Ecuador Muchachos

Back in good old Scotland ...

2006-09-30T23:22:00.000+01:00

Finally after getting thrown back into my Scottish life immediately when I stepped of the plane I find time to write about the weird thing about coming back and the plans we set up in Ecuador for working together.
Yes I am back and I got flooded with Scottish life, responsibilities and a huge amount of 3rd year uni work. I had no time to actually really reflect on what has just been happening in the last three months of my life. But on the plane already I was thinking about very daily issues like: where do I actually put the money in again when I step on a bus. When I went for dinner at my friend's house the night after I arrived I automatically leaned forward to kiss them on the cheek, but...I got the hint from their suprised look on their face just second before my mouth actually reached their cheek bones. This turned out not to be the last awkward situation I was supposed to land in. In the morning I went to the bank and I felt so stressed by all these very busy and nice looking people around me that were in a rush and did not seem to notice me, that I felt so tight together without being able to breath and the pressure of the tears coming up in my eyes.
It is not exactly that I want to go back but despite my friends that really tried to make me feel welcome at home, I did not feel understood. But then I met a friend who did something similar this summer. I had no idea what was happening to me but I just burst out in tears.
So that's about it, coming back. I think I am still not over it and I think I really start to miss my Ecuadorian family.

So, now about the project:
Margarita, Juan and I agreed that it would be a great help for them if I could look for enthusiastic an in a particular art skilled people that would like to work for Mano Amiga for a couple of months. They would need people with music, theatre, handicrafts, builders, plummers, agricultural knowledge, social work, psycholigical etc. skills. If you maybe have those on offer, know someone that would love to do something like that, just refer them to this site and me and we can have a chat about it. There are also a lot of other things on the go and needed and if you have any questions or ideas, please feel free to email me.
I promise, when I get my feet back on the ground I will start to update the blog and will give you some more information of what is going on over here and over there.
In the meanwhile I thank you for supporting us and hope you keep in touch. I am so grateful you have been here all the time.

Saying Adios… one of the hardest that I have ever done…

2006-09-06T23:15:00.000+01:00

And yes, that is it already: 3months that flew by like nothing. 3 months full of challenges, sweat, smiles and laughter, tears and discussions and finally a huge circle of friends and two more mums and dads in Ecuador. Those 3 months were a rollercoaster, like life in general. But they were full of colors and not just black and white. Another time it was confirmed that life is not as easy as black and white, there are much more colors to it.
Last week Wednesday before I headed off to a couple of days nature, I was received at the Centre to say Goodbye. Finally we decided that it might be just a “See you soon”. And Juan is quite sure that I am just taking two years holidays to study and to return after that. For me it was a very hard moment and I tried to wipe my tears away. They all were so lovely and for one of the first times really honest, which was the biggest present to me. What really impressed me was that they wrote little notes and thanked me for the following: Thanks for always encouraging us in our capacities and always giving us the confidence in our own skills and abilities. Still when I think about this, I feel so touched and surprised. For me it is an amazing thing to leave them with… Thank you!
For them I prepared a presentation with the typical me jokes about our time together, with some photos to reflect on what we have done together and what I enjoyed with them most. I think everyone had a big smile on their face and a little tear in his/her eye at the end of it.

When I prepared the two folders as a description of my work in those three months last week, I finally realized what we have done together and that it is actually quite a lot and useful to them. While one is working, one is stuffed with experiences and impressions that it is difficult to see the whole picture sometimes. Today I see the whole picture and feel freer to go.

Everyone is asking me when I will be back and if I come back next year and I always have to say that I have no idea. I would like to come back but there are a lot of other things out there I like to learn and live. I absolutely got to appreciate the culture, nature, people and their way of thinking and being. I really fell in love with Ecuador and the diversity that one can find here. It is an absolutely amazing country that is incredibly tiny for all the things it offers.

I am so glad I climbed this mountain and I pushed myself with support of all of you so far although I had some fear…
But if a plant does not grow towards the light and always turn its head above, it would probably never flourish…

Thank you all so much for your support over the last year and especially the last months, support in being friends, writing encouraging emails when I hit a low, reading the Blog, looking at the pictures, giving advice and ideas and supporting financially some of the projects we did over here. Your help is hugely appreciated…
I am looking forward to see you all soon.

Muchísimas Gracias

Sabine

Are we not all one big family?

