Here is a long post of the entire trip that I typed up:

We visited the children for the first time that day and I think a lot of us found that it was very hard not to become attached to the children. The school is called Arturo Quesada and it is a bilingual (Spanish and Kitchwa) school of 158 children. There are 7 classrooms and 3 teachers. The children come from highly impoverished, indigenous families in the community. The community service continued for the next 5 days. We traveled through the beautiful Andes mountains to get to Shina- the indigenous community where the school was nearly an hour away from our host families in Cuenca. The community service that we did consisted of painting the school, cleaning it up a bit, playing with the children and teaching them English. It truly was a life changing experience to hang out with the children that much. Personally, I was not able to talk to the children that much since I do not know any Spanish but I was able to communicate them in other ways. I taught them American sign language because there was one child that way deaf. I mainly played with the children and taught them games like Red Rover, Duck Duck Goose, Jump rope, Tug of War, and Limbo. They of course played soccer with us and showed all of us up. They also taught as a game called Salte or the jumping game where you use an elastic string and jump on and over it in different ways. I was very tired after it to say the least and the children thought it was hilarious because we were so much worse at it than them. That was my way of interacting with the children since I could not talk to them as much as some other people. A lot of people in the group are fluent in Spanish and spent many hours each day teaching the children English.

I had a great experience with one little boy named Victor. One day he said to me “ojoes azules” and of course I had to get someone to translate that but I found out it means blue eyes. He pointed at my eyes and said it again. He was amazed to see blue eyes because they are so used to seeing only dark hair and dark eyes. Then he started singing a song about blue eyes called Ojoes Azules. It was the running joke that he had a crush on me because he stared into my eyes the entire time and sang the song. The songs lyrics were something like “blue eyes don’t cry”. Turns out that he sang the song to all the girls by the end of the trip though so I think he just knew how to work it with the ladies.

The last day of volunteering, we participated in a pampa mensa (a cleansing ceremony) that the community had prepared for us. We climbed a mountain that was near the school and the path that we took was an old incan trail. We got to the top of the mountain and all circled around an altar made out of flowers and herbs. The indigenous women recited a song and other kind words. They thanked us for coming to the community and their exact words were that “before they were in darkness but then we came and showed them that someone cared about them and it led them out of darkness.” Right after they spoke a woman drank an herbal tea mixed with alcohol and went around and spit on us to begin the cleansing ceremony. Then we all drank some of the tea and lined up to be cleansed. Each person was rubbed with fresh herbs. Then we all danced around in a circle while they sang and played indigenous music. After that, we finally started our descend back down the mountain. The entire cleansing ceremony was a wonderful and amazing experience. It is something that I do not think that I will be able to participate in again and not to mention the view on top of the mountain was breathtaking.

After the cleansing ceremony, the community provided us with a feast which consisted of guinea pig, potatos, and beans. The guinea pig was interesting, it tasted kind of like chicken. It is a delicacy there and it was extremely generous of them to provide us with the food that they did. The next part was the saddest part of the trip and the part that will stick with me forever. The director of the school and some of the children stood up to say a few words. Even though I could not directly understand everything that they were saying, it was obvious that they were very thankful. One little girl that talked started crying and gave us all a hug. Then they presented each of us with scarves that they had hand made. Once the little girl had started talking, I had already started crying but the crying only got worse. Victor came over and hugged me. The children give such good hugs that it just made me cry more. We all were a big mess because it was so sad to be leaving them. Victor said some things in Spanish to me and with the help of someone translating I learned that he said “Don’t forget us” and “Will you come back?” Those words put me over the edge and when I started crying, he started singing the Ojoes Azules song again and wiped my tears away. Many of the children did not cry and were scared to see us crying. I think they are used to having tough lives and crying is not something that they normally do. However, I did see tears streaming down Victor’s face when we were leaving. His words really affected me because it showed how much it meant to the children that we were there. It made me realize how important it was to continue to help out these children that are in need. The children were so caring and loving. The fact that Victor dried my tears and sang “blue eyes don’t cry” to me made me even more sad because we should be the ones drying their tears not the other way around.

We rode the bus home in silence besides the sound of all of our tears. We were all content to silently take in the experience that we had all experienced together.

The University of Cuenca provided us with a farewell dinner the very last night in Cuenca. I got up and talked about my experience along with other people. Our contacts Ana and Patricia expressed how much this meant to them. Then we flew to Quito, spent the day there and flew home.

Overall, the experience was absolutely incredible. It was eye-opening and it personally confirmed my career as a teacher. The group and I hope to continue to help the children by sending books and school supplies there. Many of us already have plans to go back and continue the volunteering.

What I found out on this trip is that the heart speaks one language (these words are courtesy of Carla). Despite the fact that I could hardly understand the children and they could hardly understand me, they were so happy that we were there. Everyone was so thankful for the time that we spent with the children and improving the school. The trip made me realize how lucky I am and how important it is to continue to help the children. Like Victor said, we cannot forget them. They wont be forgotten because they will be in our hearts forever.