Our under the tree group and me doing some strange aerobics move!

just in case you thought you'd never seen me actually in action, here is a particularly unflattering picture out of the dozens of really dodgy ones I have of working with the groups... maybe that's why I never have any pics of me and the kids up as I don't exactly look my best mid session with the demands and heat of the sectors.... Maybe one day I'll adjust, who knows?

Juconi Ecuador 2007

A bit of an insight into our work. Sorry it's in Spanish but it's talking about the number of children who work on the streets in Ecuador - 1 million etc and showing some of the things that the kids do on the streets to earn money, e.g. entertainment at traffic lights and selling things on the streets of the richer areas.



It shows some of the sectors that we work in - particularly these are the southern sectors such as Fertisa and Isla Trinitaria, where I work on Mondays and Fridays respectively. The southern sectors are characterised by water and often people build up on stilts above the water and then they don't need to worry about illegally 'owning' the land which is the problem in the northern sectors of Guayaquil. The sectors are also characterised by violence, crime and extreme poverty which is evident from the poorly constructed houses and lack of roads in this video. Plus the south is particularly dangerous and you are much less likely to see people walking the streets and just being around than in the north. In fact, when I first went to the south on my second day at work with Juconi, I was quite overwhelmed by the sense of fear and tension that just hung in the air there.

The video was made to raise awareness about Juconi's work and the plight of the huge numbers of street working children in Ecuador, as well as give an insight into the therapeutic processes that Juconi psychologists put into place within the families, trying to deal with some of the problems, improving communication, getting parents to agree to allow Juconi to support their children to access education, supporting the family to gradually get their kids out of street working and breaking the cycle of violence, abuse and poverty in the long term.

Juconi's work, whilst highly intensive is hugely successful. The figures in this video are slightly out of date and the latest figures are that: 96% of the street working children have stopped working on the street -19% of which have found other, safer ways to work and 77% no longer work at all; 94% of children have returned to formal education and 90% of the families have managed to put an end to the physical, sexual and emotional abuse that existed in their families.

I hope this is interesting but if you want any further information please let me know.

Liv x

Near death by MDF

Well today started like any other. Except Thursdays are never normal. They're hard bloody work. We have a double day every Thursday which means in the morning we go to Sergio Toral which is one of the most peripheral sectors and a long way out and then in the afternoon are session is with the kids of Nueva Prosperina. Also as the Northern sectors are so hilly and get more and more so the further you get out, you can imagine, once we're in one of the furthest sectors there's some serious hills to negotiate... however, I can't really complain as often Alexis takes us and all our materials first thing in the camioneta (pick up truck) as he did this morning.

Today started like many other days too in that we were told to be there at 8.30am on the dot and we actually arrived at 8.20 which for me is unheard of (Helen is perpetually waiting for me as no matter what time I'm up by the time it comes to leave for work, I'm late!)! Thursdays are also particularly hard work as we start in Sergio T, with our 'Under the tree group' which literally takes place, under a tree! And after spending a few hours getting absolutely filthy, caked in dust from head to toe, we walk down one of the steep paths into the valley, across one of the lower parts of the sector to take a very loooong bus ride to our afternoon session in Nueva, which thank God, is in a school - not very well equipped or clean, but nevertheless we have a room, walls, tables and seats and even luxury of all luxuries, toilets - manky but nonetheless they are toilets! So Thursdays are always shattering.

Today, surprise surprise, we didn't leave at 8.30am as planned to make the 1 hour journey out to Sergio. We actually left at 9.45. However, after a lot of organisation of the camioneta we were on our way with another luxury item for 2011.... Sergio Toral Art Club was about to have a 'tableta' which to you and me is a large slab of MDF wood that we were going to be able to use with stools to create a table under the tree. Now, believe me when I say that compared to bits of plastic sheeting on the floor, anything that vaguely resembled a table was gonna be seriously good. So, we finally departed with our little plastic stools, the MDF and a few boxes of Pascua bread for delivery to Juconi families as a New Year present. Pascua is literally Christmas bread which is like brioche I think (I have one in the fridge that I was given but there's enough of a carbs overload here without that too....not to be ungrateful tho!).