2006-08-22T00:43:00.000+01:00

This week I have been in Chone. Chone is in the coast and the climate here is very hot for someone who is used to Scottish weather. They have to parts of the Foundation here. One is in a village about 15min out of Chone. That is were I am. Here are three, soon four houses that host 6 to 11 children and young people with a disrupted family background. They work like a big family. Every house has a mother and kids, but still they are all a huge family with helping each other, playing together, sharing and loving. It is amazing to see them saying a prayer out loud before every meal and how the older ones take care of the younger ones and how much love they have. I actually expected them to be much more reserved and careful in trusting and giving love to people because they were hurt a couple of times in their lives quite deeply. But when I arrived on Monday night a huge group of kids stormed in our direction, jumped around us and greeted us with smiles, shining eyes, hugs and kisses. On the way to the house up on the hill I had a lot of guides on my hands and just could not believe what I was experiencing. Until today these kids mean a lot to me and taught me so much about sharing, humility and being a child. I mean, according to friends of mine over here I am a “niña”, but I think we all forget so much when we grow up, are afraid of things that we before approached with this adventure seeking nature and we today make things far to complicated.
By talking to Juan, Gina, Baci, the young people and other people that work and live in the little village of muchachos, I learned that there are some things they like to develop and improve. In the morning the kids go to school, return after just a few classes and have lunch. After lunch they do their homework with one of the housemothers who is also a primary school teacher. After that they play outside, help out in the households or work in agriculture of the Foundation here, that (much to my delight) grows cacao and bananas and has pigs and chicken.
At night time there is not much to do rather than play which all of them absolutely love. What really impresses me about that is that the age of my friends here is from 4 to 17 and that the toys they have is very limited and therefore they invent games which do not need materials or they play just with a ball or the things that surround them. When I do look at our European society, especially in cities, I do think we have lost a lot of imagination in a lot of respects.
What I do encounter here and in Riobamba and also talked to Marco about is the lack of technical skills of the staff. They do not really seem to see the need for evaluation, recording etc. Therefore they do not have a lot of information and evidence of their work on paper. And if they do have, they have no idea for what this could be useful and how to use it. Therefore Juan always pushes me to do some kind of Workshops to develop these skills and make them aware of the importance of planning, evaluating and setting measurable and realistic objectives. This kind of work challenges me quite a lot so that I read a lot of the material I got and revise the things I learned from CWW in Scotland and in my practice in other jobs. Furthermore I need to develop strategies on how to make this western way of thinking accessible to them and maybe adjust things with them to fit for the circumstances here.

With the kids here I play a lot, climb orange trees, suck the juice of the chocolate beans, chase cucarachas and make music. Today I will get the photos back they all took with their little cameras that my colleagues from Streetwork send with me. We will make a little exposition with the photos and I realized that it is an amazing tool to explore themselves and create an own history.

Soon I will send you some pictures from here…but we do not have telephone or Internet very close. Take care and I will see you in three to four weeks back in Europe…

Volcano News!!!

2006-08-21T20:41:00.000+01:00

This time it is even more real. People here in Riobamba wear masks, the streets are full of volcano dust which is toxic and everyone suffers from breathing problems. I came abck last night from the beautiful and warm coast into a city which is grey. Today things seem to go normal although you can see people with masks and the army and police are trying to clean up the streets. At the moment Mama Tunguraha is quiet, but people here think that there will be another even stronger eruption of the volcano. At the moment they are trying to evacuate the people living close to the volcano in order to prevent more people from dying.
But for everyone one of you who watched the news and send me an email: We are all ok in Riobamba! I will keep you informed.

New Photos…

2006-08-08T01:42:00.000+01:00

I finally managed to upload them and put them in the right order.
Enjoy!

Final 4 weeks and still so much left to do...

