Normal life...

I feel as though my last several blog posts have been about my travels rather than my life here in Ecuador. Sorry, I think my daily life as boring, but that is because I live it.

So I will blog about a typical week in my site.

I spend a large amount of my time right now teaching English. I tend to complain about this a lot to my friends and family, and anyone who will listen. But it has gotten much better and I really don’t mind it, most of the time. There are two “escuelas” in my town; these are 2nd grade through 7th grade schools. I alternate weeks teaching at these. I also help out at a “colegio” (i.e. high school, 8th grade and up) that specializes in agriculture.

I spend my Mondays teaching English at the escuelas. Really I only have couple hours of work on Monday and I tend to do laundry (by hand…it takes forever), cleaning, studying Spanish, lesson plans, researching design ideas/calculations/costs, have random meetings, mingas, and whatever else needs to be done the rest of the day.

On Tuesdays I go to the high school early and sit in the library and do whatever falls into my lap. Usually I help the English teachers with their English, or visit the English classes and talk to the students. I am also helping them design a drip irrigation system for one of their large greenhouses; however, this has been on pause for about a month now. Another teacher wants me to give a presentation on irrigation and hydrology to his classes. This is planned for mid January. I have made some friends with the teachers here and I enjoy my time at the colegio. Around lunch time I head into Guaranda for some lunch, groceries and internet.

Wednesdays depend on the week, one week I have English classes in the mornings and the other week I usually schedule meetings with various people or work with farmers. In the afternoons, I have started an English course for anyone who wants to come. This gives students who really want to learn English a chance to do so. (Turns out 45 minutes one or twice a month will not teach kids English.) Actually an hour and a half once a week probably won’t either, but it will give them a head start.

Thursdays also depend on the week. Every other week I have an English class. But for example this week, I met with two guys from a farmer’s group from a different community who want help with irrigation and next Thursday, I will go to there town and talk to them about it and scope out the land (field check!).

Fridays tend to be light (by design). I have English classes, but the escuelas are rarely in session on Friday afternoon (by that I mean late morning). So last week I visited my family, ate with them, brought them rice krispie treats, did laundry, and then worked in my garden a bit and read.

Weekends vary, depending on visits from friends or to friends. If I am in my site I may go to Guaranda and hang out with a group of Volunteers there (World Teach and Peace Corps). And every first Sunday is a meeting with my farmer’s group. This is a rather tedious 2-3 hour meeting, but the people are very friendly.

Living the life :) It is nice making your own schedule and I love that everyday is different! And each month I get busier and busier...