onsdag den 25. november 2015

Sightseeing in Quito! 14th of November.

Saturday the 14th of November I went to Quito for a bit of sightseeing with two girls from my project, Mia who will be here until March and Kerstin who will be leaving soon. They are not volunteers from VASE, but have arranged their stay directly with Fundación AM-EN and lives at the foundation.

We went sightseeing in the old part of Quito, where we walked around a bit, I tried carrot juice and we visited the Basílica, an old church in Quito, where we climbed to the top og a tower for a great view of Quito.

Afterwards we met up with an Ecuadorian guy that Kerstin knew from couchsurfers, so we also practiced a bit of Spanish and he helped us find a place for lunch, showed us another church and took us for Canelazo, because he was really excited about this drink. It is an Ecuadorian drink having a base of suger cane alcohol and then mixed with hot juice (either naranjilla [little orange] or blackberry).
According to our new and temporary Ecuadorian guide told us it was the traditional way of getting drunk, when you go out with Ecuadorians - but from his experience it gives a really bad hangover.

I went home early as the plans for the next day required me to leave the house at a quarter to six!

Church
Kirke

A virgin watching over Quito.
En jomfru der passer på Quito.

Another picture
Endnu et billede

La Basílica

La Basílica - the tower you could climb
La Basílica - det tårn man kunne klatre op i.

Carrot juice
Gulerødsjuice

Inside the Basílica
Indenfor i Basílicaen

La Basílica

La Basílica

La Basílica

La Basílica

View of Quito
Udsigt over Quito

View of Quito
Udsigt over Quito
Walking bridge under the roof
Gåbro under taget

Gargoyles on the church - shaped like animals from Ecuador
Gargoiler på kirken - formet som dyr fra ecuador

Another gargoyle
Endnu en gorgoil

Panorama from the tower
Panorama taget fra kirken

Between the two church towers you  can see the virgin watching over Quito.
Imellem de to kirketårne, kan man se jomfruen, der passer på Quito.

View of Quito.
Udsigt over Quito.

Another panorama
Endnu et panorama

Lørdag den 14. November tog jeg til Quito, for at få set noget af det, jeg ikke allerede havde set sammen med to piger, Kerstin og Mia, fra Fundacíon AM-EN. De er her ikke igennem VASE; men har arrangeret deres ophold direkte hos Fundación AM-EN og bor derfor i volontørhuset dernede.

Vi tog til den gamle bydel i Quito, gik rundt og så lidt forskellige ting udefra, drak gulerødsjuice og besøgte en kirke ved navn La Basílica, en gammel neo-gotisk kirke i Quito, hvor vi kunne kravle op i et tårn, der havde en god udsigt over Quito.

Efterfølgende mødtes vi med en Ecuadorianer, som Kerstin kendte fra couchsurfing. Han vidste os lidt forskellige andre steder i den gamle bydel, hjalp os med at finde et godt sted at spise frokost og til sidst insisterede han på, at vi skulle prøve canelazo, en traditionel ecuadoriansk drink, der er lavet med sukkerrørsalkohol og varm juice - enten brombær eller naranjila (lille orange).
Ifølge vores nye og midlertidige ecuadorianske guide er det den normale måde at blive fuld på i Ecuador, men ifølge ham skulle det give dårlige tømmermænd.

Jeg tog forholdsvist tidligt hjem, da den næste dags planer krævede at jeg skulle forlade huset klokken kvart i 6!

mandag den 16. november 2015

Cuenca: 30th of October - 3rd of October

The 2nd and 3rd of October were national holidays in Ecuador and therefore I did not have to work.

Of course, I took advantage of the longer weekend and traveled to Cuenca which is a full nights bus journey away!
We left Friday night and arrived in Cuenca Saturday morning. To find out that our hostel had not recieved our booking, even though we had recieved a confirmation. After one hour of arguing we finally got a temporary room for tree hours, so we could sleep, whereafter we finally got our room - they had a booking for a 4-person room, but did not know who was supposed to get the room, because there was no name on the booking.
Since we went to Cuenca during the festives of Cuenca, we was lucky to get the room! Because all hostels were already sold out.

