Working for SKY in Salasaca

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WARNING! This is a long blog.

One of the things I had really wanted to do on the trip was to try teaching English. I had planned to do this in Bolivia, but it hadn't worked out. After that, I looked through volunteersouthamerica.net and found three potential places to teach ENglish. I emailed them and only one of them replied, so that's where I went. The organisation is called Sumak Kawsay Yachay (SKY) and is a privately-funded foundation committed to assisting and supporting educational programs in Ecuador (I stole this wording from the website http://www.skyecuador.org/). I know only of its work in Salasaca. Volunteers work at Katitawa primary school up in the hills (truly gorgeous) and in the library in Salasaca, where kids can go to learn to read and play with volunteers, and there is an internet service too. Whilst I was there, the school term ended and we set up for summer school, which was held in the library. I utterly loved my time in Salasaca, being a part of the community and trying out teaching.

I lived with the other volunteers in a house called Hostal Pachamama (Mother Earth) about 10 mins walk from the library amongst the fields. Every family in Salasaca seems to live off the land, so each house has a plot of land, a donkey, a pig, some chicken, a dog, maybe some cows, that sort of thing. Going to bed each night, you'd hear donkeys crying oh-so-sadly. I miss that! In the morning, it's often very clear and you can see the volcano Chimborazo from the back of the house. If you are lucky you can also see El Altar, another volcano, and if you are seriously lucky, you can see Cotopaxi. I saw it once. There is another volcano you can see from downtown Salasaca too, called Tungurahua. Tungurahua featured on BBC News whilst I was in Huaraz as it was apparently erupting. This was around the time that a cameraman perished getting too close to a volcano in Guatemala. Word had spread, both nationally and internationally, that it wasn't safe to visit the area surrounding Tungurahua. My teacher in Quito had told me it wasn't safe to travel there, so it wasn't just foreign news agencies kicking up a fuss. Anyway, the reply I received was that all was fine; the volcano was always slightly erupting. And indeed this was the case.

I arrived in Salasaca, not really knowing where to head next, although I did have some directions, so I had to ask around. I should have hopped in a camioneta, but I decided to walk, not realising how far it was. It's about a 25 minute walk but with a heavy rucksack it takes a bit longer! My knee didn't like it either. When I arrived, I found the front door shut, so I walked around the back and found myself face to face with Anna and Nedo, whom I'd met in Quito at the Secret Garden. Good start! That night, Anna, Nedo and I (the newbies) cooked and ate with a few of the other volunteers in the first of many communal meals I'd have in this house.

The next day, the Monday, was a school day but there were no classes because it was the festival of Inti Raymi, the Sun God. The kids performed songs and dances and there was a big meal. I left in the afternoon with most of the other volunteers to go to Pelileo by camioneta to go food shopping at the market there. Salasaca's a bit too titchy for food shopping although there is a little market. One of the ladies who sells stuff doesn't seem to like gringoes though and she'll give you a really high prices and refuse to haggle. Mostly they're not like that!

My first tasks were to sit in on the English lessons at the school to observe and learn and also to help out. I got to know some of the kids too. I started teaching English to adults in the evenings. We only had one student for quite a long time but by the end we had six or seven, although they didn't all turn up each day. I planned extensively for each lesson and quickly realised that things generally took longer than I anticipated, which was no bad thing as it meant less to prepare each day.

That evening when I got back to the house, we had a new resident - a small puppy with a bloated belly, bandy legs and a long neck. She resembled to quite a degree Gollum. She'd been found by the side of the road and brought back to be looked after. Adam, one of the volunteers who was often nicknamed Hippy or Jesus, was holding his hands above the puppy's body. I asked him what he was doing and he replied that he was trying to give the puppy some healing energy. He explained that he'd discovered he could manipulate energy with his hands but didn't really know how to control it yet. I'm a total sceptic on these matters but I was trying to be open-minded and when he suggested
that I put my hands out I did. He held his hands over (not on) mine and I could feel a sort of tingly sensation, but I thought that I could be making this up as this is the suggested or intended result. Then, however, he quickly drew his hands back towards him, and I felt a zing in a line through the centre of my palms to the fingertips. Most bizarre.

There was a meeting that evening, and I know that a large majority of the volunteers would agree it was one of the worst meetings ever. Excruciating. I've always loved meetings, but now I understand why some people don't. Bevalee managed to fall asleep for a bit of it and I was a bit jealous.

Although we were working hard on various things, there was time to go to Salasaca to watch World Cup matches, go to Pelileo to buy food and jeans (it's known as Ecuador's blue city) and on three of the four weekends we went to Banos, a nearby town famous amongst tourists for its outdoor activities, thermal pools and location next to Tungurahua volcano. We went there mainly to eat in restaurants and cafes and party in the bars and clubs. Oh, and sing in karaoke bars.

The second week started badly with another dreadful meeting on Monday and then got a lot better on Tuesday when the two people insisting on the awfulness went away for nearly two weeks. Tuesday was also graduation day, so we were lucky enough to witness Andy and Diego's graduation ceremony. Robert, the leader of the volunteers (a totally cool 78-year-old American), made a speech, as did the headmaster and Andy and Diego. One of the teachers played something on his violin. That evening, the mood in the house was light and easy and around the dinner table people who'd previously been quiet as a mice suddenly started to talk. The rest of the week was spent preparing for summer school to start the following Monday. We also had a leaving party for Bevalee and started what would become something of a habit in the weeks to come - playing Racing Demons.

Summer school was ace! The hour-long lessons started at 8 and finished at 2. We offered English, Maths, Art & Crafts, Puppets, SPort, and Dance. I taught English in the first lesson to a class of around 7 children - Andy and Jonathan Pilla, Richard and Michelle Jerez Moreta, Nina Pakarina, Cindy Masaquiza, Wilmer and Maria (I've forgotten their surnames). At first there were some very small children in the class too who knew nothing of English so we split the class and they were taught by another volunteer. Andy Pilla was the same Andy who had graduated from Katitawa school. He's a good kid, but gets distracted easily and I got the feeling that he thought he couldn't do it, but he could when he tried. Cindy often couldn't turn up because she had to work with her family, so when she did I was very pleased and she caught up quickly. Richard and Michelle were really keen students, and strangely enough I also taught their father, Eugenio, in adult English in the afternoons, and their mother in English for artesans in my last week. Eugenio and his wife worked on a stall in the market in downtown Salasaca so I made sure to buy some souvenirs from them. After English class, I helped out in the Art class for the first week - Anna had prepared all the lessons but didn't speak Spanish so I tried my best to interpret what she was saying. Most of the kids who had chosen art had also chosen English so I got to see them quite a bit. I seemed to get a reputation for saying "super, super!" so the kids asked me to write that on their work whenever I marked it. I totally loved teaching both the kids and the adults. One of the best days was my last adult English class, when four students came, along with some musical instruments. It turned out that they were planning to play downstairs in the library after the next class, which was a Spanish-English intercambio class. I joined in this class too and then watched the mini-concert. It was amazing! Everyone who was still at the library at that time (it was 7pm) came to watch and dance. I think even some of the older ladies who were learning how to write their names in the front classroom came and joined in. After they played, I said goodbye and thank you to my students and I must admit, I was a little teary!

Working in Salasaca was a brilliant experience, I made some really good friends, and I'm so glad I went. I would recommend it to anyone who likes being able to use their intiative, interact with kids and be in the gorgeous countryside. A total treat!

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