Going to just go with photos this time.  I've been working at school and by far the best part of this assignment is the school day.  The kids are very interesting....and interested.   Hoping for some good results. 

These are the students sitting outside ....earthquake evacuation drill.  Notice the uniforms.  The girls wear saddle oxfords...so cute.

Just another photo of the students at the earthquake drill.

They assemble every Monday morning on this big space for announcements, flag ceremony, school song etc. Its a large concrete area in the middle with classrooms all around .  This is also where they have their PE classes....and displays of posters celebrating 24 of October, the Battle of Pichincha...when they finally drove out the Spaniards.  Lots of their schools and roads are named after important historical dates....its a good thing.  Our school is Colegio ( high school) 28 de octubre and for a long time I thought that was the date of the battle of Pichincha but I learned today that the battle was on the 24th of May of some year and the 28th of octubre wasa totally different important day...it was some big protest against the catholic church running the country but no one in the teacher's work room could remember any details.  I think I'll google that. 

Funny story.   We have a work room with air conditioning.  There are two units and they are both going full blast when I go in but everyone is complaining about how cold it is.  So, I asked a couple teachers if we could change the temperature setting and they just nodded, smiling vacantly that they did not know where the remote control was.  So, I suggested we just unplug one of them...They were scared to death but I did it.   I checked the room later , no one had replugged it in and the temperature in there was just right.  So weird, how they just accept stuff.    In my travels, I have decided that is what makes we Americans so envied by so many, we just do what seems right...without out worrying about who might not like it.  I had a similar experience in Bulgaria with an umbrella on a table in an outdoor restaurant.  People were sitting in the sun, just baking, and waiting for someone else to raise the umbrella....I said, Lets just do it, so we did and my counter part , Tsveta, said, " That was so American !"  Funny. 

Another shot of the Monday morning assembly.....classroom buildings up in the back.  Its actually a pretty nice campus.

My cat...Gringo.  He is so so sweet and knows how to cool off.  More pictures later. I am told he arrived here the same day I did so they decided he was mine and named him Gringo.  We had him castrated as he was fighting with the other two castrated male cats who live here.  He is still fighting them...hope they make friends

This is Gringo sleeping in my suitcase.  I have not totally unpacked....but will, eventually, I guess.

This is our youngest group.  They are called the Octavos...8th graders but they are really the age of 7th graders...their numbering system is different from what I am used to.  They were having a party celebrating the Dia del Nino..day of the child...any excuse to have a party and cancel class !!!!  Sad....the class cancelling part.

Gringo looking for something under my bed.  He loves this laid out position....cools his stomach, I guess.

Obviously, I am still learning how to take a selfie without looking like I am taking a selfie.   I was going to delete this, hating myself in it, but its good of the other three and shows the pedestrian and bicycle bridge to Isla Santay.  This island is in the river Daule which runs thru Guayaquil and  has been designated as a protected area so only the families who were living there in the 50s are allowed to live on the island.  No cars are allowed so everyone has to walk or ride bikes across this bridge from the city of Guayaquil.  The gal in the orange is Adela from the family I am renting from, very nice and takes us lots of places, Leslie and Tim are other volunteers in my group.  They are also based in another school in Guayaquil.

The young kids from the 50 families have an elementary school but the older kids go into town.

The cocodrilos are a big draw...and there are lots of them.  notice the English translation...."ride"

Tim and Leslie on one of the paths, some of the paths are on land but most are over swampy areas.  Its a mangrove swamp, by and large.

Time and Leslie on the path.  Its really very beautiful.  We walked for about 5 hours but it was at a very leisurely pace. 

Gringo

an old saab  i found parked along the road...interesting, at least to the Gilsons

This is Becky, the other volunteer who is over 40...tho she is just over 40, unlike me who is.....over much more.  She and I went for a stroll on this Malecon along the river.  It must have been a huge construction project.  I am told that prior to this malecon being built in 2000, it was just an ugly, smelly river shore line.  On the opposite side from the river is the main financial district and commercial district so this was a big big improvement and it is well used by the people. 

more of the malecon....lots of young families

They have these on the malecon....I want to try it.  looked like a lot of fun.  Gotta find out the weight limit.

This is the malecon and shows the office buildings and condos that overlook the malecon now but 16 years ago I guess they overlooked some horrible river shores.  

One of the more beautiful buildings in the city.

This is another pedestrian mall walkway among some government buildings.  Quito is the capital city but Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador and the main port on the Pacific.

A fountain on the pedestrian mall among the government buildings.

This is the atrium of the school of arts building which is right on the malecon overlooking the river.  They must have been so pleased when the ciity   cleaned up the river side and put in the malecon in 2000.

This is just to show the price of turkey breast.....$16 a pound and its not organic even......

Another part of the malecon.....in the distance, you can see the lighthouse where we visited last weekend...climbed 500 steps to get there but beautiful views and all along the stairs are bars and stores...very charming.  Don't have any photos of it but will go again and get some.

