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!!

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...

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...

Culture shock - A moment of frustration!

Before you read this post I just want to say that I still love Ecuador and I love being here! I would not change it for anything and if you are considering going you should definitely do it! Just look on the rest of my awesome experiences down here. I just want to explain one of the bad moments of being in Ecuador and volunteering in a foreign country. But please do not let that keep you from doing anything similar! Because this only describes 30 minutes of more than 2 months of awesome experiences.

I want to talk a bit about culture shock. To be honest I have not given much thought about "Culture Shock" until Monday this week.

What happened is that the bus did not stop at my bus stop in the morning when I had to go to work, and it made me so frustrated that it made me say the words "I hate Ecuador, I want to go home to Denmark". (To be fair, the hate part had already disappeared after having the first child through therapy in the morning),

Why it made me so frustrated might need a bit more explanation about culture shock and the bus system in Ecuador.

Normally your culture shock starts out in the "Honeymoon Phase" where you find everything interesting and fascinating.

The next stage is where you find everything frustrating and I think in the start I pretty much skipped this part because I have had a good preparation talking about culture shock in both Denmark and Ecuador. And VASE explained us everything during our orientation camp - including how to take the bus.

The third stage is where you start to adapt to the new culture and get more used to everything. And I think I have been in this stage most of the time and not noticed the small annoyances. But Monday I was definitely thrown straight back into stage 2!

The bus I take in the morning is usually so full that not one more person could fit in and you have to keep near the doors, if you want to be sure to make it out the bus at your stop. In the buses are 2 or 3 stop buttons in total - And they don't always work. And if they do not work, you have to yell "¡Gracias!" and they will let you out of the bus. In the bus you have the driver and a person who you have to pay, when you exit the bus. I have to pay 25 cents to take the bus to work.

When we reached my stop, where the bus usually always stops, I realized it was not starting to pull over (even though the button was actually working!), and therefore I started yelling "¡Gracias!", but nothing happened. And people in the front of the bus even started yelling it too. Then the bus stopped for a red light, and I asked them to open the doors, but once more, nothing happened. One person made me more frustrated by saying that it was not a stop, because the bus did not stop at my stop! At the next stop an annoyed bus driver finally let me out of the bus. And then I had to walk all the way back to my stop before walking the 25 minutes from there to my project.
Normally this experience would only have made me a slight bit annoyed, but because I have not thought about the difference in culture, it hit me hard. Because it was not only the thing about the bus that bothered me. It was all of Ecuador and it systems. And for a good half hour I hated all of Ecuador.

I hated the bus system.
I hated that I do not understand the language.
I hated that there are so many Germans down here and that they always speak German to each other, when we are here to learn Spanish!
I hated how they always use coriander in all of their food.
I hated the Ecuadorian way of never giving a straight answer.
I hated how you always have to watch your stuff closely if you do not want to be robbed.
And I could easily add to the list!

Even when I had my bag sliced open, I could think "Okay, it is my own fault for not watching mystuff closely enough and it is what could be expected". I was only slightly annoyed when that happened.

But it just took me the walk to the project and having the first child through therapy before I was alright again. And I know that I am here to make a difference. I am here to experience these cultural differences, both the good and the bad. I am here to gain a bigger understanding of the world. I am here for the good and the bad moments. I am here to learn. I am here to observe. I am here for so many reasons.
And I love Ecuador. I love my project. And I love being here! I have already almost forgotten this experience and everything is great again.

Ama La Vida! All you need is Ecuador!

Picture Credit:
http://cdn1.theodysseyonline.com/files/2015/08/23/635758951256652806-343703604_178956871-e1424039522241.imgopt1000x70.jpg

Før du læser dette indlæg vil jeg gerne pointere, at jeg stadigvæk elsker Ecuador og jeg elsker at være her. Jeg ville ikke bytte mine oplevelser her for noget som helst og hvis du overvejer at tage afsted synes jeg bare at du skal gøre det. Bare overvej hvor mange andre fantastiske oplevelser jeg har haft hernede. Jeg vil bare gerne forklare en af de lidt dårligere ting ved at være volontør i et fremmed land, men lad ikke dette stoppe dig! For det er stadigvæk en fantastisk oplevelse at være hernede og jeg ville ikke bytte det for noget.

