A handful of thank you's

This post has been a long time coming but I just have not been able to find the words to describe what the past three and half months have meant to me. My journey was ineffable.

Four months ago when I was packing my bags, Ecuador was an entirely different world. It was such a crazy notion to parachute into another country, where I did not know the culture, customs, beliefs, or the language. I knew that it would be a climb, and not an easy climb at that but it is about the challenges in the climb that made the top so rewarding. And the feelings that I hold in my heart toward my family, my school, my community and my other Canadian travelers reveal that the climb was worth every challenge.

I would like to thank the Pulamarìn Achiña Family who became my family. Fabian, Maria, Leticia, and Jhon not only opened their home to me but more importantly they opened their hearts to me. And subsequently I fell in love with each one of them. The Pulamarìn family mean the world to me, I have been truly touched by their kind hearts. Fabian and myself had the greatest conversations together, he taught me a lot and his laugh could brighter anyone’s day. Maria woke up one night in the middle of the night hearing me coughing, prepared a hot water bag, brought blankets and tucked me into bed; she is an unbelievable mother. Leticia and Jhon were attached to my hip, we did everything together from going into town to run errands for our parents to feeding our pig to playing silly games to doing our homework together to making dinner to just being kids to teaching each other our languages. We shared so many laughs together and I am so thankful that Letty and Jhon let me into their lives this past summer. When the van pulled up on the last day to take me back to Canada, my heart has never ached so much as we drove away. The Pulamarìn Family will forever hold a special place in my heart.

My next family was my students and professors. I was incredibly intimidated when I first arrived at my school in Monjas Alto but the opportunity was just so surreal that I seized every moment of it and it was a profound experience. Imagine teaching an entire school of students their first words of English…incredible. My students had such a warming energy about them, there smiles and laughter inspired me. I also learnt a lot from my colleagues. I learnt how challenging it is to run a school in a small community in the mountains, where education is not highly valued. This was a constant struggle for Senorita Rosa and Eva and Prof. Jorge but they worked diligently everyday to inspire their students. I will never forget their love for teaching and dedication to their profession. Thank you Escuela Acosta Nunez for welcoming and inspiring me.

Cultural exchanges are beautiful journeys. I met so many beautiful people who taught me what it means to be alive. I will never forget all the “perfect moments” I experienced, those moments where everything was just perfect. It was a challenge to dive into an entirely different country but it was like a puzzle where I slowly pieced together the pieces and began to understand what it means to be Ecuadorian from the Sierra region.

My last thank you goes out to “the Cayambe Pod”, Marissa, Janice, Maria, Nick, Alanna and Jordan who always made me laugh, and were always there when I desperately needed to speak English! And my journey would not have been made possible without my friends and family who supported me. Having you at home and knowing that I had you as a support team helped me incredibly! Thank you.

I have experienced so much change in the past 4 months but it truly is a tribute to human adaptability and how much we can challenge ourselves. So now I am just settling into another school year, reminiscing about how far I traveled this summer realizing how blessed I am to have had this opportunity.

I opened my heart to Ecuador and it was beautiful.

Love.

m

Swept away by the beauty of my students

My work placement has sent me through a world wind of emotions. When I arrived at my school in Monjas Alto, I had no idea what to expect. And well I am the sole english teacher, it was intimidating because I had no direction or guidance plus none of the professors spoke any English and 7 weeks ago I couldn´t speak any Spanish. So communicating was a challenge.

The first weeks were hard because it was just me here providing English to an entire school. I had to take it in through baby steps....baby steps...otherwise it was too overwhelming. So that´s what I did, I worked through it day by day. And by the third week, I settled into my position as the English professor and it couldn´t be more phenomenal.

I have taught the grades 1,2,3,4s basic English like introductions, greetings, body parts, colours, the family, fruits, days of the week and numbers. They have learnt these through songs, colouring activites, flashcards and other activities that I have come up with. The grade 5,6,7 class have progressed further than the primary grades. They understand the verb to be and we formulate sentences together with all the vocab they have learnt.

The grades one and twos are by far my hardest class to work with solely because discipline is such a big issue. There are some days where I have felt we haven´t gotten through anything because little Segundo in grade one so mischievous or Ivan in grade two runs around and makes the boys rowdy. Its frustrating some days. But other days are so great like today, we were learning the body parts song and they all loved it and as we sang it faster and faster they were laughing so hard.

My grades fours and threes are probably my favourite class to teach. The grade fours I think are just at such a great age to absorb information and they have learnt so much. We were reviewing yesterday every thing they have learnt and they made me so proud. The grade fours also have just awesome personalities in the class. We talk after my lesson and hang out and we just laugh. They are so great. Bryan has the greatest smile, Claudio is just a clown, and Emerison has an infectious laugh...oh they are just precious. And the grades threes are always so excited to have English class with me...which just warms my heart.

The grades 5,6,7 class is a huge class to teach to. I find this class incredibly choatic but we have gotten through a significant amount of information. Although some students find English extremely challenging, others have grasped it quite quickly which is phenomenal. I´ll put exercise questions on the board and then help students individually, I find this way most successful.

