First of all, have to say something about the horror in Orlando...I can't say anything that has not been said better by others.  Just how very sad for those families, young people, and the world in general....wonder where it will all end. We have a young volunteer whose parents are first generation Afghanistani  and Muslim.  She wrote a beautiful piece on our Whats App chat about how sad she is for the people who have suffered from the Orlando and other horrors of this type and how this type of tragedy should help us all to be more sympathetic toward the refugees who are fleeing their countries to escape from that same type of oppression and violence.  I have asked her for permission to republish her comments so maybe I'll be able to do that later.

I have been making some arrangements to come back East for my 53rd high school reunion...Surrattsville High School. Its scheduled for the end of August.  We'll have two weeks of training in Quito prior to my reunion so I'll miss school for about 3 weeks.  Seems pretty awful but I guess they will do just fine without me....they have gotten along just fine all these years without me so it puts my value into perspective.  :)


Gonna post some more photos from my unimportant life.  This past weekend, another volunteer, Becky, and I were planning to go over to a nearby beach, Playas, just for the day, on the bus, very low profile.  When I asked my host family sister, Adela, for some ideas for the day, she told me she was going to drive over herself and would be happy to take us and furthermore, she was staying overnight in a family property and that there was plenty of room for us if we wanted to stay.  So.....we accepted her offer and I have posted some photos below.  It was a very pleasant surprise.

I'll start with this one because it was taken by Becky and posted on Facebook and is pretty good of me, if I do say so myself.  I guess I look pretty white !!!!  Adela is young and very pretty so it is easy for her to look good in pics.  This was taken on the beach in Playas.  

A view of the beach...its pretty undeveloped...those are the only two condo type structures along the whole beach.  You can see the fishing boats pulled up - they are commercial boats that go out during the week. 

This is Becky and Adela paying for our lunch.  This little place is called a "waco" which is Spanish for hole, comparable to our  "hole in the wall."  And the food was delicious. 

Becky and Adela headed for the water.....until Becky saw all the "medusas" aka jellyfish.

This is a view of the property where we stayed.  Its a family compound, several houses owned  by different members of the family with full time caretakers with this pool area in the center.   It was really lovely and the beach was great. 

Another view of the pool area

I am not sure what they do with these craft...sort of look like windsurfers but the logs look so heavy.  We did not see any in the water.  They were housed with the fishing boats that were pulled up on shore so maybe they fish off of these.  We were there on Sunday so no one was out fishing..just lots of families in the water.

Another little place ( a waco) where we had a coffee after dinner Saturday night.

Another view of the compound... we stayed in the little house to the right.

 I spend the week in school and enjoy that part of the assignment a lot.  The students are so thrilled to hear me speak English..its so funny.  One girl held up her phone the other day with the camera pointed at me and said , "Habla en ingles"....so I did a little talking for her...hammed it up a little, and she just squealed with delight and ran off.

There is one teacher  I will not be able to work with.  She is almost always late, or does not show up at all and Friday she actually bullied a little kid to tears...it was awful, so awful, I had to leave.  I was going to talk to her today but I got the flu and stayed home.  I'll let her know how i feel tomorrow...and I am going to try to say something to the little boy......he was so sad and it was so mean spirited.

I learned a couple new Spanish words over the weekend.  To supplement her income, Adela sells Colombian underwear.  We started talking about the different styles....and the word "mata pasiones"  came up.  That is what they call the granny briefs, mata pasiones.    Mata means kill so you can easily figure out the rest.  They have some fun words.

We have a small group of students in our IB program, International Baccalaureate.  They wear these Harry Potter style dusters as they move about the campus.  Also, I think all their classrooms are air conditioned.    Don't really have a feel for the program yet, have not worked with them at all...will do so later.  I think there is some jealously among the other students.

These kids were assembled on the concrete slab for a program the other day and this cop shows up...he rode his motorcycle down the steps and just parked there for a minute or two and watched the program   Other than me, No one seemed to notice..can you imagine that happening in one of our schools ?  The police have a huge presence.....no privately owned weapons allowed in the country.  Not sure how I feel about that............