Today was the second-to-last day of camp. The kids in both groups played lots of chess. In Zach and Zoe’s room, they went over openings and played some bughouse. The students in Roberto’s room played some practice games with a clock and reviewed the basic tactics learned yesterday.
Zach and Zoe were both exhausted today so they were happy when it was time for the break. There was, of course, more soccer, but Zoe and Zach mostly just sat and talked with the kids.
After the break, Zach and Zoe set up a four-round tournament in their room. Two rounds were completed today with two more to be played tomorrow. The experienced players participated in a three-round tournament. John, using a unique opening strategy with the white pieces (a4-b3-c4), emerged as champion after defeating Henry in a playoff match.
Henry is a talented player, and he also has to take care of his four-year-old brother, Panchito, while at camp. Panchito has a strange tendency to punch his older brother occasionally. It takes extreme focus for Henry to babysit and play chess while getting hit. Today Panchito decided to assert himself at the chess board, making interesting moves and then smacking the clock instead of Henry. He became the first one at camp to win against Drew as he captured Drew’s king multiple times in a new chess variant understood only by the four-year-old. Roberto proved to be no match for Panchito either.
When the day of camp concluded, we gathered to eat lunch and Roberto was very excited to see pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut. None of us could believe the cost of each pizza, however — $20!!! Back at home, Zach was extremely glad that they were not planning to run because he just wanted to rest. Everyone was pretty wiped out. Zoe took a nap and read another book, Drew played Wii basketball versus Mateo, and everyone else just relaxed. Later in the afternoon, all the kids except Danny played a Wii bowling tournament, and once again Drew was the champion with a score of 151.
For dinner, the family minus Pity went to at an upscale restaurant called Pim’s, which is located in the oldest part of Quito. There was a lot of traffic on the way, and it took us an hour and a half of aggressive Ecuadorian driving to get there. However, the food was well worth the wait. Pretty much everyone ordered hamburgers except for Pancho. The princesses, Zoe and Maria, got milkshakes along with Roberto. Afterwards, we took some pictures and returned to the house (in only 30 minutes) after a long day of teaching and loving. Thanks for reading!
I hate for the blog to end, so interesting. Glad that lots of good memories are being made with the family in Equador.
Sounds like you are all very tired!! You need to sleep on the plane home and not watch movies!