Kel's Quito Update

Hi everyone.

Ecuador is quite the place!

It is definitely very different to the life
that I was used to in Canberra. The roads here are insane (I seriously do
not know how half of the drivers in Quito got their licenses…), lunch is
the main meal of the day and the cultural divide is extremely present in
all aspects of the city. The climate is pretty warm during the day, though
quite cold at night. I am currently sunburnt! I am currently living in
Quito (the capital city of Ecuador), working and volunteering at a school
for young children with disabilities (el centro de ninos discapacidad) in
Quito. The school is approximately 1.5 hours away from the apartment I am
living in, so I’m seeing the inside of a lot of buses every day!

I undertook a week’s worth of comprehensive Spanish lessons to try and
improve my Spanish skills, in order to better communicate with the children
I am working with in my placement. I am going to be undertaking additional
Spanish lessons for the rest of my time here in Ecuador.
The school that I am working with is in a really poor part of town. We
have been told never to wear jewellery or show any signs of wealth there,
because being obviously foreigners (gringo’s) we are targets for
muggings. Safety is something we are all learning the importance of here. I
am teaching English to a class of 8 young children, 7 boys and 1 girl, who
are all aged between 10-15 years old. They are all extremely intelligent
but suffer from a variety of different disabilities (eg: cerebral palsy,> attention defecit disorder, down syndrome). I teach them English for about an hour each day, but assist through their morning lessons. I am certainly improving my Spanish by hearing it constantly day in and day out!

The children’s names are: Andy (12), Cristian (10), Jhonny (11), Micaela
(14), Lenin (10), Kelvin (15), Fernando (15) & Damian (11). In the last
couple of lessons we have covered “Hello, my name is ____ and I am ____
years old”, basic numbers and are now looking at the English alphabet.
That will take the rest of this week to cover properly and then we will be
moving on to colors next week.

It is interesting to see the differences in teaching styles in other
countries. The teacher that I usually work with is a bit confusing. Last week I had to rescue two of the boys from a classroom that she had padlocked them into for 45 minutes (she was gone for about an hour and a half). Not the best way to discipline young children with disabilities if you ask me. It is something that I will get used to throughout my placement.

I think the main challenge that I have found so far with the placement is
discovering how best to plan classes to accommodate different abilities. In
Australia it would be very uncommon for such a wide age range of children
to be sorted in the same class. The ones who I believe have the highest
learning abilities are at the younger end of that age range. It is again
quite a contrast to what I am used to. I am enjoying teaching them though, and they are having some fun teaching me Spanish. It is pretty sad to see the large impact that cerebral palsy can have on one young life though! It truly is a terrible condition…

In addition to completing my placement, studying Spanish at the Spanish
academy and becoming accustomed to life in Quito I have also had the
opportunity to do some travelling on the weekend. Last weekend I went to a
town called Otavalo, which is approximately 2 hours by bus away. It hosts
an amazing market which is one of the top things to do in Ecuador if you
ever get the chance to come here! It was quite a costly day…but still a
lot of fun.

The markets spanned an entire city block, and then branched out over all
of the neighboring streets. Many street vendors took advantage of the fact
we were foreigners and upped their prices, but it was still a part of the
south American experience. I went through about 2/3 of the money I had
brought for the weekend in 3 hours… So fun!

We also went to an old weaving village to see how the items are crafted.
An Ecuadorian weaver took our group into his home and gave us a weaving
demonstration. It was quite the sight to see The town was what I had
pictured the undeveloped parts of Ecuador to be like. It was quite
different to new Quito! I got some good photos there which was fun 

I also learned the importance of insect repellant in the
mountains. Although malaria is not particularly common in Quito, sandflies
exist in the mountain areas. And they will swarm you…not fun! We also
visited the volcanic crater at Lake Cotacachi. It was absolutely beautiful.
Members of our group completed a walk around it in 3 hours (it’s usually
a 5 hour walk which is quite impressive!).

Next weekend I will be visiting the town called Banos, which is built at
the bottom of an active volcano. It’s famous for its spas, hot springs,
white water rafting, horse riding and massages. It will be a fun weekend!

Well that’s all from me for this update, I will try and send another
group email around in the near future I will be more accustomed to my
placement by then which will mean I can shed a greater perspective on it
all.

I hope everything is great with you all. Keep me posted on things while I
am away! Stay safe and stay well!

Keep in touch

Kel
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