Det jeg gerne vil snakke om er begrebet "kulturchok". Noget jeg ikke havde tænkt specielt meget på indtil i mandags.
Det der skete var, at min bus ikke stoppede ved mit busstoppested på vej til mit projekt i mandags. Og jeg blev så frustreret at jeg faktisk sagde "Jeg hader Ecuador, og jeg vil hjem til Danmark". (Denne følelse var dog forsvundet allerede efter vi havde haft det første barn igennem terapi).

Men hvorfor jeg blev så frustreret kræver måske at jeg forklarer lidt mere om kulturchok og bussystemet i Ecuador.

Kulturchok starter normalt med at du befinder dig i "eventyrfasen" hvor du finder alt fascinerende og interessant.

I den næste del begynder alt at blive frustrerende og for mit vedkommende har jeg indtil nu ikke rigtig befundet mig i denne fase, fordi jeg fra ICYEs og VASEs side har fået god forberedelse på hvordan livet er i Ecuador.

Det tredje stadie er der hvor du vænner dig til kulturen og alting virker mere "normalt". Og for mit vedkommende har jeg, formentligt grundet den grundige forberedelse, for det meste befundet mig i dette stadie, men mandag røg jeg i hvert fald for et kort øjeblik ud af dette stadie og fandt ALT ved Ecuador frustrerende.

Den bus jeg tager om morgenen er normalt proppet med mennesker, og du skal holde dig i nærheden af udgangen, hvis du gerne vil kunne komme ud ved dit stop. Busserne har stopknapper - men som regel kun 2 eller 3 i alt. Og det er ikke altid at de virker!
Hvis de ikke virker skal du råbe "¡Gracias!" for at få bussen til at stoppe. Personalet i en bus består af en. der tager imod penge, når du går ud af bussen og chaufføren. Jeg skal betale 25 cent for at komme fra min værtsfamilie til stoppestedet nærmest mit projekt.
Da vi nåede mit busstoppested, hvor bussen normalt altid stopper, lagde jeg mærke til at bussen ikke begyndte at trække ind for at stoppe (også selvom stopknappen rent faktisk virkede i denne bus", så derfor begyndte jeg at råbe "¡Gracias!", men intet skete. Folk foran i bussen begyndte også at sige det, men det havde ingen effekt.
Lidt senere stoppede bussen for et rødt lys, hvorefter jeg bad dem om at åbne dørene, så jeg kunne komme ud, men igen skete der intet og jeg blev endnu mere frustreret da en ecuadorianer fortalte mig "at dette jo ikke er et stop" - men bussen stoppede ikke ved mit stoppested. Og ved det næste stoppested blev jeg endelig lukket ud af bussen af en lettere irriteret buschauffør. Så jeg blev nødt til at gå hele vejen tilbage til mit busstoppested, før jeg kunne begynde den 25 minutter lange gåtur til mit projekt.
Og normalt ville sådan en simpel episode ikke have gjort mig specielt frustreret og jeg ville have kunnet lade det passere. Men fordi jeg ikke har tænkt specielt meget over det gik alt ved Ecuador mig pludselig på. Og i en god halv time hadede jeg Ecuador.

Jeg hadede bussystemet.
Jeg hadede at jeg ikke forstår sproget.
Jeg hadede hvor mange tyskere der er her, og at mine største sprogudfordringer er med folk der snakker tysk, og ikke spansk! I et spansktalende land.
Jeg hadede hvordan de altid bruger koriander i maden.
Jeg hadede hvordan man aldrig kan få et direkte svar af ecuadorianere.
Jeg hadede hvordan man virkelig skal passe på ens ting, hvis man ikke vil bestjæles.
Og jeg kan nemt føje flere ting til listen.

Jeg var mindre frustreret, da jeg fik skåret en taske op og stjålet penge, end jeg var over ikke at være blevet lukket ud af bussen.

Men efter at have gået turen til mit projekt og haft det første barn igennem terapi havde jeg det okay igen og den store frustration jeg oplevede har bare været som følge af en ophobning af irritationer. Men jeg ved at jeg er her for at gøre en forskel. Jeg er her for at opleve disse kulturelle forskelle, både de gode og de dårlige. Jeg er her for at få en større verdensforståelse. Jeg er her for de gode og de dårlige oplevelser. Jeg er her for at lære. Jeg er her for at observere. Der er så mange grunde til at jeg er her.
Og jeg elsker Ecuador. Jeg elsker mit projekt. Og jeg elsker at være her. Jeg har næsten allerede glemt oplevelsen og alt er godt igen.