After sleeping and changing our room, we went out to have a look at the city and the festives. We visited a temporary market, where they sold all kinds of different crafts, and when it started raining, we headed to a cafe for refugee.

Den 2. og 3. oktober var der helligdage i Ecuador, og jeg udnyttede det selvfølgelig til at tage til Cuenca, der ligger en hel nats bustur væk.
Vi tog afsted fredag aften og ankom lørdag morgen, hvor vi fandt ud af, at vores hostel ikke havde vores booking og ikke havde et værelse til os. Men efter en times argumentation lykkedes det os at overbevise dem om, at den navnløse booking i deres system måtte være vores, og vi fik et midlertidigt værelse og 3 timer efter, efter vi havde fået en lur, skulle vi skifte værelse.
Og det var heldigt at vi fik dem overbevist, fordi vi besøgte Cuenca under alle de festligheder der var, som følge af Cuencas uafhængighedsdag og alle hostels var derfor allerede bookede.
Efter vi havde fået lidt søvn tog vi ud for at se på byen og festlighederne. Vi besøgte et midlertidigt marked, og derefter søgte vi ly på en café, da det begyndte at regne.

Fiestas de Cuenca
In the evening we walked around the city, taking in the night view of all the churches. We also stumbled upon quite a few places with music scenes - as I mentioned before, we arrived during the festives of Cuenca.

Om aftenen gik vi rundt i byen, så alle kirkerne med lys på og besøgte et par udendørs midlertidige koncertsteder.

Church
Kirke

Another church
Endnu en kirke
We also saw a few people running around dressed in costumes, since it was the night of Halloween. But we did not see that many people here, because Halloween is not that big yet. Instead, they celebrate Día de los Difuntos / Day of the Deceased on the 2nd of November.
The traditions for this day is going to the grave of your loved ones and sharing a meal with them. For Día de los Difuntios people also eat Guaguas de Pan and drink Colada Morada, that is only consumed in the month before the day. Guaguas de Pan are sweet breads, often shaped like a baby, and sometimes filled with jam, Colada Morada is a thick drink made with oats and a lot of different fruits (some which I did not know before coming to Ecuador) and with different spices.
My favorite way of eating this is by dipping pieces of Guagas de Pan in Colada Morada. Delicious!

Vi så et par enkelte i halloweenkostumer, men ikke mange! Dette skyldes at halloween ikke er så udbredt i Ecuador. I stedet fejrer de Día de los Difuntos, de dødes dag den 2. november. På denne dag besøger man gravsteder og deler et måltid mad med dem man har kært.
På denne dag spiser man også Guagas de Pan og drikker Colada Morada, der kun bliver spist i måneden op til de dødes dag.
Guagas de Pan er sødt brød, der ofte er formet som babyer, og nogle gange fyldt med syltetøj.
Colada Morada er derimod en tyk, kornfyldt drik lavet af forskellige frugter og tilføjet forskellige krydderier.
Min favoritmetode at spise dette på, er ved at dyppe stykker af Guagas de Pan i Colada Morada - lækkert!

An alter made for Día de la 

Sunday we had many plans of where we wanted to go, which was destroyed by the fact that it was a Sunday.
So we managed to go to a Montecristi hat factory (A Montecristi hat is what is usually known as a Panama hat, as they were shipped through the Panama Canal - but they originate from Ecuador.) The hat factory turned out to be more of a shop than a museum, and of course, I bought a real Montecristi hat. But not in Super Fine quality, because they are really expensive! If they are of this quality you can roll the hat together and put it through a wedding ring without damaging it and the hat can hold water!
Afterwards we went to a painting market (which was there because of the festives) and then we spent two hours walking around the city, looking for lunch, since everything was closed. When we finally found a place to have lunch and had finished eating, everything had closed down, and we just went to a church, and in the evening we went to a viewpoint over the city.

