A New Beginning at Katitawa School

September the 4Th marked the beginning of our second year of English classes at Katitawa. Although we had five graduate we still have six of the older kids returning. Four of the six are doing exceptionally well and it is great to see their progress.

We also have four of the littlest kids who have moved up from the kindergarten. Last year we had two one and a half hour sessions per week and now we have a one hour class everyday. Since we are a small school we are able to limit the classes to four children per class which is great for teaching a new language to kids who already speak Spanish and their native Kichwa. For the rest of the story click here.and you will be linked to the Katitawa School site.

New Hours For The Library.

The Biblioteca Rosa Maria is now open every day from 2 til 7. We have hired one of the brightest English students who attended the vacation classes at Katitawa. Her name is Fanny and attends high school in Salasaca.

She is pictured below with Robert in front of the library.We now have more than 600 books, in Spanish, Kichwa and English. We hope to have at least a thousand by the end of the year.

To help pay some of the expenses, a few of the local weavers have put some of their work on display and have agreed to give us a commission on what we sell.

We invite all visitors on their way to Baños to get off the bus and spend at least a couple of hours in Salasaca. Who knows you may want to stay a while and take away an unique Ecuadorian experience.

We provide free accomodations and food for our volunteers and have no fees. All we want is your time.

Return to Tungurahua....A year later.

A year ago, August 2006, Jose and I, along with a couple of friends made the trek from Cotalo, across the Champa River, through the devestation of the July eruption, to Cusara and on to Baños. In August of 2007, Julie from Canada, Nieve from Ireland, Fabiola, Jose and I took the trip again and found that the terain had changed considerably after the mid-August eruption.Decending halfway down the mountain from Cotalo we look across at Tungurahua and wonder if we can even get across the large canyon that was carved last August.

The hike down from Cotalo and across the river was the same as the year before but sfter a short up-hill trek we came to the area where the lahars flows have created several canyons blocking our path....Some of them very deep.

This was our first little detour to get across a gap where a bridge had been taken away. As we learned a little later this was a "piece of cake".
When we started this downhill we were not sure if we could get across or not. The sand was very unstable and at this point Fabiola was in front and started to slide. I jumped in front and used my boots to stop her. It was not not life thretening as we were pretty close to the bottom by that time....Just a little scary.

After this crossing the rest of the trip to Baños great. We walked into Baños five and a half hours after we left Cotalo. What an adventure.

Thank you Julie for the great pictures.

Biblioteca Rosa Maria

The new sign over the door of the library in Salasaca village.

One of the on-going projects that the volunteers are working on is the setting up of a library in Salasaca village. The library will serve as a place where the children and adults alike can go in the evenings to read and supplement their classes at Katitawa school.

The beginning stages of the library.


So far most of the books in the library have been donated by friends and family of the volunteers. We have also had some money donated towards the library, which went to buying books. We bought these books in "Libreria Española" on Av. Colon in Quito (Thanks to the staff there for their help and discounts offered!) Finally, the "English Book Store" on Calle Calama in Quito has donated some children's books.

As always, anyone interested in helping out can hit the "Make A Donation" button.

Enda, Robert and John outside the library.