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From November 15 - November 21 the Star Tribune newspaper is holding a contest entitled 'Full Page Project' amongst MN non-profits and the winner will receive a free full page ad in the Sunday paper!

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Final Day in Ecuador...

Team Thought for the Day: "I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live." ~ George Bernard Shaw

Personal Thought for the Day: I will remember this trip for my fellow team members, the gracious Ecuadorian people, the wonderful leadership of Carl Granger, and of course, those cute kids.

Submitted by Volunteer Jane Sauther

Wonderful Ecuador Photo Contest Contributions!

This fall, Global Volunteers asked our amazing volunteers to share some of their favorite service program images with us. We have been thrilled and encouraged by the response, and have already used many of the photos on our website and in new printed materials!! Now, we would love to share with you, a few of our favorite submissions depicting our volunteer service program in Ecuador. ENJOY & thank you volunteers!!

The last day Friday, 30 July 2010

As typist, I’ll add our last notes. Our final day at center 1 was spent much as usual. The morning duties were performed, and then the volunteer team left to walk to center 2 in time for the 11:00 farewell celebration. John, Peggy, Karen, and Kristina scrambled around finishing up last minute projects and pitching in at both centers. Meanwhile the center 2 crew helped with the preparations for the performance. This started very early in the morning and resulted in lots of dressed up and “ready” little performers having to wait for what seemed an interminable period of time to dance. We were thrilled and intrigued by the traditional dance costumes in which the children were dressed. Apparently each class had been instructed to dress in a particular style, so children game with genuine and makeshift versions of outfits, including embroidered white shirts, sashes, hats, kerchiefs, and even black makeup for painting faces. The black painted faces were a particular challenge for us helpers, as the outfits for that dance were all white for the boys…

When 11:00 rolled around, we were treated to dances by each class, thank you cards and dough ornament gifts and kind words and multiple hugs from our hosts from the center. We, in turn, presented the ladies of FUNDAC and our tias with a poem (see below), our heartfelt gratitude for this learning experience, and some treats for the little ones from a piñata.

At the end of the day, when it was time for some of us to go to Cecelia’s to see the demonstration of ornament making (and later for the others), many of us were tearful and moved at the moment of saying “chau”. For me, as I hugged my tia, I thought of how she is only a year or so older than my daughter, and I thought of the vast difference in their two lives. I wished I could make her life easier – or at least more fair. When the few children up from nap hugged me, I wished them luck with their new government’s free education initiative and their slowly growing economy.

I also had a few minutes of being overwhelmed by what a little drop this two weeks of work was in the big outdoor washing sink of work faced by our world’s poor. But I knew as we made our way down the dirt road from center 2 to center 1 for the last time, that we had, indeed, touched some lives. Our smiles, sweat, soup-dipping, pantomimes, bad mopping, songs, and words of encouragement in English or elementary Spanish, and even our money had brightened the lives of the children, their tias, and the women of the community trying to help them. Every little bit counts, right?

¡Si se puede!

En este mundo tan lindo y tan grande,
Yo soy unico
Yo soy especial
Hena de amor, y de inteligencia

Yo puedo realizar mis sueños
Siendo una mujer fuerte, y siempre haciendo mi trabajo
Con amor
Con orgullo
Y con gusto

Porque sé que

¡Si se puede!

Yes, I Can

In this beautiful and great world
I am unique
I am very special, and full of love.
I am intelligent.

I can reach my goals by being a strong woman (person) and by always doing my work.
With love, with pride, and with pleasure.
Yes, I can!

Thursday 29 July 2010

Message of the day:

“A long life is not good enough but, a good life is long enough.” Unknown

I am not usually a believer in horoscopes, but when Kristina read mine on Sunday and let me know that I was going to have a “challenging week” then I proceeded to get sick and had several crazy days in a row, I almost became a believer. The town of Calderon yesterday put all my petty “challenges” into perspective. As this trip comes to an end and I go home to my house with clear, hot water, a bed I don’t’ have to share with several others (potty trained or not), and more food than is necessary, I have to be mindful of all those in the world who have more/bigger challenges than is fair. Even though I found myself counting to 10 many times in order not to show my frustration with a student or I wanted to “critique” what the tias were doing – I cannot even imagine their true daily challenges and I now realize that what they are doing at the two centers is amazing considering their living situations and resources. The fact that Yesinia and Rubi (and the other tias) are teacher, nurse, custodian and also happily and willingly spending more time studying and learning English is inspiring. Wherever my luggage is – it’s just “stuff” and in the big picture is nothing compared to the real challenges of others.

Entry and message submitted by Linda

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Message of the day:

“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”

Mother Theresa

It helps to be a heavy sleeper in this hotel, which never sleeps. As we gather around the breakfast table, you hear snippets of conversation about he late night repairs (was it banging on a pipe? Hammering?), the trash truck with its loud beeps and workers calling to and fro at 2 am, the rowdy guests who return at midnight, or the hotel staff children who run and laugh in the lobby and hallways until way past our bedtimes. These hotel walls are like rice paper, allowing the activities of the hotel to permeate your slumber. Of course, it doesn’t help that we all fall into our beds at 8:30/9pm and what appears to be the middle of the night disruption is only 9:45!

