Ecuador's Troubles

Yesterday I was driving home and saw in front of me another huge human lite fire burning away, one of a few lately. This beautiful country is sure facing some troubled times and watching this fire I sat wondering what the future will hold for Ecuador. The low oil prices has caused serious problems (unpopular taxes, rain forest selling) and who knows what will happen with the prices next. Now there is the huge rumblings of Cotopaxi, that will explode (but who knows when) causing major devastation, and all everyone can do is watch and wait. And let's not forget El Niño and the destruction it will cause this fall, ruining crops, floods, disease..
I guess all we can do is watch and wait and be prepared as possible. I just hope nature is not so hard on this country as it is predicted to be.

There have been many fires of recent, and although some have been purposely started it has not helped that is very very dry right now.  And that smoking volcano is worrying too!

Warm up Bowling

I am not sure how Luis ever thought last night was really a match, clearly first time bowling night is a warm up night. So currently he is basking in his glory, but that will not last long as now I am all warmed up!
Last night we had a great night bowling in Quito, $2.50 a game, what a bargain for hours of entertainment. And even though Luis did manage a slight victory, I kept calm and competitive Amanda did not come out in full sulking force. And I am confident next time he will not be so lucky.
To be fair, they were all men sized finger balls!  And not to poke at the victory, but they also did not have shoes that fit me and sure socks only affected my score.

Not Sure of a Title

I have no idea what to call this, as to be honest it is fairly immature, but who is kidding who a bit funny.
I have no idea why drawing penises in text books is funny, but I can tell you almost all text books I have ever given to boys ends up with them all over. Not the girls books, really just the boys.  And I really do not why this is, but loads of male teachers have given me some theories.
Soooooo... today in a friends science class he got the kiddies to paint science pictures on the wall and the most innocent 11 year old girl painted her picture. She drew two hands pouring into a test tube and this was her masterpiece..

This image has been altered from original (as lost it), this is one after the teacher tried to make it better.

Now, it is very innocent and should not be taken of anything else but of course the older boys thought it hilarious. So now this teacher has to tell her in a very smart way why she needs more details, fingers or something. It just cracked me up and was one of these funny teaching moments that just makes my job so entertaining.

Weekend Antics

I had some sort of strange illness Friday and Saturday, not really sure what, but definitely not feeling my best. I managed to make it out for an hour for the Guapalo festival, but not so fun when you are feeling sick. From all accounts, everyone had a great time, I hate missing out!
Luckily I feel much better today and made it to a big Sunday brunch, with all the slightly hung over people from night before.

I better be one hundred percent for next weekend!

Maths Geeks

This year I am trying to help bridge the middle school/high school gap in the Maths department. It always seems crazy to me when sections of a school are on the same campus and do not talk. In fact they often have no idea what the other is doing, this is crazy. Often all three campuses (primary, middle and secondary) run totally different curriculum and programs without ever seeing how the other section does it.  It is no different here, but I am going to change this, one it is the right thing to do and two I miss the high school!
So to do this I thought the best way to start was with a Maths Geeks dinner. So we geeked it out at mine, over a Mexican and banana bread.  You may wonder why only middle and high school are represented, but most schools do not have primary maths specialists, which in itself is ridiculous (going to have to try and rectify this too, but walk before you can run and all that).
We are going to make a killer Maths department by Christmas or put on a lot of weight trying!

Longest week

After possibly the longest work week ever it seems a little unfair to have what seemed like an unusually short weekend! But guess that is life, to combat this I am going to try not to be in bed ridiculously early during the week and start to do something with my evenings!
Anywho, had a good weekend with a TGIF at my boss's house, this one was better than last year's (mostly as last year I fell deathly ill after). Saturday had lunch at the in laws (by lunch I obviously mean 6pm), I am learning now that a 1:30 invite really means 4 or 5.
And yesterday brunch down stairs with the babies.

We are still watching Cotopaxi, although the longer it just gurgles the more people are relaxing. Of course, you cannot live in fear, but one does worry that people let their guard down. I have my safety mask with me, probably not enough water but at least 20 cans of coconut milk, and now that I think about it zero supply of wine. Must fix that today.

Quito Wine Club Year 2

Year two of Quito ladies wine club kicked off at my flat last night with a fantastic turn out.  Ladies brought back wine from their travels over the summer, this combined with some nibbles and celebration bubbles led to a grant night.  We also made some much needed admin improvements and I am even going to use my new knowledge of google drive to keep us (well me) a little more organised.

 We had a great turn out, a much needed night off after a tough week at work, sadly today now may be tougher!