Ecuador: Sigue No Mas

I went on a 24 day adventure to Ecuador, where I was able to enjoy the bustling cities, along with the mountains and rain forest surrounding. But to me the adventure didn't begin until the 2nd day there. I remember waking up on July 24, 2014 ready for a 6 hour journey from Ecuador's capital Quito, to a small village called Sachapamba De San Fransisco. I can still  perfectly remember the majestic mountains that I admired from the bus's window, the twisty, thrilling roads that our bus encountered, the salsa music that made everyone want to get up and dance, and the chatter going on as everyone was getting to know each other. Although we were all tired, once we got to our destination we were all pretty excited. I remember being mesmerized by the gorgeous view that can't compare to any other view I have ever seen. Along with being excited, I was also very nervous. I have never been away from home, or done community service in another country. The plan was to build a kiosk for the locals, where they can buy goodies while watching soccer games, a bathroom, bleacher steps, and teach children some English. I was ready to work hard for the next 9 days.  It wasn't easy at first. I remember having to carry heavy bricks, pushing wheel barrels, and the toughest of all, mixing cement. But it still was one of the best parts of this trip, because while working on all those projects, along with my group members, I developed many new connections. I learned the importance of teamwork and friendship.We were all there to motivate and push each other when we thought we couldn't go any further. Along with the connections that I made with my group members, I also connected to the children who lived in the village. Every day after work, they would show up with their smiles and amazing sense of humor. We would play soccer, teach them some English words, share many laughs, and there were days where we would just sit and gaze at the mountains that surrounded us. On our last day of being on the work site, as a way of appretiation and gratitude the community threw a small party where we played many games, danced along to some live music, and just enjoyed each other's company. On the 10th day we hopped back on the bus where we made our way to the indigenous town of Otavalo. There we visited the markets, filled with many foreign clothes, souvenirs, and Ecuadorian goodies. After a day spent there we made our way to a city in the Amazon Rain Forest called Tena. The first day consisted of white water rafting in the Amazon. I will never forget the beautiful experience I had while rafting in the hidden rivers of the Amazon while a thunderstorm was going on. The sound of the thunder gave me a calm feeling, and the view of the lightning gave me chills. The next day was was full of challenges and mud. The group and I went deep into the Amazon Rain Forest, with a 3 hour long hike. We were surrounded by many exotic plants, and flowers, waterfalls and the chirping of many birds brought music to our ears. When those days were over we headed out to the Galapagos,with our home base being the lovely Island of Isabela. With the beach just minutes away, we were able to enjoy snorkeling and being able to swim with sea lions and turtles, surfing the waves that the ocean brings to us, and just chill in the sand. We also had the chance to explore a volcano, and visit the giant Tortoises of the Galapagos. I am extremely proud of myself for having the courage to attend a trip like this. While doing all these activities and work, I stepped out of my comfort zone. It was pretty scary for me at first, but once I stepped out of that bubble that I'm so used to being in, I felt so good. One thing that I will remember from one of the group leaders, was him telling us to live in the moment, and to stop letting fear hold us back on  doing things that we want to do. Telling myself those words throughout the trip really helped me have the best time I have ever had. I even use those words now to encourage myself. Summer 2014 was a summer full of adventure, challenges, deep connections, and self discovery. Definitely a summer I won't be able to forget.