Now we were merrily going on our way when we realised that the MDF was raising up really high at the back and banging down repeatedly on the top of truck. Alexis gets out to tie the string tighter as it's obviously not secure (string I mean really but there was obviously no rope around so we're stuck with string and a big piece of board?!?). After the third time stopping he is driving slowly to try and stop the flapping wood scenario and then all of a sudden we hear a giant thump. I look back and realise the MDF has left it's mooring and is sailing through the air of the large road, basically a motorway style 4 lane road, that we're travelling down. Ecuadorians like to drive close despite the various items that people have sticking out of their cars and the MDF narrowly misses the car behind, there was literally inches in it but luckily the driver behind saw it happening and swerved in time. We stopped and tried to pick up the MDF. When Alexis had finally negotiated the traffic and retrieved the board we secured it again. But basically Alexis and Veronica (the Juconi Educator for our am session) realised that the problem was that the board's movement kept cutting the string. So, me being Little Miss Adventurous and I'll try anything once, offers to jump in the back and sit on the side to hold the board in place. Alexis and Veronica look at me puzzled like "are you sure?" and then are like "chevre", i.e. cool. I did realise how dangerous it is however, and so say to them that my signal that I'm about to fly off with the wood is to knock hard on the window. So, off we go again.

At first, Alexis is going along relatively slowly and it's all fine and I start to wonder what all the fuss has been about but it doesn't take me long, or much speed, to realise that this board is certainly not much ado about nothing. As soon as we have the tiniest bit of speed, the board starts rocking like a crazy thing. It's momentum nearly knocks me off the side so I decide quickly that the safest option is to squeeze myself into the space between the stools and the side of the truck, i.e. being inside the truck part as opposed to on the ledge of it! However, even with this strategy the momentum is just too great and I literally feel like I'm about to be blown off. It takes all of 4 minutes for me to be banging feriously on the back window of the pickup.

So we stop, again. Alexis decides that the whole back needs to be reorganised and we decide to rest the board flat on the stools with the two boxes of Pascua on top in and effort to weigh it down. However, it was quickly obvious that this was not going to be enough to weigh down the force of the board in the wind, so there I was again up on top of the back of the truck but this time sitting on top of the board sandwiched in by the two boxes. Now THIS was an experience. I was happily sitting on the back watching the world go by and this way I saw and experienced much more of the trip than I ever do when in the main part of the vehicle. Now probably for most Guayaquileños the sight of a gringa, sitting on a wooden board on the back of a pick up with her hair blowing around mentally and holding on to two cardboard boxes was a sight to behold. Some cars started to pass by the camioneta, only to slow down and witness this strange sight. Others beeped and a couple of other pickups carrying groups of men off to do manual work, laughed or smiled on their way past. In one pickup, an older guy looked at me and nodded sagely as if saying good work chica! (And later in the sectors, I got a couple more nods, some thumbs up, some smiles and some "holas"!)

Once we were almost at the entrance to the Northern sectors, which is called Entrada Ocho (Entrance 8). I suddenly thought that I needed to put my pandilla, or vest, which clearly identifies me as JUCONI as I thought that the site of a gringa sitting on the back of a pickup obviously laden with goodies not identified as such might make us rather a target for being robbed. As we waited to cross the intersection into Entrada Ocho I knocked on the window and shouted for Helen to pass me my vest. Once she'd passed it out of the window I was struggling to put it on whilst holding on to the boxes securely and I saw a guy on the pavement thing between the two directions of traffic. He was working there with his son and they were both looking at me with puzzlement. I smiled and he smiled and nodded his approval but shouted for me to watch out for the sun - I had chosen rather a hot and sunny day to expose this lovely blanco skin and was at serious risk of heatstroke! I told him I needed some sobra - shade, and then we were on our way crossing into the sectors.

I've always loved Entrada 8 - it is so colourful, full of smells, people selling every type of food and vegetable you can imagine plus meat and fish out on display, chickens hanging up and all sorts of cooking going on. It's always absolutely full to bursting with people, noise and an assortment of crammed vehicles. But to experience it on the back of the pickup rather than in the pickup was much better and I felt the joie de vivre of living so directly in the moment. Further up Entrada Ocho, which is long, where some of the stalls give way to huge amounts of discarded rubbish and dirt in whichever direction you look we were stuck in another traffic jam and I realised I was being frazzled so we had another crafty window passing manoeuvre and I got hold of my suncream and Juconi cap.

