanest city I've seen here, and it's real clean, not fake clean like Baños (where it was only clean in the touristy area). The people and government in Cuenca seem to take a real pride in the cleanliness of their city, there are bins everywhere, and also lots of signs promoting the city's cleanliness etc. It was really awesome! Here I also saw the first court in the country! I didn't realise I hadn't seen one here before until now. I'm sure there must be one in Quito, I just have not come across it yet.

Anyway, Cuenca was a spanish colonial city. It used to be an Incan administrative city, but the whole city was burned down during an Incan civil war (before the spanish arrived). So the spanish just built over it, resulting in lots of old colonial buildings and cobble stone streets. It's such a nice city, and relatively safe too (it felt a lot safer than Quito anyway).

On Saturday, we went to the Museo de Arte Moderno (I'm sure you can all work out what that means), it was really good, and I really enjoyed it! They had artworks from many local artists, and also artists from South America. There were sculptures and paintings. I really liked this series of watercolours, it was titled 'Memories of the wood' or something like that, I forgot the actual spanish title, otherwise I would've written that, I just know my rough english translation for it. Anyway, they were all simple, mostly black and white, close-up watercolour paintings of bark on a tree, but slightly abstract. It took me a little while to realise it was actually bark, because the artist had personified it by giving each bark painting a face, so it was like the tree had a 'life', and thus memory. None of the faces had happy expressions, they were probably not too happy at being cut down. It was really clever! I was very impressed.

After the art museum, we wandered around the city and came across another museum/cafe. We walked in with interest, and it turned out to be the most alternative 'museum' I have ever seen! They had really cool artwork, all the walls were painted on, and there were sculptures set into the walls as well. It's hard to describe it, I really wish I could've taken photos. There was a painting on the wall of legs spread open, and where the woman's vagina is supposed to be, there was a 3D carving in the shape of labia, and inside there was a demon (or something similar), shaped like female genitalia. It was really cool (I doubt many of you would agree with me, right?)! That was probably the largest, most confronting piece. The rest were demon/skeletal sculptures, different interpretations of Jesus being crucified (not many were very respectful to christianity, so perhaps that provides a further image of the place), and various other demonic stuff. There were even claws set on the floor of the steps!

Oh, I also got my glasses fixed! Not really fixed, because as I suspected, titanium can't be soldered back together. I just bought new frames and they fitted the lenses into them. I kept my broken titanium ones just in case. My new ones are black and full-rim, but thin, so not like Kylie Kwong! They're just cheap plastic ones (for $12), but at least they stay on my head now, and don't tilt to one side.

Um, what else did we do? Despite the overwhelming abundance of churches and museums, we only went to one museum (as described above. I don't think the alternative place is a proper 'museum' as such) and one church. The church was very grand though. I don't know how old it is, but it was huge, and in the main square of the city, so it obviously held some level of importance when it was built. The interior was all marble, and there were statues and mini altars all along the side of the church. The main altar had a big 4-sided arch (with a round dome, kinda like in the vatican), and I think it's all gold leaf. It was very shiny! The church had a very high ceiling, and above the main altar was an even higher dome. It was quite impressive. Oh, near the entrance, there was a statue of much younger Juan Pablo II (aka John Paul II). I wonder if they're going to get another one of Benedictine XVI.

On Sunday, we walked to a lookout (Mirador del Turi), where there are vistas of the whole city of Cuenca. Despite having climbed Rucu Pichincha, I still had to puff and pant my way to the top. Cuenca is in the sierra (i.e. mountains), so it's also high altitude, although not as high as Quito. When we eventually got to the top, it was quite picturesque. Cuenca is built in the valley, so there were a lot of mountains in the backdrop. All I could see from the top was red though. It seems like most of the buildings and houses have red roofs! And like many other colonial cities, the buildings are usually not taller than 2 or 3 storeys.

