Life at Latitude 3

Guagua – quechua word for Baby. Much more commonly used (and much more fun to say) here than the spanish word, bebé. sounds like wha-wha (like WHAT without the T).

Quechua was the language of the incas, and is still spoken by many of the indigenous people in the Andes. If you listen carefully, you can hear it spoken around the market places, and most of the volcanoes, and many of the towns or provinces, take their names from quechua words. Words like Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, Tunguruaha – all fine examples of quechua.

My co-teacher and I decided she´d help our kids make mother´s day presents, and I´d help them make the cards. The presents involved sand dollars, so I thot the cards should follow the same oceanic theme. I exhausted my creative efforts to incorporate fish into a mothers day card that made all the national teachers say, OH, que preciosa! On the inside I pasted an outline of a fish, and the kids added bright pieces of scrap paper for the scales. The message said, in English and in Spanish, “There are many fish in the sea, but no one is as wonderful or as beautiful as you. Thank you for being my mommy – happy mother´s day!” On the outside I´d pasted ocean waves, and I decided the kids could add cute fish stickers.

Great plan – now, I just needed to find fish stickers. Living in Ecuador for so long, I knew that if I wanted stickers, I needed to go to a papeleria (literally, paper store, but they also sell general office supplies). I told the woman what I wanted, and her response: I´m sorry, it´s not sticker season. WHAT?!?! Um, when exactly is sticker season? does it by chance coordinate with the rainy season, which seems will never ever end? No, it´s in July, when school starts. You need to wait a couple of months. I thanked her and walked out, not quite ready to give up my fish hunt. 2 papelerias later, I discovered that in fact fish stickers can be found outside of sticker season.

As I mentioned before, every month we (the entire school) focus on a different country. One day the students wear the country´s traditional dress, one day they make a traditional recipe, they learn to identify the country´s flag, anthem (Egypt has a very pretty anthem, btw), where it is located in the world, the name of the capital, and the resources of the country. Last month we studied Senegal, and we were lucky enough to have a senagelese man who is living in Ecuador volunteer to come in and work with the kids several times. One day, I reminded the kids that Bamba would be coming, and asked them where Bamba is from. To my great shock, little Martín got up, ran to the world map, and with great precision touched the small senegalese flag that we had posted on Senegal. I thot that was incredibly cool. God knows when I was 2 I had no idea that Senegal even existed, let alone show someone where it was on the map!

We have finally gotten a practicante (student helper) which we desperately needed. We now have a total of 12 children, and every Friday we get a special needs student to help him integrate into the class. 12-13 2-3 yr olds is a lot, esp. when one is diagnosed with ADHD, one is a confirmed slugger, one is the most oppositional child I have ever known, and another is blind. I come home on Fridays absolutely spent. I like these little guys, but I will be grateful when the year comes to an end, and I can go back to teaching adults again.

I have been sick for what seems like forever, and it´s no wonder – I spend my mornings wiping snot out of little people´s noses. I wash my hands as much as possible, but I am sure that I will be sick until the year´s end.

A friend of mine who worked at the CEDEI school had to go back to the states unexpectedly.

quick interjection: the CEDEI School is a separate branch from the CEDEI English dept., where I work. the School is a bilingual school which teaches up to 2nd grade, and as young as what we would call daycare. But I don´t do daycare. I do Early Stimulation, which means that we are still interacting with the littlest guys in a very educational way. Every class has a national (Ecuadorian) teacher, and an international teacher (those of us from the UK, Australia, US, etc). Even though most of us are bilingual, or can to some degree speak the other language, we are to speak only our 1st language to the children so that they hear fluently, for several hours a day, both languages. I really respect the director´s vision, as she hopes that the children learn far more than how to add, vocab. words, etc. Every month we focus on a specific country, and a different social value. They have also worked very hard to integrate children with different needs into the classroom, and we talk about what all children, regardless of their needs or status, can contribute to their community. I love it.
Anyway, there are still 4 months left in their school year, and as I´d temped at the school last year, she asked me if I could step in again. When I agreed to help her out, she handed over to me her unbelievably adorable class of 2-3 year olds.
On the one hand, these little guys are great for my mental health. In the states, people who work with children work in constant fear of being too physically involved with the children, for fear of sexual molestation accusations. But here, hugs and kisses for and from the little ones, on a regular basis, are encouraged if not mandatory. However, on the other hand, as most of you know, my experience and education centers around counseling, university student services, and teaching English to teens and adults. I have no experience in developing lesson plans for 2-3 yr olds.

