Hola all! Welcome to the second last issue of the Ecuadorian blog for 2011.
The past two weeks here in Sudamerica have been quite eventful, we travelled to a town named after a toilet called "Baños", however the most noteworthy being our last week of school.
Unfortunelty it wasn´t what we hoped, as we had been previously told the town maintainted a tropical climate all year round - ÿeah just bring shorts and t shirts and a light jumper¨- and of course within half an hour of our arrival it starting pouring with rain, and barely stopped the whole time we were there. Due to the unfortunate circumstances weatherwise, we were not able to tick all the things off on our Baños list, actually none. Instead we rented go karts and hooned our way around the small little town in thundering rain, subsequently becoming completely drenched with no change of clothes.
I should include that that morning, me and Asta were waiting for Sam, Mich and Kate outside of Cafe Hood, a nice little joint we had eaten at the previous night, when we were approached by a rather in-your-face quite loud woman. She constantly asked questions about why we were eating at this cafe instead of hers directly next door, along with talking up her own menu. Soley because of fear for our lives we decided to eat at her cafe, which needless to say, and i speak for all of us, was the scariest breakfast of our lives. I will say no more.
So back to Quito we came and began our last week of school...
After about ten or so weeks at our respected schools, arriving at 8 in the morning and leaving after midday for lunch, we have grown quite close to them and we were all very sad to be leaving. The students´ responses when we told them all contained a general jist of ¨nooooooo, teeeeaachheeer¨, and ¨por que? (why? in spanish), and crying.
Our past 10 weeks at our schools were amazing. Every single day was a challenge, and every single one of those days were worth it. It was a truly rewarding experience, just seeing you walk through the gates or walking into the classroom, the kids´ faces light up just because you´re there.
Coming from quite poor backgrounds and areas, to be honest i didn't expect the kids to pay that much attention when we were teaching English. Of course, like in any school in any country, there are trouble makers and kids who just don´t care, but I was amazed within the first few weeks up until the very last with the amount of attention that the majority of the kids gave us when we were teaching.
At both of our schools, our last day there was really special. Unfortunately, I asked one of the other girls to write something about their school but they haven´t found time to do so, so hopefully they will do it later.
Me and Asta´s school is very small, only catering for one class for each year level ranging from two through till seven. We felt like we knew most if not all the students at the school.
Being a very small and poor school, Asta and I spent a couple of days before the last day at school mustering up supplies that we thought the school may find useful - from the money we raised at home before we came thanks to the generosity from our friends and family, we managed to buy soccer balls, basketballs, skipping ropes (they just have one big rope), nets for the soccer goals, stationary for every class such as colouring pencils, whiteboard markers and erasers, writing and graph paper, arts and crafts materials, stickers, bubbles, balloons, and some more stuff we can´t remember right now.
On our last day, one of the teacher´s named Louis, rang the bell half an hour before school finishes, and all the students from each year level lined up within their years on the gravel soccer/basketball court. Each of them holding a hand crafted card in their hands. Louis gave a speech about us, and then following they all simultaneously shouted "THANKYOU ASTA, THANKYOU MITCH". Then, starting from grade two, each of them came up the stairs, gave us a hug and a kiss and handed us their cards they made for us. This went on for over half an hour, until finally the very last year seven handed us their thanks. Most of the students went home, and a select few stayed behind who we were particularly close with to give us extra hugs and to say another goodbye. The teachers then thanked us and gave us a gift of their appreciation.
It was extremely sad to leave after 10 weeks of spending all our time there. The whole purpose of us coming to this foreign country we barely knew anything about, was to make a difference, and even though it was challenging, even though it was nothing like we had ever imagined it to be, we wouldn´t change the experience for anything.
We now have two weeks left of our time in Ecuador before having to sadly leave what has become our (i know the parents won´t like me saying this but......) home the past three months.
I hope you enjoyed the second last blog.
Adios
No comments:
Post a Comment