Our neighbor’s rooster woke us up this morning around 6:30 a.m. While waking up for my first day of school, I first noticed how active the town of Bahia is in the morning. People near our volunteer home were up and about either selling bread, going to work, going to school, or building the adjacent building behind us. Bahia is a town similar to Myrtle Beach during their off season, but with breathtaking views of the hills and cliffs. You can see San Vicente if you walk a block from our house.  San Vicente is a small town like Bahia and only a ten-minute ferry ride across the bay. Our volunteer house is situated next door to the Vladir’s house—the program director of Genesis, which is the private school located on the tip of Bahia. Today we went to Genesis in the morning to meet the staff of the school and to get tours of the school we are volunteering in for the month.

Upon arriving at the school, I still felt new and foreign to the town. The language barrier is a challenge especially since the people of Bahia have a slurred accent and it is harder to translate. Vladir introduced us to the school’s director of Corazon Saladario who only speaks Spanish, and my partner Samantha and I followed her to a van, which took us to the school. Getting in the van was very overwhelming and definitely a new experience. I know very little Spanish so making small talk and using a lot of gesturing was the best way to get to know everyone. The school bus made many stops on the outskirts of Bahia, which is where most of the locals live. The actual downtown of Bahia where Genesis is located is mostly where people vacation. Many of the houses on the outskirts of Bahia look like shacks and are small. The streets are clouded with dust, and dogs roam in the streets not minding the cars or people. People wander the streets selling produce and chatting. We rode in the van for about 20 minutes, picking up several kids until the van was completely packed! When we get to the school, I noticed that it is a church, with separate huts surrounding the church. It’s a beautiful school and has a small farm to the left of it that has star fruit growing on the trees. A couple of the kids stormed the fruit tree and offered us a fruit when we arrived.

My day at Corazon was amazing but also a disappointment. I enjoyed the children of Corazon immensely with their different personalities and wonderful hearts, but the staff had bigger plans for us than we had planned. They were expecting us to be professionals in our skills. When we entered, they wanted us to take over and start teaching/ come up with a way to reorganize and improve the school. The school has about 25 kids, two teachers, and three workers who aid the students. The school is for children of all ages with all disabilities. Since I am studying special education, it was interesting to see the methods and tools that the students were provided and the development of advocacy for people with disabilities. This first day we spent time getting to know the students and met Brian, a man volunteering for the Peace Corps who was assigned Bahia for his site. He explained to us the progress of rights for people with disabilities and how things are improving in Ecuador because a recent political leader recently became disabled and is now advocating for the people more and more. It is nice to see that they are recognizing disabilities and giving the people a chance to have a place for education, but the school is still lacking tools and effort.  The day is only from 8:00 a.m. until 11:30, and the students do not receive much individual or specialized attention. The workers know the students well, but it is easy to see that there is a lack of communication between the nonverbal students and a lack of accommodations and adaptations to the lessons when they are being taught in a group. They have higher and lower functioning classrooms in the morning.

After observing the children, I saw the huge range in disabilities, and I become interested in their diagnosis and plan for their future. Brian explained that they don’t have specific diagnoses; they are under four categories. Also he explained that this week they are working on putting together the children’s first IEPs. This excites me and shows that they are working towards similar goals that we practice in the United States. I hope I can help observe the children to come up with strategies they can use in their classroom. I can already notice that one of the children who is deaf and maybe autistic could benefit greatly from a simple communication device such as a key ring with pictures of different activities like bathroom, food, or playtime.  

Leaving the school, I was intrigued by the movement towards success for the children but feel helpless with my lack of Spanish to really help and contribute to the school especially when working with the staff.

Today was my first day at school in Bahia de Caraquez, and I already love it here. Jordan and I walked to Genesis School this morning, and we were picked up in the shuttle bus along with a bunch of the students. We headed to Corazon Solidario, which is the foundation school for disabilities. I must admit the school is far from what I expected. It is housed on the church grounds, and the two classrooms consist of two small bungalows surrounded by palm trees and other beautiful plants. We were introduced to a young man from Michigan named Brian, who is volunteering at the foundation with the Peace Corps. Knowing that someone else there could speak English really calmed our nerves!

We were introduced to the students, who range in age from 7 to 40 years old. We came to learn that here in Ecuador there is not much of a system for diagnosis as there is in the United States. Therefore, all of these students differed greatly in abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. We spent the morning doing “morning work,” focusing on tracing certain shapes and words. After a snack (which happened to be madness,) we went to the cancha, which was a concrete field with an overhang. Outside, we lined the able students up to do relay games—boys against girls. They absolutely enjoyed every minute. After just one day, I can see the genuine passion that these students have, and the volunteers at the foundation as well. Children and adults with disabilities have such a unique brightness about them. I was saddened to realize that many of them truly have the potential to be mainstreamed, but they do not have the resources here to do so.

After an interesting and enlightening first morning at school, Jordan and I went back to our house for lunch with the rest of the volunteers. BamBam, a sweet man who brings us lunch and dinner during the week, brought us Espinaca soup (which was delicious) and a second entrée of rice, chicken, fried plantains, and salad. I was beyond full; it’s amazing what people eat for lunch here! Our group went to Spanish class afterwards—much needed Spanish may I add. The rest of the day consisted of exploring the beautiful city of Bahia, and then dinner around 6:00 p.m., which was small balls of bread filled with cheese. The small dinner certainly explained the giant lunch!

So far, I have enjoyed every minute of this experience. I can already tell that I am not going to want to leave in a month. There is so much I want to do, and so much I desire to learn about the culture, the city, etc. The people here are so affectionate, and slow moving. Time is not an issue for them it seems—ever. What a way to live! Bring on the next four weeks!

This first week in Bahía has been amazing! There’s really no other word that comes to mind, and I’m not even sure where to begin! I guess I will start with our first day here. After a long seven-hour bus ride from the mountainous terrain of Quito, we arrived on the coast of Bahía Saturday night. It was mostly just a blur of meeting people, eating dinner, and walking around. Our program coordinator and director were both very welcoming and helpful in getting us to our volunteer house. After we ate the huge dinner of sandwiches, plantain chips, and hot dogs that was set before us on the dining room table, we walked around the town and along the beach before settling into the house for the night.


The next morning we met with our director, who showed us places around town, including the market, which had everything from fruit to fish and it was all so fresh! We also saw Genesis, the school that we are all working with and where the active English teaching program is being introduced. Continuing the tour, we were shown places around the main part of town, such as shops (including Ecudorian “Costo” and “Best Buy”), a beautiful church (which hosted a wedding later in the week), and the Internet cafe.
 
After trying to take in all of the new sights and culture of Bahia during the tour, we decided to eat at a place called Lulu’s, which is apparently the only real bar scene in town on the weekends. It is also owned by an American, so it was nice to be able to get a little taste of home with hamburgers and French fries, or hamburguesas y papas fritas, instead of the usual Ecuadorian meal of rice, some type of plantain or banana, and queso!
 
We then decided to go to the beach, where we went in the water, soaked up some sun, and met a group of locals along with an American girl, who was here with a group from the University of Texas working on a film project. It was nice talking to them and being able to make friends with locals and fellow Americans. After talking for a while, we were invited to play soccer, or fútbol, with our new friends. I was a little hesitant at first because I didn’t know how competitive they would be and I’m not the most confident soccer player! However, once I was talked into it, I was really glad that I decided to play because not only was it a great cultural experience, but also an awesome work out! I can’t wait to learn even more about the people and the culture of Ecuador!