Teaching Poi in Ecuador

So I've been doing poi for about a year and a half now and believe I have come quite a long way...This is a video I just posted today on youtube (https://youtu.be/QeZHkqqyptY). Well anyways I'm in Ecuador doing some research with birds in a town that has no paved roads connecting to it called Zuleta. The culture here is so rich and beautiful that I can't even begin to explain it. I'm working for a foundation that is heavily involved in this community and is currently having a summer school for the local kids where we're teaching them about biodiversity and showing how to do some cool arts and crafts. I brought out my poi a few weeks ago for the first time and the owners of the hacienda insisted I teach a class for the kids. Like I said, I've only been doing it for a year and a half and I can get by with my Spanish, but trying to explain poi and everything that it involves is quite difficult for me. Luckily I have translators to help where I can't explain. I did not think it would go well at all really. There's around 20 kids and they can be harsh sometimes haha. I started off by doing a little demonstration to get their attention and did it ever get their attention! They were so excited to make their poi which we constructed out of grocery sheaths (the ones that hold oranges and produce) and flour inside of a balloon. They work great! Yesterday I started out with the basics and essentially just explained everything how they do in the free poi lessons that home of poi provides. It went far better than I ever could have imagined! I had several kids doing the butterfly within an hour and practically every one of the 20 or so kids were trying and having a great time! I couldn't believe it and am so excited to watch them learn these next 2 weeks! I just felt the need to share this beautiful experience with somebody. I hope I'm posting to the right place as I've never done this before. I feel very privileged to teach poi in a place where these kids never would have found out about it otherwise and I have home of poi to thank for putting together such a great list comprised of all the moves essential to poi :)

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