Our days at centers 1 and 2 were much like any other day with complete mayhem, laughter, and tears. When I asked Linda on the bus ride home what she had done for the day, she wearily commented, “I herded cats.” Several tias at center 1 worked alongside volunteers to complete the art project of classroom supplies pockets, learning enormous amounts of children divided among the already large classes to be supervised by the remaining tias and workers. Classroom sizes swelled to above 20 in those tiny rooms, making access to your neighbor even easier to pinch, push, hit, and take things. Sarah’s highlight was to take the class outside in the covered area to play with the ball. One child managed to kick the ball over the railing and into the street below. Sarah’s very accurate reporting of the story stated that a police officer found the ball and tossed it back over the railing, then she said “gracias” and he said “de nada.” Her four years of Spanish really paid off.

At Center 2, the crying was magnified by the addition of several new students who sobbed uncontrollably after their moms left. By lunchtime they had settled into their new routines, except for the new one in my toddler class. He cried steadily all day yesterday on his first day, so much so he couldn’t eat or drink at any meals. The same woeful sobbing continues today, adding to the wails of the other toddlers as they were brutalized by the two gangster baby boys. Yesterday, the new boy broke my heart with his cries. Today I was over it; he needed to get with the program. With 11 babies in that classroom, there is no time to hold him. Fortunately, Kristina came up for awhile and, as she said, pushed his mute button when she picked him up.

Kristina’s main goal in our classroom was to purchase a vacuum cleaner for the carpet John and Tia Patty worked hard at installing. With much deliberation and rearranging, the room was eventually divided into two separate areas – a conglomeration of cribs tightly fitted together on one side, and on open area with carpeting on the other side I’d call this a play area since that’s where all the toys are located, but the children are rarely allowed to touch the toys, so we’ll just call it the run around and fall and get a bloody nose area (we had 2 bloody noses yesterday). The carpet is filthy, no matter how many times Tia Patty sweeps and sweeps, which brings us back to Kristina arriving with a brand new vacuum cleaner in the afternoon. Since I haven’t seen a Target or Sears, I’m not sure where she located one in Calderon, but it arrived in our classroom and we spent until the end of the day chastising the children not to touch it, over and over and over again. Why the box couldn’t be moved to the hallway to eliminate the temptation was beyond me, but then again, I didn’t see any harm in letting them touch the box either. I’m anxious to see if the dust clouds will be gone.

The construction at center 2 is nearly complete. Peggy and Karen are finishing up loose ends in the courtyard while John installed shelving in the toddler classroom. The new soccer goals have arrived and are so small and cute. There continue to be plenty of community volunteers helping, which isn’t all that helpful when a child inside spots their mom in the backyard through a window. But what’s one more child crying? There were a lot of giggles and wiggles as Mary, Bobbie, and Breanna’s classes rehearsed their dance recitals for Friday’s goodbye celebration. At the end of the day the kids got their last snack – a concoction of brown and white beans with sliced onions, that they eagerly devoured. We tried to imagine presenting that to American children instead of Oreo cookies.

I guess as adults we are not much different from our children with our addiction to junk food. Instead of another healthy home cooked meal of soup and potatoes, we opted for pizza, and oh, have we all looked forward to it! And even better yet, it tasted like American pizza with lots of cheese, veggies, and meats. We devoured the pizzas greedily, only to have us so full and carb overloaded that some people napped through our nighttime entertainment. Marin reserved tickets for an Ecuadorian folk dance at a local theater. The musicians were fabulous; the costumes were elaborate and colorful. However, the theater was hot, the show was long, and some of the dances were a big slow, and there were no refreshments at intermission, all leading to perfect conditions to yawn or snooze a bit. The one dance number which stood out for me was the maypole dance. I enjoyed it because of the festive music and the intricate weaving and unweaving of the ribbons around the pole, but mostly it captured my attention with the dancing clowns, the largest of which danced in front of Breanna, who is terrified of clowns. Fortunately, she kept her composure and was able to participate in the finale when dancers drew up audience members from their seats and danced for everyone.

Hump day is over now, and I’m certain we will all be asleep within moments of our return. It’s 10pm and now we are the loud and late night guests returning home.

Entry and message submitted by Colleen

Martes, el 27 Julio 2010

Message of the Day

“The deed is everything but the glory not.” Goethe

It’s the plaintive cry of “tia” I will never forget. Who could believe that three letters could be drawn out into three syllables…

The class sizes at Center 1 were quite large today because Tia Gaby’s class was spread among the other groups. Not even two people together can control 14-17 two to five year olds in one room. My ears are still ringing and I just may dream of today’s morning at Center 1 for a long time.

The tias used all their resources to keep things going but all lesson plans were scrapped. Not even dancing tias, including volunteer tias, could calm los niños.

Work continues apace on the jute bags although progress was stymied somewhat by the balking hot glue guns. The small bags were nearly done with the larger book bags to be tackled next.

Tia language training continues, and it is clear that they all look forward to that change in routine, no matter how tired they are.

From Center 2:

The walls around the ditch had to be built, so Rodrigo asked Peggy to get 4 wheelbarrows full of sand. From 4 this became 8, and then it became 10. Either Peggy’s Español is not improving or we were just not filling enough in each load!

As the cement was being made. Peggy went to shake her hips with Bobbie and the kids. I left to help John and Breanna repair a cot. As John sawed away, the humming sound of the saw was drowned by the loud wails from Colleen’s babies. Please, I hope Colleen gets her ears checked when she returns.

A wonder dinner of empanadas was followed by handsome Andres showing the volunteer tias of Calderon how to dance salsa. Some of our tias certainly showed some moves… and there moves have been recorded for posterity. Others of us simply enjoyed the show.

Entry and message submitted by Kathy and Karen