Ama La Vida! All you need is Ecuador!

Two months in Ecuador!

Today I have been in Ecuador for two months! It is crazy to think about how fast time goes by. I have had so many great experiences since I arrived here, I have managed to see some of the country, make friends, have learned enough Spanish to having had an hour long conversation, changed my project and my living situation and a lot more! But it also means that I have spent 1/6 of my time in Ecuador. I get to wake up every day in the lovely country of Ecuador. I get to practice Spanish every day with a lovely host family (who makes me a lunch pack every morning and even cleans my room and my clothes, even though I tell them, that I can do it) and I get to work at a project I love!

Life is great, because "All you need is Ecuador"!

I still have a hard time when people tells me that time has passed in Denmark and tell me about fall and today my parents even sent me a picture from a store selling Christmas decorations!

But then again - time passes down here as well. The rain time has started which means that we have had major showers almost every afternoon since Tuesday. And the fact that rain down here makes me really happy shows one way I have changed since arriving. Normally, I get really depressed from rain in Denmark. But it have been so dry and dusty since I arrived here, so rain is great news! 

And they are also selling Christmas decorations down here and have had for a while now. Time passes by down here as well, but I find it really weird that we are in the middle of October.

I dag markerer den dag, hvor jeg har været to måneder i Ecuador. Det er vildt at tænke på hvor hurtigt tiden går og hvor mange fantastiske oplevelser jeg har haft siden jeg ankom her. Jeg har oplevet noget af landet, jeg har fået nye venner, jeg har lært spansk nok til at jeg kunne have en time lang samtale med min værtsmor og jeg har skiftet både projekt og bosituation i løbet af den tid. Men det betyder også at 1/6 af min tid i Ecuador er gået.

Jeg får lov til hver dag at vågne op i det dejlige Ecuador. Jeg får lov til at øve spansk med min dejlige værtsfamilie hver dag (som laver madpakke til mig hver morgen og gør mit værelse rent og rengør mit tøj, selvom jeg insisterer på at jeg selv kan gøre det) og jeg får lov til hver dag at vågne op til et projekt jeg elsker at arbejde på.

Livet er godt, fordi alt du har brug for er Ecuador.

Jeg har det stadigvæk svært med at folk fortæller mig at tiden går i Danmark og fortæller mig omkring efteråret og i dag sendte mine forældre mig et billede fra en butik, der solgte juledekorationer.

Men: Tiden går jo også i Ecuador. Her er regntiden startet hvilket betyder at vi har haft enorme regnbyer hver eftermiddag siden tirsdag. Og det viser også en måde hvorpå Ecuador har ændret mig: Fordi jeg har været rigtig glad for regnen! Og normalt finder jeg regn deprimerende. Men det har været så tørt og støvet siden jeg ankom, så regnvejr er virkelig gode nyheder.

Yesterday I went with a group of volunteers (Anne, Brónagh, Johanna, Lena, Leonie, Nina, Sofie, Sophie - I hope I did not forget someone!) to an "All You Can Eat and Drink" event at Papa John's in Quito. People was walking around with pizzas and you could get one slice that you had to eat, before you could get the next - and you also had to eat the crust. You could eat for 3 hours, and we arrived at around 4 o'clock, so we ate our dinner there. It was not an Ecuadorian experience and I did not crave pizza as much as the rest of the guys, but it was really nice to meet up with the volunteers that I do not hang out with normally and have a relaxed Friday afternoon and still be home in time to get plenty of sleep.

I går var jeg sammen med en gruppe af de andre volontører (Anne, Brónagh, Johanna, Lena, Leonie, Nina, Sofie, Sophie - Jeg håber at jeg ikke har glemt nogen!) til et "Alt Du Kan Spise og Drikke" event hos Papa John's i Quito. Folk gik rundt med pizza og du kunne få et stykke af gangen, som du skulle spise, inden du kunne få det næste stykke - inklusiv skorpen. Du kunne spise i 3 timer, og vi ankom klokken 4, så vi spiste vores aftensmad der. Det var ikke en ecuadoriansk oplevelse og jeg havde egentligt ikke specielt meget lyst til pizza, men det var rart at mødes med de andre frivillige som jeg ikke ser så ofte, og en dejlig afslappet fredag, hvor man stadigvæk kunne nå hjem og få masser af mad.

