International Festival

Just got home from a wonderful celebration of the international flavour of our school. We have students from 45 different countries. There were food booths from 17 countries (mmmm - Ole had an Argentinian filet sandwich and I had a Jordanian chicken shawarma followed by Columbian coffee) and our students and parents entertained us with dances from many countries. There were games and tombola and prizes to be had. This is a combination celebration of our international community and a fund-raiser.

Before I add the pictures I need to write one wonderful custom from Ecuador. The cheek kiss! Now that I have  met all of the parents of my students, when I meet them, we always greet each other with a kiss on the right cheek. The same when I meet colleagues. OK - we don't necessarily kiss each other as we pass in the hall, but when we meet outside of our daily job, we always greet each other with a cheek kiss. If you are a newcomer when you arrive at a function, you go around the whole room and shake hands with those you don't know and cheek kiss those you do. However, at the end of the evening, you go around and cheek kiss everybody, because by then you are no longer strangers. The most startling experience for me was one parent meeting I had where we shook hands at the beginning of the meeting. After a fairly acrimonious meeting where parents disagreed with everything we said, we agreed to disagree and everybody got up and cheek kissed as we took our departure. Isn't that incredible? I love this culture!!!!

Sadly, there was no Canadian representation, other than a flag, even though there are 7 Canadian teachers...next year maybe we can do something.

Here are the pictures.

Overview of stage area 



Brazilian kids



Flamenco dancers - students can join an after-school activity
to learn Flamenco dancing.

Our seniors (gr. 12)  can move!

The Columbian community (parents and children) are very engaged.

 



American kids

GIN and tree planting

I went tree planting with 100 Middle School students (grades 6-8 - i.e. 12-14 years old). We have a very active GIN group in our school. Yeah - it took a while to get used to calling a student group "the gin group". It stands for Global Issues Network, and it was a subgroup of the GIN took the initiative to organize this service-learning activity yesterday.
We were bussed to a city-owned park south of Quito where there is a project to reforest the hillside with native species.



We got off the bus and each person picked up one or two saplings
and headed for the clearing on the other side of the eucalyptus
stand. The first task was to move about 1000 saplings to the
planting site.



Most of us went several times back and forth
carrying the baby trees into the clearing.

Students were divided into 6 working groups
Within the groups they were buddied-up. One
to hold the tree and the other to fill the hole.
The holes had already been dug - so the task
was to plant a tree in each hole.

Group instruction on the procedures.



This is how it is done!

Kids fanned out across the hill, looking for the holes to plant
their trees in.

Well deserved lunch after 2 hours of  planting. Some teams (of 2) planted 18-22 trees, others planted 2-3. Generally, most of the students worked their hearts out, but there were a few who, whether unused to such labour or to being so close to nature, struggled with being there. Just like at home, many kids in our international school community grow up with "nature deficit". There are not a lot of spiders and insects at this altitude, but the sight of  even one caused some students to stop working altogether. Others, not wanting to get their hands dirty, were also less productive. But there were other kids who were excited to find interesting lizards, a lizard egg, and grubs, etc. in the holes.
We returned to school proud of a job well-done to re-instate
a native forest. The Gods must have been with us because we got a huge
rainstorm later that evening that watered our newly-planted forest.
 

Off-map driving SW of Otavalo

On Sunday - we took a chance on some more off-map driving. The road/track was very iffy in parts, with deep ruts and narrow track for tires. But, Ole is an excellent driver and we got through a couple of harrowing spots. Thank God! - because there was not another soul on these paths. We might still be sitting there, if we had gotten stuck!!!

Mojanda Lake (18 km SW of Otavalo)



The dirt track was generally dry, except in this spot.

Little Mojanda Lake



Once we got to this side of the Black Ridge we were on a
fairly level road again. But the climb up the backside of
the ridge was definitely dicey.





This is the road we should have been on. But none of the roads
were on the map, so unfortunately we missed it. Nevermind - it
was a great adventure.