Søndag havde vi en hel masse planer, der dog blev ødelagt, fordi alting var lukket eller lukkede meget tidligt.
Det lykkedes os dog at besøge et Montecristihat museum - der dog mere var en butik end et museum (montecristihatte er normalt kendt under navnet panamahatte, fordi de blev eksporteret gennem Panamakanalen, men de stammer fra Ecuador). Og selvfølgelig skulle jeg have mig en montecristihat.
Dog købte jeg ikke en af dem i super god kvalitet, da de er ekstremt dyre. Selvom de kan foldes, så de kan gå igennem end vielsesring uden at tage skader og de er vandtætte!
Efterfølgende besøgte vi et marked, hvor der blev solgt malerier og brugte derfra omkring 2 timer på at gå rundt i Cuenca og lede efter et sted at spise frokost. Fordi alt var lukket!
Derudover nåede vi at besøge en kirke og om aftenen tog vi til et sted, hvor man kunne kigge ud over Cuenca.
Night view of Cuenca
Udsigten over Cuenca om natten

Monday we went to Cajas, a national park near Cuenca, where we hiked around a lake. It was very beautiful and my favorite part of the trip to Cuenca. I love nature and have grown fond of hiking since I arrived in Ecuador. It makes you appreciate the views so much more. Because you earned them!

Monday night we also celebrated the birthday of one of our friends, before heading home in the bus Monday night, so we could spend Tuesday sleeping.

Mandag tog vi til Cajas, der er en nationalpark i nærheden af Cuenca. Her vandrede vi rundt om en sø og vandreturen var min favoritdel af turen til Cuenca. Der var rigtig flot, jeg elsker natur og jeg er blevet rigtig glad for at vandre, efter jeg ankom til Ecuador. Det får dig også til at sætte meget mere pris på udsigten, fordi du har fortjent den.

Mandag aften fejrede vi en af de andre volontørers fødselsdag, hvorefter vi tog natbussen hjem, så vi kunne bruge tirsdag til at slappe af.

Cajas - And my new hat!
Cajas - og min nye hat!

The lake we hiked around
Den sø vi vandrede rundt om

Me, Rebecca, Brónagh and Stefanie
Mig, Rebecca, Brónagh og Stefanie

Cajas

Cajas

Cajas

Cajas

Cajas

Cajas

Cajas

Cajas

Cajas

Cajas

onsdag den 11. november 2015

A "normal" week in the life of a volunteer in Ecuador - 23rd to 25th of October

This weekend was pretty relaxed, which was what I needed. You need that sometimes.

Friday:
For the therapy we had a group af children who can speak multiple languages. Two or three languages out of Spanish, German and English. I am really impressed with some of them. For an example one of the girls who told me everything about her favorite foods and their names in Spanish and English - and how she does not like chocolate. The revelation left us speechless. Ecuador has so tasty chocolate!
Once again I only had to work until 12, whereafter I went home and relaxed a bit, before heading to Quito. I had plans to meet up with some of the other volunteers at an Irish bar.

So we ate at the Irish bar and had a lovely night.

Saturday:
Today I also had plans with some of the other volunteers.We went to Quito to a food festival - which turned out to be a catastrophe. Because the food festival turned out to be a disappointing single stand in the middle and maybe two places where you could taste something. The problem just was that we had thought is up as this really big thing with lots of stalls where you could taste food from Ecuador and all over the world.
Instead we ended up at a restaurant, which was really nice and served Mexican food and spent a couple of hours talking. It was a really enjoyable day, but it was just not what I set out for in the morning.

Sunday:
I spend this day relaxing in the house, reading and watching Friends. You need a day without plans once in a while and I also got the chance to talk to my parents and my Grandmother, which was really nice.
It was also nice with a relaxed weekend in the house, because I had travelling plans for the next weekend to come!

Next post: Cuenca!!


