The days are long here, and it's difficult to keep up with my posts.
We are teaching in the south of Quito, it is at least an hour and a half bus ride from my host's apartment in the north of Quito. I've been told that the north and south of Quito are two different cities. I get up this week at 5:30 a.m., do some exercises (push ups, sit ups, leg stretches, etc.) take a shower, eat (and talk with María) and run to catch the bus at 6:30.
Yesterday was our first day at Quitumbe school (map). Teams 5 & 6 again taught on the first day while others observed. They performed well yet again.
After we were done, Jon and Colton wanted to visit the Politécnica University to talk to them about their computing program. Jon is fearless, and within 20 minutes of arriving at the campus we were talking with the Dean of systems engineering (that's often what they call computing here). The Dean talked with us for at least 45 minutes in his office's conference room. Jon and Colton asked all kinds of questions about specific classes, overall curriculum, jobs after college, etc. About 30 minutes into the meeting I explained to the Dean (Carlos Mantenegro) that I am a Fulbright Scholar and will be back in September, and that I would like to teach a seminar (all in Spanish). He was delighted and even proposed that I might be able to do it through a federal program that pays for professors to come to Ecuador to teach. So here's yet another opportunity for me this fall and maybe sometime thereafter.
Today I visit University of San Francisco Quito for a 3 p.m. meeting to try to arrange for work there for this fall. Wish me luck.
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