Chimborazo: Goodbyes
Oliver
I’m Oliver and my experience in my community has been nothing short of wonderful. Incredibly proud of myself for overcoming the intense homesickness of the first week or two, as it opened me up to a wealth of absolutely life-changing experiences.
I’ve improved quite a bit in my Spanish speaking ability, and most of all I’ve gained a good deal of confidence speaking a different language in a new environment. I’ve milked cows, I’ve cut yerba and I’ve fed pigs! I loved helping out at the school, especially working at the store, meeting so many different kids were awesome and filling all their snack orders was a blast.
On top of it all, I’ve had the most amazing host family I could’ve possibly asked for. Welcoming and lighthearted, my family made it that much easier for me to come out of my shell and build my confidence speaking Spanish. My host siblings and cousins have an been incredibly nice and it’s been greet getting to know them and play games with them.
Overall, as a result of the ups and the downs, this has been an incredible and life-changing experience, which has brought me memories. I will no doubt remember for the rest of my life, with countless stories that I can’t wait to get back home to tell.
Matías
I’m Matías, an Amigos de las Americas volunteer, and I spent 5 weeks (approximately) in a community in the Chimborazo province here in Ecuador.
When I first got to the community I was really scared, it was the first time that I was going to visit a small community and I was going to live there for a long time! But I was also really excited because I wanted to learn a lot of new things and be an active member of this community.
A regular day here is waking up at around 8 AM to have breakfast (they usually have soup for breakfast) so then you can make some activities such as milking cows, harvesting some grass to feed the cuys (guinea pigs), changing the place where the animals are staying so they have more food or just spend time with your family, after that+, in the afternoon, sometimes we had extracurricular activities with kids of the community where we played a lot of fun games and did a lot of fun things! We usually had dinner around 7 PM and went to bed at 8 PM.
The second day in the community was Father’s Day, so my family and I went to church and there was a really big celebration, we had cake (a really big piece), bread, coke, rice, and more things! I have to say though, it was a lot of food and even when I thought that they weren’t going to give more food, they just started giving more and more things, which I found really lovely, because everyone here shares whatever they have with other people and they are a really united community, and it was really nice being there.
We’ve learned a lot about the culture, I have learned some kichwa (the community’s local language) and even though it is a kinda hard language, it is really fun to learn, my host family taught me words every time. I learned a lot about how each person lives on a daily basis and how different it is from what most people are used to.
Overall, I have spent some of the best times in my life here and everything in this community is amazing, anytime you want you can look at the breathtaking views where you could see a lot of beautiful things, and you’d always be surrounded by nature. My family was always really nice and we did a lot of things together, I always felt like I was another member of the family and that this house was like my second home, a place where I could always come back and feel good.
I’m really glad that I got to live this opportunity, and I’d encourage everyone that feels like they want to experiment something different and at the same time help and be an active member of a community to try this project, it is truly a one-in-a-lifetime experience. Finally, I think that spending 6 weeks here made me appreciate a lot more the different cultures that exist in my own country, and how us (young people) can make a difference in the world, even with small actions, and we can learn from everything that we experience, so, I’d say that I’m really happy to have been a part of this project and I’m sure I’ve grown a lot from this experience.