Jipijapa

I am currently in Jipijapa, a small town near the coast. It was a hellish bus ride to Jipijapa. It was originally supposed to be 9 hours, which I thought was bad enough. But the 10am bus on Sunday decided that it wasn't running, and there was no other direct bus until 8pm (which would've been too late) so we had to get a bus to a nearby town called Portoviejo, and from there get another bus to Jipijapa. The descent from Quito was very long and winding (much much more so than to Chiriboga). The bus driver was driving really fast, I was sitting in the first row next to the door, and the door was left open for the entire trip. It was so dangerous! Not to mention the bus driver kept overtaking trucks, even though the road was winding most of the way and there were lots of blind spots. At one stage, a car was coming round the corner on the other side and we were overtaking, and the car had to veer off the road a bit to avoid hitting the bus which was driving in its lane! But everyone seems to be doing this sort of thing over here (as I said before, safety has a completely different meaning here), so I suppose it's normal. And they got us here in one piece, so it's ok. Yes, it was during this highly dangerous bus ride that I think my camera was taken. I left my bag in the bus at one point cos I had to go to the toilet, but Carmen was watching it. I think it was then, but I don't know. Carmen insisted that she was watching it the whole time, I'm not blaming her or anything, but I don't know when else it could've happened. And I only realised when we got off at Portoviejo, by which time it was too late, as it was about 6 hours later. Sigh. Anyway, when we got to Portoviejo at 10pm, it turns out there was no bus to Jipijapa until 12.40am. So Carmen went off to find alternative transportation, and returns with an unlicensed taxi (ie a guy with a van). It was actually really funny, because there was a policeman there asking the driver questions, and he was telling us not to trust this guy etc. But we went with him anyway. We were crammed into the van like sardines in a can. We eventually arrived in Jipijapa at midnight, only to start teaching the next morning (or rather the same morning).

We are officially teaching english here, but my school is sooo tiny, I don't know if it can be really called a school. It's just a bamboo shack with little benches, and there are only 10 students (who don't all come to school) of varying ages. The students all live on the same road as the school. It's a dirt road, and the houses around are so absolutely ramshackle. They're all bamboo houses on stilts, with thatch roofs. It looks so incredibly poor and rural, and yet it's only about 7 minutes from the 'city' centre on a scooter. Yes, we have to go by scooter. The kids have a regular teacher, who ferries us there and back. I'm there with another volunteer, and I teach the older kids (there are 3 or 4, depending on who turns up), Johanna teaches the middle kids, and the regular teacher takes the smallest kids.

My kids are about 9 or 10 years old. They know how to count to 10 in english and also a few random words, but that's about it. Honestly, I don't know how knowing english is really going to help them that much. I also tried to teach them maths yesterday, but all 4 of my kids were at different maths levels. One of them didn't know how to multiply or divide, while the others already knew the multiplication tables, despite them all being of similar age. It's an interesting experience. By the way, it's rather difficult trying to teach maths in spanish, but I think I am doing ok so far, even though it's only been 2 days.

Yesterday, I taught them the english alphabet, and also the days of the week in english. It is so difficult to get them to concentrate and write down things in their book. It took the entire morning (about one and a half hours) just to do the 7 days of the week. And that was just to get all of them to copy it down (yes, all 4 kids), I doubt they've remembered it.

Well, it's really ok. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. The kids are fun, and kids are the same everywhere, whether it's a rural town or city, so I think it's easier to handle 4 kids rather than a class of 30 or 50. The other volunteers here are teaching in proper schools in town (walking distance from the house), only Johanna and I are in the poor rural area with a ramshackle school. But I don't mind that much. It's a good experience to see such different lifestyles (wow, I sound like such a damn tourist). It really makes you appreciate what you have. But then I think about how useful knowing english actually is for the children (not very, especially only 2 weeks of english). What would actually help them? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Chiriboga

Hello all! I'm back in electricity range. The past 2 weeks have been ok, we were in a little village (think small cluster of houses who are collectively given a name. Yes, Chiriboga is that small) about 2.5 hours from Quito. It took that long to drive down there on the bus even though it's only 55km away. It was a very long, winding descent.

Chiriboga is in the cloud forest area. Hence the surrounding mountaintops are hidden in clouds in the morning and evening, and it rained almost every single day. It was a really nice area. Very naturey.

