New opportunity for volunteers in Ecuador

"How many languages do you know - as many times you are human" - said Russian writer Anton Chekhov. It is difficult to doubt the correctness of this aphorism. Language - is a means of communication. It is necessary for transmission of information. Who owns the information, owns everything.

The most obedient children! 
Eugenio Espejo school, Machala

It becomes particularly relevant in our time. And those who speak foreign languages, of course, owns and more information.

Now, at a time when the 18 hours people may be on the other side of the globe, while open borders, at a time when the popularity of tourism is growing in geometric progression, and the economy in some countries even directly affected. Ecuador is one of those countries. Dream Land, the country that is just gorgeous, the country to which the interest of the international community is growing every minute. Just one moment there. Education... English language. 45 minutes per week. No comments. 

Of course, it is in the public schools, not in private ones, there the situation is better. But what about those who want to learn, who need education, who have a lot of ambitions, but just does not have money? Fortunately, there are people who understand the full horror of this situation. For example the guys from Lead Adventures. They drew attention to this gap, taking the time to set aside a couple of days of business and here we are, in the province of El Oro. The first thing we saw is this beautiful new airport is Santa Rosa. We were also pleasantly surprised by our 30 minute trip to the capital Machala. The highway is made on the highest level, on both sides of the highway are banana plantations. Yes, it is a banana Province! But about that a bit later.

So, our goal was to see for the province, school, children, to communicate with teachers, with the government. Must be said, on this program we were inspired by some similar program in Chile. According to the program volunteers, native English speakers are invited to the provincial schools for teaching English, for raising interest in languages, other cultures, open their eyes to the world. On the other side, there are so many special people in all the countries who want to help, to travel, to see the world. Those guys are volunteers.

Sandra talks to the school administration

Now a bit about the program. Its goal you have already understood. How does it work? First of all, the provincial government reviews the situation and gives us the information about number of teachers in the schools they need. We publish that on our website and in the blog. You read it, contact us, we log you into the program. That s it. In due time we will meet you at the airport Quito, hugs, kisses and will take you to the hotel. In 3-4 days you pass an orientation course before the program and express course in Spanish if necessary. We give you the required documents and accompany to El Oro. There you will be met by the program coordinator or by the host family, embraced and driven to your new home. The program has begun! The next day you are familiar with the school, with the kids. By the way, you will be provided by meals and will get  a small monthly stipend, which is now being clarified. In his spare time you can travel around the province, and there a lot of to see, believe me!

A room in the Rocio·s house.
Some  participants will be living there 

To sort out the situation, we visited two schools and two host families. Schools are clean, kids are funny, open and disciplined. Of course, not without exceptions, but who said it will be be easy?

It should be noted that the government and just people who care have already helped the children, but it's usually care essentials. For example Rocio. As I said, El Oro province is a banana. Of course, many bananas are prepared for export. Some are not undergo selection by size, for example. She asked those bananas for children. Now, each child receives at kleast one banana daily. Aslo as she loves to cook, founded a course for young mothers, where for free has taught them cooking more than 30 delicious and healthy dishes of bananas. Now othr wonderful woman Maria helps her. Great idea, is not it? I must say that your creative and socially useful ideas will be discussed and adopted with pleasure.

So, do you feel this is yours? Do you want to be helpful and to see the world? We are waiting for you!!!

More detailed about the province in part 2 of this article.