So as I mentioned in the previous blog post, Eri and I, along with a few colleagues, were going to Celica and Puyango on a two day trip to do an origami workshop with the region's teachers. It was organized by the Ministerio de Educación, with the idea that Eri and I would teach the teachers how to use origami to encourage creativity, concentration, patience, and motor skills among school aged children. They were the ones that had organized the 3-day workshop that we conducted in March, and they wanted us to reach out to teachers that worked in some of the more distant communities. Hence we went out to Celica and Puyango, which are about 5-6 hours by car, depending on the fog.
The first morning started out semi-disastrous for me! We left at 4am and when they go to my house to pick me up, I headed down the stairs without turning the lights on. I thought that I was on the bottom step (clearly not) and totally fell flat on my face! I bent up my glasses and had a cut under my eye...BUT no broken bones! Hurray!! And clearly no photos of me with my crooked glasses (which I have since fixed).
We spent the first full day in Celica working with about 75 teachers. When Eri asked some of the teachers what Celica was known for, their response was, "La neblina" (the fog). And sure enough, though the morning started as clear as could be, the fog quickly rolled in and out! The photos of the school below show the quick change within just a few hours! I have a bunch of pictures of the teachers doing origami, but really...I think you all have seen just about enough kids and teachers folding origami! Let me know if you want to see more though!
Sunshine!
Then fog!!
Then lots of rain!
Lost in the fog during our 10 minute break from origami!
Our white board introduction!
After our long day in Celica (we started at 8am and ended at 6pm), we drove to the city of Alamor (which everyone kept calling Puyango because that is the canton) where we had a typical Ecuadorian dinner (rice, chicken, some veggies, and fried banana) before crashing at the hotel around 9pm! The next day we started off bright and early at the school, working with about 65 teachers. It is the same routine as the other charlas (starting out easy with origami tulips, dogs and cats...advancing through birds, frogs, cranes and boxes...and then ending with the kusudama). Unfortunately we didn't get to stop at the Puyango Petrified Forest because we had to hurry home to beat the fog that fills the highway, but Adam and I hope to go in the future!
Just in case you haven't seen enough similar shots in our blog!
Even in Puyango, the fog comes rolling in!
Some people have asked how we get around when we go to barrios and towns far from the city center... well hear you have it! INFA provides a driver (usually it is Juanito from my trucha fishing adventure) but for our Celica trip, a different driver of the same name took us.
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