Numero cinco - Quito and bodily fluids

How to summarise Quito??? We´ll start with our host family, who are lovely. And very tolerant of Ang´s poor Spanish skills. Mauricio and Lupe Toro welcomed us in with the only Spanish Ang knew - ´Mi casa es su casa´ - or some variation. Their home is situated in the North of Quito and it´s a great little house. They have two children, Alex (a girl) and Mauri (most definitely a boy in Ang´s opinion...definitely. She did see him coming out the bathroom after his shower. Geo says get a room. Ang would love to. We also met his lovely, pretty, clever, funny girlfriend. Damn.) and more importantly a dog named Pooky who will lick anything. So far our language difference hasn´t been too much of a barrier as Geo´s Spanish skills prevail. Well done Signor Gomez. A couple of embarrassing questions have arisen such as ´haven´t you ever had a latino boyfriend?´ and ´do you prefer English boys or Ecuadorian boys?´ which we dealt with as best we could in garbled Spanish (on Ang´s part) or Ang, under the impression that they didn´t know any English whatsoever´leant over to Geo after they had told us about their last resident who had hated being in photos to ask ´Was she ugly?´. When Lupe exclaimed ´oogly?´ and burst out laughing, Ang learnt that they did know a little English afterall.

The house is an extremely useful place from which to get to the school we were volunteering at, once you learn how the buses work in Quito of course. They are pretty crazy. Ang actually sat on someone´s lap. She was a granny. Not the fit Ecuadorian she was hoping for. The school was called ´Camp Hope´and was a school for 130 children, both disabled and non-disabled. Geo was with a class of 5 children between 8 and 16, and Ang was with a class of 9 students between 12 and 35. Both classes were for disabled students which made it tough but rewarding. Most of the time was spent wiping bodily fluids off of every surface, including ourselves, which we became used to disturbingly quickly. We both spent time in the classrooms with the students and outside also when taking them for physical therapy on horseback. The hardest part was lunch which meant mashing up food so that they could swallow it and sometimes, for Geo, and always, for Ang, spoon-feeding them. This made it extremely difficult to eat the same food ourselves only moments later, but our tight budget made it necessary. Geo spent a day with a different group of disabled children when her teacher didn´t show one morning, and also some time with the 3-year old non-disabled class when their teacher was otherwise occupied. Ang spent a large amount of time drawing giant bears and putting glitter on random objects while Geo became the master of puzzles. Low points were for Geo, singing ´Woof Woof Woof´ with a dog puppet on her hand during music class and, for Ang, dealing with Pato´s ´Poo explosion´which the cleaner refused to go anywhere near. We did have a great two weeks with them though, since they are very affectionate and fun to work with. We were given a great farewell from the younger kids who sang the Barney the Dinosaur song in Spanish and English for us, and we were given gifts made by the children. Very sweet. Even when Wellington and Pato were too preoccupied with puzzles and poster edges to actually partake in the ceremony. We gave them some gifts in return, puzzles and colouring pencils. A good two weeks.