We then got stopped by the military who were asking Alexis something that I didn't get but they waved us on. I was surprised as in all the times I have gone up and down that road, I have never ever seen the police, let alone the military and it does kind of freak you out having a man with a machine gun poking around in the stuff you're carrying in your vehicle. Minutes later, we were stopped again, this time by 3 soldiers who waved us with their machine guns into an open patch at the side of the road along with lots of other vehicles. Some very senior looking officer approached us with other soldiers and Alexis had to get out of the car to explain that we worked for Juconi and that the stuff in the pick up was for an Art Club we do and the boxes of Pascua were presents for the families. He started prodding at one of the boxes, so I opened it up to show him the Pascua loaves and he seemed satisfied and waved us on our way. I later found out that the reason for there being so much more traffic than normal and for the military presence was that the Government have started demolishing some of the sectors and there is a new ban in place as of 27th December 2010 in which no more 'invasiones' as they are called, into new land that is currently not built on will be permitted. It seems like they're been a kind of amnesty before and now there is to be no more building on unsettled land. The military therefore, are stopping any vehicles carrying anything that looks like it could be do with construction to stop people building new houses... Wow.

However, the most difficult bit of the journey was to yet to come. Once you leave the half decent road of Entrada Ocho which goes on for miles and you turn up to Sergio, the journey is all done on rough dirt tracks which have mountainous potholes in them. Plus there's the steep hills. On the motorway before Entrada Ocho, I had suddenly realised that if the board was to suddenly flip up, I would go with it, flying through the air into oncoming traffic. It suddenly hit me that I wouldn't stand a chance. However, on the potholed tracks to Sergio was when I felt the most unsafe. Here, despite my protestations, Alexis couldn't go any slower or he wouldn't have had enough momentum to overcome the mini mountains on the track. So I was bumping around like a nutter, holding on with dear life to the boxes... like they were going to save me - I mean really! To be honest, they were sliding around quite a bit with all the movement in the back and I was anything but truly horizontal most of the time. I realised that if the boxes were to go, I'd be going with them.... Ahh! After negotiating a few of the hills with my hands glued to the sides, we got stuck with a truck coming the other way and these tracks are not designed for two! Then it was time to take the steepest of hills directly into Sergio... we passed by a couple of women who smiled but made faces like saying "Are you mad?" and by this point I definitely thought I was! Alexis had to accelerate to get up and over the potholes and to overcome the steepness of the hills without slipping all the way back down but this meant that I was suffering rather in the back and clinging on for dear life!

When we finally arrived in Sergio at 11am bearing in mind we're meant to start at 10am (Ecuadorian time keeping!), I felt like I needed a lie-down after all the drama. Everyone else wanted to unload as quickly as possible but after all that I'd experienced I was adamant that I wasn't getting off that camioneta without a photo... so here it is!

All of that, and then it was time to set to work in earnest with our second Art Club of the New Year after yesterday's session in Balerio Estacio...we've been doing Speed Art, like speed dating but with Art but you can find out all about that in a few weeks once I've updated the CMAP blog.

All I will say though, is wow, not only are the sectors completely transformed because the two episodes of heavy rain in the last few weeks has turned everything from brown to green so they almost look pretty in places, but most importantly the kids. Ahhhhh, it has been so nice to be reunited with the kids this week. I didn't realise how much I'd miss them all, little cherubs...well, hardly! But all gorgeous in their own special ways.

Oh and just in case you wondered, the fireworks are back! They're all going off again because today is Dia de Los Reyes, i.e. 6th January - Three Kings Day. So basically after 2 days of respite since NY, I reckon we can safely say that they'll be fireworks lighting up the sky until at least the end of the weekend!

And on that note, I have to go and see what all the noise VERRRY close to me is about!

Ciao, Liv x

El Año Nuevo Guayaquileño

Happy New Year! One of my New Year´s resolutions is to get back on this 'ere blog. So let's start 2011 with a bang and get that blog moving....

...and taking of a bang, New Year's here, or Año Nuevo, started 4 days before with a lot of bangs! I only arrived back late on Boxing Day evening and a few days later was a bit shocked to hear repeated long bangs in my neighbourhood that sounded suspiciously like bombs! As I'd been adjusting to being back in this different world of Guayaquil after London and barely leaving the house, I can only say this bomb-like sounds served to further my paranoia.

On the day before NYE I realised what all the bangs were about - they were año viejos, literally old year dolls which are papiér maché dolls that are filled with explosives and then set on fire and as Guayaquileños like to party they'd started setting them off very early. I went and saw a place where they were selling them and realised how incredible they are. They are often models of commonly known toys, so Woody, Buzz Lightyear and that green alien thing from Toy Story were common themes. Plus other kids characters such as Sponge Bob Square Pants and action heros were everywhere. These things are amazing and they come in sizes from about 30cm tall to some that I saw which were the same height as two floors of buildings.....insane, absolutely insane and only in Ecuador. People had them sitting in their porches, on their balconies and were transporting them around in pick-ups - a sight to behold!

