¡Las Aventuras en Ecuador!: September 2011

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Happenings in Cuenca

I didn't think that I would ever get to see my Ecuadorian boyfriend again. But I did :) He was in Thailand for a month and only came back to Ecuador for about a week to do some really important paper work stuff for his University. He is now back in Thailand :( It is crazy if you ask me that he only came back to Ecuador for a week all the way from Thailand. But I am so glad that he did so that I could see him again! He will be i Thailand until January and I will already be back in the US by the time he returns to Ecuador. We had an amazing time together and are awaiting the day when we will be reunited. Who knows when that day will come, it could be as far away as a year or it could be sooner. I also now have something else that is drawing me back to Cuenca that I will tell you about...but first, here are some photos of my time with Leandro. I took the 10 hour bus ride to visit him for a few days and it was so worth it :)

So handsome :)

So as I said, I now have another reason to be drawn to Cuenca (the city where Leandro lives). I spent an extra day and a half in Cuenca after Leandro left to go back to Thailand because I wanted to visit with my friend Will (a friend from my University) who know lives in Cuenca and is teaching english. Will took me to this orphanage in Cuenca that he has been spending some time at in his free time. It is an all boys orphnage with only eleven boys. It is called "El Hogar de Nazareth" (The Home of Nazareth). Even after just spending a day and a half with them, I feel in love with these boys like crazy. They only have a man (a catholic decan) who cares for them so they do not have any women role models or figures in their lives. They loved having me there and got really attached to me. Like I said, I also fell in love with them and I am definitley planning to go back to see them. They need a positive women in their life to love them. They are also really in need of a social worker. My dream is to someday return to this orphanage to be the social worker/mother figure to these boys. It may sound crazy but that is really what is on my heart. I will definitely be going back to visit them in Cuenca. It will be really sad to go back to Cuenca with out Leandro being there, but life has to go on with out Leandro and I need to see these boys again. Here are some photos of my time with the boys at the orphanage in Cuenca.

My friend Will and I

The 92 year old Father who founded the orphanage!

They have my heart :)

Playing soccer in the street

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Teaching English in my dreams

So originally, I was just suppose to be helping out in the English classes here at the orphanage school...But now, one of the English teachers here is really sick and will not be able to come to school to teach for at least a few weeks. So now I am teaching my own classes! I thought just helping in the classes was a lot of work but now I am teaching the classes on my own!! The teacher that is sick is the elementary English teacher, so the classes I am teaching are for kindergarden through fifth grade. The school said that they are going to try and find a replacement teacher by next week. But I have been in Ecuador long enough to know how things work here and I know that we won't be getting a replacement English teacher by next week!

I am teaching/tutoring English about 9-10 hours a day! Last night, I was had dreams all night about teaching English. I feel like teaching English is consuming me right now but it is so worth it because the kids her are amazing and I really want them to learn. The younger classes are definitely harder to teach though because the kids can be pretty wild and they often don't listen well. Things get pretty crazy in class with pretty much all of the kids screaming and running around and not listening to me. It can be pretty frustrating, but like I said, it is so worth it.

Moments like this make it all worth it :)

Chicken foot soup! Yuck! It is very common in Ecuador.

Some of the orphanage houses.

Tutoring some of the kids with their English homework

Yesterday, a friend of mine from college flew into Quito because he will be living in Ecuador for the next year to teach English. I was able to skip tutoring yesterday to go into Quito after teaching classes to meet him. Yesterday was my only chance to see him because he is moving to a city that is about 9 hours away from Quito. It was great to see him and we had a fun day in downtown "old town" Quito! The "old town" of Quito is so beautiful. It is the most beautiful part of Quito in my opinion. Here are a few photos so you can see the beauty!

Monday, September 12, 2011

First week of teaching Englsih!

My first week at the orphanage was great. When I first moved into the orphanage, Raissa was still in the hospital and I was visiting her every day after teaching classes. Raissa returned back to the states on Thursday, so now that I am not going to visit her every day, I feel like I now can actually settled into life at the orphanage and focus all of my energy here. Saying goodbye to Raissa was really hard and sad because I know that it will be a long time until I see her next. Thankfully, she is also from Washington so hopefully I will be able to see her shortly after I arrive back to the US at the end of November.

Visiting Raissa on her last day at the hospital.

This orphanage is really an amazing place. There are twenty orphanage houses that are all in a circle facing each other. Currently, there are about 15 houses that are filled with children at about 12 children in each house with an Ecuadorian “mom” who cares for them. The orphanage school is on the same property has the houses, just up the driveway. My little apartment is pretty close to all the orphanage houses and I am assigned to eating in a specific house for all my meals.

A few of the orphanage houses

The children at this orphanage are so sweet and precious and they all just want to be loved and receive attention. Most of the children here have at least one parent that is alive, but cannot adequately care for them. Things like their parents abusing them, teaching them to steal, being mentally ill, severely abusing drugs or alcohol, living in extreme poverty, ect. These are basically the kids that would fall through the cracks if they were not living at the orphanage.

I did not tutor this past week since I was visiting my friend in the hospital every day after teaching, but this week, I will be tutoring the kids with their English homework every day after school. I will go around to each orphanage house and help whoever needs it with their English homework. It will be a lot of work!

My first week teaching, I helped out in all different grades from kindergarden to the last year of high school. I feel like I want to focus on helping out in the middle school and high school classes since it seems more relevant to have a native English speaker in those classes rather than in the very young kids classes where they are just learning things like numbers, letters and colors. I enjoy working with all ages of kids for different reasons, so I am happy to work in any class but I feel like it is more useful for me to help with the older kids English classes.

I am really enjoying my time here at the orphanage with the wonderful and precious children and youth! I am excited for this week of classes and spending time helping the kids.