And finally, the girls in their saddle oxfords.   Isn't that just so cute !!!!  The blue things are molded plastic desks..not bad but the fat kids have an issue.  Actually, I have not seen a kid too fat to sit in one...don't know what they would do....hmmmmm, I may have some work to do :)No one is allowed to put anything on the walls.....crazy.  They don't want to have to paint.

Time for another blog but I don't have a whole lot to say.  Peace Corps denied my request to stay in the Sierra region, where the temperature is tolerable, so needless to say, I am in Guayaquil where the temperature is not tolerable...or just tolerable...horrible....torible....maybe that is a new word for "tolerably hot."  I am living in a very nice apt. which is attached to the house of a very nice family.  Actually, it was their home but they are carving it up into apts and turning it in to a rental property with about 8 units....so it was a big house.  I have an air conditioner in my apt so it can be pretty pleasant in there. 

I have been to my school 4 days and today starting working with a few teachers.  It is going to be a lot of  fun when I am actually teaching and not thinking about the sweat that is rolling down my back, my legs, my face and god knows where else.  Today I introduced myself and said all the usual things about my kids, grandkids, pets, etc and then I said , " Ecuador is very popular in my country, the US..my friends are very jealous that I got to come here."  And you would just die if you could see the smiles that came across the students' little faces.  That made them so proud.  I felt that was the least I could do for the sweet things...sitting their sweating their guts out for 7 hours a day.  At least I get a break once in a while and can sit for a few minutes in one of the air conditioned work rooms....where, honestly, not much work gets done.

Anyhow, some of the things here are ok, the family that owns my apt. is just wonderful.  Their adult daughter, Adela, lives here too in the main house.  Apparently, she is divorced and is a school psychologist.  Very nice....34 I think.  She speaks a lot of English but when she gets going with a story or is mad, its all Spanish and very fast.  So, at least that is good exposure for me.

Most of the volunteers are very young and I really don't do anything with them since so much of it involves drinking late at night and into the early hours of the morning.  I'm an early to bed, early to rise kinda person...always was.

But, I have met one volunteer in the health section, a nurse, Becky, who is 46 and  also doesn't quite fit in with the younger vols .  She was also evacuated after the terremoto so I met her in Quito when we were all living in the hostel.  Knowing she was in Guayaquil,  I called her after I got down here.  She and I went to a park/street fair/zoo/benefit concert last sunday in a place called Parque Historico and it turned out to be real nice.  She was funny, after we had been there a while, she said, " don't get used to this and think this is normal for Guayaquil...this is the nicest park I have been to in the whole city. "  That does not bode well......

Anyway, we did have a nice walk around, some nice bus rides getting there and afterwards she showed me a little around the downtown where she lives.  She moved out of her host home after 6 months and lives in a sort of high rise in a very dreary apt. but she loves it.  She has a bike and rides around downtown on Sundays.  There is a boardwalk, they call it a 'malecon" near her house which runs along the largest river that runs thru Guayaquil so she likes being near it for walking, etc.

I'll post some pictures below of the park/zoo place we went.

Sooooooo, thats about it.   Pretty dull so far.  Hot and dull...now that sounds great, right ?  The best thing and the main reason I am not just packing my bags and leaving, is that parts of my family,  not sure who will really show up, are planning to come down and go to the Galapagos Islands as a group.  That is enough to keep me tolerating this torible weather until they come.  Of all the things in the world to see, long before I knew about Peace Corps in Ecuador, I wanted to see the Galapagos..did not even know they belonged to Ecuador.  So, fate..I guess.  So, here are some photos from  last Sunday at the park/zoo/street fair/ earthquake benefit.

The first animals we ran into in Parque Historico were these two toed sloths ( there is another "variety" with three toes....the things you learn at a zoo/park/farmers market.  Anyhow, just as we entered,  one of them was  oozing out of that tubular thing which is guess is their home.  He/she was sloooooowwwwwly making her way out to the rope.

She got to the rope, and into a comfortable position and fell sound asleep.  It was very cute.  Don't know if you can see her eyes, but she really looks asleep. 

Braile was provided at all the written signs..very progressive I thought.

All the walkways through the park are like this...very nice, clean etc. Pretty good for a developing country.

I know, I hate caged birds too.  But, boy are they beautiful.  Lot of good it does them in the zoo.

This shows the street fair aspect.  They had invited small businesses from the province that got hit the worst by the earthquake, Manabi, to sell some of their wares.  I bought some coffee, my friend bought some beer.  Those old fashioned buildings behind the umbrellas are just that.  They were located in downtown Guayaquil, built by some rich,  old Spaniards in the 1800s so when it came time for the city fathers to build high rises, they actully dismantled these old houses and moved them out to the city outskirts and put them in the Parque Historico.  Also, pretty progressive.  Quito has a famous Historic District where the buildings are made of cement and plaster, etc. so are being restored in place.   These houses in Guayaquil were made of wood, in the costal tradition, and were somewhat easier to move, I am sure.  I just think its really great that they preserved these...I am sure it was not cheap.  I guess this country had  a lot of money to spend on such things when the price of oil was high but now that it has gotten so low, the country is suffering. 

There were a lot of iguanas all over the park...ALL over the park.  This one had a loose neck skin  problem not unlike mine. 