Luna's Land

In Unit 1 in the Stories class which is called Creations, the class learned about different ways we can read a story and went over adverbs and adjectives, which play a huge role when writing a story. For our first action project the class was assigned to create our own mythological world, using descriptive language, adjectives, adverbs and just our imaginations to get readers feeling like they were actually in the setting that they are reading about. To get a closer look at what our minds were picturing while writing, we were also asked to illustrate our world. Through this first unit/project I learned the importance of using adverbs and adjectives correctly, how helpful descriptive language can be, and how to dig deeper when reading or writing a story, and I think I connected well to the purpose of this project, because I dug deeper while writing, I made sure I included descriptive language, I also made sure that my creations also made sense, but with all that, I  also made sure I was having have fun by letting my imagination run free. I decided to write about a world that I decided to name Luna’s Land, which follows a young girl’s adventure creating a world that the moon dreamed of. It took me awhile to come up with this story, but I was determined to come up with something that I would be proud of. I’m also not that great of an artist, but I tried my best, and I am very happy at how my drawing came out. I’m very proud of how I handled all my frustration, which was to keep trying and to keep using my imagination. Thanks to this project, I now have a better understanding of what makes a story a good one, and I definitely will use the knowledge I gained from this unit throughout my years in school.

There is a world far and isolated from anywhere else, where by day it was very sunny, and by night the stars shined like diamonds. It’s called Luna’s Land. The people who lived here were all once from planet Mundane, a place with no beauty or excitement, just plain grass everywhere. One day the sun and the moon, two sparkling orbs, decided to run away from Mundane, because they were fed up with the lack of beauty there. They raced quickly to this new planet, and whoever arrived there first got  to name the new planet. The moon won, and as a  victory named  the new planet after itself, calling it Luna’s Land.The Moon and sun decided to bring some of the citizens of planet Mundane with them, so that they could have a say  on how Luna’s Land would look. Here, all you had to do was carefully imagine what you wanted and your mind would control anything, giving you the power to create anything. Since they hadn’t been used to using their imaginations anytime before, they were a little rusty at being creative, but the citizens, surprisingly and rather quickly began working their minds like computers, coming up with new ideas.

Although she shared the new world with the sun, Luna always felt like she had much more to offer and she found it ironic that although this planet was named after her, few really gave her much attention. She didn’t get why everyone was in love with the sun’s evil burn and dangerous heat, but she did give the sun credit for using her light and heat as an oven for everyone. Some people praised the sun so much, they would sit in front of her talking for hours. They would even tell the sun about all their bad deeds and lies, but the sun would punish those with bad tongues by burning them with a massive heat wave. These people, however, never learned and would keep going back to the sun. Some people were beautiful with their tanned complexion, others not so much, looking like tomatoes. 

One night, Lapeka went into the valley of secrets and wishes, where she and other people would quietly  sit on thick clouds of unspoken desires and thoughts. The valley was always dazzling and bright because of all the secrets it held.The rule is that you make a wish and throw it up in the air and watch it twinkle in the sky. But, you always had to be careful because your wish just might come true, and the way you knew it is that your wish would  become a shooting star. Lapeka was so used to her wish just sitting up in the sky giving her a twinkling glare, that she was caught off guard when her star flew up and away like a bird. Her wish? To get everyone to admire the angelic moon.

Signs of Lapeka’s granted wish were everywhere.The next day, the sun was out of business. No one was lined up to to talk to her, like they’d always done. Instead, they were impatiently waiting to talk to the moon. Everyone was in line on the stairway, and suddenly Lapeka found herself at the bottom, something that she was not used to because before she would be at the top alone. The line was so long, it was like the only payphone in a sea of people needing to make a call. By the time Lapeka slowly and carefully got to the top, the sun had stolen the show again with its sunrise, meaning that the moon had to go rest.

The day afterward Lapeka went through the same thing. No luck in talking to her soul-mate. She was heart-sick. “How can I be so stupid?”she asked herself as she thought about her wish. She had to come up with a plan to get the mysterious moon back into her life. Lapeka finally decided that she had to create something with her mind, which she didn’t really enjoy doing because her creations have never really worked. But, this was her only hope.

