Going to School

This morning, we all went to El Liceo de Loja, the private school that the Ecuadorian students attend. They gave a formal welcoming ceremony to us, and then the rest of the school went to class. We played an icebreaker game with the Liceo students, and then began our long trek up the mountain to place our flag. It was extremely steep, and fortunately everyone was fine, although Caroline's backpack rolled down the mountain and Santiago had to go get it. We placed the flag at the top of the mountain and started down. Along the way, we bonded with the Liceo students, and when we got to the bottom of the mountain, we had to cross a river. A bunch of people took off their shoes and walked through it, and the Liceo kids got in the water and started splashing each other. Caroline got in first, and everyone else followed, even though we were all wearing jeans. Everyone got splashed, dunked, and completely soaked. After that, we got out of the water and went back to El Liceo for lunch. Then some of the girls played soccer with the Liceo boys. We were sitting outside for their break, so a lot of the students came up to us and asked us questions. When the break ended, we gave our presentation to the buddies and headed back to the hotel to change out of our sopping wet clothes. Then we went back on the bus with the Liceo kids and drove to La Cera.  La Cera is a community where the women support their families by selling pottery.  The men are either construction workers or farmers.  Many of us bought pottery from the store.  After La Cera, we went to dinner with the families.  We were in groups of two pairs. Matt and Julian were together at the beginning of the night, but they separated and went with their own buddies' family. Sarah and Caroline, and their Liceo families, met up with Stephanie and Jenny, and their buddies, at the food court and stayed together for the rest of the night. Natalie and Kathleen went to both of their buddies' houses and then went to the food court. Kathleen had a really bad sunburn, so the buddy's mom suggested that they put tomatoes on her face, which actually helped. Julia and Ruthie were separated, and came together with their Liceo families at a nice restaurant for dinner. Jonathan and Jamie went to both of their buddies' houses as well. At the end, Sarah, Caroline, Stephanie, Jenny, Natalie, Kathleen, Jonathan, and Jamie went to Caroline's buddy's house with their buddies for an informal party. After an extremely interesting and fun car ride back to the hotel, we reconvened for our meeting and headed back to bed.
Blogged by Kathleen and Sarah