Quito Diaries: Inaguraciòn

I just got back from la inaguración (opening party) for our classes in San Francisco and even though we’re all completely exhausted (I’m currently writing this in bed), the party went so well and we couldn’t be more excited about starting our programs.

This morning we woke up at 7:30 am, made some breakfast (strawberries, bananas, yogurt, coffee and toast, to be exact) and headed off to catch a bus into San Francisco, carrying with us about 15 plastic chairs, 8 plastic tables, a trash can, broom, dustpan and speakers for la música. The bus driver made us pay double because we took up the entire back of the bus- we had so much stuff with us!

Once in San Francisco, we carried everything into our new little schoolhouse (which happens to be an old bar called “Burger San Pancho,” complete with beer advertisements on the wall that we promptly covered up). A quick note on San Francisco: it’s a quiet, rural, peaceful little town surrounded by mountains. About two blocks of shops constitute “downtown,” not including a nice soccer field and great ice-cream shop that we frequently hit. The bar-converted-school is actually quite nice. It has a great yard in the back and plenty of space for teaching, and even though there is a giant, wooden bar in the front, once we set up everything (white board, balloons, brightly colored chairs and tables) the old bar was hardly recognizable. We turned on some music (reggaeton and salsa) and before too long, the kids started to trickle in.

The party lasted two hours, 25 kids and 9 parents showed up. We played “Piedras, Papél, Tijeras” (rock, paper, scissors), “Simón Dice” (Simon says), “Luz Rojo, Luz Verde” (red light, green light) and ¨Juego de Sillas¨(musical chairs). The kids made name-tags, we introduced ourselves, we explained the programs and ate a snack of bananas and lemonade.

So it’s official! Manna Ecuador programs have started- we go back tomorrow at 2:00 for clase numero uno, and couldn’t be happier about it.