globaltolocal

So we had sort of a mind-shift about what service learning could and should look like for all of our students today when we met an amazing Ecuadorian named Alicia who runs Casa Victoria with her husband in Quito.  Before we delve into that, let’s start with a tour of the house, as we did.

Serving 60 underserved youth from the struggling area of Quito in which Casa Victoria is located, the grounds, which are over 80 years old, provide after school tutoring and homework help in an effort to support neighborhood youth.  We began our visit with a quick tour of the building, including the library:

the play room:

the room for homework help:

the kitchen for preparing food:

the beautiful outdoor eating area for students:

the garden:

and a gorgeous central courtyard, among many other spaces:

As Alicia showed us around, she talked about some of the things she was excited about, like the new turf front yard installed by volunteers so that youth from the area could play soccer in the hot Ecuadorian afternoons.

As educators, and people who think often about how to help our students feel empowered to create the positive change our city desperately needs, this was an absolutely transformational experience for us.  Here is a woman who recognizes that the youth (in the area in which Casa Victoria is located) are oftentimes lacking some of the necessary supports to develop into productive, honest and self-sufficient members of their community.  In an effort to counteract this, she is slowly building a program that provides academic help, social support and hot meals to the youngest members of the local community of San Roque.  As we think about forward planning and what authentic service learning looks like, we wonder how bringing students to a place like Casa Victoria might provide a more powerful experience than something like painting murals. What impact would it have for our students to learn first hand from the experience of seeing a woman who recognized that she could no longer wait around for her community to improve…she had to be the change herself?  How might it change how their they envision themselves and their roles in the city of Newburgh?

Alicia also spoke about how even the neighborhood has so many issues, there are so many community members who recognize the contribution of Casa Victoria.  As such, the grounds are considered public space that is respected by all, as their ownership over the program is shared and appreciated, especially by the people who are most limited by their circumstances.

The house is run by donations from both the local and the international community.  Recognizing the struggle for sustainability as the economy changes, Alicia is currently  starting a restaurant in the basement of the house.  She will employ local young people who have “graduated” from her program, and the income from the pizzeria will help her re-hire staff to increase the services Casa Victoria offers.  It also has the potential of being an amazing spot for tourists who are interested in a delicious meal, but who are also hoping to support the local economy, something we wish we had seen happening more in Quito.

Here is the pizzeria so far:

We were lucky enough to find this hidden gem thanks to our friend Karen, who teaches at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Washington, D.C.  Karen is an advocate for and participant in service learning, and has traveled all over the world with students.  Feeling inspired, we have been brainstorming ways that we could potentially partner with her and her students for this trip.  There is endless potential in collaboration!

Karen and Alicia

We are having internet issues, so more to come later as we keep developing our ideas.

PS Galapagos is amazing!  Pictures to follow…

We finished!!!

We visited one of the most amazing places today, Casa de Victoria, which we have a great deal to share about, but it is late and our plane leaves early in the morning, so we will write about it soon 🙂

The sad news is that it means we leave our wonderful host family.

But we are off to Galapagos and the next adventure!

-Christine and Jackie

So last night we awoke to our entire room shaking and quickly realized there was an earthquake happening.  After about thirty seconds, the shaking stopped and the electricity was out, followed by lots of dogs barking and some sirens.   Our gracious host family came out to check on us and assured us that it was an earthquake, but that we were now safe.  It ended up being about 4.7 on the Richter scale (which goes up to ten and each level is ten times stronger than the one before), so ours was not severe.   The epicenter was right in the city we are staying on the outskirts of, so that was why we felt it so much.

In retrospect, we realized that our reactions were not really ideal, as we all just stayed put, rather than moving outdoors; however, we did put our shoes and flashlights by the door as a precaution for future incidents, which we hopefully won’t need and made a lot of horrible earthquake jokes as we got ready for the day 🙂  Having lost some sleep, we are tired as we eat our delicious, home cooked breakfast this morning, but looking forward to another day of volunteering and a possible visit to some hot springs this afternoon.

