That means “An ugly duckling”.

The 30th of April was going to be the last working day at Katitawa for Ed, Tanya, Lizzy, Emma, Damir, Dotahn & Emmily. On their last day, we were planning to act out the ugly duckling (in Spanish) as a skit for the kids. The previous evening, Ed wrote the script and took up the job of narrating it. We rehearsed about 3 to 4 times, with me playing the role of one of the swans.

I had exactly 3 lines to say:

"No eres un patito feo" ==> You're not an ugly duckling
"Mira su reflecion en la agua" ==> Look at your reflection in the water
"Mire... mas fuerte" ==> Look, more carefully

The next morning, we gave a stellar performance at the school and the kids just loved it. I displayed my impeccable acting skills and said my lines with gusto, which made me an instant favourite with the crowd. Dear reader, if you are a big shot in Bollywood, look no further; get in touch with me and we’ll make millions together.

Mother duck waiting for her eggs to hatch

Mother duck and the other ducklings are shocked to see the ugly duckling

Dotahn as one of the ducklings

Here is Emmily & Dotahn’s full write-up of their final week at Katitawa.

The volunteers working at the library had done a stupendous job with the theatre. Since they had put in so much time and effort in making the theatre look so good, they didn’t have time in the end to write a script for the puppet show. But Rupinho wrote a small storyline in Kichwa for the popular Kichwa legend of the Condor who fell in love. Some of the kids in school were in charge of handling the puppets, and despite rehearsing only a few times, they put up a good show in the evening. Yours truly was in charge of lighting, and as expected goofed up a few times (but that was mainly because the damn light switch would give me a small electric shock every now and then).

The theatre under construction (this picture is from many days earlier)

Emmily, the creative head of the theatre group

The finished puppets

Emma & Damir admiring their creation

Damir as the ghost

Emma transforming Nicolas into the clown (in my opinion, he didn't need any make-up; he's a clown anyway)

The clown looked scarier than the ghost

Rupinho, the narrator

The clown in action

Take a bow theatre group, you guys did a fabulous job