PICTURES!!

This is the first of the murals with Pam and her guide who are lost, looking for help. The two little figures in the mountains are her heros, Lautarro and Pedro.


Here are Pam and Marta loooking for the heros, Lautarro and Pedro, with the picture they took several months before. The family on the right is trying to help them find the boys by telling them that yes, they know the kids but they live further away.



Here is the first meeting to help get the school started. Pam and Jean (the translator, guide, know-it-all of Ecuador) are the far right. On the far left is Elvia, the woman who cooked for me while I was there with her husband Paulino next to her, the president of the community. The middle man is Paulino's father, who passed away in a tragic accident but was helping with the school.



The sign above says "The power of the volunteers" and the mural depicts all the volunteers pitching in to build the school and new building that I painted the murals on. The red letters says something to the effect of "if everyone had more volunteers the world would be a better place."


"Education is the key to the development of the future" or something along those lines. This mural was painted by several girls who were EXTREMELY enthusiastic to help out. Above the window I painted the alphabet in Spanish, which is the same as in English except for the n with the squiggle over it!


"Water is life; everyone needs it; take care of it; every drop counts." That is what is painted along the wall that is above the water taps!


Sorry Suzal if I spelt your name wrong, I really tried to get it right! But I painted this right next to the sink to make sure that they remembered we helped too (since all the kids' names were painted on the bottom of each of the murals that they helped it, I figured it was only fit for us to have our names and the date added as well).


These three pictures are about health: brush your teeth, throw trash away and wash your hands. Each of the three were painted by different kids: toothbrush (the Colgate brand was his own idea) done by William, trash was Patricio who copied the silly cartoon from a book I gave him, and wash your hands was done by Enma.


This mural was done by Sonia, Blanca and Enma. They were supposed to just paint the background for a picture of some engineers but it was so beautiful we decided to let it just be as is.



"Don't kill, don't steal and don't do something else (I can't remember what)", it is in Quichua, the local native language. Pam saw it written somewhere along her hike when she got lost and wanted to add it to the mural project.


The saying again, but bigger and better! Like the outlining I did to make it more bold? Also I used red, blue and yellow, the colors of the Ecuadorian flag.


One of the classroom for a group of students at the school. I taught one of my English lessons there for the collegio last Saturday.


The front of the room with the whiteboard and the poster of Colorado that I just hung up before leaving.


These adorable kids are wearing the little smocks we used for the kids when they helped paint. The funny thing is that they weren't painting and weren't going to paint, they just wanted the smocks to wear. It is now a fashionable trend I guess--thanks to me and Suzal! :)



I'm in Vilcabamba right now waiting for a bus to Tumianuma, where I will walk to Neverland Farm (NF from now on!). The craziest thing happened this morning: I woke up, did yoga in my little room--which had a very uncomfortable bed by the way but I really can't complain because it was only $5/night--then I found a restaurant for breakfast (rice, chicken drumstick and tea) and then was heading out. I finished The Appeal and changed my book in for Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks--thought of you Robyn :) --and then went to get a taxi. Another guest from the hostal was getting a taxi as well so I asked him where he was going. He said Tumianumba and I asked, oh yeah me too, where? We quickly realized we were both going to NF!!! So we grabbed a taxi together to the bus terminal, got a bus at 10:15 to Vilcabamba, thankfully only an hour drive, and are now here waiting for another bus to the small village where we'll walk together to the farm! He had met Tina, the owner of NF, on a plane to Miami. My new friend's name is Kena and he lives in New Jersey but his family is from Kenya. He works for the state as a lawyer and went to school in Minnesota. It's interesting having a travel partner. I'm a bit nervous about being at NF for a month because it looks like I'll be speaking English there the whole time, which is not one of my goals of this trip. I already know English, thankyouverymuch. Hopefully I will find a school I can help out with near there, or if anything just enjoy the moment and time there and realize I will have other opportunities to work on my Spanish. OK so I'm now going to give captions to the pictures and then head off! Luckily my travel partner Kena has a Nikon and a cable and that is how I'm able to upload the final pictures of the murals! YAHOO!!!! I put the pictures in order of the story too--enjoy!