Thursday, July 27, 2006
On The Way to Huambalo
After a hot shower and a nice breakfast we headed out in the bus to Huambalo. On the way we got super photo ops of Volcan Tungurahua along the way. It seemed to have a cloud coming out of the crater most of the time, but occasionally it burped with a cloud of darker smoke. We are actually quite away from the volcano and feel quite safe, but what a great view!
My apologies for the lack of photos. I have taken over 300 shots so far and I promise to get several of them up on the blog and up on a website later. `My problem is that I do not have access to Photoshop so I can not reduce the size of the photos. BUT I will later - cross my heart!!
Others will report more about our day in Huambalo. It is a little village 45 minutes from Ambato. We were welcomed by people from the Foundation that supports the school we visited in Huambalo, people that work at the school, the director of the foundation that supports the CITTI Project, Bridgett Perry who is founder of the CITTI Project, and the local political person for the area. Quite a welcome!
And then out came the youngsters from the school to dance for us. It was wonderful! Many of the youngsters wore costumes and had added makeup, etc. for the speciaoccasionon. After the dancing, the students picked people from the audience to dance with. Yes, I danced as long as I could keep up with themLaterer there was much more dancing and I really enjoyed myself. Joy brought a young girl over to where I was sitting and said that the girl wanted someone who would dance and spin her. I agreed and what fun. I spun her so much I got dizzy. Eventually she started leading. I told her that was inappropriate, but she did not understand English. Anyway, it finally got so involved that I would spin her off her feet. I did not get pictures of that, but I know they exist and I will try to get a few.
We spent the day in small groups meeting with parents and their children who they feel have a disability. The total group got to meet with 13 sets of parents and children. This was primarily an opportunity to ask questions of the parents and many times of the children as well. After lunch we saw more children and then went to a center where we will attempt to build a cement ramp for the students.
Lunch was prepared by women of the village and started with a bowl of chicken soup with huge pieces of chicken. This was followed by a big plate with an ear of corn, a large potato, several small potatos, lima beans, and fava beans. We were stuffed!
Tomorrow we take off early again and meet with more parents and children. At some point we may visit the homes of the youngsters, work with their teachers, and eventually try to suggest things that might help to make a difference in their life. We will not be able to cure anything and we will not have dramantic success, but we do hope to get the youngsters started in a better direction.
For people like professor Tom Roberts let me explain why I do not use contractions. I have not found the apostrophe on this machine.
Cheers!
My apologies for the lack of photos. I have taken over 300 shots so far and I promise to get several of them up on the blog and up on a website later. `My problem is that I do not have access to Photoshop so I can not reduce the size of the photos. BUT I will later - cross my heart!!
Others will report more about our day in Huambalo. It is a little village 45 minutes from Ambato. We were welcomed by people from the Foundation that supports the school we visited in Huambalo, people that work at the school, the director of the foundation that supports the CITTI Project, Bridgett Perry who is founder of the CITTI Project, and the local political person for the area. Quite a welcome!
And then out came the youngsters from the school to dance for us. It was wonderful! Many of the youngsters wore costumes and had added makeup, etc. for the speciaoccasionon. After the dancing, the students picked people from the audience to dance with. Yes, I danced as long as I could keep up with themLaterer there was much more dancing and I really enjoyed myself. Joy brought a young girl over to where I was sitting and said that the girl wanted someone who would dance and spin her. I agreed and what fun. I spun her so much I got dizzy. Eventually she started leading. I told her that was inappropriate, but she did not understand English. Anyway, it finally got so involved that I would spin her off her feet. I did not get pictures of that, but I know they exist and I will try to get a few.
We spent the day in small groups meeting with parents and their children who they feel have a disability. The total group got to meet with 13 sets of parents and children. This was primarily an opportunity to ask questions of the parents and many times of the children as well. After lunch we saw more children and then went to a center where we will attempt to build a cement ramp for the students.
Lunch was prepared by women of the village and started with a bowl of chicken soup with huge pieces of chicken. This was followed by a big plate with an ear of corn, a large potato, several small potatos, lima beans, and fava beans. We were stuffed!
Tomorrow we take off early again and meet with more parents and children. At some point we may visit the homes of the youngsters, work with their teachers, and eventually try to suggest things that might help to make a difference in their life. We will not be able to cure anything and we will not have dramantic success, but we do hope to get the youngsters started in a better direction.
For people like professor Tom Roberts let me explain why I do not use contractions. I have not found the apostrophe on this machine.
Cheers!