  She sat in her shady backyard thinking and thinking until she came up with an idea about hiding the moon or trying to block it. Lapeka imagined huge, steep, dangerous rocks glued together, something that her mind decided to call “mountains”. She impatiently waited until the night-time to use these scenic devils. When she heard people swiftly run to spill their hearts out to this dark goddess, she was ready to go. She carefully set her mind to start and little by little in the distance she heard the rumbling and roars of the rocks getting bigger and bigger. Feeling determined, she thought to herself “she’s finally mine again”. But, these dangerous, giant rocks were not big enough to hide the moon’s majestic soul. The mountains themselves were sitting there looking ashamed that they were of no use. They were so devastated that they  began to weep, and each time the mountains cried, pieces of rock would come crumbling off, until nothing was left but dust. Now people would go there to cry and weep because their souls felt so weak and worthless just like the dust, where the bold monstrous rocks once stood.

  Lapeka cried her eyes out at this failure, until the next thing she knew, she was sitting in a pool of water formed by her own tears. The puddle got so big that it became an ocean. She got the idea of giving energy to the ocean of tears, making some of the water run to scare the people waiting for the moon, whom she hoped would eventually leave. She named this powerful force “tsunami”. The water traveled in huge waves, but before its magnificent show of power, the waves quickly ran back like the ocean was racing away for its life. The salty, black water was afraid of the moon. This ocean was named Salty Tears, and sometimes people would go and leave their guilt to drown there,unknowingly mixing with Lapeka’s tears. It was like a mysterious black hole, that would go on and on, dangerously drowning you with your own guilt.

  After all her creative efforts, Lapeka gave up and ran to the pile of dust where she let out her own piercing cries. She realized she would never have Luna again to herself and that maybe her wish was not a good idea. Looking around and still sobbing, she noticed all of the natural beauty around her, some of which she had actually helped create. She saw the valley of secrets and wishes, the monstrous mountains that would roar every second, and the black ocean floating with guilt. Although the landscape contained some things that were good and not so good inside of them, the world around her was still extremely beautiful. Realizing that she had helped create just what the moon had wanted made her happy, and Lapeka understood with pride that although she was going to have to share her beloved moon with everyone else she would always be the closest person to Luna.

Below I have an image showing the outcome of Lapeka's distress,that includes the valley of secrets and wishes, the monstrous mountains,and the Salty tears ocean.

RD, Luna's Land (2014) Photography.

Blue-Tailed Skink

In Unit 1 in the Population class which is called In/Out, the class learned about many different organism's characteristics, and taxonomy,which is the way scientist classify organisms. In math, the class learned about elements in math, which is putting a collection of things into groups. For our first action project the class was assigned to pick an organism and research its characteristics and how its classified. Along with that, we were assigned to create a collage mosaic representing those characteristics. We then partnered up with someone and compared each other's organisms to create a Venn diagram. For the math portion, we had to come up with 5 math statements about our organism. I decided to research the Cryptoblepharus egeriae, also known as a Blue-tailed skink. Below is a table describing the Skink’s taxonomic levels and characteristics.

Taxonomic Level	Blue-tailed Skink Group	Key characteristics of group
Kingdom	Animalia	Multicellular Eat things
Phylum	Chordata	They have a tail
Class	Reptilia	Have scales rather than feathers
Order	Squamata	Lizards can pop off their tail so it can distract a predator, and they can get away.
Family	Scincidae	Skinks are covered by smooth, shiny cycloid scales giving them a shiny appearance
Genus	Cryptoblepharus	from the top, the skink looks like a snake
Species	C. egeriae	small with a black body with yellow stripes with a blue tail

I then created my collage mosaic, where I tried to include every characteristic in the table above. I enjoyed putting together this collage, especially the blue tail because I find it very interesting how this skink has the ability to pop it off when being attacked, or when being chased down for food as a way of distracting its predator.

RD, Blue-tailed skink. (2014) Photography

I created 5 math statements showing which set or group my organism does and doesn't belong in.

RD, Math statements, (2014). Photography

I partnered up with JV who had a Mexican Mole Lizard and we compared each others organism below. We also decided to partner up with AMK who had a Fennec Fox.

RD,JV,AMK. Venn Diagram. (2014). Photography.