Kate Binns in Guamote 2003

Claudia Wolf Be part of my travel experiences with Ecotrackers!
	Short introduction I've been thinking for months of doing some volunteer work abroad. Not knowing where to start, I surfed in the Internet to see if I can find an interesting organization, preferably in South America. That's how I came upon the organization "Ecotrackers". It seemed a reasonable organization to me and so I decided to work with this organization for 4 weeks. Once in Quito, I met Max, the director of Ecotrackers, who enthusiastically talked about the different projects in Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. It wasn't easy to know which project to go for, because quite all projects seemed to be very interesting. In the end, I decided to work for 1 week in the rainforest, in Sarapullo, and other 2 weeks in the mountains, in Planchaloma. My stay in Sarapullo Sarapullo is situated in the rainforest, about a 3 1/2 hours drive from Quito. To get there, one has to take the milk car early in the morning from a little place called "Tandapi". I was still very sleepy, but the bumpy road through the foggy rainforest up to Sarapullo definitely woke me up. In Sarapullo, Pablo, my guide for the next week, was already waiting for me with his donkey. From Sarapullo we had to take a 1 1/2 hour walk to get to Pablo's hut. The walk up there was quite exhausting due to the muddy ground, but the great vegetation made up for all the endeavour. Once at the hut, I received a warm welcome from Pablo's wife, Estella, and the 3 children Natalia, Andres and Jerovin. The living conditions were very simple (no electricity, no running water, no flushing toilet), but the hospitality of the family made me forget the "hard" conditions.
The project The project there was to plan the construction of a new school in the rainforest for the children who live quite far away from the school in Sarapullo (3 hours walk one way!!!). I met the president of the school and together we inspected the place where the new school is to be built, calculated how much material would be needed and how high the costs would be about. The idea is to create kind of a community with the school there, with a soccer field, a small shop, etc. Without this school, the children living far away from the school in Sarapullo won't have the possibility of a proper education.
Activities Besides the project, I had plenty of time to do some excursions in the rainforest with my guide Pablo. One day we went to a giant waterfall situated way up in the rainforest. Unfortunately, it was quite cold that day so that we didn't have the chance to take a bath in the river. The other day I accompanied Pablo on his everyday trip down to Sarapullo to take the milk to the milk car riding on one of Pablo's donkeys. First I was kind of afraid riding on the donkey, because there were quite some steep parts on the way, but the donkey was very sure-footed and I enjoyed the trip very much. Note for the people who go to Sarapullo I wasn`t that well prepared for the trip. I, for example, didn't think of the fact that there is no electricity. So, if you go there, bring some candles and matches. At 7 p.m. it turns dark and without candles you will have some problems. Moreover, the family is very poor and the kids are always thankful for a "small" present (e.g. toys or candies), as is the case in many of the other communities.
My stay in Planchaloma After a short "rest" in Quito, I went to the small mountain village Planchaloma to spend 12 days with the community there. In Planchaloma, I lived with a lovely indigenuos family which undertook everything to make my stay as pleasant as poossible. The people were all very nice to me and it didn't take long to get used to the simple lifestyle in the countryside. The project In the community of Planchaloma I gave English classes at two different schools, at the weekend at the "Colegio Tecnico Agropecuario El Chaquinan" (the children who go there are working farmers helping their families on the fields during the week) and during the week at the school "Escuela Coronel Hector Espinosa". The students were all very excited to get English lessons and enthusiastically took part at them. Due to the fact that the education in English is quite poor in the countryside, the kids' level in English was very low. So I started with the alphabet, the numbers and days of the week and finally introduced some easy dialoges. I worked hard on their pronunciation and all students were eager to improve it.
Other activities Besides giving English lessons, there were quite some other activities going on in this little community of Planchaloma. I was, for example, member of the jury at the High school beauty queen contest, a big event followed by dance and games. Another interesting happening was the "Feria de Salud", where next to medical care different communities presented their products and sold some very fine dishes, such as "cuy" (hamster), a speciality in the countryside. Last Thursday (27th of February) I was witness of the "Juramento de la bandera" celebrated at many schools throughout the country with the kids dressed in their uniforms. There are even more events to come, such as the "Dia de la mujer trabajadora" (8th of March)and it's a pitty that I cannot take part at that. All in all I can say that it was a wonderful and especially valuable experience for me. But it was also quite hard to see so much poverty and the living conditions of the poor. Many people asked me for help and I don't really know where to start. I hope that many volunteers come and work with the organization "Ecotrackers", which is a wonderful way of getting to know the Ecuatorian lifestyle, many interesting places in Ecuador and - above all - of supporting some of the very poor families in this country. wolfcla@web.de