2006-08-07T00:55:00.000+01:00

Today is Tuesday and Tuesdays I always start to panic because the day after is Wednesday which is the middle of the week and Wednesday afternoon it is even more than just half the week over. Time seems to be running and I feel to be really slow with advancing in things. Nevertheless I always find ways or better I get send people and ideas to encourage me and renew the energy to go on fighting for things. Thanks so much for that. To be honest it is not even four weeks away, only 3 and a half, I think because I am leaving, hopefully to the jungle on the 24th or 25th of August. Margarita and Juan seem to become even busier as time goes on and I am trying desperately to get a chat out of them to structure my leaving and all the tasks and developments that are still going on. Just now I sat down with a huge pot of very rich Ecuadorian chocolate to start writing an “Informe”, about my work here, my observations and to leave it with them together with some good material to hopefully go on in transforming the Centre and encouraging the staff of the Desarrollo Infantil Project. Although my Spanish Grammar still is on a very basic level I hope to manage to bring my point across. I really do hope I can leave all the material in responsible hands.
This week started a new social worker who is quite young and does not have family responsibilities and until now not another job. She seems very enthusiastic and full of energy and the right ideas. It is so relieving to work with someone that seems to be open for ideas and suggestions. I really do hope she will go on like that and together with Anita the secretary can move things forward as a team, because team work in this kind of work is hugely important to do a good job and work for the sake of a better life of the boys who hardly know any values or the right way to live peacefully and respectfully in society together. The Centre is a great place but is also in great need of improvements of the work. For example they do not have a structure or evaluating their work. Paper work hardly exists and people remember things in their heads which makes taking over impossible, which makes evaluating and evidencing work, also for funding purposes and lobbying purposes incredibly difficult, the same for following the development of the boys and making any conclusions that have foundations. With the social worker and psychologist I tried to explain the importance and offered to design some tools, which they welcomed happily but after 4 weeks of introducing two forms, that make it easy to evaluate and establish continuity in the work, nothing has changed and forms are still not used. And in place of the forms nothing else is used. Furthermore they have a huge lack of Coordination of the work everyone does. Everyone has good intentions and runs into one direction. The right hand does not know what the left hand does and does not seem to have interest to inform the left hand what it is doing as the right hand. This is a huge problem which links into all the others that exist. The work with vulnerable boys that mostly have very hard lives, come from disrupted family backgrounds, spend most of the time in the streets and are involved in all sorts of things, needs continuity, limitations that are clearly outlined and a focused orientation point.
Last week we almost finished the world map on one of the walls of the Lounge of the boys. Just a few countries in South East Asia are missing and than it is done. It is absolutely huge but colorful. We hope that the educators that return in September can use it as a tool. Furthermore the boys always ask lots of questions and watch TV. When we put down the names of the countries in the next two days, hopefully together with them, we have a chance to get them talking about the world and its problems.
One of the boys has a favorite word he uses quite a lot especially when I am around: CORRUPTA! Well, because I am (in his opinion!) from the rich part of the world, I am just here to abuse them. He thinks I will go back with the photos they took and will sell them for a lot of money and will keep the money for me. That is what he thinks. Interesting for me, because the boy is very clever and thinks a lot and for me it is impressive to hear and feel what opinion he has of gringos (although I am not a Gringa!).
The whole experience teaches me so much about our world, the difference and indifference of things. The North and the South. Are we really rich? Does money make rich? What are our responsibilities? Whey are we corrupt (if we are) in their eyes? Is there a “they and we”?

This week the Italians will arrive and we plan a get together with the boys of the centr to share a meal and to have some fun together. Therefore Marco and I will organize some stuff and we think about having some Scottish Dance as well.
After I finally will get Margarita and Juan to sit down I hopefully get some names and addresses to invite people for an Exhibition of the photos before we will hopefully be able to exhibit them in public places.
On Thursday afternoon I plan to visit the Barrio El Bosque another time to meet the little boys again that taught me about the “Trompo”. I would love to see how they are and say goodbye. In one of the next two to three weeks I will travel to Chone (the coast) with Juan to get to know about the work they do there. I will definitely will let you know what is going on there and how it all went with the people there. As I still have a few cameras left I will do a little project with them there as well which will probably be very different to the rest. Margarita also anticipated doing a session about Child Abuse with the house mothers and fathers there. I will see how it goes and will keep you informed. I am sorry for not being able to upload pictures for a long time but I do hope I will be able to do that this week…
Thanks for staying in touch…and all your support financially, morally and as friends and family…

Volcanoes…first it was joke, now it is real…

2006-07-18T03:24:00.001+01:00

Yes it is true, Tunguraha is erupting since Friday, and last night quite strongly so that Margarita and I hid in one bed, because the windows were shaking loudly in every eruption. People living at the volcano lost their houses and the livestock they live of. People living from tourism loose their business for a couple of days in high season. I am very worried about the campesinos that already live in great poverty very close to the volcano. I saw pictures of the places I know which looked like from the moon after the Lava came down the hill. It is still erupting and it does not seem to stop soon. Today we bought food to send to the family of Margarita which hosts a lot of people close to the affected areas as a refuge. If you think you can mobilise some people to give money to support the campesinos after everything is over, to buy new liefstock, rebuild the houses and send their kids to school, it is very much appreciated and I will find the right organisations to give it to or families that are affected.
SUPPORT NEEDED - URGENT

Time is running ...