On NYE itself, I spent the evening with Martha, a work colleague, and her family. We started the evening early at 6pm with a visit to the Malecon 2000 (the promenade) on one of Guayaquil´s numerous estuaries and watched all the shows down there including a 6/7 year old who had the most incredible adult voice and was entertaining the entire crowd with her singing and compering. As well as some Arabic dancing, there were displays of the Año Viejo dolls

and another stage with women who I can only describe as pretty well endowed and who'd maybe had a bit of help in that department! Let's just say the men couldn't unglue there eyes from the sight, but suddenly they were all shy when they were invited onto the stage to dance!

Although it was lovely to be in the full flow of Guayaquil's New Year, I quickly found myself being seriously mauled by mosquitos.... the rainy season is of course well and truly here and they've been enjoying a serious munch on my sweet English blood - Ahh!

Later in the evening we drove around in vein trying to buy another Año Viejo although the extended family had 2 between them. I was quite looking forward to setting light to my old year and saying goodbye to it with the intention of focusing on the new year. Anyway, after an evening of fireworks across every part of the sky at midnight we lit the collection of Año Viejos that we'd collected with another family across the street.

It was INSANE!! So for 45 minutes we had a burning fire outside the house with constant explosions.

Not to mention all the explosions down the street, on the side streets and constantly rocking the entire city! Car alarms were going off all night long and some people were even having to constantly hose their cars down to stop the petrol tank going up in flames with all the heat... Que loco eh?

And why on earth would you risk parking anywhere near that chaos? Having said that though I'm not sure that there would be any places in Guayaquil were a car would've been safe. Many people got even more into it and threw more explosives and fireworks on to the fires and god, I thought I was going to go deaf with the decible level. A couple of cars ran the gauntlet driving at fast speeds down the street and dodging the fires on the way... talk about taking your life in your hands! So after all the excitement it was time to sit down and eat with the family as is the tradition. It was great food although slighly weird to be eating such a fat meal at 12.30am....I finally got home after 3 by which time the streets only had a few small burning fires going but most had been hosed down although the ash and debris floated around the streets for days. Similarly the explosions and fireworks went on for days and only really stopped a day ago. Like I said Guayaquileños know how to party!

Once I work out this blogsite, i'll be sure to get some photos up because seeing is believing and all that!

Lllovizna, llovizna - I don't love llovizna

So after the most hecticly fast, swaying and window head banging journey to Canoa, we arrived a full hour and a half early, despite leaving half an hour late. Surely it's unheard of to arrive that early to anything in Ecuador! We were greeted with a dark, dank and drizzly Canoa in what felt like the middle of the night as it was only 6am. Llovizna - my new word for the day which I've learnt very quickly - DRIZZLE - what? in Ecuador? I have never had more than one layer on since I arrived and on the journey and for the first few hours we were here whilst waiting for the Hostel to open I had a whole 3 layers on including my thick hoodie - AHHHH this is not good. It really was like a misty, foggy, grey and windy day when we arrived with the surfing waves lashing the beach!

However, although it's still grey and overcast (should've gone down to Mancora in Peru if we wanted guaranteed sunshine!), it's a bit warmer and I'm only wearing two layers now! We've also checked in finally and they've managed to get us all into one room with an ensuite so I'm feeling kinda privileged now as I've seen so many people turning up looking for rooms and being turned away to sleep where who knows? Our room for the next three days in Argentina and it's cute.

The party's already in full swing. Even at 6am in the morning there were people roaming the streets and now at barely lunchtime the music is pumping from all corners. Truck loads of people are coming for the fiesta and the streets are packed with people ambling, shopping, drinking, eating. I've already bought some souvenirs but better chill a bit on the spending front if I want to get through til Wednesday morning when we get our bus back to Guayaquil.

All is good therefore, minus the sun! We need a little bit of sol and it will all be perfect or even if just warmed up enough to lie on the beach and cloudbathe with my pale skin I'd be happy. Just a bit of sun that's all I ask and then three days of partying.....Whoopey whoop! xx

Playa paradise

So it's the start of the National holidays and today, well, to be precise this evening, we will embark on our first real escape from Guayaquil. We're going up to Canoa in the North of the country - it's beach time baby baby! It's a little fishing village and everyone who talks about it says that it's lovely so I'm super excited (well at least I am in theory, but I'm so knackered that getting excited is a bit of a challenge at the mo!). As it's 8 hours away we're travelling over night which has been organised by Lily who was Karen's Spanish teacher and has taught many of the other Juconi and CMAP volunteers. Knowing how good I am - NOT! at sleeping on buses, I would've preferred to travel in the day, plus this would have meant getting to see some of the countryside but as Lily organised it all, so be it. Hopefully we'll travel back in the day on Wednesday which will mean seeing some of the journey and we have to be in work on Thursday morning, so an overnight trip is definitely not gonna be something I'll be keen on.