School ends 5 de julio but my principal has extended English classes for the one more month. yay!!

Now for the harsh reality of the students of Monjas Alto.
This past week I have been talking to Professor Jorge about the students and their futures. Here in Monjas Alto, the parents of the children do not value education. The children are needed to assist in working on the farms (farming is the sole livelihood here). Half of the grade seven class with go to high school which is a 30 minute bus ride away and the other half will start working. Some students miss days of school often because their parents do not appreciate or understand the value of an education. This is difficult for me to take because well being from Canada I value education. But its also difficult for Jorge because he lives in Otovalo and he says that education is highly valued, all children go to high school and most attend University.

These children are bright individuals, who have so much potential, I know this because of how much they have progressed in English. The hardest part is imagining thier future. ¨What will Patricio in grade 3 be doing in 15 years?¨Questions like this are tough to take in.

......All my love from Ecuador. Other than my work placement I have been keeping busy on weekends and just hanging out with my host family. Ahh and my birthday is next week!!! :)

Random Thoughts

I have so much to say, this journey is absolutely amazing. Everyday is an adventure, and I´m definitely soaking in every moment here. I can´t believe June is just around the corner!

So here is a collection of random timbits for you...

-Eggs are not refrigerated.

-I am woken up by our rooster at 5am every morning, which is proceeded by my entire family getting up.

-I have lost track of how many times I have hitched a ride on the back of a pick-up truck. It´s one of my favourite modes of transportation here in the mountains.

-Jhon loves playing the radio and every odd song is in English. Some popular ones: Black Eyed Peas ¨I gotta a feeling¨, Taylor Swift ¨You belong to me¨, K´naan ¨Waving flag¨ (this song just came out and is sung partly in English). And then some American artists like Beyonce and Jason Mraz have Spanish versions of their songs as well. Now usually I don´t listen to mainstream music but its definitely a treat to hear or speak English in this community high in the mountains in Ecuador!

-I love the way some of my students mispronounce English words because they will pronounce every letter. For example, pronounce every letter of the words ¨five¨ or ¨pineapple¨. ha! Claudio in grade 4 will jokingly mispronounce ¨five¨ because he loves my response to him and the whole class laughs. He´s such a funny boy.

- It´s pitch dark by 6:30pm!

-The weather: the sun has a high intensity in the afternoon, but when the sun sets around 6pm, it´s COLD! Now I know I am Canadian and the coldness should not be an issue but its actually really cold! I often wear two sweaters at night and I sleep in a sleeping bag with two blankets, in jogs and a sweater. Ya, its that cold.

-Here in Convalecencia, many families have motorbikes, they call them motorbikes but in our eyes they are dirt bikes! And dirt bikes are the perfect vehicle for where I am living. I really only see dirt bikes, pick-up truckes and the bus, if there is a different vehicle driving through, we know that they don´t live here....Imagine sitting on the back of a dirt bike driving through the mountains, the sun is setting, and in the distance you can see lights from different small communities in the mountains....its phenomenal.

-Took my first hot shower this morning. It was glorious! Dear friends, please never take for granted your hot showers in Canada, mine are rare.

-Stray dogs....everywhere!!

-Go figure I get my first sunburn while I am hanging out on the equator! My host family laughed because I got it when I was with Letty and Maria at Letty´s school. They were fine, but I was burnt as ever. My professors at school thought it was funny, too. Why is being burnt funny?! Suncreen in now being generously applied everyday.

-I always find myself on unexpected adventures which I absolutely love. For example, just yesterday I went to visit my friend Alanna, Alanna was going to help her host father, Juan with his cows, so I was like, ¨Chao!¨ And Juan invited me to come along. So Alanna jumped on the back of his dirt bike, and I jumped on the back rack of the bike. The three of us rode of into an isolated part of the mountain. It was breathtaking, then Juan whipped out three bags for us to collect blackberries. So there we were, Juan, Alanna and myself, just picking blackberries surrounded by mountains.

So pretty much Ecuador couldn´t be more beautiful and I couldn´t be more happier.

Thank you for reading my blog...its so comforting knowing that I have all your support back home in Canada. Next blog post, stories from my work placement.

-m

Mi casa es tu casa

The kindness of my host family can be summed in this story:

The first Sunday at breakfast I sneezed a couple times, and my host father, Fabian, kept saying, ¨gripa¨. After breakfast he told me to follow him, we took the compost up to feed our pig. Fabian then showed me all the plants they grow. Fun fact: cilantro is actually a Spanish word. He asked me what it was in English and I was like, ¨Si, cilantro!¨ He then took me to an aromatherapueatic plant. He instructed me to rub it in my hands then to breathe it in. So I did, and it smelt exactly like Vick´s! It felt so good to breathe it in. It was such a nice gesture and I was just taken aback by the kindness of my family. At that moment I knew that I am going to be okay this summer. It´s a struggle at times but I have a family here and they will always make me laugh.

