A great weekend in mindo

So we left Friday right after school to head to mindo. It was about a 2 hour drive there with 10 of us in a van, so a little cramped. We bought the dark knight to keep us entertained on the drive as there was a fold down 15" screen in our van. I have to say the ride was interesting not because of the movie, or people inside but because of the roads we were driving on. It is a one lane road on each side and honestly people were passing each other every where. The scary thing is that on one side was the mountain wall and the other side was a straight drop off of at least 100ft, sometimes much more. So really no one watched the road just because we didn't want to after a while. I have to say though the scenery was never nice when i did look.

So we got there all safe and sound, got to our hotel and man was it nice. flowing river right beside the hotel with nice views of the small city. Hammocks in every single room and a common room with a nice sitting area and tv. So then we went walking around the city, which i should call a small town, because it only takes 20 minutes to walk everywhere. Found a really nice dinner and sat down to eat. Once this was down it was around 10 o'clock and for most of the group it was a long day, which meant it was bed time. But for 4 of us it meant time to find a nice place to drink and talk to some locals. The first bar we went to was called classic bar and played all english music from the eights and it was awesome. Stayed there for a couple of drinks then went to another place where the beers were a buck and shots were two bucks. We had a few more drinks and meant some people from germany and norway. At this point we called it a night.

The next morning we got up around 8, which is sleeping in for us.Had breakfast and then went to a tourism place. We bought tickets to go zip lining, white water rafting, and canoying, which is repelling down a waterfall into a canyon. We bought all this and the transportation for 40 bucks, pretty good in my books. We went to zip lining first. They suited is up and when i got to the first line i have to say i was pretty nervous. Once i going though it was awesome, and exhilarating feeling. There were 13 in all. One of them i went with a guide and he strapped me in so i was upside down, again a little nervous, but great fun. The last one had to be    about a kilometer long and about 700ft above everything else, it was so amazing.

We then moved on to water rafting which is on eight black tubes that are tied together by rope. It was a 20 minute ride that was so amazing, the water was refreshing, and the ride was so much fun. A couple of us almost flew off a few times, but that just added to the fun.

Then came the best part of the day, and the scariest. We took a van to the canoying. The thing is they stopped in the middle of know where,  by no waterfall and said "were here". Which we responded to as "where is here". They then let us know that it was a 20 minute hike through the jungle to get there. This is where we looked at each other and thought this was the day that we were going to die. they will take us out there, and return with out us. Luckily not the case. We walk for 20 minutes and we stop and put our bags down and suit up, but still no waterfall. They then tell us it is 5 minutes up this hill. Well this hill was a 80 degree angle almost straight up. So buy the time we get up there we are all dieing of exhaustion. That last for two seconds as now we see where we have to go down, then the fear sets in. The go over the instructions, which consists of, this is how to stop your rope, this is how to release, lean back, and legs out straight, ready. So being the smart person i am i decide to go first. They latch me in, and as i get to the edge, i can not see the 15 meters down which is the waterfall. At that point i almost shit myself but kept it together. The hardest part is to lean back over the waterfall and trust your self and the equipment. I did do it though, and have to say one of the highest points of my life. Also everyone else did it as well, which include justin, my friend who is about 6'4" and 300 pounds. So an amazing trip over all.

That same night it was the miss mindo contest. We did not get to see it, but at one point through the night at our bar she showed up. A local we met the night before knew her really well, so he introduced us to her, which was then followed by some dancing. We also met some travelers from vancouver and spent the night having drinks and dancing with them. Overall one of the best days ever.

The next morning we went on a bird watching expedition which was not the best, but turned into a trek down the mountain which was amazing. Aldo at the end of it we found a butterfly sanctuary and got to got to that. It was amazingly beautiful. At this point it was time to go home. Most of us slept the whole way as we were so tired from the weekend.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

My next post will be about my last week in school, and will becoming after the weekend as we will be in manta, which is the coast of ecuador. 