Right now we´re learning opposites, animals, shapes, and the primary colors. While I´m learning how to come up with interesting activities to teach these concepts to the kids, Martin specifically is learning that he isn´t allowed to hit people, Pascal is learning that pouting doesn´t get him very far, Camila is learning that I have absolutely no tolerance for whininess, and a few of the others are learning how to use the toilet.  I had to laugh the other day when my partner, Tia Isa, was reminding the kids of how to go to the bathroom. I thought of all the urine or feces related incidences we had in the halls, and how those students, in their 20´s would´ve benefitted from Tia´s words.  Keyla, who is actually one of the happiest little girls I´ve ever known, is learning to not say “oiga” whenever she wants something. Oiga literally translates to the formal command, Listen, but is used when we would say, “HEY! I´m talking to you!” Whenever she says Oiga (about 100x a day) the other tia or I say, Who is Oiga? My name´s not Oiga! What´s my name?
In addition to teaching them, I am also 1 of 2 computer teachers for the whole school. And for those of you who know me to any degree are as greatly amused by that positioning as I am. Me – one of the least technologically minded people I know – in charge of the computers. Thankfully all I have to do is turn on the computers and pull up the programs that the kids are already familiar with. But it´s still very challenging, because the kids come in and just want to bang away on the keyboard, or push whatever button they can find, or know that they´re supposed to be using the mouse to do something. But since they can´t read, they´re just clicking away at anything. I spend half my time redirecting the kids back to the intended programs, and trying to keep them from turning the computers off.

Right now I live with 2 other teachers from the states. Both are respectful, and from that angle, I count my blessings.  But living with respectful people, and respectful people whose company you genuinely enjoy are 2 different things.  I´ve had some really great roommates (and you know who you are!) in the past, so I guess I can´t push my luck everytime.  I live a guy from the US named Tom, who has lived the last 8 yrs abroad teaching.  But even though he´s been in Ecuador since January, he´s done very little to actually experience the country outside of Cuenca.  I love Cuenca, but it is only one piece of Ecuador´s colorful puzzle.  And he hasn´t even really experienced Cuenca, either.  He spends most of his time in our apt or on our terrace, smoking, drinking, or reading.  When really cool things are happening within a block or 2 of our house, as they often are, Tom can still be found, as always, in our apt.  It´s really of no concern to me, but it just flummoxes me how someone can come to a culture as vibrantly rich as Ecuador, and do nothing but teach, smoke, drink, and read all day, every day.  We also live with Merryn, who is currently wrapped up with an Ecuadorian married man whose German spouse is waiting for him back in Germany.  Freaking Lifetime movie in the making.
Cuenca just celebrated its 450th anniversary. Those of us from the states can´t imagine, as our country isn´t even that old. Cuenca loves celebrating itself, and of course for this big event nothing was held back. I have seen oodles of parades in Cuenca, but the anniversary parade was still quite spectacular. It was also the first parade I´ve seen here that actually had floats, and they were really quite impressive. I didn´t take any pictures of the parade because 1) I´d loaned my camara to a friend, and 2) for the most part, you´ve seen most of what I would´ve captured anyway.

Right now Cuenca is also enjoying a biannual international arts show.  One thing I have always loved about Cuenca is its accessiblity of the arts.  Anyone can walk into any of its museums or galleries right now and see world-class art exhibits, totally for free. And with Cuenca´s rich colonial architecture, strolling up and down its streets, wandering in and out of the various colonial buildings that house the exhibits, is in of itself just a pleasure.

I and everyone else is so thankful that it´s May 1, which means that hopefully the rainy season will soon be coming to an end.  It has either rained, or been despressingly overcast nearly every day since I came back in March.  It rarely rains all day, but the rain is so intermittent that you are just stupid if you leave your house without some type of rain gear, even if you plan on being out for only 1/2 hr.

well, hope all is well with all of you, whereever you may be in the world!

love jenni