2006-07-18T03:15:00.000+01:00

Half Time is over it is going towards the end and the work is not getting less, but I get more stuck into. I love the job and now it is amazing to see things moving forward. The Maltrato Infantil (Child Abuse) Leaflet is ready for use in the communities and the Manual on how to use it and do workshops on this topic is finished as well. Wednesday I will present a workshop on this for the facilitators in the communities. I am quite nervous about this but I love to do it. The Photos from the Project with the boys are ready tomorrow and they cannot wait to see them. For me it was so amazing to see them proudly taking pictures with the cameras. Here this is something that not everyone can afford but they had the opportunity. Even if the pictures don’t turn out well, the experience for them gave all of them a great push in their self-esteem. You cannot imagine their smiles on their faces. Even the police was jealous! Tomorrow I will have a very difficult task of trying to keep all the photos together, because all of them are so excited to see them. We will use the photos to prepare an exposition the following week and to invite lots of people from outside to raise awareness about the situation of the boys and what kind of life they live or have to live. At the moment we are trying to raise funds for paint, fitness machines, computers and the building work that is going on. Just for the professionals: Here in Ecuador, they just seem to go for things and hope for luck to find some money somewhere, mostly nothing like great plans, funding proposals etc. At the moment though they are very much struggling and if anyone of you likes to do an activity to raise any amount of money, you are very welcome. Whatever it is, bag packing, jumble sale or other things…go for it and send the money over here. I will make sure that it gets used properly and will send you pictures…and a big Thank you!
Furthermore Marco another volunteer and I are embarking on designing a Volunteer Manual because we observed that a lot of things can go wrong and can do harm the boys and their development.
So, I think that is a very brief update on what is rolling in Riobamba. There are a lot of little things that go on as well and I will let you know soon about them…And when I managed to charge the batteries for my digital camera you will get more pictures, I promise.
To all of you that are faithful readers, thank you so much for your support, your emails and your advice and encouragement. I really appreciate it over here. And as my Scottish friends know, I have very great difficulties in working with unpunctual people  and therefore appreciate some encouragement 
With Juan and Margarita we have some future plans for future relations and you are all welcome to help out with whatever is possible.
Let you know more soon.

That is where some money went ….and if anyone wins the lottery…

2006-07-06T02:54:00.000+01:00

Last week I finally decided to spent some of the money that was raised by a farmacy near Freiburg/Germany and by a Latin Night in a Pub in Scotland with the help of a lot of Sponsors.
In the centre there is one problem the staff there keeps mentioning when asked for urgent changes: the police. Police here is not like police in Europe. They have a different attitude to work and with a good number of policemen in the centre exist quite difficult problems that hinder the work of the professionals in the centre. The boys do spent day and night there and staff leaves at 6. After that they are alone with the police that is with them constantly, in the same house, same rooms etc. The space forces everyone to live quite close and the fear of the policemen that the boys try to run. Therefore the boys are never alone, always with authoritive policemen who are contradictory to the vision and objectives of the work of the centre. Therefore Juan decided with a bit of money in one pot to build the wall around the centre higher and install lights for the night, so that they can successfully ask the police authorities to remove the policemen from the boys’ quarters and put them in the corners of the centre. That would solve quite a lot of tensions and problems and incidence (as one very ugly one last week). As we are in Ecuador though, the pot of money was not enough and that happens a lot over here. Step by step, always waiting that something happens. And how lucky this time again, friends, family, businesses and other supporters raised a couple of hundred Dollars for me to take over to Riobamba. Thank you so much and now you also now what it was spent on. As an almost Social Worker and observer I can assure you that this is quite a beneficial way of spending the money for the lives of the boys. Thank you all so much …
By the way, if anyone wins the lottery, there is still this amazing project “Juan´s dream” in Santa Cruz: a village with workshops (to self-finance), a Human rights centre, schools, colleges and family houses for young people from very poor backgrounds that otherwise would not have a chance of education. It is a centre to facilitate the growing and flourishing of young leaders of tomorrows new and fairer, just world. At the moment it is still just foundations and structures of 3 houses and needs at least 175 000 Dollars more to get build. There is more to it and if anyone wins the lottery, get back and ask…it is honestly and amazing idea that is more than beautiful…

¡Europe is paradise! – ¿Really?

