Last week of school...

Yesterday Hannah and I went to the market to buy food for the kids before school.  It was such a struggle...  We had to buy 14 pounds of rice and of beans along with two huge papayas, watermelons, mini bananas and strawberries - carrying it all was very difficult!  People who buy food for their livelihood here must have a better system worked out.  We slowly hobbled with all of our stuff until we found a cab haha.  But first rate service - we got dropped off right outside of the school.

Third grade has shrunk immensely.  Where did all of our kids go?  We are down from eleven to four to seven kids a day.  Jhon was hilarious yesterday.  He refused to come back into the classroom and once we locked him out, he would bang on the door and also lock it from the outside so we couldn't open the door ourselves.  Smart little boy.  The next trick was putting a random plank up against the wall and climbing up to the window and hanging there slash trying to enter that way.  I had to look the other way in order to keep a straight face.  So persistent!  At first he didn't want to take the quiz or write his punishment lines (which is why we locked him out - if he didn't want to work then he wasn't allowed in the classroom) which were really only five sentences (yo debo quedar en la clase aka I will stay in the classroom). Bri got him to come around and then he wrote his lines during recess, when he desperately tried to escape the classroom - we had to cover all of the windows and the door.  That kid is strong.  He finally wrote them one word at a time but it took him forever and a half.  I'm going to miss these kids and their personalities so much.  Their antics are slightly annoying, but they also make me laugh.

After school I went running to the park by myself.  I was panting pretty much the whole time, especially when I went up a hill (maybe incline is a better description...) but the park is so pretty and it was so sunny and nice out.  It felt good to go out by myself - I definitely miss my therapeutic long runs.

I also did laundry.  Best thing ever.  Clean clothes!!!!  Probably the last time I'll clean my clothes here - I'll just bring all my dirty clothes back and do them at home hehe.  Sure my parents will love me for that. I have four whole days in Quito left and so much left to do and see.  We are going to start cramming stuff in - churches, museums, hikes.  We're just always wiped and hungry after school that venturing on a trolley isn't the most fun thing to do, but we will make it happen.  And on monday I leave for La Esperie.  I decided to include a link in case anyone wanted more info (http://www.workingabroad.com/page/140/cloud-forest-ecuador.htm).  I'm doing the conservation program and I'm getting so excited!! They have monkeys there.  We say a pet monkey in Montañita, but I want to see ones in the wild.