I hadn't mentioned that since a lot of the volunteers left, there was more room in the house so I decided to change rooms. I took one that was at the back and it turned out to be nicer as it didn't get so much sunlight in the mornings but I needed to set my alarm as I slept through till breakfast time the first morning I was there.
We had a much quieter week this week and one that I felt to be the most satisfying so far. On Monday, we started by clearing the weeds in the nursery near our house and laid down banana leaves on the paths to help prevent new weeds from growing. We got it all finished in the morning and were pleased with the result.
We had had our own meeting to discuss the problems we had with the place: things like communication and organisation and met the director on Monday afternoon. We aimed to be as constructive as possible and although the discussions went on for 2 hours, we felt we handled it well and gave as many suggestions as we could. We saw that some of them were taken up during the week so hopefully, the overall atmosphere will be more relaxed.
On Tuesday, I asked if I could repair the steps that lead up to the volunteer house. It was accepted and I worked with Gaz to do it. This is how it looked before we started.
As well as being overgrown with weeds, the steps were not level and two of them were missing which made it an uncomfortable walk up and down. We put four new ones in and managed to complete it in 3 hours. We were very pleased with the result and the other volunteers, as well as the staff, showed their appreciation at our work, which as you know means the most to me. This is how they turned out.
The next afternoon, Walter asked us if we could repair the steps that lead down to the garden. This was very nice to hear and we were glad to accept the task. The director had seen our work and was impressed with it but we needed more time as all 13 steps needed replacing and they needed to be reset to better heights as these were even more tricky to navigate. As we had football at four o'clock, we only had 2 hours to make a start and we had to use all of Thursday to complete the job. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me to record the progress so I'll have to put a photo of them on next time but again, we were happy with our work. Lola, a volunteer who had been here before and came back for this week before she left to go back to Australia helped us to use some old tiles to make a mosaic along the sides of part of it. She had shown us her designs for her tattoos and other pictures so I could see she might like to be involved.
Alex, the assistant to the director celebrated her 21st birthday that day so we had a bit of a party at the house in the evening. It was the long weekend so we didn't have to worry about going to bed early.
After breakfast on Friday, we set off for Quito again as Alex wanted to celebrate properly there. We arrived in time for lunch, which we had for $1.50, including cheese soup and a drink, which was surprisingly cheap for the capital. We went out to a bar after dinner and met the guy who was in charge of the biodigestor which I previously mentioned. He invited us to his flat for a party and six of us went. We had also met up with Nils and Charlotte who had finished their time as volunteers a few weeks ago but had continued travelling. It was good to see them both again and Charlotte came with us. His flat was huge and looked almost like a palace. He taught some us how to dance salsa (although I declined as I didn't feel like it) and we played with his little dog, ate lots of snacks that his mother provided when she came back, drank quite a bit and stayed there till 3.30am.
We woke up at 8 and got some breakfast. As I hadn't been drunk, I felt fine and after drinking two cups of coffee, went to phone my dad as it was his 60th birthday. This was my only phone call since arriving in Ecuador and it was very nice to speak to my parents :)
After that, we went to watch the Liverpool match, as Gaz is a fan, in the Irish bar - Finn McCool's, and played some pool. After only sleeping for four hours, I went back to the hostel to try to sleep some more but I'd drunk 2 more coffees in the bar and felt awake again as soon as I got into bed. So after giving up trying, I came out and wrote this entry to my blog.
I expect to feel pretty tired again tonight...
EDIT: I actually managed to last the rest of the evening quite well. We ate in a vegetarian restaurant which was a nice change from rice and beans and went back to the Irish bar, chatted to some friends of friends and left at 11.
I forgot to add some news about my next trip to India. I have received an email to tell me that the Dalai Lama will be teaching the students at the start of the year so I won't be starting teaching until 16th January. This means that I will have more or less 2 weeks to see India, which is good as I expect to be too busy and isolated to travel while I am up in the north.
On Tuesday, I asked if I could repair the steps that lead up to the volunteer house. It was accepted and I worked with Gaz to do it. This is how it looked before we started.
Alex, the assistant to the director celebrated her 21st birthday that day so we had a bit of a party at the house in the evening. It was the long weekend so we didn't have to worry about going to bed early.
After breakfast on Friday, we set off for Quito again as Alex wanted to celebrate properly there. We arrived in time for lunch, which we had for $1.50, including cheese soup and a drink, which was surprisingly cheap for the capital. We went out to a bar after dinner and met the guy who was in charge of the biodigestor which I previously mentioned. He invited us to his flat for a party and six of us went. We had also met up with Nils and Charlotte who had finished their time as volunteers a few weeks ago but had continued travelling. It was good to see them both again and Charlotte came with us. His flat was huge and looked almost like a palace. He taught some us how to dance salsa (although I declined as I didn't feel like it) and we played with his little dog, ate lots of snacks that his mother provided when she came back, drank quite a bit and stayed there till 3.30am.
We woke up at 8 and got some breakfast. As I hadn't been drunk, I felt fine and after drinking two cups of coffee, went to phone my dad as it was his 60th birthday. This was my only phone call since arriving in Ecuador and it was very nice to speak to my parents :)
After that, we went to watch the Liverpool match, as Gaz is a fan, in the Irish bar - Finn McCool's, and played some pool. After only sleeping for four hours, I went back to the hostel to try to sleep some more but I'd drunk 2 more coffees in the bar and felt awake again as soon as I got into bed. So after giving up trying, I came out and wrote this entry to my blog.
I expect to feel pretty tired again tonight...
EDIT: I actually managed to last the rest of the evening quite well. We ate in a vegetarian restaurant which was a nice change from rice and beans and went back to the Irish bar, chatted to some friends of friends and left at 11.
I forgot to add some news about my next trip to India. I have received an email to tell me that the Dalai Lama will be teaching the students at the start of the year so I won't be starting teaching until 16th January. This means that I will have more or less 2 weeks to see India, which is good as I expect to be too busy and isolated to travel while I am up in the north.
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