Northern Guayaquil

School Visits
Today was Wilson's day to show me his projects. He works with a foundation that supports a private school in the north part of Guayaquil. It took about 45 minutes to drive to this town.
I have to say that I was highly impressed by the teachers, staff, programs and the students. Even though this is a very poor town, the school is making a great stride in educating these children in hopes of them becoming whatever they want to in the future. I was especially impressed by the English Teacher. He has gone above and beyond to further educate himself so that he can give his students a better education. Their classroom has a audio system set up so that the students each have a headset and listen to the lessons in learning English. I gave them a copy of the book that my friends John and Yolanda Blackstun (Boise) have written on teaching basic English. This is a great book and the teacher feels it is a wonderful tool. I will give you more information on this book later.
The children in this school wear uniforms and are well behaved and very courteous. You can see the hope in their eyes of making a better life for themselves. Their penmanship is very good, in fact I think they are ahead of our kids are the same grade level.
The government pays the teachers so that the foundation buys supplies and necessities for classes. The government also pays for 2 meals a day, breakfast and lunch. The new government in Ecuador recognizes the fact that education is the key to the future.
We went to another area where we met a young women who had changed her town completely. Betty, at the age of 15, realized that she had a learning problem including reading. She found the resources that could help her and knew if she had problems there were other children the had problems as well. She made arrangements to get help in the schools for slow learners. This you women is now in the mid 20's, has 3 young children, is attending her 3 year in college. She is taking classes on how to improve the environment and other associated things. She found a way to get a fresh water system for her town, and many other daily necessities. There was a contest in Guayaquil, I don't know the details except it was on making a difference in the world. She won the contest and was awarded a new fuel efficient car. In talking with this special women, I was in awe as she is so young to have accomplished. She got a school started in her town, started a co-op child care and so many more things. I will post a bio on her later so you can see and appreciate what she has done and continues to do for her small town.
I cam home and cleaned up and we met one of our youth ambassadors, Geraldine and her mom and took them to another member of the chapter, where we had real hot chocolate and Yucca cakes. It was very good. We had about 10 of us there and talked about future projects for the Chapter. There are so many things we can do and we can incorporate them with the things we are already doing with Missions for Vision.
After we were through with that we came home and walked to the Bakery that Patricia's niece and her husband own. It is right around the corner from Patricia's house. I was teaching them how to make beer batter bread. It turned out really good. Everyone loved it. I got a lesson in making and rolling out crescent rolls. All in all it was great.
Needless to say I was pretty spent when we finally got back. But it was a good tired and I knew I had accomplished several things I needed to today.
Tomorrow is a busy day as well as I will be going to a Children's Cancer Hospital.
Goodnight friends, and God Bless
Paula