I can´t even begin to think about knowing how to thank all of my wonderful friends for all of their support NOR how to start telling all of you about the crazy adventures I´ve had here in Estero de Platano. BUT, this is me trying!
A little background: So what on earth have I been doing here since October, 2008?
Many of my days have been spent at the elementary school in Estero, que se llama Viña del Mar, which is situated on a small cliff overlooking the ocean. The school is K through 7th grade and I found myself teaching just about every subject (from English to Mathematics to Spanish Language) to almost all of the different grades. Due to the poor attendence rate of a few of the professors, I became the weekly substitute teacher. I also spent a few days a week going to Colegio in Galera (the high school in the neighboring community) to teach Environmental classes to 8th, 9th, and 10th graders. For World AIDS Day-Week, I taught a few basic HIV-AIDS education classes to all of the students in Colegio and the 6th and 7th graders in Estero... which were probably the most rewarding school days I´ve had here in Ecuador.
The school year ended in early February and I was honored to place the caps and gowns on the graduating students (7th graders) who I taught in Viña del Mar and who have become a few of my closest friends in Estero. One of the biggest obstacles the students face in continuing their education is being able to pay for ´´pasaje´´ which is the cost of the bus ride to the high school in the neighboring community of Galera. Yanapuma was able to raise enough money to give 6 scholarships to high school students in the area and I´ve been spending the past few days handing out the applications to the students who really want to continue studying.
We finished a community-wide questionnaire in February which assessed the general health, access to health care, sanitation practices, economic situation and agricultural practices of each household in Estero. In groups of 3 or 4, we spent an entire weekend trekking to every house in Estero to explain who we were, what we were doing, and then proceeded to ask a series of personal questions to the heads of each household. It was an awesome and exhausting experience and it gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of really cool people in the community that I probably wouldn´t have met otherwise. OOH, I have to run. The Ranchera waits for no one. Volveré!
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