Fredag:
I dagens terapi kom der en gruppe bestående af børn, der kunne snakke to eller tre sprog ud af Spansk, Tysk og Engelsk! For eksempel snakkede jeg med en pige, der fortalte mig om alt hendes yndlingsmad og fortalte navnene på madvarerne på både spansk og engelsk. Til sidst afslørede hun noget meget chokerende: Hun kunne ikke lide chokolade! Og Ecuador har ellers rigtig lækker chokolade!
Jeg skulle endnu engang kun arbejde indtil klokken 12, hvorefter jeg kunne tage hjem og slappe lidt af. Om aftenen skulle jeg mødes med nogle af de andre volontører på en Irsk bar, hvor vi spiste og havde en hyggelig aften.

Lørdag:
I dag havde jeg igen planer med nogle af de andre frivillige. Vi skulle til madfestival i Quito, hvilket viste sig at være noget af en skuffelse. Fordi det viste sig at festivalen bestod af en platform i midten, hvor de viste ting og to boder, hvor vi kunne få smagsprøver. Hvorimod vi havde forventet, at der ville være en masse telte med masser af smagsprøver af Ecuadoriansk og international mad.
I stedet endte vi med at spise på en mexicansk restaurant, hvor vi snakkede i et par timer.
Det var en rigtig hyggelig dag, men ikke lige det vi havde regnet med at bruge dagen på.

Søndag:
Søndag tilbragte jeg bare i huset med at slappe af, se Friends og læse. Derudover fik jeg også snakket med min familie i Danmark.

Det var virkelig dejligt at have en afslappet weekend i huset og en dag uden planer. Det har man brug for en gang imellem. Særligt eftersom næste weekend stod på rejseplaner.

Næste indlæg: Cuenca!!

fredag den 6. november 2015

A "normal" week in the life of a volunteer in Ecuador - Wednesday the 21st of October and Thursday the 22nd of October

Wednesday:
Today something special happened. Normally on Wednesdays, we have open therapy as we do on Mondays. We had open therapy! But we also had to include a big group of volunteers for the day.
We had a group of 20-30 teenagers from the German school in Quito who was there to help on the project for the day. In Ecuador, the schoolers need to complete a certain number of social work hours before they can graduate and helping on our project counted towards the hours they have to work. Besides, the children enrolled at the German school comes from very rich families. I talked with their German teacher who told me about how the difference between rich and poor is very big and that he thought that it was healthy for them to see how they could make a difference and help the lesser privileged parts of their community.

The teenagers where around the age of 12 and at first they had to clean the horses, while we told them how to do it. It was funny experiencing because none of them knew how to take care of horses and most of them seemed to be afraid of the horses (and the horses we use for therapy could not be calmer!). Of course a horse is a big animal. I took a group of the teenagers in trying to brush the horse with a hoof cleaner and I had to tell them how to use it correctly with my still limited Spanish. The other volunteers could just speak German, as the schoolers had had 6 years of German in a good school.

Then we did the open therapy, telling the kids from the German school how they had to hold the kids and what they had to do, while we where two volunteers observing each horse/child in therapy to make sure nothing went wrong.

Every Wednesday we also have 4-6 adults in their thirties coming for therapy. I think at least one has Down's syndrome, but I am not sure about their diagnoses. We saddle the horses and the women go in the saddles and taken around the riding hall ten times.
They cannot go in different positions, but they are happy every time they visit us and go on the horse. Some of them are very silent, where others keep talking about how much they love horses and pointing out their favorite horse. Seeing them on the horses can make you truly happy!

The German school also donated diapers for all the children who normally go in therapy, because they often come from poor families and gave cake to everyone.

In the afternoon we had to clean "the bar". I have no clue why it is named the bar, but it is probably because it looks like a bar! Just besides the bar (where there is always clean) the children who comes for group therapy usually eats their lunch. And the other part consists of what looks like a bar desk and behind that a small house. I am sure that the bar had not been used for years, because it had a thick layer of dust and had been used as a storage room for all kinds of stuff that could either have been useful for the therapy or was already broken. For an example, we found a broken computer and a broken microwave. And a bag containing leftovers from cleaning the stables.
So we spend the afternoon cleaning the bar, removing all the broken stuff and making sure there was no more dust. We did a good job and worked until 6 o'clock, when we had cleaned the job. As I said, because we are a lot of volunteers we have done a lot of work to make the foundation better and from what I know we also needed pictures from the place for a new website of Fundación AM-EN.

