#1 question I got before leaving... oh cool, you're moving to Ecuador for a year... what are you going to DO?? Kind of a tough question to answer since one of the primary missions of the program I'm volunteering with, Rostro de Cristo, is to
be with the Ecuadorian people and not to
do things for them. When I was looking at different volunteer programs last year, this was one of the aspects of the Rostro de Cristo program that I was really attracted to. There are a lot of great programs out there that provide amazing services to developing countries, but when the focus is on
doing something
for a community, it can be more difficult to really
know the people and
understand their struggles. Instead of centering the program around the services we provide to the Ecuadorian people, Rostro focuses on
being with the Ecuadorians--living and working side by side in
their communities. We are guests in their country, and no matter how many answers we think we have, North American solutions to South American problems are not always the best ideas. So Rostro's mission is to live and work
with the Ecuadorian people--living simply in
their communities, really getting to know the people on a personal level and experiencing their struggles firsthand.
That being said, we can't just hang out and BE for an entire year. So Rostro gets us down here and sets us up with a place to live (we have
16 volunteers this year living in 3 distinct
communities), then works with local non-profits to set volunteers up with work placements for the year. Most volunteers have two placements--a morning placement with a partner Ecuadorian non-profit, and an afternoon placement with one of the 3 after school programs that Rostro runs. We spent our first week and a half here visiting each of the placements and after school programs, then at the end of the 2nd week here, we spent a whole day hashing out who would be best fit at each placement. It was a really interesting process because we had to consider more than what felt best for us; we also had to think about what was best for all the volunteer community as a whole.
Most of our placements only need 2 volunteers, so there had to be some compromise in who gets what placement. For the most part, though, everyone this year got placements that they're excited about. I ended up getting my first choice, a school called Nuevo Mundo, so I'll tell you a little bit about that, then I'll talk a little bit about some of the other placements we have volunteers at.
Nuevo Mundo! I´m really excited about working here. There's a great description of the school on the
Rostro website, so I encourage you to read that and check out the school's
English website. Basically, Nuevo Mundo provides completely free K - 9 education to students from some of the poorest neighborhoods in Durán/Guayaquil. They're able to do this by running a private K - 12 school in the mornings for the wealthier children of Guayaquil, then using the same facilities to provide free education to the kids who can't afford it in the afternoon. Essentially, the tuition the morning school collects subsidizes the afternoon school. Not surpisingly, a free education at one of the best private schools in the country is very popular, so students must apply to the afternoon school, demonstrating both need and merit.
Just this year, Nuevo Mundo started offering scholarships to the top 10 students graduating from the 9th grade afternoon school program (high school here is only 3 years--10th - 12th grade) to finish up 10th - 12th grade with the morning school IB (
International Baccalaureate) program. Getting into the morning IB program essentially guarantees that these kids will make it to college, often with scholarships to universities in the United States and Europe. Even though not all the 9th graders get into the IB program, most of them end up going on to other high schools and getting into college, thanks to the education they received at Nuevo Mundo. I've just been shadowing classes and working on lesson plans up until now (the academic year here is from April - January, and the students just got back from a 2 week break between the 1st and 2nd semesters), but I start teaching this Monday, so I'll let you know how it goes! I'm starting to get a little nervous since I've never taught before, but I'm more excited than anything because of how inspiring the school's mission is. More to come this year!
Each of the placements is inspiring in it's own way, and I honestly would have been happy at any of them. Here's a little more info about a couple of the other sites I looked at and the volunteers who will be working there this year. I've also provided links to the Rostro website which has great descriptions of all the program (if you haven't noticed, I like to add hyperlinks... often I'll reference wikipedia or another site with more info, but sometimes I just throw
something random in there).
Chicos de la Calle - This is an amazing program run by the
Salesians that offers Ecuadorian boys who live and/or work on the streets (chicos de la calle literaly translates to "boys of the street," or "street boys") shelter, food, education, and job training. Where Nuevo Mundo works with the poorest kids from Durán & Guayaquil who have the most potential academically, Chicos de la Calle works with kids on the comletely other end of the spectrum, many of whom have no families or grew up in abusive homes, have been involved in gangs, have little to no formal education, and would be falling through the cracks of society if they weren't in the Chicos program. Two of the girls I'll be living with in the
Antonio Jose de Sucre (AJS) house, Beth (from Baltimore via
Villanova) and Jessie (from New Jersey via
DePaul) will be working here, formally as English teachers and social workers, and informally as friends and positive role models for these kids.
Damien House - Named after
Father Damien, the Belgian priest who spent 16 years living with and caring for patients with
Hansen's disease (formerly known as leprosy),
Damien House has 4 simple goals that really sum up it's mission: 1) To provide complete medical care for patients of Hansen’s Disease, 2) To help patients live a life of dignity and love, no matter what their situation may be, 3) To help patients return to living full lives, and 4) To provide public education, to dispel the myths regarding leprosy, to allow earlier treatment and minimize complications. Damien house was founded by
Sr. Annie, a complete firecracker from Brooklyn who has been living and working with Ecuadorians suffering with Hanson's disease since the late 1980's. Sr. Annie pours her heart and soul into Damien House every day, and talking to the patients (many have been there over 20 or 30 years and are in their 80's and 90's) about how much Damien House has done for them is really inspiring. Two volunteers living in the
Arbolito house, Jon (
Boston College) and Brendan (
Scranton), both from the Scranton, Pennsylvania area, will be working at Damien House this year, spending time with patients and helping Sr. Annie with everything from the website and brochures to wound care in the hospital.
Here's a link to
pictures of the rest of the volunteers. I live in the
Antonio Jose de Sucre neighborhood (AJS) with Celso, Jessie, Beth, and Tasha. Six other volunteers, Caitlin, Jon, Brendan, Tierney, Christina, and Kipp live about a mile and a half away in the
Arbolito community. As I mentioned above, Jessie and Beth are working at Chicos, and Jon and Brendan are working at Damien. Celso (originally from the Dominican Republic, via Boston College), Caitlin (from the Boston area and also went to Boston College), and I will be teaching English to 7th, 8th, and 9th graders at Nuevo Mundo. Tasha (Long Island via Villanova) and Tierney (New Jersey via McGill) are teaching English and tutoring at a school for working kids; and Christina (Boston area via Villanova) is working at a local parish teaching English to kids and helping out part time at the health clinic and soup kitchen. Kipp (Seattle via Seattle U) is in charge of coordinating the 25 retreat groups from the States we host throughout the year (our first retreat group is from Santa Clara and they just got in last night!). In the
Monte Sinai community, Jeff (Jersey via St. John's) and Jenn (Fairfield) are doing similar work at other Chicos de la Calle sites, Aaron (Wisconsin via Notre Dame) and Becky (South Dakota via Creighton) are doing medical work at free health clinics, and Marita (Minnesota via St. Benedicts) is teaching primary education.
Daily dose of Ecuadorian reality... SUBURBS! My archnemesis from the good old US of A followed me down here... As I mentioned above, the Nuevo Mundo afternoon school functions by operating an expensive private school in the mornings. Because of that, the school is located in one of the nicest areas of Guayaquil, the Puntilla. If it wasn't for all the people speaking Spanish, you'd think this little penninsula between downtown Guayaquil (left of the river on the
map) and Durán (right of the river) was in the middle of Orange County. There are gated communities, SUV's, malls, and of course,
trendy coffee shops. 3rd world to 1st world in a 20 minute bus ride.
