Incan battles, the Jungle Book and origami frogs in Ecuador

After 12 hours of discussion and preparation in four working groups with $10 worth of 2cent photocopies, 16 bottles of glue and an invaluable amount of white A4 card, plans for Easter School 2011 were finally in place. Monday saw Muenala students chasing around school on a ‘geometric shape’ photo hunt, stretching their brains with tangram puzzles, constructing bridges to support a record breaking 25 apples, creating 3D shape towers and competing in an origami frog racing finale.

Meanwhile their Huayrapungo counterparts were getting to grips with Incan life: learning about gods, life in their villages and re-enacting an Incan battle with handmade shields and headdresses.

For the rest of the week a combination of heavy rainfall and existing mudslides prevented all but the food from reaching the schools and caused bitter disappointment amongst the creators of the unrealised Jungle Book themed language day. However, an unanticipated teacher-free day in the following weeks meant that pupils in all three schools were able to have the excitement of creating animal masks, cartoon scripts, their own story endings and dancing to “I wanna be like you oo oo”.

Incan battles, the Jungle Book and origami frogs in Ecuador