A School for the Disabled in Tena, Ecuador

The school was built with a huge courtyard in the middle and the classrooms surrounded it.  The huge cover is  to protect the children from the hot sun as well as the rain.  While we were there it poured for about an hour and literally you couldn't hear yourself talk.  The teachers say when it rains they cannot teach because of the noise.

We arrived during a faculty meeting and they stopped what they were doing and the principal took us on a tour.  The sign behind us says "patience" in English and it is all done with string.

This is the physical therapy room for the children.  Not much equipment but they work with what they have.

These are their toys.  It made my heart break when I think of all the toys my grandchildren have and these little disabled children have nothing!  There are so many needs, where do you start?

Look carefully in the upper center of the picture and you can see a HUGE ant nest in one of the classrooms.  We saw some of these ant nests in the jungle and it would have been fun to see an ant eater attacking the ants!

How they make their bracelets.

Making a scarf on an old rice cooker with popsicle sticks.  Pretty creative.  They even made square ones too!

A basket and some hot pads made out of paper!

Rugs made from scraps of material.

More of the crafts all made by the disabled children.  They try and sell them to make money for the school.

The kitchen

Dad and the principal looking at the bathrooms.  Behind them is the school garden.

The playground.

Some of their crafts made with beads.

Here are the square looms to make scarfs.

A typical classroom.  The chalkboards are so old and very hard to write on.  They reminded me of the chalkboards I had in my classrooms when I was little.

Some swings for the children.  Good use for old car seats!

A creative way to use your old CD's.  Make a curtain.  The computer room had about 20 computers in it but only half of them worked so there were 4 students to each computer. This room was in the school for the regular students which was in the same complex as the school for the disabled.