Papa John's

Papa John's - All you can eat.
Papa John's - Alt hvad du kan spise

I also woke up this morning thinking "I must have slept in today, it must be 10 or 11 o'clock and I am going to be late." When I looked on the clock it turned out it was not even 7 o'clock! But I get up at 6 o'clock and go to bed quite early normally, so that might be the reason.

Jeg er også blevet vandt til at sove meget og stå op klokken 6. I morges vågnede jeg nemlig og tænkte "Jeg har sovet meget længe i dag. Klokken må være 10 eller 11 og jeg kommer for sent." Hvorefter jeg kiggede på uret og så at den ikke engang var 7!

Orchids and Chocolate
Orkideer og Chokolade

Orchids and Chocholate
Orkideer og Chokolade

Today I went with Brónagh, Rebecca and Stefanie to the Botanical Garden in Quito - "Jardín Botanico de Quito".

Turned out that they had a special exhibition from the 14th to the 18th of October so of course there was a lot of people. The theme was "Orchids and Chocolate" which meant that besides from the normal plants and orchids (there are two permanent houses with orchids in the botanical garden) from all over Ecuador there was a lot of tents with special and additional orchids and a lot of them had won awards. It was pretty cool and Ecuador is the country with the biggest diversity of orchids.

I dag har jeg været i Quitos botaniske have sammen med Brónagh, Rebecca og Stefanie.

Det vidste sig at de havde en speciel udstilling fra den 14. oktober til den 18. october, så selvfølgelig var der en hel masse andre besøgende. Udstillingen havde titlen "orkideer og chokolade", hvilket betød at der udover de normalle planter og orkideer (der er normalt to huse med orkideer fra Ecuador) var en hel masse telte med specielle og additionelle orkideer og mange af dem havde vundet forskellige priser. Det var rigtig flot og Ecuador har også den største biodiversitet af orkideer.

Orchids
Orkideer

Price
Præmie

Winning orchids
Vinder orkideer

Orchids
Orkideer

Orchids
Orkideer

Really small orchids as well! One dollar coin for comparison.
Virkelig små orkideer! En doller i baggrunden for sammenligning.

And what made the day even better? Chocolate!

Ecuador claims to have the best chocolate in the world, and taste pretty good. The chocolate part of the exhibition consisted of tents where you could taste chocolate from the different chocolate brands of Ecuador. And we had a really good brownie (with lots of chocolate) as well.

Og den ting der gjorde dagen endnu bedre? Chokolade!

Ecuador påstår at have verdens bedste chokolade og det er også ret godt. Chokolade-delen af udstillingen bestod af telte, hvor du kunne smage chokolade fra forskellige ecuadorianske mærker. Og vi fik også virkeligt gode brownies (med masser af chokolade).

One place for tasting chocolate.
Et af de steder hvor man kunne smage chokolade.

Me, Stefanie, Brónagh and Rebecca in one of the orchid tents.
Mig, Stefanie, Brónagh og Rebecca i et af orkide-teltene.

At some point we walked into a deserted part of the botanical garden. We were afraid we had ended up a place we were not allowed to be, but there was a playground and we reached the conclusion that it was an old part of the botanical garden.

As the responsible adult I am, who are going to stay ten more months in Ecuador far away from home I decided to try the playground together with Stefanie. And it was really fun.

På et tidspunkt gik vi ind i en del af den botaniske have. Vi var bange for, at vi var gået ind et forbudt sted, men der var en legeplads og vi nåede frem til, at det bare var en gammel del af den botaniske have.

Og som det meget ansvarlige menneske jeg er, der skal tilbringe 10 måneder mere i Ecuador langt hjemmefra, besluttede jeg mig for at afprøve legepladsen sammen med Stefanie. Og vi havde det sjovt!

Playground!
Legeplads!

In the end of the day we had crepes (sweet or salt) and tea at a cafe to relax a bit before heading home.

For at slutte dagen af spiste vi henholdsvis madpandekager og dessertpandekager og drak te for at slappe af, før vi tog hjem igen efter en dejlig dag.

Vamos a la Playa - Atacames.

This Friday was free because it was the Independence Day of Guayaquil. As we had another day off I went with some of the other volunteers to Atacames, which is a beach.

When I told my host family where I was heading they told me that the beach was bad and very dangorous and even my Lonely Planet guidebook said that it was hard to see why people even bothered going to Atacames. However, as we had already booked the hostel we decided to go anyway.