2006-07-06T02:52:00.000+01:00

Another amazing, heart-warming experience I had was with some of the muchachos. I finally managed to get them talking seriously about some things and they seemed to open up. For me it was unbelievable when they asked me seriously if Europe and the USA have thieves and delinquents as well!!! I was a bit shocked about this question because it seemed so absurd to ask. I answered of course do they have, Europe and the USA are not the paradise where everything is perfect, poverty does not exist in the dictionary and problems is a word from South America that we cannot apply to our lives. For them people from Europe live in complete paradise, we earn lots of money and live like kings and queens, do not have any problems, and don’t care about people like them. This really made a huge impression on me.

Me and almost 30 señoras ...

2006-07-06T02:51:00.000+01:00

There are a lot of things that happen, like always but here it is very confusing for me because on the one hand people are very slow, never punctual (1hour late is normal) and do not take things too seriously, even at work. Of course that can be quite refreshing but first of all, where I work, we work with people, and in the centre and in the countryside mostly with very vulnerable people. Therefore slowness and a little lack of taking things seriously can do quite a bit of harm at one point. The second problem I have is that my time is very limited and I should plan, but since I arrived this seems almost impossible. Yesterday I sat down and planned what I want to finish when but I really do struggle with a week late collaboration every time I need it. Well, Ecuador is different things go differently and obviously a bit slower. I still do hope that the Maltrato Infantil (child Abuse) leaflet and Manual on how to use it and do workshops with it, will be finished next week. I luckily have a friend in the Foundation who is also a volunteer and said he will help me with putting everything into the right words. So I do hope that tomorrow or the day after we will sit down and go over everything I have written so far. Thank you Marco! Last week was quite exciting for me because on Tuesday night at 11 Juan and Margarita told me that they wont be there tomorrow for the team meeting of the Desarrollo Infantil project and that a group of 15 facilitators (doing very similar work) from Ambato will join us as well. Well, that sounded interesting until they put the planning and presentation in my hands. At 11 o’clock at night!!!!!!! Mils gracias! But I do love to plan things like that, so we exchanged ideas to make sure we are all on the same track and I stood there at 8:30 in the morning, prepared for the day. I was a facilitator of a workshop of 26 señoras and one señor. Interesting experience with my medio Spanish. I was quite aware of time and pushed people quite a bit to get the most out of the morning. At the end I had some new friends from Ambato who love to come and do work experience in Scotland and Germany and moreover managed to heat up my body temperature in the freezing Andes that I only needed a T-Shirt while everyone else was covered in Ponchos and wide scarves .
On Thursday we had a very productive meeting which really cheered me up and gave me new energy. I finally shared all my thought, observations and recommendations I prepared for the Centro Apoyo Juvenil with the team and together we embarked on identifying all the necessary actions we need to take to improve the work of the Centre for the sake of the muchachos. There is a lot to come but as Juan and Margarita asked me to keep doing, I have to push a lot to get things moving. Culture is Latino culture…laid back…

New pictures....have a look....

2006-06-22T03:22:00.000+01:00

Mucho Trabajo and Much more Impressions...

