Feedback from Ecuador

Dear EXIS

I’d just like to tell you that I’ve come home from Ecuador. I came back the 6th of February. All went really well and I have had a lot of good experiences og got myself a lot of friends. I can recommend your language school. There’s a lovely atmosphere and the teachers are good. My work was also very interesting. First I worked 2 places at cefoclac, primarily with grown up visually impaired people and after that a school for blind children, which is called Mariana de Jesus.

I got a lot of pedagogical experiences and considerations. Finally my host family was awesom. I also had time to travel.

I hope you are doing fine.

I’ve been in Ecuador for almost 3 months now. The school here is really good and I have learned a lot during the 4 weeks I was there. Before I arrived, I couldn’t speak a single word of Spanish, and now I can get by just fine ? I know others who went to different schools and they learned less then I did in the same period, so I think the school is really good.
At my work I quickly fitted in (I work with street children). The work hours are from 9 am – 1 pm. The first day was a bit scary: I walked into the centre, which is really poor and some tall black guys (22 years old) were waiting for me, just looking at me. I really felt small and bad at Spanish. But they showed me around (the centre consists of a room with table-soccer game and a television and a couch, and another room where homework assistance is offered). There’s children aged 3-15 – these kids get help with their home work, or we teach them colours, numbers or teach them to read and calculate.

Then there’s the young kids (mostly guys), aged 16-24 years. They just hang out at the centre. There were some problems with some of the bigger guys at the centre, so they had to close it down for a while, but the problems were solved.

In the beginning I didn’t like the big guys very much, as they were making a pass at me, and me being blond didn’t really help. But after the first week I earned myself some respect, so if they come on too strongly, I tell them off. So now I have a good relationship to them and we get along just fine. The small kids (aged 3-15) are lovely. Of course I have some favourites, and I will miss them very much. All of them are so straight-forward and at the beginning, where I couldn’t talk so much with them, they welcomed me immediately anyway. I get hugs and happy smiles every day. Thre’s nothing better, then when a small group comes to you for hugs – they are just so cute! You learn quickly what each individual child needs – and I sit here every day and do math for them, or practise dictation.

If the future volunteers want to make donations to the home, then there’s a big need for paper, colouring/drawing books and jig saw puzzles (the kids love jig saws! But not too difficult, as it’s mostly the smallest kids who play with them).

I love coming at the centre and I highly recommend it. I work at “La Marin” and know some of the people who work at “Terminal Terreste”, which is the same project, but “Terminal Terreste” isn’t near as good a place (I visited there as well). The people working there felt redundant as the kids who come there do not need them very much and the mutual relationship between the volunteers could be better. At “La Marin”, where I work, there’s many more children who need a place to stay and the mutual relationship between the volunteers is much better. We also said this to the school, so they can consider the use of “Terminal Terreste”.

My family has also been fantastic, and they took me in immediately. As they say, I’m part of the family. It’s really nice, since one is so far away from home.

I can only say positive things about my stay and the people from Ecuador are warm people (even though there of course are a number of bastards – but those can be found in all countries). The country/nature is incredibly beautiful, and I’ve been on a lot of trips every weekend with my friends down here.

I gladly recommend others to take the trip to Ecuador.