Weekend in Cayambe and Otavalo

Great adventure exploring Cayambe Coca Reserve and Mojanda Lakes this weekend! We did lots of dirt road driving trying to find our way. Our Chev Vitara is not a 4 WD and the park guard advised us that we would not be able to make it to the Refugio at 4600m on Cayambe Volcano. He was right. The big rocks and deep ruts forced us to leave the car about 2 kms from the Refugio and to hike the rest. It took us an hour to walk those last 2 kms and 300 meters elevation, against the strong icy wind howling down from the glaciers and in the clouds and rain. Once we were there, though, the clouds thinned a bit and we got a glimpse of the toe of the glacier. Magnificent! It would have been another hour over large, slippery wet rocks to touch the snow so we opted to leave that for another time.



The view of Cayambe from the north side - for our hike we
approached from the south side. It was cloud covered by the
time we got to snow level.

But then the clouds thinned and our physical
efforts were rewarded by  some stunning scenery.

You can spend the night here and attend glacier-climbing
school. Probably very cold and dismal most of the time.

These glacier chunks are one hour hike away. Next time...

We spent Saturday night in this very quiet relaxing monastery turned into a guest house. In this town church bells rang every hour. Idyllic!

View of Imbambura Volcano to the north.

Note - calla lily growing in the cobble stones.

meanwhile in Entwistle, Alberta...

2038 kms...round trip

What a fantastic trip we had. We decided to return home east of the Andes, to see something different. Maps, including our GPS, for Ecuador are a) non-existent; b) outdated; and c) generally unreliable. But we struck out anyway. We figured we might be able to make it 500 kms to spend the night in Banos before we continued on to Quito. However....

...we didn't take into account that there may be landslides and
washed out roads. About 3 hours into our trip we came to a village
where all the cars  were stopped. We were told the wait would be
1 hour before we could go on, but we did not know why exactly
we were being held up. After 1.5 hours waiting,  buses and cars
began coming from the other direction. After about 60 cars came
through, our east-bound traffic began to move. We were
directed onto a small road leading down to a small bridge crossing
a raging river. The road contined along a mucky, tenuous mountain
track. Finally, we saw why the road on the south side of the river
valley had been closed. This detour was about 20 kms, crawling along.
It was a great adventure!!

Our Chevrolet Vitara does not have 4 WD - which can be worrisome.
But, so far, it has brought us through some pretty slick situations.
Anyway... on this day we were in the car for 10 hours and managed to
make it only as far as Macas - 330 kms. But what a beautiful trip
it was, nonetheless.

 

Within 20 kms of our destination, we ran into political parades
demonstrating support for the candidates for the presidential
elections to be held 3 days later. These  people are celebrating
the indigeneous party.



On the second day of our home trip we left Macas at 6:30 am with the
hope of getting to Banos to see Tungurahua before the mid-morning
clouds rolled in. We made it!!! When we were in this same spot 6 weeks ago
we had hoped to see this volcano erupting. However, the clouds were so thick
then that we had no idea how close the volcano really was. The eruptions have stopped now.
We just made it in time to get this picture. 10 minutes later the volcano was again covered by clouds.



Ecuador is an incredible country. It is truly a hidden gem. The national parks offer unlimited hiking and exploration. The people are friendly and helpful. We are fortunate to have this opportunity to live here!!!!

Cuenca and Vilcabamba

We spent one week in Cuenca - 6 hours a day for 5 days, with intensive Spanish lessons. It was good to get a more solid conversational Spanish input.

Panama hats are originally from Ecuador. They are woven in
villages surrounding Cuenca and shaped and finished in factories
like this in Cuenca.



There are also many artesans weaving. I bought an ikat shawl
from this weaver. They are woven on a loom that he wears around
his body.



We went hiking in Cajas National Park, 30 km west of Cuenca.
The paramo here holds a lots of small lakes. It was pouring rain,
but our hour and half hike was still incredibly beautiful.



We also hiked in Podocarpus National Park (30 km north Vilcabamba).
This 5 km hike took 4 hours - it was not raining, but the path was
very muddy and wet and precarious in some places. Ole is waiting for
 cloud to sweep me off of this ridge. Another breathtaking hike!



Street vendors in Vilcabamba. Vilcamba is about 80km from the
Peruvian border, hence the two Peruvian ladies selling stuff from
Peru.



The poster says "Vilcabamba - World Centre for Gerontology
Investigations". People are said to live long lives here (over 100
years old).



Maybe it's true....