A quick summary of the happenings at Zambiza:

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to give you a bit of an update on Zambiza. First things first!!! Amazing news regarding the t-shirts…THE DESIGNS DON’T COME OFF ONE BIT IN THE WASH!!!! They look as good as they first did and a lot of the children wear them. I’m so pleased although they don’t seam to be taking them home, mainly using them as spare clothes at Zambiza. Today we celebrated the day of the child and each child was given a bag (quite a large holdall sort of bag) full of goodies from I think the shoe box Christmas scheme!!! They played lots of party games which were really fun and it was lovely seeing them so happy and enjoying themselves. We haven’t had many babies for a long time so I mainly spend my time with the older kids. I asked to help out a bit more after my last blogl to you and things have gotten better i.e things to do. I’m still working with Kenia and Salvador and I made this really cool alphabet version of the memory pairs game with Salvador. He really enjoyed it and didn’t realise it was hidden learning-tee hee! Other big news, I’ve started a tooth cleaning project after lunch cleaning teeth with all the children. We’ve (Me and Fen who is still working on a Tuesday there) put up sticker charts on the wall to record when they clean there teeth and also as a bit of a reward. It seems a little pointless because they actually love doing it anyway but I think it’s good because they are learning to tell which day of the week it is. We bought some bubble gum flavoured tooth paste for them with ‘Bob Esponge on it’ (Sponge Bob!!!) and lots of spare tooth brushes. For the moment we have used a permanent marker on the tooth brushes and cups to write their names but I’m just this minute waiting to visit a seamstress with Monika to have cloth bags made out of some beautiful material we bought for each child’s cup and tooth brush. They are now able to clean their own teeth and so that’s making it a lot quicker. I’m hoping that after 6 weeks of doing it with them the habit won0t be lost when I leave. Me and Fen have been doing activities with them on Tuesdays and so far have made chain hearts with the toddlers, (each heart with the letters of their name so they could get familiar with their names.) mobiles with coloured numbers and wax crayon paintings-where you draw with a white crayon and then paint over it to see it. We also have done activities with Fen’s musical instruments e.g using different instrument to signify different actions e.g. the whistle means stop, the belss mean run, the wierd ‘woopy’ noise means jump etc. That was my favourite at least!

Haven’t seen Damarice for a while (the baby who was learning to walk)-think she’s ill but other developments have been happening in the toddlers class. For example, justin, Joseph, and Miguel are being potty trained and are now in pants! Unfortunately Joseph still doen’t have the hang of it and the other day Teacher Marisol said ‘psh psh Catherine’ and then pointed at Joseph and Justin who were also saying ‘psh, psh!’. This means I need to go for a wee. So off we ran to the urinals but after I had sucessfully unbuttoned Joseph’s pants and lowered his underpants he didn’t seam to know what to do next. I stood him on the edge of the urinal but his willy was still inside his trousers and I had a little panick because I thought I couldn’t pull it out and was desperately trying to make him do it but it wasn’t working!! I tried pushing his lower back forward a little but he almost fell in the urinal and the next thing I knew, a large wet patch was seeping down his trousers. Ah so close! Jostin in comparison actually did fall into the urinal! The pleasures of wotking with little kids eh!

I’m hoping that nexr week we can collage a large mouth we drew with tissue paper to put up in the toilets. I love the environment at Zambiza and caring for the children. Twice now, they’ve asked me to pray in English )as they usually do in Spanish) before meals. It’s so funny because none of them repeat after me anything that sounds remotely like English and I can’t help laughing! They day of the child today especially reminded me of the lovely party games I used to play when it was someone’s birthday. It’s like going back in time. They all properly know my na,e now which is nice and say hello and goodbye to me. When they were given their bags of goodies today two of them were actually fighting over who would give me their lolly pop!

Finally, the other day I was given the responsibility of doing the hair of the gilrs who’s hair was down. I set up a little hair dressers salon and, oh my goodness I can’t do hair! Even the teacher agreed it was a ‘un poquito feo’-a little ugly!

Tomorrow is the hospital feeding project again and I think we are dressing up and bringing ballons to entertain the kids. We have had a lot of drama this week with Fen and Katy-my new American room mate-who were both v.ill. I spent a fair bit of time running from one room to the other checking on them. Better now though. I started having some more Spanish lessons and going to Salsa dancing lessons again. Tonight I’m going to a film night at my friend from churh’s house. Better go…

All my Love,

Catherinex

P.S. Galapagos part two on it’s way!