Right now I'm praying for sunshine. All of you get out there and start a sundance for me please!! Then again, as you guys have been dealing with some pretty cold wintery weather by the sounds of it, I'm sure you don't wanna think about us guys chilling on a beach! But my God, do I need it?! I've been suffering since Wednesday night with a dodgy tummy and all the associated fun and games that goes with that. Helen's had the same and Kelsey, an American volunteer, too. All I want to do is go and pass out on the beach so the fact that Canoa is meant to be super mellow sounds just perfect to me.

Last night was Karen's leaving do - she's off to travel Colombia for the next three weeks and then we'll be having a last supper when she's back in Guayaquil before going back to the UK. I was there in body but not in spirit. I felt exhausted, ill and just not really all there. I also felt super lonely. Kelsey went home early. Karen was obviously the belle of the ball and Helen was chatting to some of Karen's friends. I was sitting with some of the organisation staff but wasn't involved in the convos and my brain was so tired I couldn't keep up with the Spanish or make an effort to be involved. Ah well, suppose they'll always be days like that in a new country, new job, new culture, new language with nothing familiar in the slightest. Probably just felt more negative about it than I would have normally tho' due to feeling so rubbish. Nevermind. Today's a new day and adventure awaits....!

So, what else is new... well everything of course! Everything's new all the time! So yesterday at Isla - the most energetic, spirited, hyperactive and uncontrollable of all our groups we'd agreed that the Juconi workers would run the dinamíca - which is like the warm up game or icebreaker. I turned up in the yard of the school where we run the session, having been helping Kelsey set up as she was gonna take the diddly ones (i.e. the under 6's) who actually are not meant to even be there and in our team meeting last week, we'd discussed the little ones who often disrupt the session hugely as they obviously need a totally different type of intervention. Often it's that the older ones are looking after the younger ones which is why they all end up coming to Art Club. So, as I said, we'd discussed the fact that the little ones are not meant to come but immediately after that meeting last week, we'd had little ones in the Isla session. Plus we'd also decided that the limits on group size need to be enforced, i.e. 25 in all the groups, except Isla which is 30. Despite all these lovely agreements, the reality is that they´re not enforced by the workers, so it makes it meaningless! Yesterday in Isla for instance, we had 40!! It's a shame 'cuz it means it becomes a lot about group management and we do not have the time to be supporting those who need help. Really, it would be better to have much fewer numbers and be able to make a difference. Not to mention the whole arriving half an hour before the session starts in order to ensure we have set up and have briefing time - again, that went straight out of the window the day after it was agreed - as we arrived at a session half an hour after it was due to start, i.e. a whole hour late being that we'd agreed that workers would be there half an hour early. Ah well. It's challenging but I have to try and relax. It's about choosing your battles wisely isn't it? I mean, we are not in control of what time we arrive as we have to go in with the Educators, therefore, if they're late we're late!

Sylvia the English woman who founded Juconi, saw such a situation unfolding on Thursday morning - our Sergio Toral session. There was a whole team session with the Psychologist who comes in every 2 weeks (none of them have any individual supervision despite the intensity of the work that they're doing - this group session is the best they get), which started late, overran blahblahblah which meant the workers weren't out of the meeting until 10.45am, bearing in mind we are meant to start Art Club at 10am :O Add that to the fact that as Sergio is so far out, even with the driver driving us in the Camioneta, it would've taken us another 40 or so minutes to get there thus meaning we would've arrived at half 11 - half an hour before the session finishes. So the session was scrapped. WOW! It's so rubbish that we let these kids down and I've seen it happen, and apparently it's a regular occurrence, that workers just don't ever get to their appointments with the families. Terrible really - but it's just part of life here. It doesn't mean that they don't care but there is just no culture of starting things on time. Being on time. Keeping to plan etc etc. Like I said; choosing my battles wisely is my thing at the mo. I can't fix the whole culture of Ecuador single-handedly!