Good bye for now

Week 2 of teaching

So it was a pretty tame week at school. So i am going to clump it into one paragraph. English has got much better as we are now teaching everything, which ranges from simple sentances to full paragraphs and having them answer questions on the paragraph that they read. We have now introduced ultimate frisbee, american football, and relay races. They are much more open to any games that we want to play and really excited to play. We are now actually able to talk to the teachers and the students in spanish and english. So overall it was a really good week. This next week we are getting to teach more of canada, and also at the end of the week we get to have an olympics of all the schools we are at.

I have to go for now, but i will be blogging soon about the suprise dinner we planned for our director and also about the weekend i had.

Have to go for now.
austa lewago

Ecuador article in the quito paper with pictures

This article was put into the quito metro paper, and also online. I have translated for you convenience.

Eight students of several races last year teaching at the University of Manitoba, Canada, arrived in Quito to train 800 students from local schools, Calderon, Humberto Mata Martinez Bellavista and El Inca and Zámbiza. The subjects in supported are English, physical education and nutrition.

Photo

Working Group

Andrew Westwood

Jennifer Kujanpaa

Activities with students

Sharing with people

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Augusto Barrera Metropolitano de Quito Mayor invites the Media

Open the vehicular traffic on the street Canada

Through the Canadian Embassy in Ecuador was made contacts with the Ministry of Education of the City and identified what institutions should be imparted training. 

Enrique Chicaiza, Metropolitan Sub educational supervisor of Education, these students indicated that Canadians come to participate in a voluntary pilot project total.They deliver their knowledge according to the needs expressed by the representatives of municipal education. 

Meghan Laube, assistant teaching Canadian students, said the interns last year studying to become teachers of environmental science, physical education and kinesiology. 

Meghan said that this is the first volunteer program of the Canadian students who are financed their movement from Canada and stay in Quito and bring materials to be donated to health facilities, where they will work until early June. 

Additionally, they work in the afternoon sessions to provide training to students of the Basic Cycle Expedited operating in selected institutions.   

"The goal is to learn about teaching methods and complement local teachers with the teaching methods we have received from the Canadian university to put the students Quito services," said Meghan. 

Manitoba students through the Internet, shall meet to determine the impact assessment of training in this first program and based on these results a new training program in 2012. 

In this week will receive an incentive and education coordinator, who, after overseeing the work of interns, establish the possibility that some prominent Ecuadorian students can make a visit to the Canadian university. 

Andrew Westwood, who this year will get the master's degree in physical education, said that through motor activities you can develop and enhance learning skills, self esteem, which are yielding good results in Canada and could have the same effects on Students in these establishments. 

For Andrew, the eight Canadian interns are trained to teach English to students and teachers of these local institutions, so that during this time apply the methods of dialogue to improve reading and writing pronunciation of the language. 

Jennifer Kujanpaa, who obtained his doctorate this year, said the kinesiology is a subject that studies the human body, what are the nutrients and physical activity needed for optimal development and through this achieve a healthy lifestyle. 

Jennifer has studied the variety of food offered by our country and it aims to take protein and vitamins from these foods for children to reach their potential and enhance their capabilities. 

These Canadian students, who do not spend 23 years, was told that since his arrival have realized the great hospitality of the people of Quito and are eager to help poor students studying in the four selected local institutions. 

At school Tumbaco Municipal Rafael Alvarado Canadian volunteers were greeted warmly by students Quito. Locro danced merengue and tasted potato, smoked trout with cassava chicha and maqueño cake. 

This menu was prepared by students of local cuisine of this institution. Canadians gladly tasted these dishes and they kept saying, "Delicious." 

The University of Manitoba.

It was created in 1877 to confer degrees to students who graduate from its three founding colleges: St. Boniface College, St John's College and Manitoba College. The University was the first to be established in western Canada. 

In a typical year, the university has an enrollment of 24542 students and 3021 postgraduate students. The university offers 82 degrees, 51 to university level. Most academic units offer graduate programs for master's or doctorate. 