So we started our day at our volunteer site, a local school for young children.  We were promptly handed paint brushes and placed in front of a long white wall and instructed to start repainting it white.  We dutifully obliged but were delighted to find out a few minutes later that we would be painting murals for the children.  We were handed pictures of Hello Kitty and some Winnie the Pooh characters and left to our own devices.
Luckily, Hello Kitty is super-easy to draw and we were off to a good start in no time.  The best part was that as we were painting, a few small children walked by and it was so fun to listen to them get all excited about the flying fairy pigs and characters we were painting.

By the time noon rolled around, we were just about finished with today’s work and happy with the results.  For tomorrow, we have been tasked with painting some more complex characters from Winnie the Pooh…pictures to follow just as soon as we figure out how to make them look good on a brick wall!

After lunch, we did something really exciting: we visited the equator and stood straddling it, with one foot in the Northern hemisphere and one foot in the Southern hemisphere. We learned about a tribe in Ecuador that used to shrink heads (look closely at the picture below, which depicts the process…it’s not pretty).  Thankfully, although they still use the head-shrinking procedure, it is now only done on animals (non-humans).

Here is the shrunken head of a ten year old boy from a long time ago.

Here we are standing on the Equator.  We learned that it is nearly impossible to walk a straight line there, that water does not drain in a circle as it goes down and that Ms. Mac is AWESOME at balancing eggs at the Equator and got a certificate to prove it (see video at bottom of page).

Fun fact: We were both really excited that you weigh over two pounds less here. (see sign below)

Not so fun fact:  It is just because there is less gravity at the Equator and as soon as we get home, it will be back…PLUS Ecuadorian food is delicious…so…

Who knows what other random skills we will add to painting characters and egg balancing by the end of our adventure…

Our first day exploring Quito was a success! We started by taking the Teleferico up to a spectacular viewpoint of Quito from the top of Pichincha volcano.  At first, I (Mrs. Mac) found it pretty terrifying, as we loaded ourselves into one of the small hanging cable cars that snuggly fit six and made scary noises every time they went past one of the metal T bars.  If you have ever been to great adventure, you know this ride, except this time we made it up the entire mountain.  By the time we were half-way up, we were all cracking jokes and feeling pretty confident in the cable that was holding us up. One cool surprise at the top was an old Ecuadorian gentleman who was hanging out with some llamas so that tourists (like us!) could pose for pictures…so of course we did.  Afterwards, we returned down to explore the Old City section of Quito, which has amazing examples of Spanish Colonial architecture.  There is this really amazing statue that overlooks the city that we plan on visiting sometime while we are here.  After walking around the hilly streets for an hour of so, we spent the afternoon at a great hostel that had a rooftop patio that overlooked the city before heading to our volunteer site.

More pics tomorrow when we start our work!

Can’t believe we are FINALLY at the airport! In ten hours, we will be getting off the plane in Quito!!

Look here first to see how excited we are!

It is hard to believe that it’s been five months since we found out that our (three years!) of Fund for Teachers grant writing paid off; persistence counts!

Four days until we head to the airport in New York City and begin our adventure in Ecuador!!!

On Sunday, we check into our volunteer housing on the outskirts of Quito.  Through UBelong, the four of us (our colleague from South Middle School, Ms. Bisti, and one of Ms. Mac’s friends from when she traveled to Finland a few years ago are joining us) will be doing “light construction” during the days and exploring the city at night.  We are looking forward to checking out the colonial architecture in the old part of the city, visiting the San Francisco catacombs, and eating lots of delicious Ecuadorian food (hopefully it’s easy to find vegetarian food).  

Quito, Ecuador

On Friday, August 13, we will be heading to the Galapagos Islands.  

Ms. Mac’s main goal on Galapagos will be photographing blue-footed boobies for her nieces and to try snorkeling (for the first time!)

Mrs. Hesse’s main goal is to avoid stepping on a giant iguana, and to try snorkeling again (She’s a huge chicken because these are in the water).  

We totally wish we had brushed up on our Spanish a bit more in the past few months, but look forward to the challenge of “getting by” on our super-basic Spanish skills.

Wish us luck and let us know you were here by commenting below!  Miss you guys already!

Ms. Hesse and Ms. Mac

Only 45 days until we leave for Ecuador!  We will spend a week volunteering in Quito through Ubelong, and then spend a few days exploring the Galapagos Islands.  Come back after August 6 to follow our journey!