TGIF

¡Hola!

Thank God it´s Friday. Teaching five hours of classes a day is exhausting. And getting up at 5 AM doesn´t make this any easier. Fortunately next week is a short week. On Monday they inaugurate their newly elected president, and so school is closed. I don´t see the connection, but I´m not complaining.

These first three days went about well as could be expected. I didn´t kill any of the children -- but I came darn close. Yesterday I had two classes of donkeys. The Ecuadorians call kids aged 13-16 "burros". And asses they were. Today I taught little kids. They are so cute! All day long, they would run up to me and hug me, both inside and outside of class. They greeted me with a song clalled "Morning Teacher", sung to the tune of Frere Jacques. They made up for yesterday´s classes of burros.

Today was my first day of riding the bus to school with out Gabriel, my guide. And all went well. Although I will say that riding the bus is a violent experience. The bus races along the road at 40 mph, and stops suddenly whenever anyone inside or outside the bus signals the driver. With all this herky-jerky stopping and starting, you don´t need coffee to wake up. Much to my amazement, several people on the bus are able to sleep. Sixty percent of my energy is trying to stay in my seat, and the other forty percent is trying to figure out where I am so I don´t miss my stop.

Well, I have to get going.
cheers,
Stacey