Thursday:
This morning we started out by doing gardening work. Which meant taking a bunch of trees and branches and throwing them down towards the river, so that they were out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind works in Ecuador as well.

Then at around 10 o'clock two groups of kids arrived. One group with deaf and or blind kids and another group of normal kindergarten kids. We did the therapy for them normally, but as we had around 30 kids in total, we were really busy and had to cut the number of rounds down to 9, thereby only walking one round in the last position (that I will still explain in another position).
This day I only had to work until 12 o'clock, whereafter I could go home and spend the afternoon catching up on many things I needed to do. Or, as it ended up: Sleeping! I was tired after 4 days of hard work and a lot of walking.

To be continued...
Schoolers from the German school in Quito
Skoleelever fra den tyske skole i Quito

Hoof pick - clearly not to be used for brushing the horse
Hovrenser - tydeligvis ikke noget man skal bruge til at børste en hest med!
Photo credit: http://www.horsetackinternational.com/images/222737PL.06.jpg



Onsdag:
Denne onsdag var en smule speciel. Alle onsdage har vi åben terapi ligesom om mandagen og det havde vi også denne onsdag. Men vi fik en hel masse hjælp, hvilket vi selvfølgelig først vidste på dagen.
Der kom en gruppe på 20-30 teenagere fra Quitos tyske skole, som skulle hjælpe os i løbet af dagen. I Ecuador skal skoleelever gennemføre en bestemt mængde frivilligt arbejde, hvor de hjælper på sociale projekter, før de kan gå ud af skolen. Det var derfor de skulle hjælpe til på vores projekt.
Derudover kommer eleverne på den tyske skole fra rigere familier i Ecuador og jeg snakkede med en af deres lærere, der mente at det ville være godt for eleverne at se en forskel mellem rig og fattig og hvordan de kunne gøre en forskel, ved at hjælpe de mindre privilegerede dele af deres samfund.

Eleverne var cirka 12 år gamle og skulle først hjælpe med at klargøre hestene til terapi ved at børste dem og rense hovene. Det var tydeligt at nogle af skoleeleverne stod over for en hest for første gang og var en smule bange for hestene. For eksempel fandt jeg en gruppe skoleelever, der forsøgte at børste hestene med en hovrenser og jeg forsøgte at forklare dem den rigtige brug af hovrenseren ud fra det spanske jeg efterhånden har fået lært.

Under terapien fortalte vi eleverne hvad de skulle gøre, og de fik lov til at gå rundt med hesten og sørge for at barnet ikke faldt af (3 i hvert hold og holdene skiftede efter hvert barn havde været i terapi). Imens gik vi to volontører med hver gruppe og sørgede for at være der, inden noget gik galt.

Hver onsdag kommer der også 4-6 cirka 30-årige kvinder for terapi. Jeg tror at mindst en af dem er diagnosticeret med Downs syndrom, men jeg er ikke sikre på deres diagnoser.
Vi sadler hestene for dem og trækker dem 10 runder rundt i ridehuset uden at de skifter position, men de bliver altid så glade, når de kommer i sadlen. Nogle af dem er meget stille og andre taler løs om hvor meget de elsker at ride og udpeger altid deres yndlingshest. Jeg bliver altid glad af at udføre terapien med dem, fordi de altid er glade.

Skoleeleverne fra den tyske skole donerede også bleer til alle familierne, der har deres barn i åben terapi. Og derudover delte de kage ud, inden de tog hjem klokken 12.

Om eftermiddagen skulle vi rengøre "baren". Og jeg aner ikke hvorfor det bliver kaldt "baren", udover at det ligner en bar med et lille hus bagved. Lige ved siden af spiser de børn, der kommer til gruppeterapi altid deres frokost.
Jeg er overbevist om, at stedet ikke havde været brugt i årevis, for der var støv over det hele, og så stod der en masse ting, som kunne have været brugt i de andre terapiformer samt ødelagte ting - blandt andet en ødelagt computer og en sammenbrændt mikrobølgeovn.
Vi brugte 4 timer indtil klokken 6 på at rengøre "baren", fjerne alle de ødelagte ting og sortere alle de ting, der rent faktisk kunne bruges til noget.
Som jeg har nævnt tidligere, så sørger vi for at arbejde på at gøre Fundación AM-EN til et bedre sted siden vi er så mange volontører, og derudover tror jeg også, at vi havde brug for billeder af stedet til en hjemmeside.

