Today at 8:00 am we ate breakfast consisting of toast with butter or jam, fruit bowl, and eggs with a choice of either traditional Ecuadorian Tea or hot chocolate. Of course, we thanked the chefs, Cesar y su equipo for preparing this delicious meal at Nativa. At 9:00 am we toured the Escuela German Abdo (German Abdo School,) which has 600 students overall, with an age range of around 3 to 13 years old. We went there to get ideas for our Community Action Project (CAP,) which is an opportunity for us to collaborate with a local organization that would benefit from our help. We are looking forward to working with this school. The bus ride to the school was a 15 minute trip, this allowed us to see the many Ecuadorian homes and buildings along the way. In addition, we explored the campus, and discovered the environment of each room. Each room was given a respective color which corresponds to the student grade level. For example, our tour guide (the principal) mentioned the orange room located on the bottom floor of the school was dedicated only to the 8th graders. We learned that education in schools in Ecuador (like the US,) can be limited by the amount of funding a school receives.

After the school tour we took the bus ride back to the hotel and walked to Nativa for our 12:00 lunch. Our meal included vegetable soup, beef and rice stew with carrots and potatoes, and a very cute small doughnut for dessert.

After indulging in lunch, we met in our meeting room at the hotel to listen to our guest education speakers. Our two speakers were Julian and his girlfriend, Cata. The purpose in meeting with these speakers was to learn about education in Ecuador and allow for us to prepare for our English language tutoring sessions next week. Julian explained his journey through high school, all the way to his decision of dropping out of college and choosing a different path for himself. He blossomed from an introverted kid to joining a soccer team, then making many friends at school, eventually growing into the person he is today–he now has his own business teaching English to people in Riobamba. Cata also shared her experiences and her path to becoming an English teacher. Listening to them share their experiences showed us not to be afraid or nervous when teaching English.They shared with us the advice that when we teach the students we should not give them the impression that we know Spanish, otherwise they will not push themselves to speak in English. Listening to them also showed us the value in opening up and growing up as an adult. His most important points were: “A teacher can change your whole career path” and “stick to a subject you are passionate about.”

When we got back to the hotel we had “Family Fun Night” where we all played a card game named Anomia. It was fun because it was so stressful. You have to be the first one to yell an example of the topic which was on another player’s card.

After dinner we had our nightly meeting where I passed the LDD torch to Cate and Loraine. We also debriefed about our day and finished the evening planning for our English tutoring sessions.

Overall, it was an exciting day for Global Glimpsers to be introduced to learning more about education in Ecuador.

Thanks for reading!

Any comments or questions are welcome!