Galapagos!!!! (Part one)

Dear all, (Lauren included who particularly likes the sound of her own name )

The long awaited and highly important…GALAPAGOS blog!

Wowee what a week I had. O.k, so 3 weeks  have passed since I went to that distant, pacific archipelago of islands (!).  I have to say that it was a real treat and a fantastic opportunity as an up and coming biologist!

Jo and I left, early Sunday morning for the airport following instructions from our very exciting welcome pack. We donned our badges reading ‘Galapagos Vision’ (our boat’s name) so we would be recognised by the rest of the crew at the airport of San Cristobal. Our flight was very cool and it was wierd seeing Quito/Ecuador from the air again/ wierd full stop as I haven’t been in an airoplane since I arrived. One of the most amazing things I saw from the air was the volcanoe Cotapaxi poking out above the cloud sea, snow capped and magnificent! Quito is surrounded by such high mountains and is dotted with colourful buildings.

We were so unbearably excited when we started to come down to land and at seeing our firstglimpses of such a famous place. I have to say that it didn’t impress me too much on first impressions and was decidely flat. However, I soon changed my mind the next day when we visited island Española which was probably the most sur-realy beautiful place I’ve ever clapped eyes on.

Funnily enough, and perhaps not adding to a great first impression, the weather when we arrived was cloudy and drizzly! I was highly bemused as some of you might know, the Galapagos islands are very arid and it isn’t supposed to rain there! Obviously cursed as an Englishwoman. It was also fantastically humid when we we left the airoplane and we wilted instantly!

We were taken by a little bus to the harbour of San Cristobal where we boarded out beautiful boat by our very own dingy. From the off we were treated very, very luxuriously. Let me describe to you our boat! It was a little Catemeran which had about 5 tiny cabins. Our cabin had two very comfortable beds on a sort of platform with a little window above us from where we were able to see the starts very clearly at night and get a nice little breeze too. We had another little window which looked out to see. I particularly enjoyed climbing in and out of our room using the ceiling window! We also had a little bathroom and a wardrobe. The floor space was so tiny that only one person could stand there at a time and I had to climb over Jo to get in and out of bed! The bathroom was a bit funny because to have a shower you simply sat on the toilet lid and bathed in the room so you could liturally wee and shower (hot too!) at the same time…if you wanted (!).

There was a little narrow kitchen in which the chef cooked the most amazing food ever!!!!! There was a communal outdoor and indoor dining area-the outdoor area had a lovely canopy to keep the sun off. Each meal time, a bell would be rung and we’d find a fantastic spread of food all laid out inside like a buffet. Each night we had a to die for pudding as well which is something we rarely get in Ecaudor-don’t have sweet teeth here. There were also too massive cushions at the back under the canopy that I spent many a happy afternoon siesta on, inhaling the fresh sea air.

The front of the boat was one of my favourite areas. Because it was a Catemeran, there was a netted area where you could lie and liturally above the sea. One one day, me and Jo swam out to the boat from the island instead of using the dingy and even swam under the boat! The water was a bit colder in the shade of the boat and there were some very scary fish under there too! We had such a laugh trying to get back onto the boat-giggling doesnt really help you to pull youself up onto the steps! Also, at the very front there were two tiny wooden seats hich projected out into the sea. You could sit on them and dangle your legs over the front seeing nothing but the sea ahead of you.

Finally, it was also a sailing boat and on one of the days, when we crossed from Santa Fe to Santa Cruz in the afternoon they put the sails up-it was beautiful. One more thing, except for that day, we always sailed between islands at night which was really good beacsue it meant we could spend more time on the islands. I became quite accustomed to the rocking of the boat and the sound of the engine (or of the music system that played cool tunes around the deck!) but at first it left me feeling rather ill!!! Yeas I got a little sea sick and had to even forego one of the puddings because of it!!! I found it made me feel worse when I was below deck so just tried to spend as much time above which was no bad thing as the views from the boat were stunning! The sunsets and the islands that we were able to watch whilst eating in luxury on the deck were fantastic. Did kind of feel like the room was swaying all the time but soon adjusted.

We became quite frinedly with the staff and the other people aboard. The chef was a particular favourite of mine owing to his awesome cooking. The captain and the man who sailed the dingy also seemed to find it highly amusing to tap me on the shoulder and then dissappear. Took me a while to cotton on!