Torsdag:
Vi startede dagen ud med havearbejde i form af at fjerne en række træer og grene, der lå langs vejen ned til Fundación AM-EN og smide dem ned mod floden, der løber langs fundationen. Ude af øje, ude af sind!

Klokken 10 ankom der to grupper af børn. Den ene bestående af døve og/eller blinde børn og den anden var en gruppe af normale børnehavebørn.
Vi tog alle børnene igennem den normale terapi, men da vi havde 30 børn i alt, havde vi meget travlt, da vi skulle være færdige til klokken 12. Derfor blev den sidste position, som jeg nok skal fortælle om i et senere indlæg, skåret ned til kun at være 1 runde, og derfor fik børnene kun 9 runder på hesten i alt.
Det var kun nødvendigt at jeg arbejdede indtil klokken 12, da der kun var få opgaver om eftermiddagen (at fodre hestene og give rideundervisning). Derfor havde jeg hele eftermiddagen til at være produktiv. Hvilket resulterede i at jeg tog en lur. 4 dage med hårdt arbejde, hvor man også går en masse tærer på kræfterne.

Fortsættes...

tirsdag den 3. november 2015

A "normal" week in the life of a volunteer in Ecuador - Monday the 19th of October and Tuesday the 20th of October

I want to explain how life is for me in a "plain", "basic" week and what I am doing at my project. This means a week without travelling, because no week in Ecuador is just a normal week. Therefore, I will tell you about what I did in the week of the 19th to 25th of October.

I have been told that I have to work from 8-12 o'clock with therapy, have a two hour lunch break and then work from 14-18 o'clock, but since this is Ecuador, things are never quite as you are told they are.

At the moment, we are 3 VASE/ICYE volunteers who live with host families and furthermore 7 volunteers are living at the foundation and are here for a shorter period of time, which also means that we have started spending a lot of time trying to make the foundation better.

Monday:
Every day I get out of bed at 6 o'clock, get dressed and eat breakfast, usually being in so good time that my family is impressed by how I sometimes have time to read before leaving the house.
At 7 o'clock, I leave the house and walks the short way to the bus stop, where I wait for the bus, that is always full. The bus ride is around 15-20 minutes and afterwards I walk for 25 minutes before reaching my project.
Fundación AM-EN is in a beautiful setting in the bottom of a valley in Tumbaco and the river runs nearby.

We start the day out by taking the horses to drink water and prepare the horses we use for the therapy. For the therapy, the horses have to be cleaned and they wear a blanket that the child can sit on.
Every Monday morning we have open therapy, where the parents bring their children and we then do the therapy with them one at a time.
Usually one volunteer walks around with the horse and one or two volunteers make sure that the child does not fall of the horse. Depending on how many children are coming for therapy. we have 1-4 horses in the riding hall at a time.

The children who comes for open therapy can have either mental or physical illnesses and we take them ten rounds around the riding hall. Normally they go in five different positions on the horse during this time, but that of course depends on the child and their special needs.
I will go into more details about how we conduct the therapy in a later post.

When the therapy had finished we had to remove stones and sand from the road, that had fallen down during the weekend and this was what we spend the rest of the day doing. It was hard physical work, but it was actually funny and since we were a lot of volunteers working on it, we could talk and have fun in the meantime. We finished working at 5 o'clock, when one of the other volunteers proclaimed that she would under no circumstance work any longer.

During the day we worked in shifts, so the volunteers who worked on clearing the road in the morning, where I worked with the therapy, gave riding classes in the afternoon.

During the lunch break I ate my lunch that is provided for me by my host family and Skyped with one of my friends in Denmark.

