Extended Stay
So this past week has been an absolute whirlwind. I will try to recap as best as I can.
I´m currently at my favorite internet café in Otavalo for one last inter-web shabang before my host brother drives me into Quito. I was just going to take a taxi (because while GVI says they provide transportation back to Quito for you they actually mean they´ll pay you to take the public bus for 2 bucks and with three bags thats totally out of the question and a level of stress I don´t want or need) but then my host dad suggest that I just pay Carlos (my host brother) what I would pay the taxi (40 big ones). I´d much rather pay my family then some random taxi driver and it will probably be faster and super easy since we will just leave from my house.
Ok so this week was really good and really really fast. Pretty much flew by. School was good as always. I had a new volunteer Shannon ( a boy) from Brisbane Australia (Oh trust me we discussed that a bunch) shadowing me since next week he is taking over my class. One of my kids Luis, wasn´t there at all because he had to go to the hospital in Otavalo. It took us about 4 days to actually figure out what was wrong with him when his dad came into school to ask us to send some work home for him and to ask about getting money since He has been told Luis needs an operation in Quito on his heart. That´s really all we know - I just hope he gets better because he is the cutest little boy in the world. Yesterday I recieved cards from my kids, the second graders (who we share a room with) and a bunch from the other kids at the school - thanking me and telling me to come back soon. They are also super awesome and I wish I had a way to scan them so you could all see them.
Also during this week, I started contemplating staying longer. I originally considered staying to volunteer longer after I got back from the galapagos but I need to be back in the states for College and Highschool reunions and my plane ticket couldn´t be extended past the 21st. SO my friend/ other volunteer Lyndsey is doing the 6 month gvi program where you spend between 5-7 weeks in Guatamala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Peru, and she gets pretty much a one week vacation between Ecuador and Peru to do some traveling on her own. The boy who is also doing the 6 month program with her is planning to go to Columbia and she isn´t interested in doing that so she was thinking about going to the jungle. Well I thought that this was a great idea and when else would I have the chance to be only 8 hours from the Amazon jungle! Lyndsey finishes teaching in two weeks so I had to figure out what to do between the Tuesday I get back from the galapagos and that Friday when she is done. Well that´s where our other friend/ another volunteer Trisha comes in. She finishes teaching next friday and was considering extending her trip to go to the Galapagos but then decided that she would save some money and just do the jungle with us. So I will meet Trisha in Quito on that tuesday I think we are planning to check out the west coast of Ecuador (where the beaches are) for 2 days and then head back into Quito and get Lyndsey and head off to the jugnle for 5 days.