The volunteering work was ok. We didn't get to plant trees (even though that was what I thought we were going to do). Instead we helped to prune a whole lot of fruit trees (and I mean seriously prune. By the time we were done, probably about three quarters of the tree was on the ground), and also helped build a bridge across the river to a little island (apparently for the eco-tourists). I didn't mind pruning, but I had issues with the bridge building work. Firstly, it wasn't really done in an eco-friendly manner. What we did was we dug holes for the bridge foundation on both sides, and then dug a pathway to the bridge on the mainland side. The pathway was probably 20m long in total, 1m across and about 10cm deep. Digging was fine, it was just that we had to throw all the topsoil (TOPSOIL!) into the river! It was such a waste of soil!! Not to mention the pollution of the river, and the deaths of countless earthworms! I felt so bad, I tried to save the earthworms. I picked them out of the soil before it got thrown in the river, but I obviously didn't get very far. Some had already been chopped in half by the time I got there. I saw a fat earthworm that had been hacked and it was bleeding from its end, and wriggling around. It was a lot of blood for a worm. Anyway, I was slightly disillusioned from the bridge building stuff (for the above reasons). The rest of it was ok.

What else did I do? Oh, yes, the obligatory cow milking. I have to say, I never thought I could possibly be any more vegan, but I think after this milking experience, I've reached a point of no return. Seriously, my first thought upon putting my hand around the cow's teat was that this was so immensely unnatural. There is NO other word to describe it. Let me give you a mental picture. The cow was tied to a fence, and her hind legs were tied together (so she can't move). Her calf was tied close to her, but was not allowed to drink her milk, even though it was clearly hungry. The calf was used to stimulate the milk glands (I guess so the milk will flow easier). The man (who works on the farm) got the calf to suck on each teat for about 5 seconds (during which time very little milk flowed out), and then promptly tied it up again. So not only were we taking milk from another animal, we were also depriving its child from its natural source of food and nutrition. It was just so wrong! I tried to squeeze less, and towards the end, I was telling the guy that we should stop because he was trying to get every last drop out of the cow, and I thought it would be better for the calf (and maybe less painful for the cow) if it weren't so. I'm well aware that the cow will keep producing milk, and that the calf will have a chance to feed later (in fact that was what the guy told me when I questioned him about the calf) but really, the calf should have first feed, and anything left can be taken by people, not the other way around. It's just unfair! And besides, it feels really strange to put your hand around an enlarged nipple and squeezing it. I wonder why some people have issues with drinking human milk, but not with cow milk. Drinking human milk is so much more natural, at least it's from the same species.

We didn't do much else in Chiriboga. We worked in the mornings (about 4 hours on average per day) and had the afternoons to do whatever, because most of the time it rained, so it would've been difficult to work anyway. We went to the pub a lot in the afternoons. Actually we went practically every day once we discovered it existed (later in the first week). The pub was really small (obviously). It was actually someone's house, they lived upstairs and the pub is downstairs. It had a pool table (it was slightly slanted to one side, which was both an advantage and a disadvantage), and the room was only slightly larger than the pool table, which meant that we had to move every time someone was trying to take a shot in order to avoid being poked with the cue. It was a very quaint experience. The following week, the pub ran out of beer!

On the weekend, we didn't work. On the Saturday, we hiked to some waterfalls in the cloud forest. It was really nice. We went swimming in a waterfall pool, but the water was freezing, so we just stood in the water trying to keep warm. The walk was ok, it was a really steep ascent up to the waterfalls though (there were several falls, but each connected to the other. They flowed into each other), practically a vertical climb. We created a lot of erosion and displaced a lot of plants and soil in the process of scrambling up and down the hill (the cumulative effects of 15 people). I won't go on forever about our environmental impacts, lest you get bored reading the hippie diaries. I don't need to preach to the converted anyway (you're all converted right? ;) ). The waterfalls were pretty, very small though. They all had little rock pools, just large enough to swim in, but too small to be considered anything other than a small pool. During the hike, we also had to do numerous creek crossings. I was a little paranoid about slipping and falling into the creek and getting everything soaked, so I was perpetually looking at my feet. Predictably, I didn't see a a fat vine right at my head height, and I ran straight into it. I wouldn't have minded, except it broke my glasses...the left handle thing (the part you can fold down, I have no idea what they're called) was snapped cleanly off. But at least the lens didn't break. I've managed to sticky tape it back together, and it's holding so far. I think it should last until I get back. The most annoying part was that on the way back from the waterfalls, I ran into the very same vine, also because I was too busy looking at my feet and forgot to look up. It's such a hazard.

