Fundacion Ñeque y más Ñeque

What a surprise, we waited for our teacher once again.  While we waited one of the Ecuadorian students talked to us and asked us about our weekend.  He went to Otavalo with his family. Just in case you wanted to know.  But he would have preferred to go to the coast.

Class was whatever. We had our break and were asked to sign up for the dance class by the girl from Belgium, so we did.  I talked to Stephanie about her trip to the Galapagos, which she got an incredibly good deal for.  Then we went to literature class.

When we went to Zona Bamboo, about 20 minutes later Stephanie, Stephan, Christian, and Brice showed up.  We put two tables together and talked a lot about the homecoming events.  A little later Shigeki showed up.  About 5 minutes 'til 2 we left so that those who had class could make it.  I thought I would simply be waiting for Yonseili until her business class ended, but as soon as we arrived to the Academia, Carolina told us we'd be leaving in 5 minutes.  We were a little confused but then came to the realization that today she would be taking a few of us to the organization we could possibly be volunteering at: Fundacion Ñeque y más Ñeque.  Yonseili couldn't go because of class, so I went with Carolina, Natacha from Belgium, Martin from Czeck Republic, and Salome from Switzerland.  We took the bus and it was about a 15 minute ride.

Highlight of the day:  When we arrived Carolina rang a doorbell.  I looked up and I saw a sign that said Fundacion Nieque y mas Nieque.  Immediately I remembered we had learned that from a taxi driver a while back.  I felt like it was some kind of sign.  After a brief moment, a lady by this two-story building opens the window, and it's a lady that went to the Academia.  Another lady opens the door for us and we walk up the stairs to the second floor.  It was great to be greeted by so many kids.  Everyone was so happy to see us and many of them asked for our names.  They were all too friendly with us and they had no idea who we were.  There were about 30 of them and the age range was something like 6-12, I think.  But most were between 6 and 9 if I remember correctly.  There was a big introduction between the students and us.  They got to ask us questions and then each one of them stood up, said their name and their age.  There will be plenty to say about this place as time comes so I will say it as we volunteer there.  We are looking forward to it.  I must say it was a very nice welcome.

We went back to the school and arrived at like 4:15pm.  Our dance class was supposed to start at 4pm but since 3 of us who signed up were gone, David the Colombian guy waited.  A total of six of us signed up: Lauren, Natacha, Martin, Yonseili, Joe from Canada, and I.  Then David had to ask another David from Seattle to help out so we could all have partners.  It was pretty fun, but I must admit that I don't really like Salsa.  Before I thought I didn't, but now I can say I don't really enjoy it.  Cumbia was good, Bachata was okay and Merengue was kinda like Salsa.  Nonetheless, we learned new steps and it was a good experience.

We still needed to print a few things out so we wanted to get to an internet cafe.  Geeze, that was hard to do. We couldn't get a taxi for some reason, so we ended up walking to Quicentro which was our first time doing so 'alone' and at that time.  Of course, there was still plenty of people around, but it was somewhat dark and we had our backpacks.  At Quicentro we couldn't find the computer place and when Yonseili saw the ice cream place, she wanted to get some.  I went to sit down and waited for her.  When I looked up and saw she had her ice cream and had already paid, I noticed she was looking for something.  She was looking for her money bag.  Well, after looking for it repeatedly in the same places, we concluded she was pick-pocketed right under her nose.  Yep, theft can definitely be an 'art' here.  That was very upsetting.

Nothing went the way we wanted, it was almost like we weren't meant to print out our paperwork.  We got a taxi to get home.

The rest of the evening we did other homework and that was that.