2006-06-18T02:04:00.000+01:00

This Wednesday we had a meeting (a weekly meeting) with all educators of the different communities and because they are mostly women and more than 18, they were all talking in different groups and not listening to each other in the other meetings they had. I asked Margarita and Juan and explained them my concerns and observations and they felt very similar. I had the feeling that they both were not very sure on how to solve or handle this problem and so we sat down together and talked some possibilities through. Finally Wednesday morning in Ecuadorian manner an hour before the meeting Margarita and me planned a structured this meeting. I suggested to establish some kind of rules so that the people are not distracted by telephone calls, their kids running in and out, having conversations all the time etc. So we started this meeting a bit different and to my surprise most of them seemed to really like it and I had the feeling that already at that point some frustration of team members were released. After that we embarked on dynamic activities. I am quite glad that in my last weeks I learned from Streetwork how to use little dynamic games such as the Birthday game and the knot game etc. for team building and clarification purposes. They really liked it and had the chance to say a couple of things that go wrong at work related to the game. A bit hidden but still quite clear from everyone involved. Afterwards I lead a short evaluation of those games in my very broken Spanish. One can imagine it as one of those TV Quiz Shows where someone tries to describe something and the others have to guess what it is, very funny indeed as the English would say 
The meeting ended quite well and in an evaluation afterwards most people felt it was much better than before, they feel much more integrated and like a team. That made me quite glad also I know that there is still a lot of hard work to do, that this meeting was only a start.
Next week the holidays begin and in the Centre we have a holiday program. On two mornings a week I will finally teach the boys a bit of English and I already have some colorful ideas on how to do it. The problem is that some cannot read or write while some can.
Furthermore I am at the moment in the process of creating a leaflet on Mistreating Children/Abuse of Children for the Desarrollo Infantil Project. I talked to Margarita about it and explained to her that I would like to do some kind of training with the community educators before they take it out to the communities. I do not only want to create it and leave it I rather would like them to use it effectively and therefore we need to explore on how that is possible.
Besides I also got all educators to agree to collect a lot of different activities they do in their communities with the children to hand in during the next two weeks to make a big collection for everyone to share their skills and ideas. It is not only useful for varying the activities in the community, it is also an amazing team building task where everyone brings something valuable to it. It is simple but I hope it works out.
The whole last week I spent in the centre, which was very interesting for me, and through interviews with the social worker of the centre and some other people there I feel I got to know much more about it. Juan and Margarita would like me to make some kind of proposal for developing the work of the centre, especially the work they do with the families of the boys and girls at the centre. Therefore I try to gather a much info as possible but I already found some very exciting tasks Maria Eugenia, the social worker, and Lucy, the psychologist, and I want to work together on.

One thing I like to share with you are some impressions of this week:
The most recent one happened this morning. In one of the barrios (El Bosque) they have a fiesta today for “El dia de la familia” and Margarita and me only went very briefly to drop something off. We tried to find a different way out of the barrio and met a group of 5 little children I had already met before. They stood in front of a wooden hut which was partly covered in plastic bags and somehow like a little hut, kids build to play in. But this hut was honestly their home. It was tiny but it was the home of the whole family. Here in the Andes it is not hot, it is rather European Climate, with maximum 25 degrees during the day when it is very sunny and during the night it gets quite cold. And at the moment we have summer. How must it be during winter?

A boy in the centre for young offenders is 13 years old, comes from quite far out in the countryside and he is the only one of his brothers and sisters who is not allowed to go to school. Because he is the youngest he has to stay with his mum at home and get up early in the morning to work on the field, all day long. He speaks Quitschua as well as Spanish. On his head he has a very long scar from his childhood when he got hit in the family. In his community, they punish people by beating them up naked and putting them in ice cold water when they break the law. I desperately hope that he will get the chance to go to school because he is very bright and clever and seems very interested in learning new things.

A colleage told me this week that she has not seen her husband for 5 years, because he went to work in Germany to gain money for the family. She is very very sad and her daughter who is 12 does not talk very much, has no friends and spends most time in her room studying. Poverty is such a big problem that a lot of people go to Europe or the States to work and to send money back. She hopes that he comes back this year. They write emails now and than and phone each other once a month solely briefly because it is so expensive. He works in a northern German city as musician on the street.

