the first week

I´m here in Puyo for the day, so ill have some time to write.  and fyi,  i´m not going to use capitol letters because i have to press like three buttons at a time to get the capitol letter on this keyboard. i´ll start with arrival. i arrived in quito, looked for my luggage only to find that it wasn´t there. when i tried to ask someone about what to do, they didn´t know how to help me because i didn´t have a phone number and was going to be 8 hours from the airport in the jungle the next day.  so, i went to the arrival area to look for the person who was supposed to be picking me up. no one. i went to the desk that the agency told me to check with if there were problems.  they said they didn´t have any knowledge of my arrival and noone contacted them from youvolunteer. so, i was trying to sort out the situation as calmly as i could, but trying to communicate in my broken spanish and listen to them speak in an accent i´m unfamiliar with was a bit difficult. by this point it was getting dark and i was thinking to take a taxi to a hostel, but wanted to stick around the airport to sort out the luggage situation. also, i didn´t know if the agency had already arranged a hostel stay for me. i went to try and use a phone to call the director when a flight agent probably noticed my distress and asked if i needed help. he lent me his phone and helped to sort out the situation with the agency. after about a half an hour they found my luggage and sorted a ride to the hostel. the driver was very nice. he walked me into the hostel because he said it wasn´t safe for me to be out after dark alone. luckily i didn´t take a taxi by myself. the woman at the hostel talked with the director and told me that someone was going to be picking me up in the morning at 730. i waited until 745 the next morning. no one. so i just took a taxi to the bus station. the taxi driver again got out with me and helped me to purchase a ticket to puyo. the people here are so kind.  the bus ride was beautiful. i saw so many waterfalls. the amazon looks just as i had imagined. so serene and natural. i get off the bus, not expecting to find the pick up person. but right as i exited, i heard, "jessica hicks?" ahhh relief.  manuel was very warm and welcoming. we took a taxi to another bus station. then climbed onto a crowded bus with my big bags and took an hour and a half bus ride to the house.  getting to the house, i didn´t expect to only see two volunteers (who have left already).  both were british guys, very friendly. the lodge is literally in the middle of nowhere. no people around for miles.  i guess i expected remoteness, but having people around definately helps to bare the extreme remoteness. and with only two of us staying at the lodge with nearly 10 bedrooms over this weekend, we will definately feel the isolation. couple of days ago, we came home and there were flying ants all over in the sink. and when i say large ants i mean the size of a large beetle. there were hundreds of them left in a bag on the table by manuel and when he left they got out of the bag. he collected them for a friend to snack on. the locals like the taste. its interesting how different two cultures can be sometimes. 

this week, i spent going to the different schools with sarita, the education coordinator. we take a 700am bus into the schools which range in distance. the walk up to the bus is a half an hour up a steep, rocky hill. then the busr ride is another hour to hour and a half of a rocky dirt road (again, not a commute i expected).  the children are great in most of the schools. like i said, the culture here is so loveable and i can see that i will be able to connect with these children well. we teach 1st through 7th about 30min to an hour for each group.  i love working with the little ones. though, the day is very long, and in some of the schools there is no structure at all and the children can be quite difficult. i was excited about coming here and orienting volunteers, helping them to come up with ideas for teaching, and translating for them. though, this is not the case. i will be orienting two new volunteers next week. but they are only set to stay for two weeks and with the looks of things i don´t know that they will even stay that long. after that there will only be one other volunteer coming for the next two months. so far, every volunteer i´ve met here had plans to stay longer and decided to leave early, including my leader sarita.  i don´t feel that it would be healthy for me to take on the load of a colapsing organization. especially considering the isolation of the house. i feel for the children and know that they deserve to learn english. but know that with the disorganization of the system, they really aren´t getting much out of the process.  so, i´m going to make the best out of the next month, have fun with the kids and try to think a little outside box in terms of the existing curriculum (which in my opinion is terrible). i can see that this culture is very relational in nature and highly values knowing people. and by knowing, i mean really seeing the inner person. so, i´m going to make every attempt to know these children for the short time i have. and expect that the desire to connect and form friendship with charge the motivation to learn a language that will assist in that process. weather or not they learn the words "pencil" "clock" or "eraser" in the process is less important, i believe, than if they gain a small desire to learn the language that will eventually open more opportunities to them in the future.  this seems like a tangible objective for the next month, based on my observations so far.

this week we got to go to a monkey sanctuary in puyo. as soon as we walked in, a monkey jumped strait onto my back nearly knocking me over. it made me jump out of shoes. but this place is so cool.  they try to rehabilitate monkeys that have been trafficed so that they can return them to the wild. though, it seems that many of those monkeys will be there for the remainder of their lives becuase they are so attached to humans already.  but, there is one type of monkey there, i think its just called a white monkey, that is supposed to be the smartest monkey species. apparently they study them a lot in the states and learned that they are capable of creating their own civilization. they were able to barter for bannanas and even come up with the right amount to pay and give exact change. crazy!

after this month, sarita and i have decided that we want to do some traveling through south america. we are for sure planning to go to cusco in peru. then are thinking to head down through buenos aires and chile, all by bus (its much cheeper).  while i´m sad to leave the project, i´m very happy to be getting to travel a bit more. i think this will also improve my spanish.  i´m slowly begining to understand the accent here better and i´m picking up on new words every day. sarita is an extremely seasoned traveler, so i´m in good hands.

next weekend i hope to head to baños. this is a pretty touristy town. its located near a volcano. it has hot springs, canyoning, and lots of other fun stuff for tourists. i don´t know that im brave enough for the canyoning, but we´ll see. more to come next week. hopefully not so long!