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My name is Kirsten, and I spent a month teaching English and living with a family in Rosario, Intag. If you are a prospective volunteer itching to learn Spanish, help a local community, live with a local family in the gorgeous scenery of the Northern Sierra region of Ecuador, and understand a very different way-of-life, then I believe this may just be the place! I originally arrived to Rosario to learn traditional farming methods, but was told the need for English teachers is a more productive slot for a volunteer to fill. I showed up on Monday morning, speaking a marginal amount of weak Spanish, and faced the 32-or-so children of Rosario with no prior teaching experience. Although certainly very challenging at times, I walked away from the whole experience very happy I decided to teach. The kids already knew quite a bit of English vocab, and what a wonderful finding!
Although a month of time may seem meager, it was in continuation of the wonderful job volunteers before me had started and cultivated. A month here and there has proved to make a sustainable impact on the children’s knowledge of English, and I know first-hand how grateful the parents are for their children to have the opportunity, something they certainly never had growing up. I am no great teacher by ANY means, and my Spanish was very poor upon arrival, but I learned just as much from the children as they did from me. They would spout out a word I didn’t know, and we’d play a little mini-game of charades trying to figure out what it was in English before I verified it in my little dictionary. After a month in Rosario, my Spanish improved SO MUCH more than I thought possible in a month! I am definitely not fluent, but in one month immersed in Spanish culture and teaching, I could communicate just about anything I wanted with proper verb conjugations and understood almost everything said to me. Wonderful!
But it wasn’t just the teaching that made my experience such a wonderful one. The people of Rosario, San Antonio and Cuellaje are just wonderful. I became great friends not only with my family but with a couple of others in Rosario and Cuellaje, people who cultivated my learning and holistic experience throughout my stay. I decided I was going to try to experience as much as possible while I was lucky enough to be there. My family didn’t have cows, but I really wanted to learn how to sacar la leche! So every morning I’d wake up an hour early to milk my neighbor’s cows. I would volunteer to run any and every errand with my host-mom, whether it be chopping wood for the stove with a machete, digging for camotes for the family pig who I grew to love as a pet!, harvesting tree tomatoes, planting beans, or hiking waaay up to their other land to spread seed where they wanted a particular plant to grow. I met a wonderful family who taught me how to weave a basket and kindly showed me their amazing waterfall! I speak of these experiences solely to say; if you choose to come to Intag to volunteer, make the most of it! I tried to experience everything I could with the wonderful people I was surrounded by, and I know my experience was so much richer because of it.
I want to especially thank Edwardo for being as courteous and wonderful as he could possibly be, welcoming us volunteers into the region with great advice and open arms. He made all of us feel extremely comfortable with the placement, and made it inherently clear that he was there for us if a problem was to ensue. I have been corresponding with several volunteer coordinators this summer, none as graceful and helpful as Edwardo, so thank you so very much for everything.
In short, Intag is a wonderful place, and the people that so kindly opened their homes and hearts to me I will never forget. I learned so very much, and I cherish my time there deeply!
