Some pictures of the church and purple people

Two days I will never forget

I will try to explain Friday and Saturday but words are going to be hard to do that. The past couple days we have been with the minister of education and he has been showing us around the schools we will be working at and he is kind of a big deal in Quito. He is unbelievable and full of many surprises. That was yesterday, by the end of the night I could not believe what I was seeing. The architecture and the sights are absolutely amazing. At one point as a group we decided that even a picture would not do justice to what our eyes were seeing, but I will get to that.

So yesterday we visited our last two schools that we will be working with during the month. After that we went to another school which was having an open house. That night they were having a dance competition so we were able to see they practicing their group dances. We may have even joined in one of them. Not going to lie, we were pretty good. After finishing dancing we were met by a reporter and he interviewed our group and asked about the program and our goals for the program. The school this was at was a vocational based school so they had textile classes and culinary classes. We were treated to an authentic Ecuadorian meal that included fish only found in the amazon river that was baked in a jungle leaf. It was easily the best fish I have ever tasted. This was great but the story begin when we went to the ballet, yes you read correctly the ballet.

So in the evening it was arranged by Enrique (minister of education). We met him at the ballet which was a traditional Ecuadorian performance. We saw some of the cultural dances of Quito and surrounding areas. Mid way through the performance everything went dark and all of a sudden a big spot light was shot on our group and we were welcomed to the ballet. Immediately after we heard a lot of music and commotion on the street and we were quickly rushed out to take in the spectacle. What we saw was a bunch of guys wearing purple robes that resembled those of the KKK. So I had many things jumping around in mind as to what this parade was actually about and at first it was quite peculiar but we quickly learned that it was a parade that was honoring the Saints of the area. Enrique then proceeded to run to the front of the parade and stopped it so we could watch from the beginning. This is just the start to our night. The name of the purple robed people are called chucaruchos, or something close to that. We followed the parade to the san fransisco church, which i will talk about more later.

Enrique starts guiding us through the streets of old town, (popular area that is recognized as an UNESCO world heritage site). He is on a mission, we are going up one street, down another until we arrive at a big wooden door with a little slit at about eye level. He proceeds to knock and you see two eyes look through the door. Enrique talks for a little while and the door opens. He then takes us to an elevator and we all go up to the fourth floor which is the roof. We walk out onto the roof and the lights of Quito are surrounding us. We are smack dab in the center Quito at night. We walk to the ledge and the Cathedral of San Fransisco (this is also part of our adventure later) is in front of us. This was the end location of the parade and we were watching the performances from roof top. I can not do justice with words to what I had seen but at that moment there were 10 of us on that roof top surrounded by lights, buildings, music and Quito seemed to be at our finger tips. Enrique is a man on a mission and you will be enjoying something as beautiful as this and then he will say let's go and he means let's go now. I would have liked to stay on that rooftop for awhile longer but the sights we see next far surpass the roof top. So we all enter the elevator and proceed back down to main level.

Enrique again goes off in hurry and we scrambling to catch him. It is very hard to move quickly in Old Town because of the roads being cobblestone and there are a few that are missing. Maintenance is not a priority in Quito so you really have to watch where you are walking. But we tried and eventually we came to a halt and we are looking at Enrique. He points behind us and turn to see another amazing view of the Quito. We see the Cathedral of San Fransisco again lit up in shear beauty and other prominent structures of Quito. We stop for a picture and in mid picture he says let's go. So we go.

We keep walking and we are now at a metal gate outside of the Cathedral of San Fransisco. Enrique again talks to the security guard he opens the gate for us. We proceed up the steps and the parade and performances are just winding down and people are now leaving the area. But not us. We keep walking and we see a LARGE door of the cathedral closing. Enrique quickly runs to the door and knocks on the metal gate in front of the door and a guy comes to the door. Enrique again talks to the guard and again the guard opens the large wooden door, and then the large metal gate and we proceed inside the Cathedral of San Fransisco. What we saw inside will never leave my mind. I have been to Europe and saw some pretty amazing cathedrals and castles but what we were looking rivaled any of that. Every inch of this wall was covered with either a painting or gold. There were statues looking down from every angle of the rooftop. This was the quietest our group has ever been because we were in such awe. No one could find words for what we were looking at. We had even contemplating not taking pictures and keeping this sight for our eyes. But we did (I don't have the actual but will post pictures that give you an idea of what we saw). Enrique proceeded to take us around the cathedral and every angle and every view was even more astonishing than the last. Like I said I would love to explain what we saw but I cannot do any justice to the sight. So here enjoy!!

This helps explain what I saw but in person it was unbelievable. Our whole night was full of surprises and each one was better and better. All we thought we were doing was going a ballet, at least that was all were told we were doing. Enrique is truly a man of mystery who truly loves his city and country. He was just as excited from the night by seeing our reactions. Through his very broken English he kept asking the group "are you happy?" He truly wanted us to experience Quito and that we did. We ended our night at Old Town in what looked like a hold in the wall. There was the ten of us and 8 locals and we were shoulder to shoulder. There were guitars and a lot of singing. It was the perfect end to our evening tour of Old Town.

We then proceeded home. Immediately we jumped in the elevator and were going to the roof. We went over to the balcony just in time to see the encore of the Miley Cyrus concert. She was playing in a soccer stadium directly beside our hotel. We could look directly inside and listen to the music.

