Saturday, January 10, 2015

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!

Agua viva International, Brave Life, AAUW Buffalo
Agua viva International, AAUW Buffalo

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. 

Baños, Cuenca travel blog waterfall
piedras Baños, Cuenca travel blogger waterfall
waterfall, south america, Baños, Cuenca


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. ;)

Ruinas Ingapirca, Cuenca, Ecuador, 4 All humanity
Ruinas Ingapirca, Cuenca, Ecuador, NCCWSL
Ruinas Ingapirca, Cuenca, Ecuador
Mipacha, AG Jeans, fashion blogger, Ruinas Ingapirca
Ruinas Ingapirca, Cuenca, Ecuador, NCCWSL

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 BranchBrave Life, and Sigma Alpha Pi for funding my travels to Ecuador so I can work with Agua Viva! :)

4 comments:

  1. Christine this is so beautiful and uplifting... I love hearing about how the children desired to learn so much. Our children here don't always appreciate how wonderful and easy that they have it. These will be treasured memories for you now and in the future ♡

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  2. Beautiful adventures!
    <3
    katsfashionfix.blogspot.com

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  3. oh my you're good on making jump shots! Wonderful journey my dear friend, I hope your trip here in the Philippines will also happen.

    love,
    Cassie

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  4. this post is so amazing..from shin

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Thank you for the lovely comment. God bless & stay Be-you-tiful!