Mano Amiga & Community Development

2006-06-07T02:10:00.000+01:00

On the weekend Margarita took me to a couple of other barrios where Mano Amiga was involved in different activities. They are very much interested in bringing health and social education in very remote and mostly very poor areas that are also mostly dominated bz agricultural work. The informal educators of Mano Amiga distribute basic food rations sponsored by a local church and also medicine against parasites. They furthermore facilitate talks and workshops in the community in which everyone can participate. They are very well respected and their knowledge and advice is sought by the people of the communities they work in. Yesterday I went with Maria to a barrio which was far out of the city and higher up as well. Up there it is mostly agriculture that people live of and because in this barrio most men have gone to the city of Quito to work and sometimes only return once a months or once every two or three months, women and children are heavily involved in agricultural activities. Yesterday we held a workshop about child abuse, emotional, sexual and physical abuse. The women listened and were very interested but because of my presence ("gringita" although this means someone from the USA) they were very shy and did not talk. For me it was quite strange to see how dogs were running about inside, came very close to little children their food etc. The women did not really care. When I walked back with Maria, she told me that today it was still quite good. When they started working in Pantús it was worse.
Hygiene does not exist. Margarita told me, that when she had a workshop with some mothers about washing hands before eating to avoid parasites, the women answered that it is not necessary because Margarita will just give them some more tablets against parasites. Yes, a different way of thinking. Poco y poco, a bit and a bit, like Maria said.

Attention

2006-06-04T02:39:00.000+01:00

Thank you all for being with me on this page. To be honest, now I need some support from you. I am looking for ideas of handicrafts made out of rubbish that we usually through away, handicrafts that do not cost very much. I also look for ideas and suggestions for handicrafts and educational activities that do not need very much material (are therefore not costly) and are suitable and effective in early education. It would be great if you just get in contact via email. Thank you so much.

Clearer view of the Project

2006-06-04T02:38:00.000+01:00

Mano Amiga is a Foundation and has different projects. At the moment they have two projects in Chone, another part of Ecuador which is a little community of “artificial families” where a house mother or father lives in a house with a couple of children which are orphans, abandoned or come from very difficult backgrounds. The other house they have got is in the city and is a place for children that start going to a higher school in the city and come from the community or children without a home in the city.
In Riobamba they have 3 projects at the moment. The Proyecto Infractores, Desarrollo Infantil and the Human Rights Centre (which is interesting enough in “la casa de indigenas”), but the centre is still in the building process. The Human Rights Centre is another project of Mano Amiga which Margarita and Juan (los directores) would like me to work in for one day a week.

ARRIVED ...

2006-06-04T02:29:00.000+01:00

After a very long flight I arrived in Quito and got picked up. The next day after running around one block desperate to find the German embassy, I had a culture shock after lots of strange people started trying to grab my bags and kept talking at me in Spanish which I just could not understand, while I tried to follow Monica to the bus that would take me to Riobamba. I bit scared and confused I arrived in Riobamba where Margarita picked me up on Monday Night. And everything was fine.
On Tuesday Margarita introduced me to the Proyecto Infractores, to staff, young people and the police. This is a project that is like a youth prison but not really like one in Scotland. It is very basic and there are no cells. It is a piece of land with some houses where the boys stay, learn at live. Police is always around and accompanies the boys around the area. The area is secured by a wall all around the centre. They also have Volleyball (yippee, finally), Football and a garden, yes and guinea pigs for eating. In the morning they have some activities, like in the afternoon. Educators who only get a bit of money and do it half voluntarily teach them handicrafts, sports and subjects you would get at school. At the moment there are 6 boys around the age of 15-16.
The secretary Anita is very nice and was very curious to get to know details about me my life, my family and of course (always the second question after “What is your name?”) about my martial status (“Esta soltera o casada?”) Perdon!!!!!! Yes, Ecuador is different, in the UK or in Germany such a question at an early stage would be incredible indiscreet.
In the afternoon I played Volleyball (bolleyball) with los muchachos and Marco another volunteer from Ecuador. Yesterday morning I played Volleyball again, the Ecuadorian way with just 3 people in a team. I think the guys respect me because my Volleyball is not that bad. In Scotland I could not do much because my football is horrible 
At the moment they are very short of money, which is different to a couple of years ago where the centre was able to run quiet well. The problem at the moment is that the government is also not very interested and gives about 75c for one boy per day for everything (food, clothes, education, accommodation, medical, social and spiritual needs etc.). This has not changed in the last five years. And also in Ecuador it is difficult to live of 75c, which is about 45 pence. In Scotland that is not even a single bus fare. One sweet in a corner shop maybe…The other problem is the economical situation in Ecuador which lead the government to prohibit Mano Amiga to produce things for sale, which helped in the past to raise funds. At the moment the centre only seems to produce little things to decorate rooms and little soft toys and bakery utensils. The workshops for shoes and furniture still seem to be there but they are not used as much. The garden is very dry and the only thing that I saw growing was sweet corn. Margarita said that it costs too much money to water the garden and produce more and different kinds of vegetable and fruit.

