Time flies...

Wow, it has been so long since I updated my blog…apologies! Internet access is hard to come around on a regular basis! There is soo much I have learned and experienced in these last weeks. I am absolutely smitten with life here in Ecuador-It is such a beautiful blessing to wake up here every morning, knowing we are so lucky to have the opportunity to be here. Anyways, with that being said I will try to share with you a little bit of the latest happenings!

A normal day In Mt. Sinai:
So to give you all a better idea of what my life looks like. During the week I get up around 6 o´clock to get ready for school. I drink some coffee and eat some bread or oatmeal and look at my lesson plans for the day to make sure I am set! Aaron and Becky are usually up getting ready as well so I often times get to sit down with them. I leave our house and walk to the school I work at, which theoretically is a 5 minute walk, but usually ends up taking a little longer because I run into friends, neighbors or students who want to chat. I get to school around 7:15 and welcome my students. School starts up at 7:30! Each day has a bit different set of subjects to be taught in 40 minute blocks and there is a recess at 9:30 that lasts 10. This is honestly one of my favorite parts of the job. It is when I get to just chill out and spend time with my students. It is a great time to talk and get to know more about their lives. Then classes begin again. My favorite classes to teach are religion, art, reading and music. School ends at 12 and it usually takes about 30 minutes for all the parents to show up! Afterwards the nuns that I work with insist that I stay for lunch, which I frequently partake in. Otherwise I eat with neighbors or eat something quick at home. The afternoons are free so we are encouraged to go out and meet our neighbors. It is the best part of the day! It is so fun to meet all of the familes, and they have been so gracious and welcoming to us as we adjust to our lives here. In the evening there are often events going on at the church such as daily mass, prayers and rosaries which we can attend, otherwise we spend time together at home. Then there is dinner and nightly prayer. The sun sets around 6:30 here so it is dark pretty early.

House blessing and mass:
To celebrate the opening of our new home in Mt. Sinai, we celebrated a mass in the living room. It was a lovely bilingual service with prayers and songs from both the US and Ecuador. It was really exciting to share this experience with our community members from Duran and various work partners.

Futbol:
So, going to a Futbol game in the middle of the week when you are teaching the next day, but so worth it! Megan, our in-country director/team Barcelona enthusiast invited us to accompany her to a Barcelona game (one of the teams in Ecuador). It was great! There were about 10 or so people from our group who went to the stadium. On the way they had Jerseys for three dollars, so we equipped ourselves in the team´s colors-yellow and black. So if 10 gringos weren´t enough to leave all the Ecuadorians scratching their heads, add 10 jerseys, and the world basically exploded. Everbody watched us walk in with disbelief. During the game, several people came up wanting pictures with us like we were Mickey Mouse or something! It was pretty incredible! Also I have never been to a sporting event with such enthusiastic fans. In one of the sections “El Sur Oscura”-“the dark south” the fans were moving around like crazy, singing, shouting, setting off canons and fireworks. Wow! Didn´t seem like the safest thing to be happening in a contained area but was fantastically exciting! Unfortunately the team didn´t win in the end, but it made for a quick (and an assumingly safer) exit .
Community living:
One of my favorite parts about living in Ecuador is getting to spend time with my wonderful community mates: Becky, Jenn, Aaron, and Jeff. Within our community we have certain obligations during the week including community night, spirituality night, and five meals together during the week. There is always something going on and someone to talk to. Jeff plays the guitar amazingly so is always serenading us with requests and the latest tunes. (My favorite when I am preparing dinner). The other night Becky was wearing black shorts, a green shirt and a baseball cap-to be dorky I went and put on basically the same outfit to see if the others would notice. (we thought it would be the best joke ever…lame haha ) Anyways, Aaron comes home and decides to get in on our joke so we were all matching when Jenn and Jeff arrived and of course they had to change to match, so we ended up wearing matching outfits for the rest of the day. Haha. What else-oh! Becky and I are choreographing our aerobic routines. We want to make a new one each month (With different genres of music). I can´t tell whether I laugh or exercise more during the process but it is very fun! Last night we decided to write a four part harmony to a short little song diddy which was incredibly entertaining. Aaron and Becky have been busy creating a garden at our home with all sorts of plants. They were just gifted a Verde tree from a friend which they just planted last night.
Of course I would be remiss if I didn´t mention the episodes of cooking locura! During the week, each of us has a turn to prepare food for the house! We have had a lot of fun learning about Ecuadorian cuisine from our neighbors who have been so excited to show us “how to cook”. It is great, these moms start at the basics and are really patient with explaining all the details. It brings them a lot of joy to share their cooking wisdom with us. The staples of food here are rice, lentils, lots of veggies, Verdes (Plantains) and the occasional meat dish. Seco de Pollo is just about everyone´s favorite food here which is Chicken with special spices. Also one of my favorite things here is that there are all different types of fruit here fresh mangos, papayas, pineapple, watermelons, maraculla, tomate de arbol, etc. it is amazing! Each of us in the house are responsible for cooking for the community once during the week. No fires or explosions yet, thankfully, but we still have 10 months left! 

Memoirs of a first-year teacher in Ecuador.
In regards to the fact that a large portion of my time here in Ecuador is spent at my worksite, I have decided to dedicate the following blog to the happenings of my life as a teacher.
One of the adventures about teaching in Ecuador is that no matter how much you plan and anticipate for the next day of teaching, it will almost never go as you plan! There is always something or some event that randomly will come up. For example, one day I arrived at school and the teacher, that I was supposed to be observing, was “running late” and I was asked to stand in with a classroom of 30 kids. The suggestion was to sing some songs or tell a story-which I was thinking wouldn´t be too difficult considering she was to arrive soon. Well soon in Ecuador means a very different thing than soon in the US. Three hours later she showed up! I sang about every song in my repertoire (both English and Spanish haha), taught a drawing class, did some dictations, lead some stretches-meanwhile the students enjoyed a holiday from standard classroom management procedures (due to developing language skills on my behalf). It was…treacherous as you may imagine. After a few conversations with community members I am starting to see the humor in these situations rather than getting down which has been very helpful!

Everyday is crazy and is filled with wonderful moments of “I can´t believe that happened” Such as dogs running into the classroom, children eating paint, sporadic soccer games that trump language lessons, exploding juice boxes. You name the weirdest thing you can think of happening in the classroom and times that by 3.5 that is what teaching in Ecuador is like. :) Ok that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I tend to error on the side of a good story.

I officially opened my own classroom for Segundo año basico, which are children who are 5 and 6, so it is basically like teaching Kindergarten (which is my favorite). It was unfortunately an insanely unorganized transition as I came to school on Monday (never having seen my classroom and having no idea what I was going to teach because I didn´t have teachers manuals). I certainly was banking on enthusiasm allowing me to get through the day! I was really stressed out the first few days, but am feeling more comfortable now! I am determined to do a good job for the students, but this week was certainly not living up to my personal standards. Oh well…poco a poco. On a happier note It is the perfect set up for a first year teacher. I only have 13 students in my class (10 girls and 3 boys) which helps sooo much when it comes to classroom management. Even though they can be tricksters, each student is so unique and special. They melt my heart everyday, and make my job so rewarding.

Anyways, writing about all of this school business reminds me of the lesson plans I must attend to! So off I go. Please everyone look outside and enjoy the sight of new school supplies, football games, sweatshirts, changing leaves and crisp autumn air for me! It is something we in Ecuador missing right now! My blessings go out to each and every one of you. Thank you for all of your support! You are all in my heart and prayers!

Wishing you all the joys and beauties of the changing season,
Marita
xoxo