Any way, back to the first day. After we unpacked, we were fed our first meal in the lovely back, outdoor dining area. It was very sivilised with very nice crockery and cutelry. Our first meal was a pasta and tuna dish with salad. We were welcomed to the boat and then set off with swim wear on for our first trip. We were still at this point anchored in the harbour of Sna Cristobal. At the harbour, the little bus that had taken us from the airport was waiting for us again and we drove inland. As we drove, we passed through many different landscapes. First of all we passed through what resembled jungle (!)-i.e very lush vegetation and tropical flowers and plants i.e bannanas. It looked a bit like what I imagine Jamica to look like. As we climed higher, it changes to a sort of arid scrub land with a distant rock of a mountain/volvano. We eventually arrived at an are of quite thick scrub land which was less arid and quite green, in the middle of which was a sort of interpretation centre for the islands. We followed a little markd trail ( wooden platform walk way) around the reserve to get our first taste of the arid vegetation that characterises the Galapaos. We were led by our guide William who was a very knowledgeable naturalist. He was translated by the sort of man in charhe, Tony who was billingual. Along the trail we saw a few endemic plants to San Cristobal and the yellow warbler finch. One of the plants and a milky sap in the leaves which was a mild poison. We also saw a tourtoise, or as our guide called them, a ‘turtoise’! The tourtoises each have different shapes depending on the islands and what kind of vegetation they eat. For example, some have longer necks to reach higher vegetation. After the trail, we visited an enclosure where there were babies which had been bred in captivity to increase the numbers on some of the islands. One baby, Genesis, was so called because it was the first sucsessful tourtoise to be bred in captivity.

After the centre, we headed over to a lovely beach. Sunday was a very special day in Ecuador. They had the presidential ellections on our first day and the current president was re-elected. Lots of campaign posters before hand and political campaigns. As a result, the beach was completely secluded! It was a perfect white sand beach in a little cove at the end of a little path through the scub land. We had lots of fun playing in the waves and even thugh it was a bit over cast it was stunning! The water in particular was so clear and blue!

That evening, we headed back to the most deliciopus first evening meal on the boat. I swear the food was restaurant standard and the chef was very creative with flavours and ingredients. It was always beautifully presented. We ate Chicken legs in a coconut cream sauce, with a really tasty rice with smokey bacon dish and new potatoes. I was overwhelmed and so suspicious as to why my favourite eating partner Jo, was’t eating!!!! Turns out she was later sick and I was terribly proud to be able to conquer my fear and hold her hair back whilst she vomited! Are you proud of me Mum? What a minor achievement.

 After tea we got the dingy to the mainland to pick up snorkelling equipment. It was funny to see civilization on the Galapagos islands as I always imagined it to all be natural. The village/town was a community of its own and a life quite aside from everything you think of when you imagine the Galapagos. In the bay there were yellow boats which served as water taxis. We returned to the boat and that night set sail for Island Española at 12:00.

 Thus concludes part one/my first day in the Galapagos Islands!

Thank you all very much once again for continuing to follow my progress. In particular, thank you to my lovely sister who despite all pretexes of hatred has faithfully left a message after almost all of my entries, all of which have been thoughtful and surprisingly loving ;P. Congratulations Liz on finishing your degree at 4pm the other day. You have done us proud my son. Also, thanks go to the newcomer Lauren of course who as I have already mentioned likes the sound of her own name and happened to be a very dear friend in the rainforest. A great, fun loving gal to share a mouldy hut with a.k.a Cabaña. Thanks Rachel too-you make me laugh and it’s so lovely of you to keep up to date. Muchisimas Gracias tambien to my regular contributors, ‘The Stenning Mafia’ (Nana and grandpa-or so I presume, they’ve never really revealed their true identity!!!) who even inquired after my wellbeing when I didn’t write my blog for something like a month. I feel a sense of thrill on par with winning an award. Mabey it’s because I’ve just written a very long blog.

All my excitable love,

Catherinex

Beautiful scenery from the boat

Catherine poses with the locals. Dig that white sand…perfect!

Catherine looking very silly in her snorkelling gear!

My view outside Zambiza whilst I’m waiting for the bus.

Feeding time at the zoo!

Joseph modelling one of our t-shirts

 

Puppet show