Rhianna Banana

Four of my wildlife photos made it into the Peace Corps Ecuador calendar! Woohoo! I got one month, June, plus two small inset photos and a small photo on the back cover. I haven´t seen the calendar yet, but I think they used my pictures of a snake, an ocelot, and some frogs (of course!). They used a picture of Trent in a Tsachila skirt for August. I think everyone is going to get the same Christmas present this year. . . a PC Ecuador calendar.

I stopped trying to teach English in the elementary school because I couldn´t control the kids. (I´ve never been able to control kids. I think my 15-year-old cousin Cassie once bossed me around.) I´ve started a weekend ecological/art/English kids club. We had our first meeting on Saturday, and 12 kids showed up, which made me very happy! I would have felt very unpopular if no one came. The kids are much better, and we can actually do some activities, rather than me yelling the whole time. I´m so excited about this, and I have lots of ideas for fun things to do, now that I don´t have to worry so much about behavior issues. I think I am really, truly, finally happy with my Peace Corps service and being here, which is a nice change =) But I am not going to extend, and Pierre and I are very aware of how many days I have left (less than 200!).

One of my students is going to be in the elementary school beauty pageant, and each contestant has to perform a dance. Her mom asked me about American dances, and I got all excited about teaching her a routine from a dance movie. I showed them the dance from Napoleon Dynamite and all the dances from Footloose. I couldn´t figure out how to turn on the Spanish subtitles, so I had to explain to them what was going on: "In this scene, Ren is so angry that he just has to dance. And there also happens to be gymnastic equipment in the warehouse." I even made them watch the video of Pierre, Cassie, Alyssa, Sasha and I doing the Napoleon Dynamite dance. I was going to move on to Michael Jackson videos, Flashdance, and maybe Grease, but then their dvd player broke, thus crushing my dreams of teaching Belkis a sweet American dance. That really would have been the apex of my Peace Corps service. Oh well.

In my free time, I am busy trying to add to my goodreads list and Trent and I are trying to get through the first 5 seasons of the Gilmore Girls. Cassie, Jamie, and Shannon should be very proud of me!