Huasipichay and Fiestas de Guapalo

This picture above is the outside of Colegio Menor. I'm putting together more boards in my classroom, so those pictures will be coming soon.

So I bet your're thinking that tomorrow's the first day of school for me! Unfortunately, the first day's been pushed back again. And again. And again. The high school now starts on Wednesday. Ah! Will it ever begin??? Apparently we're required to have "staggered" start days; so Pre-K starts Monday, elementary on Tuesday, and middle school/high school on Wednesday. Someday I'll meet my students.

One event I forgot to put on my last post was our trip to the Guayasamin Museum: Capilla del Hombre (Man's funeral chapel). It was beautiful. For $4 each, Susan, Tessa, and I walked through giant canvases of Guayasamin's work of Quito and the Latinamerican culture and history. His pieces are captivating, yet haunting. You'll see what I mean:


This is "El Mestizaje" - the two tone colors of this figure represent the people of Latinamerica who have both Spanish and native Inca heritages.


This is an interesting quote by Guayasamin. It says, "I cried because I did not have shoes until I saw a child who did not have feet."


I can't remember what the title of this one was, but it was a triptych about the tragedies of Nicaragua and the battles they've been fighting for centuries. It was one of my favorites. A small quote at the bottom right side said, "Nicaragua- your pain is my anguish."

This was such a great museum - I'd definitely go back a second time to take it all in again. I highly suggest googling him and looking at more of his pieces.

This past Thursday I went to Universidad de San Fransisco de Quito to meet Nascira, my university supervisor for student teaching. We met to go over my plans and goals for my time at CM, and set up our preliminary schedule for my first observations. It's crazy to think of being observed for teaching when we haven't even had school yet! I had some time to wait around while Susan met with Nascira after my appointment, so here are some pics of the beautiful campus:



It's too bad I don't need to spend more time here!

Friday night my three teacher friends, Susan, Angie, and Claire had a Huasipichay. It's a Kichwa (Kichwa = indigenous language that's still spoken in more rural areas of the Andes) word for a house-warming party! They invited about 40 people to their apartment, and we all ceremoniously toasted to good health and fortune in each one of their rooms. Every bedroom, every bathroom, even the laundry room! It was so fun and different - I'll definitely be having a Huasipichay in every home I move in to from now on.

Claire and I at the Huasipichay.

Sauturday evening the director of Colegio Menor and his wife had all of the new teachers over to their home for food and socializing. Andrew and Tiza provided little sandwiches and drinks for all of us to enjoy while talking about our weekends and the upcoming week with students. Their house was really beautiful and it was so nice for them to have us over. I really like the community of staff at Colegio Menor for reasons like this - it's a community of friends, not just co-workers. Another example of this is the "secret pal" game we have going on right now. It's like a secret-Santa concept Americans do sometimes around the holidays, but we're doing that in the high school right now to get to know each other. We all picked a name last week, and we've secretly been giving notes and little gifts to our secret pals that tell them something about us. Last week I received a beautiful print from my secret pal who loves to take photos. I'll try and upload a picture of it - it's something I'll be keeping framed in my home someday.

After Andrew's welcome party, it was the final night of Fiestas de Guapalo. Guapalo is a small neighborhood between the valley of Cumbaya (where Colegio Menor is) and Quito. There were week-long parties all night celebrating... something? Just a reason to party together as a neighborhood and set things on fire, I think! It was fun, but overwhelming - there were lots of pyrotechnics, music, street food and drinks. At one point, people with fire-sparkler-things attached to wooden-bull-structures ran around the crowd spraying everyone with sparks! We were semi-afraid for our well being at that point. I didn't get pictures of that part because well, I was ducking for cover with my hood over my head so my hair didn't start on fire. Even after being a little traumatized, we stayed and listed to the traditional salsa band and watched them set these towers on fire with different fireworks and sparklers. It was all set up in the plaza of this beautiful church that is a tourist attraction on it's own during the day.







It was definitely a cultural experience, but one that I think I'll be okay skipping if I'm in Quito for it again.

Three more days until school, so on to more preparation! I hope all of my readers have had a great weekend, and are recuperated for the upcoming week ahead!