This was truly a once in a lifetime experience and I could honestly say last night was equivalent to winning the lottery. We saw Quito from a perspective that most people never will get the opportunity to. The fact that the entire night was a mystery with surprise after surprise that trumped the previous. I would have been happy with seeing the ballet but the fact that we saw the parade which was halted for us and really saw a part of Ecuadorian culture, follow that with a nighttime rooftop view of Quito, and topping that with the Cathedral of San Fransisco is absolutely mind blowing. I thought day 1 was full of sights and experiences, day 2 was so good I could return home and be absolutely 100 percent happy with my experiences. There is a lot more on the way and I am so excited for what waits ahead. There are going to be many personal rewards on the way and starting Monday we will be working with the schools. So far everyone has been treating us like a celebrity and I feel very appreciated to be here.

Anyways back to Old Town to explore during the day,

As soon as I get the pictures I will post because I want you to see the parade and the our views.

Adios

Only two days and so much to talk about

The past two days have been quite eventful and full of stories. Yesterday our journey began at the airport in Winnipeg. Things did not have a great start considering three of us were literally minutes away from being left behind. Sure, your thinking we showed up to the airport late, in this situation that was not the problem. The problem occurred through West Jet and lets say things began very stressful. What happened was that Chris (Who you will here a lot of in the first couple of days, also know as "that guy" for reasons to come) plane flight became changed by accident. These implication arrive again later in our journey but I will get to that. Toronto was breeze and we were off to Miami.

Our trip from Miami to Quito includes our encounter with a secret celebrity and once again confronted with the problem of one of our members being left in Miami. We will begin with the later. Chris (see i told you)  had extreme difficulties in Winnipeg but eventually things were straightened out and he was on the plane with us. Miami he finds out that his ticket had be put up for resale. So 8 of us were fine with tickets and Chris at the moment did not have ticket and the plane was full. This was due to the secret celebrity that I was talking about but that is still to come. So after about an hour of conversations between American Airlines and West Jet is determined that West Jet has put the ticket up for resale and eventually things were straightened out and Chris was again joining us in our journey. Now to the plane so it turned out that tomorrow night being Friday there is a big concert in Quito. The plane was filled due to the singer, their entourage, and back up dancers. I guess this is where I can fill you in on the celebrity. Are you ready for this, the secret celebrity was....... Miley Cyrus. Not my cup of tea but still pretty cool to end up on the same flight.

After landing in Quito it is now 10 pm and the rest of day was spent for rest. I really did not have the opportunity to see Quito at this point so until today I had no thoughts about the city.

Today we woke up to an email sent from the Canadian Consulate with a warning that Ecuador is going through high volcanic activity and for 7 straight days a volcano has been emitting ash up to 7 km in the air. It turned out that the volcano is not a direct affect to Quito but the ash in the air will affect our weather patterns for the next week which include severe thunderstorms.

After that little excitement I had an excellent day and Quito is absolutely fantastic. I am sitting at 9700 feet of elevation, that is about 9000 feet higher than Winnipeg. I thought I would have issues with the elevation but really I have adapted quite quickly, besides the odd shortness of breath and feeling great and the excitement is brewing.

Quito is a very beautiful city and everything about it so far has far exceeded expectations. The best part of today was that I was introduced to my school and am very excited for Monday to arrive. The students are awesome and full of energy and the program offered for the amount of resources at the school blew me away. I was expecting a lot worse and it really eased my nervousness that I was experiencing. Today the school had a show of their programs and we really saw what the school had to offer. Some the examples include textile classes, technology classes in which they build computers, and music and dance classes. The greatest thing that I saw today was how they taught students to read text. They had a karaoke machine and the student would sing and read along with the words. This was a perspective I would have never thought of using. My school is called Inca.

After visiting Calderon school we proceeded to seeing another school that the program would be working with. This took up majority of the day we did manage to get in a little sight seeing. 

Tomorrow we will be visiting the other two schools in the program and at night we were invited to attend an Ecuadorian ballet. Not too sure what to think right now but as the saying goes when in Rome. I have a feeling I will be using that motto for a lot of the trip. O yeah remember Miley, well she is playing a concert at a soccer stadium next door and we have seats on top of our hotel in which we will be able to catch a free concert. Not my typical Friday night but it is part of my Ecuador adventure.

Who and what are group is.

Ahola 

Today was my first full day in Ecuador, and seems to be the first of many great days to come.

All of the people in country have been so welcoming to me.

In honor of this I have decided to make this entry a "welcome" to my blog!

My name is Andrew Westwood. I am a recent graduate of the Faculty of Education, with a major in physical education and minor in Biology. I have left 5 days after my last day of student teaching to join this program and aid its purpose. This purpose is to inform and teach students and teachers a like of the benefits of physical education and healthy life practices. As well it is to build confidence for students through games.Not an easy feat, but one i am looking forward to helping with. 

I have travelled to Ecuador as part of a volunteer group (ESLE - Ecuador Service Learning Experience) from the University of Manitoba. As a group we are spending one month working with local schools in the city of Quito.

Our group consists of nine students as well as a group of professional facilitators pictured below:

(Not in Ecuador yet: Joe, Blair)

(Back Row, Left to Right: Chris, Flo, Dana, Sara, Justin C, Myself)

(Front Row, Left to Right: Justin L, Jen, Meghan)

Hello

Hey everyone, thanks for following me on my adventure. Hopefully you enjoy reading my story and the 40 days i spend in Ecuador. Many posts will come as my adventures continue.