We decided to go Thursday evening at 6 o'clock, as we knew the bus ride would be roughly 6.5 hours. Here we encountered the first challenge. When the persons living near the bus terminal tried buying the tickets a couple of days in advance they were sold out.
So instead, we had to leave at 23.30 and drive all night. So I met up with Brónagh, Constanza, Felix, Rebecca and Stefanie, we cooked together and went to the bus terminal together.
As I sleep very badly in buses I did not get a lot of sleep that night and I ended up observing the other persons in the bus. Since Quito is at an elevation of 2,850 meters and Atacames of course is at sea level, we had quite a steep climb down and one of the others actually got problems with her ear because of this. Lesson learned: Do not sleep on a bus going down almost 3 kilometers without releasing pressure a single time after living almost two months in an altitude of 2,850 meters!
Luckily, I did not have any problems, but maybe that is just because I could not sleep.

We arrived in Atacames at 5 o'clock in the morning, so the bus ride there was actually quick.
When we arrived in Atacames we went straight to the ticket office, that was actually open, to buy tickets for the return bus Sunday (you can only buy the tickets in the place you want to go from). New problem! They only had three tickets for the early bus, and the rest had take a bus 3 hours later.
If we had known the system, we might have been able to catch an earlier bus, because we found out Sunday that they ran extra buses the entire day. We know that for the next time. They probably ran extra buses because of the holiday where all Ecuadorians normally travels towards the beach.

Afterwards we went to our hostel and took a mototaxi that are commonly used there, more than normal taxis. They fit 3 persons normally, but if the police is not around they can fit 6!

Da vi ikke skulle arbejde i fredags på grund af en national helligdag, valgte jeg at tage til stranden i Atacames sammen med nogle af de andre volontører.

Da jeg fortalte min værtsfamilie hvor jeg ville rejse hen. fortalte de mig at det var en dårlig strand og et meget farligt sted. Selv min Lonely Planet guide fortalte, at de ikke forstår hvorfor de lokale altid tager dertil i weekenderne. Men da vi allerede havde booket vores hostel, valgte vi at tage afsted alligevel.

Vi besluttede os for at tage afsted torsdag aften klokken 6, da vi vidste at turen ville komme til at tage omkring 6,5 time. Men da vi forsøgte at købe billetter var bussen udsolgt og vi blev nødt til at tage bussen 23.30 i stedet. Jeg mødtes mod Brónagh, Constanza, Felix, Rebecca og Stefanie inden, vi lavede mad og tog sammen til busterminalen om aftenen.
Da jeg sover rigtig dårligt i busser fik jeg ikke meget søvn den nat. Siden Quito er i 2.850 meters højde og vi tog til havet, var der en stor ændring i højde. Hvilket også medførte at en af de andre fik øreproblemer, der også varede ved efter turen. Men det lærte os noget: Sov ikke på en hel bustur med en højdeændring på næsten 3 km efter at have boet næsten to måneder i 2.850 meters højde.
Jeg oplevede heldigvis ikke nogle problemer, hvilket formentligt skyldes, at jeg ikke kunne sove.

Vi ankom til Atacames klokken 5 om morgenen, og skyndte os hen til billetkontoret for at købe billetter til hjemturen (returbilletterne kan kun købes på destinationen). De havde kun tre billetter til den tidlige bus, så vi måtte dele os op og tre af os måtte tage en bus 3 timer senere. Men måske havde det været muligt for os at komme med en tidligere bus, for vi fandt senere ud af at de havde indsat ekstra busser, men det ved vi til næste gang. Der var formentligt ekstra busser fordi fredag var en helligdag.

Efterfølgende tog vi hen til vores hostel i en mototaxi. Normalt kan man være 3 personer i én, men hvis politiet ikke er i nærheden kan man nemt være 6 personer.

Mototaxi

We actually found out that we should have gotten of the bus a stop earlier, at the city of Tonsupa very near to Atacames, but then we would not have had the possibility to buy the return tickets that early and would probably have been stuck in Atacames until Monday. It was to our luck that no one read the hostel information carefully.
We slept two hours in the hostel before heading out to the beach.

Friday we spent at the beach in Atacames, some people in the water, but most of the day I spent at the beach talking and reading. I think we were lucky that it was a bit cloudy, because it is warm at the beach! It really makes you appreciate the warm, but not too warm climate of Quito and the cold mornings and nights. What also made it worse was the humidity!

