Three, Two, One...

Walking through the school gate I am greeted with chaos as children run out of classrooms to come and give me a hug.  On the playground kids swing like monkeys on a tired swing set with broken swings and a collapsed foot bridge.  Puddles are jumped in, hair is pulled, and out of the corner of my eye I see one kid give another one a nice smack on the head.  I tune out the chaos, greet the teachers with the proper formalities and encourage the kids back into their classrooms.  After a year and a half, I am well known as the token Gringa, Rebe, though most of the children call me “teacher” when I see them in the school.  I have come for various projects throughout my service equipped with my guitar, a paintbrush, a teambuilding activity or a plan to make a fool of myself.  Now with three months left of service I enter the school ground equipped with a story. 

And this truly amazes me.  With my guitar, with bottles of paint, with a plan to make a fool of myself… with all of these things I have not been able to control the chaos.  I have muted it, but I have not controlled it.  But, when I open a book and I read a story, I look out at the students and watch as the energy that had fueled the chaos slips away to be replaced with curious eyes, eager ears, and steady hearts.  What a luxury to have someone reading you a story.  The story I have brought to the school over the past few months has been that of “Ratoncita Sisa.”

Maybe you remember a blog post from last June… it was about a project I was doing with a group of kids after school to write and illustrate a story about Lloa.  The group created the character, a little mouse named Sisa, who was on a quest to travel to all parts of Lloa in search of a magic wedge of cheese that would give her confidence and vision to work toward her dreams.  For two months last spring this project had great momentum and a consistent turnout of participants, but then summer hit, the children dispersed and when school started up again in September momentum for the project had slipped away.

I don’t know if the children shared in this experience, but every time I walked by the fountain in the park where Sisa was said to have lived, I felt a little defeated… UNTIL, I was given the opportunity to work on this project in the schools instead of in after school hours.  And so Sisa has continued her journey for that magic wedge of cheese this time involving the children from the school in the center of Lloa as well as the children from the schools of two neighboring communities. 

San Luis

I work in the community of San Louis that has 22 students every Wednesday.  It is an hour walk to and from the school… an hour walk amongst the clouds, the cows, and the green patchwork mountains.  As I walk I soak up the morning sun with an unconscious smile and my mind whirls through thoughts heavily tainted with the presence of a feeling of transition.  In three months Lloa will not be the home I walk back to at the end of my day.  

The puzzled together illustration for our book by the students of San Luis

Thursday I go with a driver 45 minutes to the school of Urauco that has 13 students.  This community is breathtaking.  It is on a mini plateau that slants up toward the mouth of the volcano Guagua Pichincha.  I arrive with my hands deep in my pockets and shutter from both the cold and amazement that I should be so lucky to have stumbled upon what feels like one of the world’s secret.  It’s beauty gives character to the word, magic.  Green, blue, white, soft, sharp, gentle, fierce, ancient, bulging, wise… Urauco is so many things.  I encourage the children to find their own words to describe their home; I encourage them to feel these words within themselves.  Ratoncita Sisa is a lucky mouse to be able to travel throughout a land of such beauty.  This is one of the goals we have in this project.  Trying to get the children to take pride in their beautiful home.  

Puzzled together illustration for our book by the students in Urauco

Hours I am not working on this project are filled with a personal project I am working on to create something special for Mayra for when I leave in June.  I am also starting to get deeper into studying Rudolf Steiner’s books which has been transformative on top of everything else I am experiencing. 

3,2,1… I will be on US soil before I know it.  Is that right?  Did I arrive yesterday or was that 2 years ago.  3,2,1.

Molly came to visit in February.  Here we are with by best Ecuadorian friend and Spanish tutor, Diana and her mom.

My host mom Isabel, selling "Rico Mote con Chicharron" at the market on Sunday.