Youth Group

Saturday I went to youth group for the first time in several weeks. The past Saturdays I had either been out of town, sick or I didn't look at my watch until after 7:30, when the service starts at 7:30 and it takes 20 minutes to walk there! I'd been wanting to go for the past few weeks because they started something new. In the past, the youth group service would consist of some singing and then someone talking, with people anywhere from 14 on up to mid-30s. There weren't many my age who went because it was a bit awkward being included in the same group as teenagers, especially for those who worked at school, since many of the kids in youth group are also students at Emanuel. Well, a few weeks ago, the church leadership decided to, after the singing time was over, to split the group into 2, the teens stay in the gym and those 20 and up have their own group time. Last night there was about 20 of us in the jovenes adultos' (young adults) group and I know of others who fit into that age category, but who weren't there last night! It was neat to have that time to share a bit of life with people around my age. :) From what I understand, it took a number of young adults talking with the church leadership for it to come about, but it's happened. :) So that was fun and I was getting ready to walk home by myself, since the 2 people that live near me weren't going to their houses when several guys started convincing everyone to go hang out in the park. Nearly everyone agreed to go to Parque Proaño, which is more of a scenic paved path in between 2 streets with some benches than a park like I'm used to in the States. It was really funny to turn around and watch the group come, because there was nearly 50 of us, in a loooooong line of groups of 2-4 people, so the line lasted about 2 or 3 blocks! When we got to Parque Proaño, the guys organizing it said that we should go to the main park, the plaza in front of the cathedral, instead, so off we go again. We got to the park and found an open area that had a knee-high cement wall running around most of it and everyone sat down and started talking. Well, then one of the guys, Petete (not a clue as to how he got that nickname, but that's what everyone calls him), decided to organize an impromptu theater production of David and Goliath. Basically he would tell the story and whoever he indicated had to act out that portion. It was very much a comedy because the first person he chose was to play David and happened to be the tallest and oldest (I think) guy in the group. David was supposed to be watching over a couple adolescent sheep, with the help of a palm branch, which I think doubled as a shepard's staff and a flute, which led the sheep to start dancing around. :) The next scene had Goliath come onto the stage. He chose a quite small and young teen to be Goliath, at which everyone, including the poor kid, doubled over in laughter. :) At this point I was really missing my camera!! Although it was pretty dark, I don't know how well the pictures would have turned out, but it was hilarious! The rest of us got into the drama now, with half being the Philistines and the other half the Israelites. Then David got called back, to come fight Goliath and ended up with a baseball cap for a helmet, a shirt for armor and the palm branch again for the sword. At first he forgot that it was supposed to be heavy, but after a few reminders, he started drooping under the “weight”. Then we had to go to a commercial break because “David”'s phone rang. :) David then got rid of the armor and started looking for the small bag and slingshot and ended up using my purse and sweatshirt. It was hilarious to watch Goliath become more and more dramatic as time went on, in the production, and he ended up dying quite dramatically. After the theater was over, they took up a collection and bought crackers and pop and played Pinocchio dice (Simon Says) Extreme, although it wasn't that much more difficult than what I torture my students with. :) Although, instead of getting out, and having a winner, if you mess up, you have to pay a penance, which in this case, ended up usually being some form of barking (again, not a clue as to why). My stomach hurt, as we were walking home, from laughing so hard! I'm rather curious, though, as to what the other people in the park were thinking of us. It must have been quite a sight, to see 40 some odd teens and young adults making fools of themselves and putting on a comedy based on the Bible! :) I would see people walk by, look at us and hang around for awhile before walking off. There was even a truck that parked behind some of the kids, with some gradeschoolers in the back, who proceeded to sit on the cab roof to watch the performance! It was definitely one of the more fun nights I've had! :) I'm really going to half to remember my camera all of the time, because I never know when something random like this will happen.

update

So after being shamed by a high school friend who updates her blog all the time, I decided that I should write a little bit more than I have! :)  All sorts of stuff is going on here, so I'll try to put little snippets up.

Classes
The students are starting to get the hang of being in class!  At first it was a constant effort to have them still and listen to me, but now they're much more respectful and obedient. :)  Of course, they're still little kids, with all of the entertainment that provides, but they're doing really well in class.  The other day I was doing an activity with my first grade classes (4-5 year olds) and only explained it to them in English and they were able to do the activity!!!  Of course, the next day I tried the same thing, only with a different activity and they didn't have a clue, but still, there's hope! :)  It's been a lot of fun working with so many different ages, I feel like I have the best of all worlds, since I get the little, little ones who we sing songs and I point out the colors of their toys, to the 3rd graders (6-8 years old) who I'm teaching to read and we can play games like Hangman and stuff.

At recess time I'm usually in the library with about 15-20 kids all over the floor reading books and if I'm not here, for some reason, I'll have about 10-20 kids begging me to open it up, so that they can read.  They have a choice of playing in the gym, eating, or reading and these guys choose reading!!  I love to see all the different ages scattered all over the floor reading and sharing books. :)



Cuenca
This past weekend was a four-day weekend so Diana, my roommate, and I went to Cuenca.  It's one of the larger cities in Ecuador and about a 7-9 hour bus ride from Macas, up into the mountains.  It was so much fun to wander around the town that she'd grown up in and to see a different part of Ecuador, since I'd never been there before.  It was really pretty with Spanish colonial architecture all over, all of the roofs were red and many buildings made of adobe.  The foundations of the buildings in the historic district were often made with the stones from Inca buildings!  I loved the history of it all and spent all day Saturday wandering around historic Cuenca and visiting a museum that we didn't even get to go inside since we spent so much time walking around the Inca ruins outside! :)
Friday Diana's family got together to celebrate her sister-in-law's birthday, so they slaughtered a pig for the celebration.  I think literally every part of the pig was prepared or consumed that day, nothing was wasted!  I did eat some, of it, although I had more rice than anything. :)  I enjoyed hanging out with her cousins and nieces and nephews; her family reminded me of my family, in that everyone is included and there's a lot of people! :)  One of her cousins brought out cards and they were teaching me Ecuadorian card games, when one of her nieces, who'd studied for a year in the U.S. wanted to play Spoons.  So the 2 of us taught the others how to play Spoons, which we continued to do for another couple of hours.  Then on Sunday, before we left to go back to Macas, we played Spoons for another 2 or 3 hours!  At first one of her brothers didn't like it, but then we switched to using tea bags instead of metal spoons and he really got into it and even won in the elimination round! :)

It was a very fun weekend, but I think my favorite part was that even though Cuenca is really high in elevation, my asthma didn't bother me at all! :)  I put a bunch of pictures up on Facebook, if you want to see them, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=117939&id=517974210&l=d3e4fd8e34


That's a short summary of the past few weeks, and I'll try to do better next time! :)