Today was the first time we went to Cahuazun Grande. We met at Universidad de Cuenca and took a bus for a hour up into the mountains. I tired to sleep but the roads were so rough that there was no way I could sleep. I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway, because I was too excited. Muy emocionadado! When we got there, all the children came out to greet the van. After we got settled, the Principal - Rumi, Cristian (one of the teachers) and another teacher prepared a welcome ceremony for us. The ceremony was founded in the Andean culture. They had it set up in the formation of the Andean cross. Jen, my professor was also included in the ceremony. The four corners represented the formation of an open partnership with OSU, Universidad de Cuenca and the community school. Jen represented wind, Rumi represented Mother Earth, Cristian represented fire, and the other professor represented water. Each of them said why the element was vital to all of our lives.
(Welcome Ceremony)
(Group of 1st and 2nd graders)
(President of the Student Council)
After the welcome ceremony, we had some time to play with the children before class started. Chasmine and I had a dance party with a lot of the younger children. The music teacher turned on the stereo and all the children started to dance. It was so wonderful. Man, did they wear me out. That was just the beginning! We love Selfies in the US but they love Selfies even more!!!
(But first, let me take a SELFIE)
Next, we met with the entire faculty, student body president, and the president of the parent association. They extended words of welcome and we discussed what the partnership would entail.
(Second grade classroom)
Andrew and I were given our own classroom. We will be rotating through the "7 Basics" at the school during our time here. They have 7 subjects that they teach at the school. I got what I asked for.... I was forced to use my Spanish. Andrew doesn't speak any Spanish but he is phenomenal with the kids. The professors don't speak English either, so it was stressful getting started. Andrew and I were assigned to teach first and second grade. We focused on the first graders. We had a art session with the students, which was right up my alley. We had a class of about 15 students. They all painted different types of fruits for us.
The professor had all of the students come up one by one and introduce themselves and present their art to us. When they presented their art, I would ask them what color the fruit was, which fruit they painted, then I would translate it into English and have them repeat. I love teaching English.
The same professor is also the music teacher, so we got to work with the music students. All of the students introduced themselves and asked me questions. They sang and played their flutes for us.
The school let out early so we could work with the administrators and teachers.
(Students presenting their music)
Next week we will be having a Mother's Day and community festival. The community is holding a festival in our honor. Tomorrow we are going to pick out the pig and shop for the feast. At this festival we will be doing a dance for the community. We will do a traditional Andean dance and we also taught the teachers a few of our dances. Well, no one could decide on a dance so I proposed the Wobble... LAWLZ. It was hilarious because it was me and two others students teaching the Wobble. We taught our partners the dance and we will be working on the traditional dance over the next week.
(Traditional dances)
(Wobble baby Wobble)
After this we went to the main city and met with the Superintendent of the school district. The ministry of education wanted to know what we were doing at the school and what we planned to accomplish. After this we went to a woman's cooperative in SigSig. SigSig means "where it all begins" It is a very small and beautiful city.
Ecuador is known for their textiles and hats made of palm leaves. A woman taught me how to weave their special "Panama Hats." These hats can range from $20-$5000 depending on how fine the fiber is - I also took a picture with the largest hat in the world. LOL. I bought a lot of neat products from these women. Que Bonita!
(That's a big hat!)
(Weaving like a boss)
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