So, as Sylvia saw this happening first hand on Thursday, having already had a chat with me about the lateness issue on Wednesday when she knew we were hanging around waiting to leave for Balerio Estacio - where we finally materialised at 2.30pm! She's suggested that I drive one of the organisation's Camionetas (pick up truck thing) to enable us to get to Art Club on time. this would mean that we would be more in charge of the scheduling and people would have to meet us rather than us wait for them. However, there would obviously be numerous challenges: the style of driving, which is pretty insane; not becoming a general driver for the organisation and getting pulled in all different directions by everyone; actually negotiating my way to some of the sectors and knowing the way; learning to drive in the sectors were roads are sometimes no existent; and of course, the biggest challenge would be that if there was a Gringa driving, we would be even more susceptible to be robbed, attacked, carjacked etc... So, vamos a ver as they say - we'll see. Ultimately, I'd just like to know that we were more in control of actually getting to Art Club and actually having a full session, and if me driving the Camioneta is the way forward then I'll do it despite all the risks!

But as I was saying paragraphs and paragraphs ago (Tangent Woman to the rescue!), yesterday at Isla we'd agreed that the Educators would run the dinamíca. However, after helping Kelsey set up for the little ones, I arrived to find a huge group of kids in a circle and nobody knowing what game to do. They asked if any of the kids knew 'Boom Chicka Boom' - a fun, call and response song, where the leader says something and they have to repeat...
I said a boom
I said a boom
I said a boom chicka
I said a boom chicka rocka
I said a boom chicka rocka, chicka rocka, chicka boom
Ah ha
Oh si
One more time ... this time a little bit more (happy/noisy/sad/quiet etc)

I've always loved this game having done in at home and last week one of the workers, Y, (who is the only Educator who seems to have the group dancing to her tune) had them all doing another version of it. So when the Educators realised noone knew how to do it somehow I got volunteered to do my version. I have to say though, it was super fun plus it gave me a chance to be a bit theatrical and play a bit! Most of the kids, I say 'most'! of the full 40, were involved and it was really great for me to just have to do it! I mean I've been thinking how much I wanted to run this game for ages with many of the groups, but particularly Isla, but have been too shy and worried about my ability to express the instructions well enough in Spanish. So yesterday was good. I just got thrown in and had to do it without thinking and it went well. But we definitely need more games like this as in some sectors our games/those done by the Educators have not been working....Ah well, creative planning on the beach me thinks!

Anyway, enough about work... Off to pack I go and then with my dosh in my secret hiding place (the buses sometimes get robbed), I'll be ready! Viva Canoa! Viva la playa! xx

Stuff

I don´t know why I´m up. I can´t sleep. I have developed a pattern of waking up at 11.30pm having only just got to sleep. I think it´s the middle of the night and then realise I´ve been asleep an hour or so! Absolutely ridiculous! So, tonight I tried to go to bed super early - I´ve been knackered all week and didn´t do enough catching up on the weekend and these last two days have been flipping between manic and moody in quick succession. So I decided I´d get an early bed. I´d been feeling decidedly dodgy all day but put it down to tiredness and therefore and over sensitive stomach. This evening, Karen came round to tell us she`s been offered a permanent job at Juconi - all very exciting news and obviously we wanted to hear all about it. We drank some cheap plonk and I went from feeling decidedly dodgy to feeling downright definitely dodgy. My stomach churning and my head banging and vice versa! I caught sight of myself in the mirror and I looked like a ghost! But yer, like I said, we wanted to hear the news and whilst the future of my host organisation here may look wobbly on the outside, where there are crises there often also opportunities for growth, evolution and massive progression from my point of view. And this seems to be what seems to be happening in this case. I can´t go into too much detail here as it´s an open blog, but put it this way, Sylvia and English woman who established Juconi 15 years back is over in Ecuador. She´s been here since Monday. My first impressions of her (are that she´s a powerhouse. When we spoke to Lynn (the Coordinator at CMAP in UK) the other day, she was shocked to here some of the organisational goings-ons here and said that when Sylvia got here she´d sort things out. I don´t doubt it. Sylvia is definitely a woman who can get things sorted. She seems to me to be a powerhouse of ideas, creativity and determination and this my assessment based on only 3 mini encounters with her for a couple of minutes each time. Maybe knowing about her and her very good reputation for getting things done is influencing my opinion, but whatever, it doesn´t really matter why I think she´ll get things done, as long as she does! So therefore, right now I´m excited about the future change that we might witness. I´m hugely excited for Karen who´s been given such an incredible opportunity although at present she´s still considering whether to go for it. But all credit to her- she´s been here six months as a volunteer and had no Spanish when she arrived. Wow, what an impact she has made on the team and some of the senior staff here to be offered such a great position. You go girl!

