On Friday - our group was split into 3 parts for different activities. Steve, Sue, Alex, Chris and Katerina stayed here to conduct a soccer clinic for the boys and girls. Vivian and Katy stayed behind to help Maggie, one of the long term volunteers. Maggie and her husband Mike have been here for 3 years teaching, they are getting ready to go home. Vivian and Katy were helping them laminate some posters for an anti-bullying campaign that they have started.
Maria, Fr. John, Laurie, Lauren, Victorina and I took the city bus to the downtown center, La Marin to work. When we arrived, Roberto who is in charge of maintenance wanted to watch the Brazil v. Netherlands world cup game. Brazil lost (sad face)!
After the game was over, Roberto took us into the kitchen to clean. There is a large pantry, with several 50 pound sacks of rice, flour and sugar stacked on several sets of metal shelves. There were also a large industrial sized refrigerator. Laurie cleaned that. The rest of us scrubbed down the metal shelves, while Lauren and Victorina scrubbed down a set of wire racks. It took about an hour to complete the work and Roberto was working right along with us directing us and lending moral support! This is the same guy that the adults worked with the other day - he was a difficult task master and earned the nickname "Kitchen Nazi".
By about 12noon, we were free. I have been looking for a map of Quito to bring home with me. So we decided to walk to a few shops to see if we could find one to buy, unfortunately, we didn't have any luck. We did go to a panaderia (bakery) for snacks. Victorina, Lauren and I each got a drinkable yoghurt (my new favorite snack along with pan de yucca). Victorina got an Inca Cola, and I got this yummy pineapple pastry. My yoghurt and pastry was $1. We decided to head back to the center then, so walked to the bus stop to wait for the bus. The ride was very long, about 1.5 hours, but we got to see parts of the city that we hadn't seen before.
When we got back, Maria, Laurie and I went to lunch at the Cafe. The rest of the afternoon was relaxing, just kind of hanging out... some took a nap.
At 5:00pm we went up the hill for the 6th grade graduation at the Center. It was a lovely occasion. I was so impressed by the children, some of whom memorized and delivered a speech to the audience. It is a custom here to wear capes instead of gowns for graduation, so that was kind of cool to see too!
This photo is of Miguel (one of the Jersey Boys) and a little boy from the Center, during graduation. Before graduation began, Miguel had been playing with him, I guess he got all tuckered out and fell asleep. I just thought the scene was so beautiful, so had to take a photo.
Before dinner some of the teens and I played a game called Catch Phrase. It's a great game, sort of like charades but only with words. The game consists of an electronic device where a phrase or saying pops up on the screen. If it's your turn, you have to describe the word of phrase to the others without actually using any of the words that appear. It's a lot of fun!
We went to bed early because we were heading to Guayaquil really early the next morning.
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