the yearly carnival in Vilcabamba

 

 these were the best dancers, on a music background of Los Kjarkas, beautiful!

shaving cream was sprayed left and right for four days

Louis and Angelina are attending their first public school in Ecuador

 Louis and Angelina can attend this school called "Juan Montalvo" as "free auditors" ("oientes") until the end of the school year, which is early July. School starts at 7:30 am and ends at 12:50 every day of the week. Louis will be in 4th grade and Angelina in 3rd. They will keep on homeschooling at khanacademy.com and working on their English writing skills. The purpose of attending this school here is to learn Spanish and make some new friends. Louis and Angelina are about to enter the school for the first time.

Kids are starting to line up. Angelina is on the left and Louis on the right.

Louis is a little lost.

Everybody is now lined-up. This school also has middle-school students.

After the line-up, kids do some breathing exercises and sing the anthem under the direction of the principal.

Angelina is ready to go.

The courtyard has a basic playground.

It's hard for Louis this first day.

Recess activities

Louis's classroom

Angelina's classroom

Another classroom

A kinder classroom

Louis is more at ease the second day.

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Angelina seemed to be quite at ease from the very first day.

All kids here are excellent soccer players. They are tough too

They play soccer at recess. There are two recesses per day and kids go home for lunch.

Louis has made a few friends rapidly.

One piece of advice to other parents: do not send your kids to a public school anywhere in Latin America with stuff from the U.S. like nice watches, nice pens etc. Buy what the papelerias sell locally, this way you will avoid some of the theft... 

This is the view from outside the school.