Vi fandt faktisk ud af, at vi skulle være stået af bussen et stop tidligere i Tonsupa, der ligger lige ved siden af Atacames. Men hvis vi var stået af det, så havde vi ikke haft muligheden for at købe returbilletter og var formentligt strandet i Atacames til mandag. Vi var heldige at ingen læste informationen omkring hostellet.
Da vi ankom sov vi to timer, før vi var klar til strandtur.

Fredag tilbragte vi vil stranden i Atacames, og selvom mange af de andre var meget i vandet tilbragte jeg dagen med at snakke og læse. Vi var formentligt ret heldige at det var overskuet, fordi det var stadigvæk helt utroligt varmt. Og luftfugtigheden gjorde det endnu værre. Da det også var virkelig varmt om natten fik det en til at savne Quitos perfekte klima: Tilpas varmt om dagen og koldt om natten.

Atacames

Saturday morning I spent with Felix and Stefanie at the beach in Tonsupa and I spent most of the time playing around in the high waves. In the afternoon, the others joined us, and I again spend most of the time in the water. 1½ hour playing in the waves without a break and without getting cold. There was a lot of people, but I really enjoyed the beach, but maybe the other beaches are way nicer and that is why people say "Do not bother with going to Atacames".

Lørdag formiddag tilbragte jeg sammen med Felix og Stefanie i Tonsupa og denne dag tilbragte jeg størstedelen af tiden i vandet. Om eftermiddagen tog vi til stranden igen hele gruppen. Hele dagen var der store bølger og om eftermiddagen tilbragte jeg 1½ time i vandet i streg, hvor jeg legede rundt i bølgerne. Alt i alt en rigtig succesfuld dag og den dejlig strand med rigtig mange mennekser, men måske er det bare fordi vi ikke har oplevet de andre strande i Ecuador?

Atacames

Sunday we had to go home and I took the late bus with Brónagh and Rebecca. As we had to wait until 13.30 before the bus left, so we went to Atacames, enjoyed the last views of the beach and had an early lunch. When we headed back the bus ride ended up taking a long time! As everybody was heading back to Quito there was a lot of cars and buses on the road and we was back in Quito at 9 o'clock, and had to share a taxi back to where we live.

As I spent the weekend at the beach, I ate lots of fish and seafood that you do not normally eat in Quito, because it is expensive. I tasted had Ceviche, a dish where the seafood of your choice is cooked in the acid from limes and tomatoes. The taste is nice, but with all the acid you feel like you need to go to the dentist afterwards. Ceviche is normally served with popcorn and banana crisps on the side.

Søndag skulle vi hjem, og jeg tog den sene bus sammen med Brónagh og Rebecca. Fordi vi skulle vente indtil 13.30 før vi kunne komme med bussen tog vi til Atacames, nød stranden en smule og spiste tidlig frokost.
Busturen tilbage endte med at være noget længere end busturen dertil, fordi alle andre naturligvis også skulle tilbage til Quito. Derfor var vi først tilbage ved busstationen klokken 9 og blev nødt til at tage en taxi hjem.

Fordi vi var ved havet, bød vores måltider også på fisk og skaldyr, som du normalt ikke spiser i Quito, da det er meget dyrt. Jeg smagte blandt andet Ceviche, der er skalddyr eller fisk kogt i syren fra tomater og lime. Det smager meget godt, men i længden bliver det meget syre og du slutter måltidet af med tanken om, at du nok har fået syreskader på tænderne. Ceviche serveres normalt med bananchips og popcorn ved siden af.

Ceviche
Photo credit: http://ecuatorianoenvivo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ceviche-de-camaron.jpg

I also tasted Encocado, which is seafood cooked in a coconut sauce, served with rice and cooked green bananas. It has a very rich taste and I would definitely recommend you to try that if you ever visit the coast of Ecuador.

Jeg smagte også Encocado, der er fisk eller rejer i kokonødssovs, serveret med ris og stegte grønne bananer. Det smagte virkelig godt og er helt klart en af de ecuadorianske retter jeg ville anbefale til andre.

Encocado
Photo credit: https://fromjuliewithlove.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/tsachila-the-leap-284.jpg

Fundación Amor y Energia and family life

I have been pretty busy and tired since my last post which is actually two weeks ago!

