Ecuador Update: Final Evaluations, Waterfalls & Ancient Ruins

Photography Workshop, Final Evaluations 

I am excited to close my photography workshop with the Colta Monjas Alto Community this week. It was an amazing experience and opportunity. I learned so much about their culture, or as much as I could in one month. This truly opened my eyes to a new culture - the juxtaposition between their traditional lives and the "Westernized" culture of many of the people in the city below is so interesting. Each time I taught was very exciting because I loved that they loved to learn. During our closing, we shared what we learned and liked from the class. The participants were very excited and grateful for the opportunity to learn photography and also for the two cameras that I was able to donate to their community. Interestingly enough, the most important thing they learned was how to position a subject within a photo. I told them that the most important thing now is for them to practice, practice, practice, because one you know the basics of photography the artistry come through practice. Some of them truly have an eye for photography, which was very exciting. I even printed out a few postcards with their photos for them, for them to keep. They invited me back to teach something more. Who knows what the future holds... hopefully a bilingual Christine who can travel and share more of who she is and what she knows with others who wish to learn and share their life with me too!

Baños, Cuenca 

Dancing and singing under the magical waterfalls (which I had to climb what seemed like a few hundred steps to get to) was the best part of seeing Ecuador. I did get super sick the following days, but hey, it was totally worth it. What a lovely thing nature is. 

Ruinas de Ingapirca 

Michelle and I went to see the largest Inca ruins in Ecuador. It was so cool to see them... many of the ruins' purposes are still unknown, so Michelle and I of course made up our own stories for those rocks and structures. ;)

Climbing to the top of the City of Cuenca

No joke, I feel like I am climbing one mountain or another everyday. It's is such an unshackling feeling to make it to the top of a mountain and discover how much I can actually push myself. The view is also a nice reward.

So Blessed and Excited,

Christine

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P.S. Thank you AAUW Buffalo Branch, Brave Life, and Sigma Alpha Pi for funding my travels to Ecuador so I can work with Agua Viva! :)