So.... what was I saying before my digression?! Me - digression/tangent - no, never! :P I don´t actually know but I feel pants. I feel sick but want to eat. I feel shattered but can´t sleep. I can´t believe it´s double day tomorrow - i.e. Art Club session in the morning and then another in the afternoon. Ahhhh! However, to update on Art Project as I´m sure it´s more interesting to you guys that hearing about my tummy woes, it´s all going good thank you! This week we´ve started Christmas cards - stupidly early I know! What it is, is that many of the kids in the sector have specific donantes, i.e. donors/sponsors, and we therefore have the kids make a Christmas card which can be sent to the donante. As many of them are overseas, predominantly in England as that´s where Sylvia has established so many links and created many funding opportunities, they obviously need to be sent quite early. However, as Sylvia´s over at the moment and leaves in a week and a half, she´s actually going to take them back over with here. So the long and the short, is that we´ve started doing Christmas cards with the kids using coloured photocopies of old Christmas cards, paint and potato stamper shapes (which went a bit dodgy but we tried in Fertisa on Monday arvo and then abandoned that - nice idea, shame it didn´t work out!!), showing them how to use basic geometric shapes to make Christmas pictures - 3 triangles is a Christmas tree, 2 triangles a star - you get the picture.

So, Fertisa was good on Monday although the potato stampers didn´t work out so the kids got frustrated, but that group´s our trial session for the week to see if our plan works out and then if nec, we regroup and change our minds on Tuesday when planning for the rest of the week - exactly what we did this week! However, today´s session in Balerio Estacio was INCREDIBLE! We had the normal antics about actually trying to get to the sector and on time and only arrived at half 2, 30 mins late (and one of the rules of Art Club is that the kids arrive on time - hummm!) - I am rapidly beginning to see that this is normal in Ecuador. 30 minutes late is on time! However, when we did finally get there we came bearing gifts. We had a whole extra table and some chairs - whoop whoop! Last week it was only 3 tables and no chairs trying to accommodate 27 kids so some still had to work on the floor and the rest were doing 'standing up table work'! But today was an incredible success. With the combo of us arriving late and the tables and chairs all laid out in the building, this amazing artistic working environment seem to have magically created itself. We were still running about setting stuff up, trying to find this and that, when I remember just suddenly noticing that loads of kids had now turned up and they were all sitting patiently on their random assortment of odd chairs waiting to begin. So, obviously we took massive advantage of this situation. As it was already half past we got moving.

One of the things we´ve been looking at is trying to encourage the children´s creativity. We´d been told before we´d started that many of the kids in the sector struggle to create their own stuff independently, often wanting to copy others or something we´ve done. Or alternatively, wanting us to draw something for them, or cut it or whatever. It´s always a bit of a delicate balancing act trying to facilitate them enough that they can get on with something without totally taking over and doing it for them, thus stultifying their creativity and not doing much to enhance their personal confidence.

Therefore, as I´ve done loads of graffiti walls with groups in the past and found them a fab way of eliciting thoughts, pictures, emotions and feedback/evaluation, I suggested to Helen that we try and do this at the beginning of the session in order to try and stimulate the kids´creativity a bit before we got to work on the Christmas cards themselves. We´d done it in Fertisa and despite some kids being stumped for a while, eventually when we started saying "If I say Navidad (Christmas), what pops into your head, what images do you have/what words etc" (many are scared to get it ´wrong´ so we have to keep explaining there´s no wrong and right and their artwork doesn´t have to be perfect) ... and eventually most of them got moving and we had an array of different coloured post-it notes with pictures, words and ideas with which to build our mini graffiti wall.

So, getting back on track, we started the session with the Balerio kids and some were totally stumped for a while but the majority did produce at least one post it note and I reckon that the more we keep doing activities like this, the more accustomed all of the groups will get to thinking creatively on the spot and the more confidence that will give them. Just like with some groups, where we have a bit of spare time, e.g. normally Fertisa, we´re trying to encourage a mini session of retroalimentación (feedback) from the groups at the end. What did they like about the session, what didn´t they like. Not only is it about encouraging creative thinking, but it´s about giving them a chance to formulate and express their own opinions in a safe space where we want to listen, thereby hopefully helping them to take ownership of Club de Arte more as well. At the moment, both the graffiti 'ideas' walls and the feedback bits of the session can be slightly slow to gain momentum but I reckon if we stick at it, in six (well five now) months we´ll have a bunch of kids that are confident to express their ideas and thoughts when asked. I believe that´ll be hugely important for them and their futures. I really do hope so.

