Last week was our last week a Quitiliano Sanchez. Anyone who has seen my pictures can probably guess that I love the kids there. There’s just something about walking in to the school in the morning and being greeted by a swarm of children screaming your name and offering you hugs and kisses. From first graders who are little more than babies… to the 7th graders on the verge of puberty.
I’ve spent most of my time with the 6th grade, and I became quite attached quickly. It would be hard not to. They all have such big hearts.
Monday
On Monday (the 20th), the children started talking about how they would have to move on to 7th grade, and how they have heard not-so positive things about the teacher. They said how sad they were to leave Silvia (their current teacher). Silvia got up and gave them a really moving chat (which almost brought me to tears). She was saying how ultimately their success doesn’t depend on their teacher, it depends on them… how this was just the foundation, and that it’s a tough world. When she asked who wants to do better for themselves, everyone raised their hands.
After school we returned to Alejandro’s restaurant for lunch. Today was passion fruit juice, chicken, and potatoes and Broccoli! For desert we had taxo (a type of fruit) custard.
Following lunch was the usual routine of Spanish classes. After classes we went to Plaza Foch for some coffee. I separated from the girls for my salsa lessons with my Cubano salsa instructor, Silvano.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, the kids were planning a goodbye party for me, Sam, and Sarah. I think it was supposed to be a surprise… but when the niños kept coming up to me and asking me things like “Will you be here on Friday?” and “How do you say ‘you’re invited’ and ‘goodbye’”… it kind of gave it away (although their secrecy made it even more endearing).
During their laboratory on Tuesday, the kids blew up a paper mache volcano using vinegar and baking soda. Later in the day, the teacher decided to give them a little break (and me a little show). They all pushed aside the desks and preformed three songs for me. One was a traditional Bolivian dance called Corporal. The other two songs were Danza Kurduro (my favorite song) and Jail House Rock. It was quite cute and well-rehearsed.
After lunch and Spanish classes we were headed to Paza Foch to get a drink of coffee when we ran into Alejandro, a friend of Pablo (our guia) that we met at a 70’s party we went to over the weekend. Ten seconds later, we ran into Andy (Pablo’s roommate). From there we decided to go to an Irish pub for a little bit. Turns out another girl we met (Leticia from Argentina) works at the Irish pub. It was pretty crazy running into three people we know, seeing that we don’t have that many friends here, haha.
Wednesday the 22nd- Allison’s Birthday
Wednesday was a fairly normal day at the school (as normal as a day can be in Ecuador when you’re teaching elementary school-ers). One thing that was kind of interesting… was that the music teacher made us three girls come up to his room and take pictures with us pretending to play instruments… Kind of weird, but whatever.
The kids also began organizing a thank you for their teacher to thank her for being so great. They wanted to perform a song for her. That’s where I came in. Everyone had an idea of what song they wanted to do… Some wanted Ave Maria, others wanted Yesterday by the Beatles, etc. They then insisted on doing auditions to see who could sing and who could play the recorder. I told them that I thought everyone who wanted to sing should be able to sing, and that everyone that wanted to play should be able to play. Still… they made me do auditions (even though I said that everyone did great, haha). At the end, I ended up suggesting that they don’t do Yesterday… because it’s actually quite a sad song (I translated it and they agreed). Instead I suggested that they sing Thank You, by Natalie Merchant. I translated it for them, and they agreed that it was much more appropriate.
After school we went to the Swiss Hotel to get a cake for Allison. We ended up getting a BIG chocolate cake. We brought the cake to the Spanish school, where we were having cooking lessons that day. We made llapingachos (potato tortillas) and salad. The salad was lettuce, beets, onions and tomatoes with lemon and salt as a sauce. The chocolate cake was delicious and Allison really appreciated it.
Right after lunch we had Spanish classes for 2 hours. Sooo long as usual, but we do talk about a lot of interesting topics (i.e. my teacher’s past students, the president, poverty, food, etc).
After class we went to the Plaza Foch for a while to get coffee before my salsa lesson.
After dinner I was really excited to go out because we were going with Pablo, Andy, Pablo alto, and Leti to the Aguilon (a salsa club). But… when we got there… Sarah said she felt unsafe. To make a long story short… it ended up being an annoying night, because of some related drama. Sam and I (and Pablo) find ourselves looking out for Sarah a lot because she’s younger (17)… I was really excited to dance salsa, because no one else in my program likes to and I finally had a chance to… O well. That’s why I’m taking my private lessons.
Thursday
On Thursday after school we went to the Teleferico (which is basically just a gondola that runs up the Pichincha volcano in Quito). We went with Silvia (the 6th grade teacher) and Mariana (the English teacher). It was a little scary at first because we were so high up, but I eventually got used to it. At the top, we were able to look out over all of Quito.
After the Teleferico, Mariana invited us back to her house (which was nearby). I was very surprised… Her house was comfortable, but by our standards in the U.S…. we would consider it to be poor. Her furniture was old and ragged with stains, there was no glass in the windows, very little decorations, and it smelled very musty. The room was very small. Only knowing Mariana from school, I would have assumed that she was middle class… Even still, she welcomed us into her home and prepared coffee and toast for us. Eye opening.
Friday
Friday was our last day in Q. Sanchez. I knew it was going to be a hard day for me.
The night before we prepared a few goodbye gifts for the kids and the teachers. We printed out a bunch of pictures and made a few collages/notes.
In the morning we went around the school to every class and took a group picture. We were planning to eventually print them out and give them to the classes so they could hang them in the rooms.
At recreo, we went to the 6th grade class for our goodbye party. I was blown away. Immediately upon entering the room, we were swarmed by hugs and pictures that the kids had drawn for us. The kids had also each brought in a fruit and made an amazing fruit salad. They ushered Samantha, Sarah and I to a few seats and began a performance, complete with dancing (in costume) and a thousand kind words. I was trying to hold back tears throughout the entire thing… but when the niños started crying and pleading that we wouldn’t leave… I couldn’t help it. At one point I look over in the corner and see Whitman (the cutest little boy… whose father died when he was just two) balling with his head in his lap. Too much. I went over to comfort him… and he just kept saying… “You’re like a sister to me. Don’t leave. Don’t leave.” I’m fairly certain that my hugs didn’t make it all better. After a few hard minutes of tears and hugs, things calmed down a bit… I’m absolutely heartbroken to leave these kids and also absolutely blow away by their kindness, intelligence, and wonderful hearts.
Updates on the weekend and this week to come. Peru in 2 days...
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