Same iguaa

After we left the Historic Parque, we rode the bus back downtown.  On the way to her apt. we went through an/the Iguana Park where there are untold numbers of iguanas.  The city feeds them and apparently they don't leave the park as it is surrounded by city streets and I did n't see any squashed iguanas.

There are four iguanas in this picture..can you find them ??  They were everywhere. 

A couple companeros and I went to the Oswaldo Guayasamin home and museum on Friday. He is far and away Ecuador's most famous artist.

 His home is in a beautiful area, Bellavista which overlooks a lot of Quito including the volcano Pichincha which appears in several of his paintings.  He and his brother, an architect, designed the home and he lived there for 20 years before his death in 1999.  Guayasamin's work is displayed all across the front of the General Assembly building ...photos below.  They would not allow us to take any photos inside the museum yesterday but many of his originals are hung there and they were beautiful.   We had a tour of his home, exterior photos below, and it is terrific.   The tour guide says it is in the same condition as it was when he lived here which is amazing because there are a lot of museum type artifacts all over the place.   We saw his studio and some of his unfinished works.  Almost all of his painting are huge.


  The guide pointed out a wall of photographs of him in his studio showing him with a bunch of world leaders and other artists and authors...none, not one, of him with anyone from the US.   Among his paintings that are displayed in the General Assembly building, there is only one representing the US and that is the one "CIA with a Darth Vader looking mask."  He was no fan of the US and that sentiment seems to continue today with the government of Ecuador.  On the other hand, there is a huge painting of Fidel in his studio.  He was married three times and has 7 children.  One of his sons who appeared to be in his 70s was giving an interview in the main salon when we arrived.  We waited for a few minutes and when the interview moved to another room , our tour began.  

As a side note,  the brother of my host family in Nayon is a Priest and performed Guayasamin's funeral. 

It is interesting that at the end of his life, he went to an eye clinic in Baltimore to have some eye surgery related to his diabetes.  Apparently the surgery was successful, but while he was in Baltimore, he died of a heart attack.  He was 80.

The view of Quito from one point on the museum grounds. 

This is his home which is now the museum...it is really stunning...I wanted to  take some pictures of the architectural aspects but not allowed.

This is the wine cellar...next is a photo through the wooden posts in front...there was no actual wine being stored...just some on  display but we could not go in.

THis the front of the home, looking out to the pool and across the lawn to the view of Quito...I am sure it is really spectacular at night.  There are just beautiful examples of pre-Columbian and Colonial art all over the place.

THis is inside the General assembly building where the Guayasamin art is displayed all across the front of the chamber.  His mother was mestizo but his dad was indigenous, a taxi driver in Quito.   Guayasamin focused most of his art on the plight of the lower classes and the indigenous and their struggles.  The only reference to the US is the CIA painting up there in the corner. 

Another view of the art and the seats of the assembly persons in the chamber. 

 Other than this, I am still in the hostel in Quito waiting for an assignment.  Other evacuees are here too so its not just me.  Its 3 weeks today when my mosquito net started swinging wildly.  I have been working with another volunteer with her class in a school in North Quito.  It has been good to have something positive to do but I would like to get started on my actual assignment. 

Now, I"ll try to get these photos posted.

This shows two things.   Hundreds of mattresses were delivered to the NGO, PLAN, in Quito and this is a line of college students who were transferring the mattresses from the warehouse to the waiting trucks which would then deliver them to the earthquake region.   The piles of white bags were filled with non perishable food which would also be delivered to the coast.

Above are several pictures I took of another food collection effort that was being held in the old airport terminal building.  This one seemed to be run by the city or national government since a lot of the workers were municipal employees and the trucks we were filling were dump trucks with the Quito city symbol on the doors.  Lots of citizens volunteers were working but there were lots of police and other govt. employees leading the effort.

 

 

These two photos are sort of out of order.  I took them at a market not too far from the Peace Corps office.  I am just amazed at how beautiful the fruits and vegetables are.

 

 

This is a whole aisle at the market for potatoes..   They grow a lot of potatoes north of Quito in the Ambatu province.   We are in the mountains, after all.

These show some of the murals they paint on their walls along the streets.  Really pretty stuff and it cuts down on the graffitti.

These are two shots of the Plaza del Toros.  Can you imagine...up until three years ago, bull fighting was legal here.  President Correa outlawed, thank god.  Now they use the venue for concerts.

 

This is a funny story.  I have seen this structure several times when I was downtown in the commercial center.  The Hilton is a block away, the Sheraton nearby.  I thought how wonderful that they preserved this ancient Incan structure right in the middle of this commercial center  Well, I learned last week that the building is called "The Caracol" which means the snail in Spanish and the building is a circular retail space with a spiral ramp up through it with little storefronts all along the ramp...nothing Incan ( or honorable) about it. 

Not Incan

Pretty dog patrolling the shopping center.  The top of his right ear is off...don't know the story. 

This is a water filter that is made by the Nikken company...one of those pyramid companies that sells magnet mattresses etc. , lots of things based on magnet power.      But, they tell me these magnet filters work.  Interesting.