Where I am living:
I live in Convalecencia, Cayambe. Downtown Cayambe is located at the foot of the mountain and the small community that I reside in is located up the mountain. Once you leave the downtown area of Cayambe and get to Convalecencia, the roads have no names, the houses no addresses. (Seriously, no street names or addresses!) Convalecencia is a farming community. My family has four cows, one pig, one horse, and 2 outdoor dogs. Being on a hill, everything is planted on a slant, which is interesting. Yesterday you would have found me digging for potatoes with a giant hoe on the side of a mountain! ha! My family grows potatoes, cilantro, some other herbs like mint and possibly some other vegetables. My family also has a small store that is attached to their house, there is just a window where people buy what they want. And Fabian built volleyball courts, it just sucks when the ball is thrown out of bounds and you have to run down the hill to get it. The view from my front door is just mountains and mountains, on a clear day you can see the snow covered top of Mount Cayambe, which is the highest point on the Equator.

Who I am living with:
I live with the Pullamarin Family, who are beautiful people.

Fabian is my host father, he is 35. He works as a farmer. He is genuinely a kind person and has the greatest laugh. My family loves to laugh which has made me feel very comfortable. Fabian speaks no english but he is interested in learning, often he will ask how to say some thing in English. He now knows all our farm animals names in English! His effort to learn is really comforting. He congratulated me the other night on how much my Spanish has improved since I got here, it was a proud moment for me.

Maria is my host mother, she is 33. She helps with the farm and running the store. I thoroughly enjoy her cooking. And she is a great mother to her two children. She also has an infectious smile! At first she spoke to me so quickly in Spanish, I often had to ask her to speak slowly in order for me to understand. Maria tries to learn English too but she just can´t pick up the English tongue, which is completely fine. It makes me laugh just when I try and speak their language but make a million mistakes!

Letty or Leticia is 12 years old. She is amazing! We come down to Cayambe together and run errands for her parents all the time. It is through Letty that I am learning Spanish. She is learning English in school and wants to learn more from me, its a great partnership. She had her English exam this morning and yesterday I was helping her out, it made me realize how challenging English actually is. Proud moment: last week she asked me to help her with math and well I have not done math in four years. I helped her anyhow, its a challenge for me to do math, let alone explain it to someone in Spanish but I was successful, I was so happy she understood me. It was proud moment because I am definitely grasping Spanish now (slowly but surely). Letty has a great disposition, and we spend lots of time together.

Jhon is 8 years old. His parents and sister always joke about how he is loco! And he is. He loves playing the radio loudly, he knows the words to all the songs and shouts them out. He is a fun loving 8 year old boy! He´s hilarious actually. His craziness reminds me of my 8 year old sister, Isabel (who I dearly miss). Letty and Jhon often bring me into their sibling rivarly, which always involves a lot of laughing.

So that´s a quick overview of my family. They are spectacular and I couldn´t be more blessed!! My first week at school was overwhelming but coming home I felt so relaxed, hanging out, playing volleyball, helping Letty with her homework, etc. This trip is very much about being with people, and the time I have spent with my family thus far is something I will always treasure.

love from the equator
mar

Here are the whiteboard markers....teach.

Friday May 6, I started my placement which at a school in Juan Montalvo. My host mother, Maria took me on the bus there. There are no designated bus stops, we just waved it down and as soon as my foot stepped on the bus, the driver hit the gas. It was packed with many people. The road is windy and as I look at the window, all I see is mountains, its absolutely breathtaking. The commute is worth it. I live in Convalecencia, Cayambe, its located in the Northern Highlands.



I arrive at the school and the children are getting ready for a March to the National Anthem. After announcements, one of the professors takes me to the grade 7 classroom, introduces me, hands me whiteboard markers and says ¨Uno hora¨then leaves. I have one hour with the grade 7 class to teach English, my response, ¨errrr.....!?!?¨ I was not prepared for this whatsoever. But okay, I start with, ¨What is your name?¨ One hour passes by, my heart ponding the entire time. In the afternoon, I was given the grade one and two class and it was harder, as they were restless. After playing soccer, the school day ended at two, where I caught the bus home. I was happy to see my family after an mentally exhausting day.



My host father has built out of the mountain a platform for volleyball nets, I played ball with my host sister, Letty, my host brother, Jhon. The sun was shining down on us, and the skyline is just mountains and mountains, its simply majestic. My host father, Fabian and I were playing volleyball and I was just taken away at the beauty here in Cayambe.



Spanish......right now is a huge barrier and is extremely challenging, but I am working on it.


More to come about my host family.....

My sincerest gratitude

I would like to dedicate this blog to all my beautiful supporters. When I set out to fundraise, I was intimidated as I did not know how people would respond. But each and every day I am humbled by the donations I receive. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to you. You have made this journey possible for me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This blog is inviting you into my feelings, experiences, frustrations, and anything more that it will become. I wholeheartedly want you to experience my adventure to Ecuador with me because it is through you that I am able to have this opportunity. On another note, I also would greatly appreciate your responses to my blog posts, whether it be an interesting comment, or a story of a similar experience. Partly why blogging is intimidating to me is because I don’t know what or how you feel about what you are reading, so I welcome all comments!