Mis niños de Villa Ticca

Villa Ticca...the name of the daycare I volunteered at for about three weeks. Twas only for a short time because of scheduling conflicts with my English classes and with the daycare's shortened summer hours for the second half of July. Nevertheless, it was a most rewarding and oh so fun experience. I got to listen to cute little kids speaking Spanish for about four hours a day and introduce them to some fun games. Red light green light was a surprising hit as was Bingo (perhaps because I used little gummies on the free space and gave a gummy as a winner's treat...nah, that didn't have anything to do with it, I'm sure).

The facility was pretty big, but simple with a few classrooms, this indoor patio area, a dining room, kitchen, etc. Any surface area was quickly converted into a soccer field in spite of such obstacles as a metal swingset (without swings), a spiral staircase, concrete columns, other children...none of these mattered. They LOVED futbol!!! We played every single day!

Here we have Cinthia, Yesica, Lady and Jennifer playing the ever popular Bingo. They wanted to play every day after the gummy introduction, but I replaced the gummies with stickers after that. ;)


















Susana, what a ham!
























Every day at noon, I'd open the door to the daycare and surrender to the rushing mob of children scrambling to hug me. Boy, it was a tough gig. ;) I'm gonna miss those little tikes and their amazing hugs that nearly toppled me over each day. This is my big helper Yesica, sweetheart!


















We were banished to the rooftop one day because we were making so much noise and the littler group of kiddos was napping. These kids were so creative with their playtime. With so few resources, they could create a game out of practically nothing.
























My young boys, Matias and Anthony, plotting some mischievous plan.
























My favorite photo...it conveys so much more than I ever could with my clumsy words strung together.
























Anahi was such a cuddle bug!


















Giggling girlies: Giovana, Yesica, Anabela, Cinthia, Susana
























Kenny and Jacko. Check out the view behind him!


















The south of Quito has a reputation for being dangerous and impoverished and while it may look like that, I felt perfectly safe walking around here during the day. It's more of a community than you'll find in many barrios in north Quito. Several of the ladies who work at Villa Ticca have children at the daycare. It feels like a true family. Every day they kiss each other hello and good-bye. I honestly felt warm and gooey inside when I was there. :)


















Anthony and Kevin about to karate chop me!


















Joselyn's ready for her close-up, Mr. De Mille.
























My last day was so sad. My little "escolares" (kids old enough to go to school) kept hugging me and slipping me notes that said "I hope you never leave Ecuador; you're the best teacher ever." Oh God! Make it stop! Then they gave me this poster. Soooo sweet! I'll never forget them and I hope to return soon so that they're not too big to have forgotten me. :)

I went to the blessing & grand opening of another Villa Ticca in the small town of Peguche when I first arrived in Ecuador. These facilities were both founded by Dutch women and are funded entirely by Dutch and other foreign sponsors. The facilities were quite charming and well-equipped at their inauguration, but now need a lot of maintenance and the kids are always in need of school supplies (even simple things like paper and pencils).

Several of the kids have truly depressing home lives: extreme poverty, dead parents, malnutrition or no food at home at all, crumbling houses, etc... If you're interested in helping out these adorable kiddos, check out the website and the video below for more info:

http://www.villaticca.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=NL&hl=nl&v=W6RjQf_yUqE

All of the children featured in the home visits were in my group of escolares. My heart ached as I watched this video, but when I returned to the daycare and hugged each of those smiling kids, I realized how lucky I was to know them and to witness their smiling faces each day in spite of such struggle.

Hope you find them as lovable and endearing as I do! :) They will always be in my heart.

I heart Montañita

So since I've given the blog a facelift, all of my text has shifted. I hate doing this blog, but I love sharing my experiences with you, so I shall suffer somewhat silently for a while longer. :)

Almost two weeks ago, I went to the beachy hippy town of Montañita on the coast of Ecuador to celebrate the birthdays of two fabulous gal pals, Cat and Johana. A pic of the entire crew can be seen at the end of the blog (Sandra, Deborah, Manda, Rachel, Cat, Johana and I). The pictures below are kind of a mess, so I will just write briefly instead of navigating through the pics and creating havoc among the pictures...

8 hours by bus from Quito to Guayaquil, another bus to Santa Elena and then another to Montañita for about 3 hours more. Montañita is an adorable little beach town with lots of thatch roof and wooden huts as restaurants, hostels and whatnot. It's a haven for surfers and hippies. That amazing breakfast of Nutella pancakes with fresh strawberries and, yes, strawberry ice cream was savored at Hola Ola (why hello to you, too, Wave) and sent me swiftly into the first food coma of the weekend. The weather wasn't very ideal for frolicking at the beach, but we did our best. The difference between high and low tide was remarkable! We stayed at a beachfront hostel that had a 26 bed dorm-like setting in the attic...we chose a private room! We went out, danced salsa, pranced about in the ocean...it was a spectacular time! Here are some pics to liven up this bare bones commentary.

Baños doesn't = Bathrooms in this case

Disclaimer: Not feeling very verbose this evening so let's get down to the nitty gritty. ;)

A week ago. Picturesque town of Baños. Two Ecuadorian friends, two new German friends, one new Swiss friend + me = fun!















View of the town from the top of our hostel.















Sugar cane stalls in front of the hostel...cane juice or a potent alcoholic beverage called sanduche (sandwich) for sale.





























About to bridge jump...X-ray reveals ultimate fear inside.






























Marcelo's thinking, "Ew, do I really wanna go into those hot springs?...No."
























At the base of the town waterfall hammin' it up.















It's views like these that make it so rough to head back to Quito.















Let's all pile into this metal cage and send ourselves across this canyon!
























The waterfall on the right was formed by lava. Another stupendous contribution of lava...the lava lamp. ;)
























We drove, hiked, cable car'd, crawled, and biked to various H2O falls in and around Baños.



















Here fishy fishy fishy!















Our nighttime Chiva carriage awaits to wisk us off to a cloudy view of the Tungurahua volcano.





























Haha! YES!












Getting rough with the candy. Still haven't tried this stuff, but it's for sale everywhere.

One more perk to abundant sources of lava...you can build stuff out of it...like churches!

The faithful can get their Sunday mass in as well as hit up some shopping for religious icons or inflatable toys just outside.






Tungurahua spewing up again.





































Not pictured here: a frigid but exhilarating canyoning experience in which we donned wetsuits, jackets, helmets, canvas shoes, and rubber butt pads to repel down waterfalls along a rope. Smashing good time! :)