YOEIO: You´re Only In Ecuador Once

COUNTRY: Ecuador
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Care Work
WRITTEN BY: Claire Baxter

It's recess at Escuela Fiscal Fernando Pons and the kids are going crazy. THe little ones scale the soccer posts and swing from the crossbar, whilst the tough boys from Septimo-B take turns smashing a ball at them. Government-subsidised milk cartons are exploding as the naughty kids in sport uniform jump on them. Alex is playing elastics, much to the amusement of about fifty students who watch wide-eyed whilst eating dought dipped in syrup from the canteen. The older girls hold hands and prowl the playground in pairs; the queen bees.

We've only been teaching here for two weeks, but it already feels like we're a part of the school. Now we know where the classrooms are, what time the periods start and end and the best way to get a class of 40 five-year-olds to repeat "Good morning" after you. Class control is getting easier, although we all fear our twice-weekly 40-minute period with Sexto-B. However, the biggest challenge is putting names to the faces of about 600 wriggling, racing children.

Over the past fortnight we've taught the alphabet, numbers, colours and the family so many times that I actually started murmuring "What is an English word starting with Y?" in my sleep. But it's all worth it when you enter a classroom to kids cheering "Good morning teacher!" Plus, we know we've earned our afternoon siesta every day.

The Ecuador placement stands out for the wide range of volunteering opportunities available, and teaching at Fernando Pons is only one of them. Steph and Courtney have been volunteering at a disabled children´s clinic, which they´ve been really enjoying. Every morning they help around ten children with various disabilities to eat breakfast, partake in singing, dancing and craft activities, do physical therapy exercises and prepare for lunch. Whilst it can be frustrating and exhausting, again there's a sense of helping make the lives of these kids a bit brighter.

In other news, our weekend trips have taken us on some wild adventures all over the country. The weekend before last, for example, took us to the coastal town of Montañita in the south. It is a place best described as somehow even more chilled than Byron Bay. The water on this side of the Pacific is gloriously warm, and we made the most of our days off by swimming, playing soccer and volleyball on the beach, dancing to live music in the evenings and even going paragliding. The one dampener (literally) on our experience was when the toilet in our hostel room overflowed early one morning, flooding our room and leaking through the floor to the other girls' room beneath us. It was somewhat surreal to come downstairs at 5am to the sight of Michala standing in the corridor, dripping wet with arms aloft and sobbing, "It's raining in our room..."

Last weekend we visited Mindo, a rainforest village a couple of hours north of Quito which is known for its birdwatching, butterfly farms and zip-lining through the canopy. Following out catch-all motto of YOEIO (You're Only In Ecuador Once), we missed none of these opportunities. I must admit that going birdwatching at six in the morning was one of the best things I've done here; when we couldn't see any birds, watching the birdwatchers was just as amusing, if not more so. Plus we saw the most amazing yellow toucans diving from the tops of trees in the strong Ecuadorian sunlight.

Finally, to update the famous Gringo Gang bucket list, we have three more to tick off. Courtney ticked off going tubing, which our weekend in Mindo allowed us to do; Lisa ticked off learning salsa, a class which the majority of us participated in with limited success on our last day at the Spanish school; and Alex "became a salsa pro" (in our eyes at least) after beating a girl from Guayaquil at an impromtu dance-off in Montañita. Never will we forget her moves to Call Me Maybe, nor the moment she was named Miss Montañita to the roar of an appreciative crowd of both locals and tourists.

And so another installment from the Gringo Gang over here in Ecuador. Hasta luego mis amigos. More tales await.