Los Organos Beach, where you can see whales in the winter. This is the beach where we swam with turtles!

Brook and I. Ps- everyone thinks I am a crazy person because I wear these glasses. 

The mountains on our way to swim with the turtles. I couldn't capture the beauty here. It was amazing. 

Two minions (AKA Brook and I) swimming with turtles! This was right before the turtle bit my butt. OUCH!

Matias (white) and Jostin (red) wanted a photo with their creation. They are so good at building things. I love watching them.

Belen's farm/parking lot creation. She is the sweetest. I am going to miss her like crazy. 

Teaching them to eat spaghetti with a fork! Que rica estuvo la comida! 

Dia de los ninos!

Hi everyone!

Welcome to my second to last blog post. Phew, this month has FLOWN BY! I cannot believe that I only have one more month left here in Cuenca. Honestly, the closer I get to leaving, the more I love it here and want to consider staying here for another 6 months or so. We will see how it goes.

The beginning of this month I took a trip down to Peru with my friend Brook to Mancora. I HIGHLY recommend. It was one of the nicest beaches I have ever seen. Our second day we decided to swim with turtles. It was $12 for them to pick us up from our house, drive us to Los Organos (the famous beach for seeing turtles and whales), and to drop us off back home. It was such a nice experience. The coastline in Mancora reminded me of California. Very mountainous, but such yellow mountians, with a massive coastline that went on forever. If you are in Cuenca, you MUST go to Mancora. It is almost easier to get there than to get to the beaches here in Ecuador. We took an overnight bus, which was only $18 and it got us right there and back.

This month working and volunteering was very nice and fairly easy. There were many holidays and activities this month, and the kids at the fundación had a really good month. For example, last week on Saturday we celebrated El día de los niños. So on Friday we took them to centro for a show that the city of Cuenca put on for us. They had music, poems, and magic! The next day on Saturday, we had another celebration at the Fundación for the children, with games, a bouncy house, food, and more! I love watching those kids have a beautiful Saturday. They deserve it more than anyone. It’s amazing the care and love that the city of Cuenca gives to their children. Everything at the Fundación is going really well, and the kids are all behaving well! We are in over our heads a little bit for this week because now we are down to 3 volunteers versus the 7 or so we had at the beginning of the school year, but we are meeting today to resituate our schedules to make sure that every teacher has some volunteer’s help every day of the week! J

Teaching is going well too. My last intensive is great. They love to chat, which makes my life easy. There are two students who are moving to New York, who are learning as much English as they can before they leave. This is something that really motivates me to make class as productive as possible. I want them to be able to communicate with people when they live in NY. I want them to feel comfortable in their new home. I have been adding a lot of music, culture, and speaking practice into class for them. We only have 2 more weeks before we are finished, and I cannot believe it. I cannot believe how much I have learned. I have had the chance to teach many levels, and so far I have loved them all. I am thankful for this experience, and I know that I will miss the convenience and everything that comes with CEDEI. I have loved it here.

Well, that is all for now. I have a few trips coming up before I leave Cuenca, so next blog post should be interesting and full of photos!

Chao Chao!

Kait