Oh, we also saw a tarantula! It was near the pub, and it was as big as my hand (if not bigger)! It was cool! There were LOTS of spiders in Chiriboga (Stacy, you'll be glad you're not here!), especially when we were pruning the trees. There were spiders on practically every tree. I was trying not to ruin their webs while pruning the trees.

Um, I'm not sure what else to say for Chiriboga. I think that's pretty much all we did. The other volunteers are quite nice. There were 2 French, 4 Germans, 2 Spanish, 2 Ecuadorians (volunteers from the uni in Quito), 1 English person, and me. It was a good sized group for the kind of work we did. There are fewer volunteers in Jipijapa (where we are currently teaching in schools), but more on that later.

Oh yes, in case you were wondering why there are no photos in this post, it is because I can't find my camera. I think it was stolen enroute from Quito to Jipijapa 2 days ago sometime on the bus :( I was really depressed about it, but I'm slowly getting over it. I'm going to see if I can get a cheap digital camera here or in Quito, and will see what insurance will do about it. I'm not looking forward to dealing with the insurance company cos it will be so bothersome! Sigh. In the meantime, we will have to put up with a very dry blog...

Volunteering (finally)

This is going to be the last post for the next couple of weeks. I am heading to a place called Chiriboga this afternoon, it's about 2 or 3 hours south of Quito. I think it's quite remote, because there's no electricity there. Obviously I won't have internet access.

I'm going with 10 other volunteers (they're all from various places in Europe. I'm the only person from the Southern Hemisphere!). 2 people from the volunteering organisation are also coming with us, and I think 2 university students as well (maybe they're researching or somethin). There's a cow in Chiriboga, and we have to milk it everyday. Great. I don't mind milking cows, I just don't think that I should do it seeing as I'm not drinking it. But oh well, I can't really complain. Community spirit and all that jazz.

Anyway, much love and peace until then. Hopefully I'll survive the mosquitoes...apparently you get eaten alive there. I'm armed with a mosquito net and 2 bottles of insect repellent.

Mindo

So, Nele and I went to Mindo last weekend, on Friday and Saturday. It is seriously the tiniest tourist town ever. If it weren't for the tourists, it would just be like any other small village. There's one main road that's paved (it's only about 200m long), and all the other roads off this road are dirt roads. Below is a picture of the main road. There are cafes, tour agencies and little shops all along the main road.Below is a road just off the main road (you can see the main road in the background). It's quite a contrast. There are a couple of cows at the side, I don't know if you can see it. And the houses are also built in stark contrast to each other. There are nice, properly built houses next to old shacks (i.e. built with random bits of timber and corrugated iron, where the roof is likely to leak). You can sort of see it in the photo. I didn't take too many photos of the houses because I felt rude, I mean, it's someone's house, not a tourist attraction!
This is the hostel in which we stayed. It's also the oddest hostel I've ever stayed in. I mean, it's fine, it was clean and comfortable, but it looks like it's been built with random bits of materials. Not that I have a problem with it, I just haven't come across anything like it before. And they've utilised every single bit of space. They've put beds in every little bit of space they could find, so instead of individual rooms, you have to walk through one room to get to another. There are private rooms as well (like a double room), but they're not that private. Nele's bed was next to a windowless window (i.e. it was a hole in the wall). I don't know why, because all the other sides had windows, just not at her end! I suppose the plants act as a window/cover (see top picture). A butterfly managed to get itself trapped, and it couldn't get out as it had flown to my end of the room (where there was a window). It had been fluttering in the same place for at least an hour, and it looked so frantic and distressed. I had to rescue it, so I moved it to Nele's side of the room and I have never seen anyone (or anything?) look so relieved as it clung onto some plants.

