Day in Valle de Chota-Mascarilla

This past Thursday, 7-17-08 we visited the small, impoverished  village of Mascarilla in the region known as Valle de Chota. This region has a much drier and hotter climate then the region of Otavalo or Quito. Anyway, for many years, the community of Afro-Ecudorians sustained themselves from the production of papaya. Ten years ago, the entire papaya crop of the area was destroyed by an agressive parasite. So, a group of people in the community turned to the craft of making masks from clay to make a living.  On this day, we briefly met two women who run an organization called GAEN, that sells artrisan crafted masks and jewelry from clay. We then toured the small school, that was being used as a summer school for the local children. The children whose ages ranged from 5 to 14 years of age recited a greeting to us and one of our fellow teachers sang a song to them in spanish then in english. Afterwards,  we taught a few fun games with various age groups.  We even started a game of futbol in the street outside the school. Below are a few pictures of our day.

 

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