Between 2004 and 2005, the university acquired more than 110.9 million dollars in research income. 

Manitoba has 33 Canada Research Chairs, is the leading network of Canada, has 21 networks of excellence (ISIS Canada) and a participant in 14 others.

A suprising saturday

So saturday was set out to be a great day as we were going to otavalo which is the famous ecuadorian market. We got up around 8, had breakfast, and were off around 9. It took around two hours to get there, during which time we all talked about the week we had in the schools and up coming events. Once there we winded through a small city and got to the center of it. The center of the city is where the markets are held, and you could walk for 20 minutes from one side to the other and still not be at the end, it was awesome. I can't tell you all the stuff that i got as most are suprises and presents, but i can tell you what i got myself. I got myself a panama hat (which actually orginates from ecuador unsually enough, not panama), if you dont know what it looks like here it is.



Hopefully i look a little younger in the hat. I also got an alpaca poncho whic is super comfortable. There were so many alpaca items as this is there major animal that the sheer the wool off of. And man is all the stuff so warm and comfortable. I also got some blankets made from alpaca. I have to say though that the best part of getting these items was bardering for them. I love the feeling off trying to get something for a lower price, thats probably the winnipeger coming out in me.

After that we headed to a leather market where all the guys got a new nice walet for cheap, and the girls spent a little more money. Most of them got some or all of the following items: leather jacket, hand bag, wallet, boots, and shoes. Suffice to say the girls were happy, and broke. While the the girls were shopping the guys did the appropriate thing, found the closest pub and had a couple beers.

After this we were on our way home. About an hour into the way home our van driver who we have known since we arrived had a suprise for us. He stopped waht looked like in the middle of no where. But where we actually stopped was the middle of the world, i am not even joking. He showed us the jps and it said, 00, 00, 00. It was amazing!!!!!!! There was a large world sculpture as well as the line passing through it. One of the coolest things about the line was, if you tried to walk directly on the line with your eyes close it is virtually impossible to walk in a straight line because gravity is pulling you in two different directions. I was sceptacle at first but i could not do it, and neither could any one else, beers or not. By the time we got back into the van and went home we were so excited that we sang most of the way home, can't sy what becuase i still have my pride.

Sunday was lesson planning and relaxing before a long week. I will blog again at the end of the week detailing my second week in the schools.

Until next time, chow
Andrew

Pictures from the fish supper

First week of teaching

Alright, so to start off i have to say this week was very tough as the language barrier got in the way many off times, and there were a couple of times i didn't know if i was going to be able to help these kids. But by the end of the week every thing was great and the kids had really taken to us. By the end the teachers believed in us fully, but i will talk about that in the end.

So monday was the hardest as we thougt it would be. For the first 6 classes we sat at the back of the room, doing nothing understanding nothing and, really the kids seemed to just laugh at us the whole time. The last two classes of the day were english, and this made the whole day worth it. I have to say i may have never seen a better teacher then the english teacher at our school. The very first day she let us introduce our selves, and then got all the kids in the class to introduce themselves to us. It was great as we finally got to see the class speak english, and in the most part they were pretty good. We then taught them action adjetives ending all in ``ing``. We basically got to teach the whole hour and a half, it was great and saved the day for me and dana my partner at the school.

Tuesday got better as we started the day of with enrique at the school. So right before school starts he brought the whole school outside and us with him. He then made a very long speech in spanish in whihc we did not understand one word, but in the end the whole school gave a very large round of applause for us. We then learned from the english teacher that he had said that he brought the best teachers from Canada to your school just to help teach you. So as great as that was, it put a little bit of pressure on us. We then went and showed him that he was right. We took control of two hours of english class, where they had to read a paragraph about the simpsons in english. If they did not understand a word they wouyld ask us. So it was great as we got to work with the class as a whole and as individuals.