Since then I have moved to my host family who are really, really sweet! I must say that I enjoy it more than staying in the apartment and I learn a lot more Spanish, because my host family only speaks Spanish and always correct my grammar, when I make mistakes. And even practicing a little every day helps a lot!
This is also one of the reasons why I am so tired! Because even after 10 minutes of talking you need a short break. And luckily this also means that I will get to train my brain while here.

In my host family I live with my host mom and host dad, Emma and Hannibal, and the two kids, Omar who is 14 and Katty who is 10. I also live with another Danish volunteer, Sofie, and right now it is a bit unclear how long she will be staying in Ecuador.

I feel a bit awkward in the family sometimes because I feel like I am intruding their private life, but apparently they have been hosting volunteers for a lot of years and they are so nice to me! And it seems like they are enjoying having me here.


I also started working in Fundación Amor y Energia last Monday, and I really enjoy it! Usually we conduct horse therapy in the morning and have riding classes in the afternoon. Otherwise we just take care of the place and the horses.
At times I find the work heart breaking, when kids or adults who can barely walk on their own or with other disabilities come in for the therapy. But it also makes me really happy to know that we are helping them and just making them smile or laugh is satisfying.
The work is also physically hard and we walk a lot, so right now I go to bed at 9 every evening. I think one of the only downsides of my new work is that I have to walk half an hour after taking the bus to go there. But I do not care. I feel motivated to go to work in the morning and I love it.
Normally I work from 8-18 with a 2 hour lunch break, but if there is not much work to do I can be let off earlier, which is really nice sometimes.

Only downside since I moved? I have had a bag sliced open and some money stolen. Luckily I only had money stolen and nothing else, I just feel annoyed that it happened and that you have to watch you stuff all the time. I am pretty sure it happened at the bus stop or in the bus where there were lots of people. It is annoying but it could have been a lot worse.

As I since then have been a bit afraid of bringing my camera I have no proper pictures, but here is one from the blood moon, and as we are in Ecuador we did not have to get up in the middle of the night to see it.

Jeg har haft ret travlt og været virkelig træt siden mit sidste indlæg, hvilket forklarer hvorfor det tog så lang tid med et nyt.

Siden da er jeg flyttet til min værtsfamilie, og de er rigtig søde. Jeg nyder at bo her frem for i lejligheden og jeg lærer mere spansk, da de ikke snakker engelsk og altid retter min grammatik. Og selvom de kun får snakket en lille smule, så er det stadigvæk øvelse.
Det er en af grundene til hvorfor jeg har været så træt - selv 10 minutters samtale kan være trættende.

I min værtsfamilie er min værtsforældre, Emma og Hannibal, og deres to børn, Omar på 14 og Katty på 10. Jeg bor også sammen med en anden dansk volontør, Sofie, men lige nu er det lidt uklart hvor længe hun bliver.

Nogle gange er det lidt underligt, fordi jeg føler at jeg ødelægger deres privatliv, men de har haft volontører i mange år og nyder det.


Jeg er også begyndt at arbejde hos Fundación Amor y Energia og jeg er rigtig glad for det. Normalt har vi hesteterapi om morgenen og ridelektioner om eftermiddagen. Derudover går vi til hånde og sørger for hestene.
Nogle gange gør det ondt i hjertet at arbejde på projektet, når der kommer børn eller voksne med slemme psykiske sygdomme eller fysiske handicap. Men det er tilfredstillende at vi hjælper og bare det at se dem smile eller grine varmer ens hjerte.
Arbejdet er fysisk hårdt og vi går meget. Jeg arbejder normalt fra 8-18 med en 2 timers frokostpause. Det værste ved projektet er at jeg skal gå omkring en halv time fra bussen, men jeg er meget motiveret fordi jeg er rigtig glad for mit arbejde.
Og hvis der ikke er meget arbejde kan jeg få tidligere fri.

Det værste der er sket siden jeg flyttede? Jeg fik en taske skåret op og mine penge blev stjålet. Heldigvis var der ikke andet i tasken, men det er stadigvæk irriterende at det skete - og at man absolut skal være virkelig forsigtig med sine ting. Jeg er sikker på at det skete i bussen eller busstoppet, hvor der altid er mange mennesker. Men der kunne stadigvæk være sket værre ting, så jeg er glad for, at jeg kun fik stjålet penge.

Og siden da har jeg været lidt bange for at medbringe mit kamera og derfor får I et billede af blodmånen set herfra. Hvor vi ikke blev nødt til at stå op midt om natten for at se den.