Tuesday: 
On Tuesdays we have group therapy. Sometimes the children who comes have mental or physical illnesses, but they can be normal kindergarten kids.
From the morning, I helped with the therapy for a group of kindergarten children and when we finished we cleaned a horse box and at around 11 o'clock I started working on clearing the road. I spent the rest of the day working on clearing the road. We finished the work at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and could be satisfied with the result of our hard work! Now knowing that the cars can come to Fundación Amor y Energía without any problems.

To be continued...

Horse therapy
Hesteterapi

Jeg vil gerne fortælle lidt om en "normal" uge i mit liv i Ecuador. I dette tilfælde betyder "normal" at jeg ikke har været ude at rejse i weekenden, fordi ingen uge i Ecuador er bare en "normal" uge.
Den uge jeg gerne vil fortælle om er fra den 19. til den 25. october.

Jeg har fået af vide at jeg skal være på arbejde fra 8-12, holde to timers frokostpause og arbejde igen fra 14-18. Men eftersom jeg befinder mig i Ecuador, så er tingene ikke altid som man får af vide, at de er.

Lige for tiden er vi 3 volontører fra VASE/ICYE og derudover bor der 7 volontører på projektet, som er her for en kortere tidsperiode. Siden vi er så mange volontører for tiden er vi også begyndt at arbejde på at forbedre fundationen.

Mandag:
Alle dage står jeg op klokken 6, og gør mig klar og spiser morgenmad, hvorefter jeg forlader huset klokken 7. Normalt har jeg rigtig god tid om morgenen og min værtsfamilie er ret imponerede over hvordan jeg nogle gange formår at have tid til at læse om morgenen.

Busturen tager 15-20 minutter, hvorefter jeg skal gå i 25 minutter for at komme til mit projekt.
Fundación AM-EN ligger i rigtig smukke omgivelser nede i en dal, hvor floden løber lige ved siden af.

Alle dage starter vi ud med at give hestene muligheden for at drikke vand, og derefter klargøre de heste, der skal bruges til terapien ved at børste dem, rense deres hove og give dem et tæppe på, som børnene kan sidde på.

Hver mandag har vi åben terapi, hvor forældrene kan komme med deres børn, der enten kan have forskellige fysiske handicap eller lide af forskellige psykiske lidelser.
Der skal altid være en volontør der trækker hesten rundt og en eller to volontører, der sørger for at barnet ikke falder af hesten.
Afhængigt af antallet af børn arbejder vi normalt med 1-4 heste i ridehallen på en gang.
Vi går 10 runder i ridehallen med hvert barn, og normalt skal barnet sidde på hesten i 5 forskellige positioner. Men det afhænger selvfølgelig af barnet.

Da vi havde færdiggjort terapien skulle vi rydde vejen til Fundación AM-EN for sten og sand, der var skredet ned i løbet af weekenden. Det var meget hårdt, men vi havde det også sjovt i mellemtiden, fordi vi var en masse frivillige, der arbejdede på det. De volontører der havde arbejdet med at rydde vejen om formiddagen, tilbragte eftermiddagen med at give rideundervisning.
Jeg kunne gå hjem klokken 5, da en af de andre frivillige proklamerede at hun under ingen omstændigheder ville fortsætte arbejdet.

I min frokostpause den dag, spiste jeg selvfølgelig min frokost, som min værtsfamilie altid laver til mig om morgenen, hvorefter jeg skypede med en af mine venner fra Danmark.

Tirsdag:
Tirsdag har vi normalt gruppeterapi, nogle gange for børn med forskellige lidelser og andre gange for normalle børnehavegrupper.

Fra morgenstunden af hjalp jeg til med terapien og rengøring af hestebokse, hvorefter jeg tilbragte resten af dagen med at arbejde med at rydde vejen for sten og sand.
Klokken 4 kunne jeg gå hjem og være meget tilfreds over vores hårde arbejde. Og glæde mig over, at vi forhåbentligt ikke skulle skovle mere sand eller flere sten.

Fortsættes...