On Saturday, we took a cable car type thing across the gorge. We got great views of the cloud forest. They're called cloud forests because they're high altitude rainforests (ish), and because of the altitude and the amount of rainfall, the forests create clouds! Pretty awesome stuff!

We went hiking (it's a really nature-y place, apparently all the birders come here). After doing Rucu Pichincha, this was so easy. It was a waterfall hike, so we walked along the tracks and visited several waterfalls. Here we are at a waterfall.

We had planned to go swimming in the waterfall pools, but when we got there, the water was freezing! I managed to go as deep as my thighs. My legs were totally numb! It was very refreshing though. Below (left) is the largest waterfall we visited. It's not that big, but it was the biggest in the area. The people there actually stood underneath the waterfall. The locals believe that waterfalls have healing properties, so I think that's what they were doing.

I didn't get that far. Here's the photo of my attempt. It was rather dismal, but I was freezing. Plus the spray didn't help. It was fun though!

Here's the general photo of the forest (I think it's a protected reserve, so that's good), and the cable car thing which we rode. I could go on forever about safety, but I won't. I mean, we were safe, but the workers have really bad workplace health and safety conditions. Seriously, the woman who rode with us on the carriage stood on the outside (even though there was room on the inside for her). She was hanging on to the bars! It was so dangerous, she could've fallen off at any point in time! But I suppose everyone does that kind of thing here...

Food!

In line with the food posts, here's some more food pics I have collected. These are sugar coated roasted peanuts. They're good, except too sweet for me. I had to drink a lot of water after eating it. I've also noticed that Ecuadorians really like their sweet stuff. The juices are usually drowned in sugar, especially the juices we have for breakfast. Virginia's mother really likes things sweet.

I've also been trying to go to the vego places for lunch. The other day I went to this place called Medra Terra. The soup was good, for once it didn't have potato in it!! It had lots of assorted vegies instead.
Here's the main course. The thing on the side is some sort of nutty curry with soy meat and potatoes. Alas potatoes. But I liked the soy meat. It tasted very soy!
Today we went to another place, I didn't get the name. They had heaps of soy meat type stuff, and it was really nice. Plus it came with unlimited salad, so I refilled about 3 times! What joy! I don't think the other 2 people who were with me really enjoyed it that much. I felt a bit bad because one girl ordered salad, and when it came, it was really small, and only consisted of avocado, tomato and onion. It came with juice, but it was $1.50! But then she said that salad was the only vego thing she eats, so really it was also her fault. She could've tried the other stuff, it was really good! Being vego doesn't limit you to eating salad!

Oh, the soy meat doesn't really taste like meat, it just tasted like seasoning, and it was a bit salty. The green bit on top is avocado. The meal came with fried potatoes.

One thing I've noticed though, all the vego places I go to offer brown rice! It's so awesome! It's so good to eat brown rice, after eating so much white rice and potatoes. Unfortunately, potatoes are slightly unavoidable here. Just like corn, there are about 27 species of corn, and they've been eating it for centuries. I don't mind corn. I have yet to try quinoa, which I will try to make a point of doing before I leave. I must learn how to cook it too!

Obligatory touristy stuff

Remember when I couldn't go to the Basilica the other week? Well, I made a point of going again! And this time, I could take photos, there was no crazy sweeping lady telling me not to. Here they are. In order: part of the exterior of the church, the interior (from front to back), close up of the stained glass windows (you can just see it in the previous pic, they are on the same level on which the photo was taken), and the view of the clock towers from the lookout which you can climb. It's quite a nice church, but it´s fake old. Construction only began in the early 1900s (I think 1920s?), so it´s not really grandiose like the European churches, which are centuries old. I also went to the botanical gardens, they were pretty small, but interesting anyway. This plant is a lot like 'lamb's ears', which is why I took a picture. It felt a lot like lamb's ears, but I don't know if it's the same thing. There was an orchid garden, which was really pretty. All the information signs were in spanish though, so I couldn't understand it...
Oh, before I forget, Quito is not so backwards. There's a UN building!