Fascinating Ecuador

The last ten days has been just as exciting as the first.

After the first week, the four of us Deakin students have settled in and feel much more comfortable and relaxed about our placement. The second week certainly allowed us to get to know the students at esquela Alexander Von Humbolt but while I felt a little more able to communicate with the students, I still found myself pretty frustrated by the progress in learning Spanish. The saving grace in this placement was the patience the kids and teachers allowed us, and the fact that most of last week was taken up by activities for the celebration of Quito and English classes, which we took by ourselves or in pairs.


One of the most interesting parts of the week in this placement was the beauty contest held by the school for the students on the Thursday. It was something that I found very strange. This consisted of students dressing up in suits and fancy dresses. The one exception was the clear crowd favourite, Angus, who stunningly didn´t match his potential with a win.

The whole experience was very strange, as I´m sure we would see dressing up an 11 year old in a dress and makeup to be judged by her fellow students as something that could really stunt her self confidence. This one girl looked so upset as she was told she had not made the final three, we thought she was going to cry.

This last week has had more interesting placements. In the mornings we would work in a home for young girls who had been abused when younger and obviously lacked other places to go. The kids ranged from 12 to 17 and a couple of them had kids, one of the girls was 14 with a baby. The placement has had great prospects as they definitely need a few extra hands on deck, although it is a relatively well resourced placement. Unfortunately though, at times we were only able to do work that we saw as less than beneficial to the organisation. One of these tasks has been creating the nativity scene for the Christmas celebrations. Something that less than motivated us. However, things are now looking much better as we have been painting and doing some much needed gardening for the last few days. I am very confident about the placement next week.

The afternoons this week have been filled with extra Spanish lessons we have booked as well as a placement in a hospital and Orphange. The latter has definitely been the standout. The kids have been amazingly happy to have us there and very open. Angus and I were greeted by hugs by the young kids at this house where the orphanage is based. At this place, it is hugely under-resourced and is reliant on people like us giving the kids the affection that is so absent from their lives. It has been the place I have most felt useful.

We are all very happy and I am so happy with the placement. I am very much looking forward to the coming weeks.

Hasta Luego.

Written by Daniel Schultz, Deakin University, UniBreak Groups Ecuador 2008