It's been just over two weeks since we moved into the Manna House in Conocoto and about as long since my last blog entry. So far, everything's been great in the Manna-land that is our house in Conocoto. Between the proximity of our community programs and getting to know everyone better to the simpler pleasures of cooking for overselves and ever-present (usually) internet access, our first two weeks in the house have been good ones. We have been able to enjoy the breath-taking views and serenity of the valley without forgoing Quito's nearby excitement.
Most of our time these past two weeks has been occupied by running a summer camp with one of our community partners, Aliñambi. The organization has been one of our closest partners in the community where we work, and it is very succesful at providing cheap education and healthcare services to the locale of San Fransisco. The five new PDs, along with two of our Ecuadorian friends working in child education, all worked together to host a two-week summer camp. We targeted children ages 5-12, teaching English, math, art, baking, recycling, sports, geography and dental hygiene over the course of the camp.
I started every day by teaching an English class to the oldest group of students and it definitely served as a crash course in teaching for me. I was continually amazed at how smart and willing to learn the students were, yet forever confronted by the difficulty of fighting the early-teenage "too cool for school" attitude of my students. After English class, my mornings were occupied with helping out with the various art, sports, and math classes (and attempting to maintain the short attention span of the always energy-packed kids), while two days I taught dental hygiene and geography classes.
The camp culminated with a field trip to the small amusement park at the base of the mountain overlooking Quito, which was highly anticipated by the children. As the bus entered Quito, many of the kids stared awestruck at the city with wide-eyes. It was at this point that all of the "profes" realized that this was the first trip to Quito for many of the students, even though the sprawling city sits only 20 minutes away from their small semi-rural community. While it's sometimes easy to take traveling for granted, kids always seem to find a way to put things into perspective and reinvigorate your reasons for working in a country like Ecuador.
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