On Wednesday Margarita introduced me in a meeting to all members of the other part of Mano Amiga in Riobamba which is called Desarrollo Infantil. At first they seemed a bit not sure who I am and what I am going to do. So when I had to introduce myself I said that I am very much looking forward to working with them and learning from them. And as a response they said, they as well, which was a good sign for me.
Yesterday and today I went to two different Barrios together with this Project for early education which is heavily financed by the government. They work in 18 Barrios in the province of Chimborazo. In the last two days I visited 2, El Bosque and San Luis. El Bosque is on a sandy road off a main road and lies in a little valley which was a former forest. It is a very poor area and houses are more huts, which are build out of different materials and very basic. It seemed that a lot of indigenas live there but also descendents of Spaniards. The hut in which we had the fiesta del niño was very basic and the roof began about 8cm above my head. And I am not tall!
The children there are amazing. They had little things which turn really fast after they put a string around it and threw it on the floor in a very specific manner. I was and am still so impressed. My mouth was wide open and the young boys were so proud that their eyes were shining and full of joy, probably like mine because that was such an amazing and lovely present for me that I could be there and watch them. Their eyes were as big as mine when I told them how long I had to travel to get here and on top of that that I took a PLANE. This was a very warm and touching experience for me but although very weird and different. I will definitely go back to El Bosque and my new friends, but I have to be very careful of not creating expectations and dependencies.

Only a couple of hours left ...

2006-05-27T12:26:00.000+01:00

Soon the plane takes off and I have packed almost everything. I am so excited and nervous that I tried to avoid packing until the last minute. Yesterday I talked to Margarita on the phone and she said they are all very muhc looking forward to receive me and meet me. With help of a lot of friends and supporters and people I managed to engage in the fundraising we managed to raise another 342,18 Pounds (~600 Dollars) for the project by entertaining people on an exciting Latin Rainbow Night and another collection at a German Pharmacy. Thank you all so much for your help and passion, I really appreciate it.
Soon you will also have the chance to maybe leave some notes, ideas, comments and maybe some very useful advice on this website. I am looking forward to hear from you and learn from you.
In about 18 hours the plane takes off ... to a little spot on the map of the world.

Hasta luego en Riobamba...

NEW PICTURES

2006-04-25T20:21:00.001+01:00

Because the Latin Rainbow Night to raise some funds is drawing near, I finally got some more pictures from Riobamba to put in a Slide Show for the night. Just have a look under the picture link at the side bar...

Furthermore I got some more information about the vision of the Project "Mano Amiga" in Ecuador, Riobamba which you can find under "Juan Social Entrepeneur". Juan is the founder of Mano Amiga and has been awarded a Social Entrepeneurs Award from Ashoka.
The story on their page is amazing and so inspiring. He and all the volunteers have a vision, a mission and passion to work ...

Education for Everyone

2006-04-25T20:21:00.000+01:00

It is Global Action Week from the 24th - 30th April 2006. This is an interesting link about Action for Education for All. Check it out and let me know what you think!

http://www.campaignforeducation.org/action/action.html

If you can read this, thank a teacher.

Flights booked

2006-03-21T16:57:00.000Z

CWW had contact with the project in Ecuador again and they really seem to be looking forward. At the moment I am at the stage of getting the last vaccinations, such as yellow fever, typhus etc. and preparing other essential things for the trip.
On the 28th of May, early in the morning I will leave Edinburgh and will go out to Quito via, Franfurt, Caracas and Bogota.
Half of the project fee is paid now and Streetwork is processing the other half to be paid. Thanks so much Streetwork!
For everyone who is interested in this line of work. There is one really good book about a similar project in Ecuador that is based on Paulo Freire's padagogy which you can find on the Paulo Freire Verlag website. This is a really good book which helps a lot to get my head around certain qute important issues involved in volunteering in Ecuador.

I keep you posted!

Welcome to ...

2006-01-19T19:56:00.000Z

this little improvised website about a placement in a small NGO in Riobamba Ecuador!
I am still trying to upload some more information, so please come back...If you have any questions, ideas or even would like to help out with my fundraising or know some people in Ecuador that might be helpful to this project or whatever it is you would like to let me know, please feel free to do so ...

I hope you will enjoy the site...