Huayrapungo Fun Day - Ecuador

For the final week of summer school in Huayrapungo, it was decided that it would be a fun week. Luckily, through a combination of T-shirt painting, pom-pom making, apple bobbing, doughnut-off-a-string eating and a veritable plethora of popcorn, we were able to slake their thirst for fun.

We began the day with T-shirt painting, which saw each child design a T-shirt on paper and then try to recreate their vision with real paint on a real T-shirt. Simple, you might think, but as the various colours appeared on the table in front of them, they couldn´t help themselves but deviate slightly, or often entirely, from their initial design.


Invariably their final T-shirts ended up being much more adventurous then they had anticipated, with everything from flowers to football numbers adorning the finished articles. Special praise must go to Diana and Louisa for the incredible attention to detail they demonstrated!

Following the morning T-shirt session, the children (and Nick) were taught how to make pom-poms, which they then delighted in swinging round and round and round and round and, finally, attaching to Jaime´s van to add a bit of (let´s face it, much-needed) flamboyance.

After a lunch of popcorn and soup, the kids were introduced to the concept of eating doughnuts suspended from strings – something which fascinated and amused them in equal measure.

Without exception they each showed grit, commitment and determination in order to finish the task in hand – many surviving a liberal coating of sugar in order to do so.

Then, with the unveiling of the apple-bobbing tank, each one braved the icy water to retrieve their fruta for the day – with Alfredo and Angel demonstrating particular gallantry/idiocy by thrusting their entire heads under the water.

So with fun week having come to an end, we can sleep safe in the knowledge that we left every child at Huayrapungo with some great memories, a personalized T-shirt, a stomach full of popcorn, a selection of brightly coloured pom-poms and, most importantly of all, a face that can only be described as sugary.

Huayrapungo Fun Day - Ecuador