And the main part of the session was of course, the Christmas cards themselves. What was so fabulous about Balerio´s session today was how involved the kids were with their work. There was much less generally faff and scrapping (except the two tables I was working more with - both tables of only girls - surprisingly NOT!!) and how smooth the session was overall. There were times when I actually found myself at almost a loose end! Compare this to normal group sessions when I feel like I really don´t have enough pairs of hands, ears, or enough mouths to talk or brains to think with and cannot begin to respond to the constant pleas of "señorita, señorita, ayudame..." (Miss, Miss, help me...)! At one point, I actually turned to Veronica, our Juconi Educator for the session and was like "hay silencio" (there´s silence) - and we both looked at each other in amazement! It was absolutely fantastic to see and despite some mini tantrums at the end when we had to deprive the kids of the paint in order to let the cards dry, they seemed happy enough knowing that when we next have Art Club, after a two week break, they can continue to work on their cards and make new ones.

Wow, if Thursday´s sessions go anything like that one I will be one happy bunny Art Club woman! Tomorrow morning is our 'under the tree group' - Sergio Toral, where we literally do do Art Club under a tree as there is no other space accessible to us anywhere and these kids are on the farthest farthest extremes of the Guayaquileño slums so they are probably about the most needy, most lacking in facilities etc and it takes us hours to get there which includes lots of walking up hills with all our Art Club materials - fun (will only get more fun in the rainy season me thinks :0!. It´s also the group that is struggling the most with the transition, i.e. with us - Helen and I, not being Andy and Lone - the couple who were running Art Club until August. Andy and Lone established Art Club in Sergio and now we having to manage some powerful pushing of boundaries and disruptive and complaining behaviour from a couple of the group members, outside who´s house the Art Club tree stands. So, despite it being our smallest group, what with the lack of a designated physical space or physical boundaries and with the challenging behaviour of some of the family, it is actually probably the most hardcore of all the groups to be honest. I know that they´ll get used to us and we´ll get used to them but at present they run to the Educator (who does visits whilst we´re running Art Club) as soon as he returns and go "they did this, they did that etc. etc. Andy and Lone never did this or that. We want Andy and Lone etc!" So whilst I recognise it´s just kids being kids, and especially the oldest boy in the family starting to act up as he´s on the verge of adolescence, has no male role model at all and his Mum is always working, it can be quite a dispiriting group sometimes. Ah well, we´ll see what tomorrow brings. Ultimately, we actually need to be more fixed and firm there than in all of the other groups as we have no physical walls or boundaries in which to manage the session. We´ll get there I have no doubt.

So, my final bit of news is that next week is FERRIADA! WHOOOPEY Whooop! Which means it´s a National holiday to celebrate... I can´t quite remember what. It is officially our 1 month anniversary today - our arranged marriage and the anniversary of our arrival. We´ve been here ONE WHOLE MONTH - kwwwazey! As Karen earlier, actually in one month we´ve achieved a hell of a lot - we´ve got a whole two weeks of Art Club under our belts and we´ve been well integrated into the staff team as a result of the fact that unlike previous volunteers we´ve been able to communicate straight off in Spanish. That feels good to hear. Thanks Karen- it´s good to have someone´s external´s perspective, especially as, as you guys will know, I can tend to be quite self critical, seeing what´s gone wrong rather than right and finding a bit of a stick to beat myself with. We´re doing fine, great, well and we´ve got some fab ideas that we´re keen to try out.

So, back to Ferriada time - we´re escaping Guayaquil part 2 - after the mud bathes and the $4 Aloe Vera massage on Saturday in San Vincente, our plan this holiday (- it´s 5 FULL days - we´re not back in work until next Thursday!), is to escape to the beach. Either up the coast to Canoa up North or down South and into PERU to Mancora which is famous for it´s all year round sunshine. I´m hoping on the Peru option myself as although it´ll be overrun by everyone as it´s a holiday period, they´ll be people and Helen and I can relax a bit, get some sunshine and chat to other people except each other. Canoa on the other hand will be quieter which could be nice, but the weather on the Ecuadorian coast is a bit dodgy at this time of year as it´s not guaranteed hot and sunny until December time. -right now, it´s more likely to be drizzly, grey and actually a bit cold from what I hear. A bit like today was in Guayaquil. I mean it was still like mid 20s but it definitely felt cold by Guayaquil standards (except in Balerio of course, where I still had sweat draining from my forehead into my eyes - fun!).

I say Mancora.... bring it on!! Party Party!

Got to sleep NOW













, however, after drinking some wine as K