Wednesday was an interesting day as we were told we were going to a soccer competition, so we were quite excited. It didn`t start off so well though. We were told to meet some teachers outside which we did, and the all of a sudden we were told to get on a bus. On of the only things we were told not to do in quito was get on a bus as they have no specific routes and it is where a lot of pick pockets do there work. Luckily we were fine, but it was one of the longest 40 minutes on this trip up to this point. When we got to the park it was amazing as there were 6 fields beside each other. Our schools girls team played two games in the morning. They won one and lost one, but i have to say those girls know how to play. The boys played next and they also won one and lost one. And wow can they play futbol. It was amazing to see the foot work of grade 12 boys. So that was a really cool day.

Thursady was a pretty relaxed day. The teachers at this point had really opened up to us and really wanted us to help. So we helped out in math, took over phys. ed as this was the first day that they had it, and also took over english again. It was not only the teachers that had warmed up to us by this point as the kids would try to talk to us at any point, and at the end of the day every single student said ``goodbye`` to us in english which felt awesome. At the end of the day just as we were leaving the priniciple told us that they had a tachers meeting tommorow and that me dana, justin and sara (who were at another school but came for friday) were to teach the whole school from 10 to 12. The day ended at 12 becuase it was an election day. So we went back to the hotel where we lesson planed for quite a long time. we found out that the other two  schools had the same thing happen, so we all worked together and came up with some great ideas.

So friday morning from 7 to 10 was pretty normal, helped out in math and geography. from 10-1030 was lunch and then the work started. Each of the 4 of us walked into a class room by oursleves and started to teach. What we did first was read and make sense of a story, but not any story, a Dr. Seuss story. It was one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. The kids really seemed to love it. So i read it to them, then they wrote it down and asked what words they did not know. They went on for 45 min, and thats where we stoped for that. We then went outside with the whole school. We then went on to teach them, wwaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttt ffffffffffffffffoooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttt, the BOOT SCOOT AND BOOGIE. Thats right we got 100 quito students to do the boot scoot and boogie. It was hard to teach that many at once but by the end, most of them got it and it was awesome. I couldn`t think of a better way to end the week. And at this point i can`t wait for next week.

My next post shoould be soon and will be about my weekend. It will be a shorter one as this weekend was little quieter.

Until then, Buenos Dias
Andrew

Making Lunch on Sunday

So as i stated before we were going to one of the school's principle house. We were going there to have lunch for a while and then go back to the hotel for a relaxing night of lesson planning. So we got into the van and it took about an hour to get to there house which was on one of the nicest hills ever (my camera was not there but i will try to get pictures). So we get out of the van say buenos tardas which is good afternoon. They then ask us if we are ready for lunch. Now remember Enricque is with us, so we were expecting anything, and thats exactly what happened. Once we said yes we are ready they led us down the hill to a little pond about 8 feet by 8 feet. There was about 10 fish in it, just enough for each one of us. This is where we knew something was up. Our job was to into the pond which was about 3 feet deep, and catch the fish with our hands and a small bucket. They gave us some tips, such as cornering all of them, then scooping the bucket as fast as possible. And guess what, we caught nine fish, one eluded us for ever so it deserved to saty. Justin, one of the people caught two with his bare hands. I caught one myself, and it felt awesome.

So we give the fish to the principle and think our job is done. Not even close. We then proceed to scale, gut and spice our own fish as we want on a huge outdoor counter top. At this point we then proceed to put the fish in a 4 foot tall stone bbq, that smoked like no tommorow. The fish tasted like you could not believe, i would have say better then the river fish, just cause we made it ourselves. We also had baked potatoes from the bbq, choped vegtable and cooked corn from the bbq. I ate so much that day. So when we finally finished eating, we got back into the van and went home very happy.

We did get some lesson planning don't worry. I will post about my teaching week come sometime on friday or saturday. As our days are pretty busy. Our wake up call is 5:45, breakfast at 6:15, and van leaves at 6:30. School starts at 7, and ends at 3. We then debreif and have supper around 7. We finally finish that, and get back to our room sometime after 8. By that point a couple of lesson plans and its bed time.

So till next time
austa lawago