Hello again and welcome to another blog. Nothing much has happened here and I am sad to say that the days are very similar. It is frustrating being stuck at home all day and I find myself spending much time wishing the quarantine was over. However, it is necessary to stay inside and follow the measures put in place to maintain health and take care of one another. 

Plaza San Francisco without vendors and tourist 

The best thing that happened last month was celebrating Emily’s birthday. Her birthday was April 27th and although is not how we had planned to celebrate we had an amazing day. While she was sleeping I decorated the house with lots of colorful balloons including a Feliz Cumpleanos, a 23, rainbow, hearts, happy birthdays, and different color plain balloons. The house looked beautiful and when she woke up she was so surprised to see the house all decorated. I also ordered her favorite Mexican food for lunch, a chocolate cake that was very delicious, and got her some gifts.  It was great celebrating her on her special day and I loved seeing her so happy. A huge shout out to her mom Donna for all the help, without her this process would have been much more difficult. Emily was so happy and it was great to do something out of the ordinary. I am grateful to have her by my side every day and I am happy I was able to do something special for her and show her how much she means to me. When things go back to normal we will celebrate her birthday again with friends and have a great time.

Birthday decorations for Emily 

  

Teaching online has been challenging. I must admit I am not a very technological person and it was hard to get used to the 3 platforms. Besides, we only got a 2-hour training for all the platforms on the same day which was not enough time. The students as well-received little training and to this day technological issues continue which is very frustrating. I find myself moving at such a slow pace and way behind. I also spend so much time on lesson planning way more than before. This might be because this cycle I was given all niños classes which I have never taught before. It has been challenging teaching little kids because the curriculum is way different and the pace is different. Also, it is more interactive which requires a lot of planning and is so hard to be interactive when teaching online. Parents are also very involved which can get frustrating. I miss teaching Intensives and teens/adult classes. Little kids, however, are very cute and bring joy to my life. Over the past couple of weeks, I have felt little support from CEDEI and to be honest, it has been hard to feel like teachers matter,  like I matter. There have been a lot of changes in the staff and we are unsure as to who to contact when problems arise. New staff have joined CEDEI coming with great ideas and with the best intentions but fail to ask us teachers, who at the end of the day are the ones who have to teach, what we want, and our opinions on how the program can be better. Instead, they want to change the curriculum already put in place, disregard the help Lead teachers offered so that they can understand the program, and dictate our way of teaching as if the way we teach is the problem. There is no transparency and it sucks that we teachers are not taken into consideration when making big decisions and at the end of the day are the ones that get affected by changes the most. Despite all the frustration, I am grateful to have a job and to be learning new skills that are preparing me to be a better teacher. 

I miss my kids at the Fundacion a lot and I am so sad that I do not get to see them. Without volunteering at El Arenal I am having a hard time feeling like I have a purpose. I miss not being able to help with homework, talk to the parents, and hear how my kids are doing.  Teaching has become more frustrating and I wish I could be doing something I enjoy a lot like spending time with my kids. I think about them and their families a lot and wish I could do more. I know a lot of the families are struggling with paying rent and keeping food on the table and it is hard to sit here and not be able to do anything to help them. Some of my kids are also worried about their parents who continue to work to make ends meet. They are afraid their mom will get sick from the virus and although they understand she is doing what she has to, to have food on the table they are very worried and wish she did not have to work. I am grateful that despite not being able to see them  I can communicate with them on a regular base via Facebook and help them with their homework. I am blessed to have gained their trust and care. My kids tell me they miss me a lot and trust me enough to tell me how this crisis is affecting them and their families. Although I am not there physically with them and at times feel like I can not do much or that I am not doing much, I can bring comfort to their life by listening to them and giving them advice. I know this is something my kids need a lot, someone to listen to them and show them that they care. As mentioned I am grateful to have them in my life and I can not wait until I get to see them again. 

My kids having fun. I miss them!!!!

Like I mentioned not much has changed here in Ecuador. We continue to be in quarantine and the strict measures remain in place. We still have a curfew from 2 pm until 5 am, traveling out of the country and to different provinces is very limited, vehicular transportation still is dependent on your license plate and we are only able to be out of the house if it is to buy groceries, buy medicine or go to the hospital. I have not been out of the house for a while now and it is overwhelming being in my apartment all the time. Like most people, I have my ups and downs and am taking life one day at a time. There is hope things will change and I do wish things will go back to normal soon. The president of Ecuador mentioned back in April that the transition from isolation to social distancing started on May 4th. To execute this well a traffic light system was put in place. This means that provinces in red remain with strict measures, provinces in yellow/orange will experience fewer restrictions, and provinces in green will either have restrictions lifted or very relaxed restrictions. Each governor of the province will decide the color which it will operate under. This is all dependent on data and the number of cases of coronavirus in the providence. Everyone began in red and over time provinces with fewer cases have changed colors. We heard rumors that Cuenca would change to yellow soon and fewer restrictions would be in place. Both Emily and I got very excited about this but we were sad to find out that our governor decided to keep Cuenca in red until May 24th. Although I understand the importance of staying at home I have hope that things will change soon and everything will go back to normal. All things said I am grateful to be in a country that is taking the virus seriously and is taking the right measures to keep its citizens safe. I am very disturbed by looking at the news from the United  States. I have a hard time understanding the protests going on when in my opinion the United States has done very little to stop the virus from spreading and has not taken the right measures. In Cuenca, there are also protests going on, but these are from totally different reasons and in my opinion more valid reasons than the protests going on in the United States. Students are protesting because the government has cut down funding for the public University threatening their education. Everyone protesting wore masks and gloves, and there were no riffles on site. I hope the United States can learn some things from Ecuador and apply them to keep its citizens safe. 

Protest by University Students 

Protesters wearing masks and gloves 

These times are hard for everyone and it is sad to see how much the world is suffering due to the crisis at hand. Things have not been easy for us mentally and we struggle with all the changes that we have gone through recently. We both miss our families a lot and wish things will go back to normal soon. I am so grateful to have Emily by my side and I know I could not have done this without her constant support and care. One thing I do know is that I have to allow myself to feel all the feelings and validate them. I hope everyone reading this is doing well and I encourage everyone to not lose hope and faith. We will get out of this and come back stronger than ever before. Like always thank you, Mark and Linda, for all of your support and this amazing opportunity. Take care everyone and thank you for reading.