Finished math!

Laura, as mentioned yesterday, went to the Selva. So today I had to fully take over the duties of the volunteer. I was there well in advance and immediately asked the cooks about the morning snack. Leche caldo con un platano. Uff! I really had my hands full. So I had to heat up milk and prepare bananas. The older cook, the boss of the two, showed me where to go and instructed me which pan to use and how many plastic bags of milk (one bag/liter for 5 children). With a total of 13 children, that made 3 bags.
Well, I don't want to bore you with how to heat up milk in a large pan on a gas stove, but I managed it without any problems. After that, I had to help with brushing teeth and wash the tooth cups, as well as the milk cups. Not so easy with two busy cooks. But I get along well with both of them. I don't talk to them often, but I always make sure to tell them that everything went well. It brings them joy and it's true as well.

Then I sat down with Alison at the computer. There is an online testing system on it, which she has to score 40,000 points in the next two weeks. She had something over 1000 because I worked with her on Wednesday. Within an hour, we increased it by another thousand. The tasks were algebraic, by the way. On Wednesday, it was equations, today it was square roots of 2 and 3, and vice versa, with exponents and negative numbers. The thing is, Alison doesn't really know what she's doing. But over time, she knows what to do under certain conditions. For example, there was a square root over some crazy decimal fraction and also an exponent of 2. On her fourth attempt, she knew that it cancels out and entered the crazy fraction as the solution: Bingo! She was also able to solve an equation with one variable in two steps with some support, even though she hadn't done it since Wednesday. She wouldn't be so helpless if she had been explained things well. After an hour and a bit more, she completely lost focus. My contribution to the solution was always 100%. So I did what a teacher would do. I told Alison that she should not solve any more math problems now. I asked her if she had any other tasks, something easy, like drawing or painting. Alba, who was sitting at Paul's desk today, looked at me puzzled at first. I explained to her that Alison was completely done, tired, without concentration, and needed a change. She accepted it and Alison solved a geography task. On an outline map of Europe and Asia, with dotted lines showing the borders, she had to mark the borders in purple - no problem!
Then she had to color the fresh and saltwater in different colors - that works too, especially when I'm sitting next to her.
And the highlight: she should draw geographical features - a completely stupid task because the map was super small, the borders were already marked, and there were no guidelines for rivers like the Amur or others. Where the heck should I draw the Himalayas sensibly on this small picture? Anyway, we labeled it, added the Indian Peninsula, the Ural Mountains, and some gulfs (is that the plural of golf? I think so.)

After that, I took some leisure time while the children were having lunch. I don't need to be there because the staff only eats at half past twelve. But as I look up at the construction (where the doors were installed today), I see dust coming out of the window on the first floor and loud knocking sounds. It was Marco, Paul, Milton, and Corinna. The floor of the room was completely uneven. The construction workers must have applied concrete directly on the already dried concrete floor several times. This resulted in several layers that now had to be knocked off painstakingly. So I helped with that until lunchtime.

For lunch, just a soup. Then I rested a bit outside on the ground. Today was sunny, people. Sunny and wonderfully warm. Oh yes, I threw the laundry into the washing machine and hung it up in between in the morning. It was almost dry until a short rain shower started after lunch.

In the afternoon, I sat with Sofia. She is the intelligent, hardworking, diligent, and focused girl. She wanted to finish the one English task quickly so that she could go up to the soccer field afterwards, where most of the others were already playing. We were the last ones to go up, and it was wonderful to watch the children have fun. Those who felt like it played soccer until they didn't feel like it anymore. Others messed around or played their own game with another ball. They had fun and gladly returned to the Fundacion after the physical activity to play card games. I had already prepared everything for the afternoon snack. But I didn't have an overview of the number of children. In the end, one boy was missing a cup of milk. So I simply made him a different snack, pouring yogurt over a banana in a cup. I think he preferred that anyway.

Back in the apartment, I immediately cooked rice and repeated the menu from yesterday. Digestion was good today anyway, but I'm still being cautious and avoiding fat. I believe that's usually the main trigger for my diarrhea, the third one overall here in Ecuador.

Going to bed early today because I'm tired. I might go to the Fundacion tomorrow if they need help. It depends on what the tile setter says about the floor. It could be that it still needs to be knocked with the rubber mallet. I hope not, but if so, it's better to have helpers around.

And now: Finished writing!