Weekly Internship Post 3

So, because of the Tiputini trip, this week I only had interning Tuesday-Thursday :)


CENVIDA

On both Tuesday and Thursday, I worked with the big kids again at CENVIDA.

Since I switched dates of my internship, I never see the youngest girl Alejandra (the tallest 2year old) anymore because she only comes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

 

Poop :(

Also, Yamileth hasn't been showing up since last week either, because she had an operation (in which I believe Rosita was explaining that it was for the hearing aid thing that goes on the head) and it would take about a month for her to recover.

So the little kids' classroom has been relatively peaceful these passed couple of workdays.

It's a little sad even though they were the hardest two to work with, but they were the ones that were also really giving me the challenge to understand them and gave me tons of motivation to read their hand gestures and body language.

However, I also really realized how much I enjoyed working with the big kids. Before the teacher arrived on Thursday, I had an amazing time trying to understand the questions they had for me and trying to answer questions by making hand gestures and writing words and pictures on the wall. As much as I am interested in childhood education, I really appreciate the fact that I can actually have a decent conversation with these kids (more or less even though I struggle trying to read their minds).

I'm still trying to figure how to work with the teacher though, that's also one thing I will need to overcome through this experience. She has the full ability to hear and converse but it's a challenge because she intimidates me a tad bit with her attitude of full-on carelessness.


FEVI/ Muñequitos de Lumbisí

The only work day of this week-Wednesday :)

I feel like recently I've been getting sent to the Leonsitos classroom more often.

Honestly speaking...they are a pain in the butt.
Like I've said multiple times in the past though...they are only A YEAR younger from the ositos group but they are myyyyy oh my so freaking talkative, they do not listen, they do things just to piss you off right in front of your face with a smirk, etc etc.

Many times I feel super jealous of my friend who is always left at ositos working with my favorite little boys and girls (I know its not good to have favorites, but hey I'm human too).

But, I also feel accomplished when a child that's been running around ignoring what the teachers have been telling him finally listens to what I say and finally becomes manageable.
Of course, just because he does that one moment, it doesn't mean he'll do the same the next second.

The reward only comes for a short time period but a reward is still a reward no matter how small and it really does make me happy being able to have some ability to discipline these children.

Tiputini - Estación de Biodiversidad (Amazon Trip!)

Soooo, this past weekend half of our BCA group as well as a small group from the USFQ OPI group went to Tiputini, a USFQ biodiversity research center.

This must be a typical comment, but everything I saw there exactly what I had been seeing all these years on pages on national geographic or animal planet or one of those nature magazine/channels.

We met at Rio Coca station at 4:30am and, well, I want to stress the difficulty of getting there.
First we took a 45min-1hr bus ride to the new airport, took a 30min plane ride to coca, took a few minute bus ride to the hotel with the small monkeys, took another 2 hour boat ride to the oil station, then a 2 hour bus ride to take another 2-3 hour boat ride until we finally arrived to the Tiputini research station (which is located on the other side of Yasuni Park, across the Tiputini River).

In short, we were in the middle of nowhere in the amazon.

(photo credit: Sammy)

The first day -- we got there in the afternoon, broke up into groups for our cabins, went swimming in the Tiputini river (which looks super calm but the currents are rather strong -- which is why we have to wear life vests), had an info/intro meeting, had amaaazing dinner and lights out at 9:30pm.

Second -- mini hike with Ally, Libbie and Erin, breakfast (they had amazing food there btw), did a morning hike with our guide Jose (he's indigenous Kichua decent - he taught us a little bit of kichua :] ), had a super-calm/relaxing canoe ride in the lagoon where I almost fell asleep a couple times, went back for lunch and went for a swim in the river. We heard amazing stories of other groups seeing a bunch of monkeys and got super excited. But when we went for our afternoon activities at the canopy and the tower, we literally did not see ANYTHING. poop. But we had a really awesome talk about spirits and how Jose's grandfather? was
a shaman. We did see some tucans and a couple monkeys through a microscope, but I just remember hoping we have more luck with animals the following day. Yet again we had amazing food for dinner (they have a ton of snacks too) and had a mini presentation about Tiputini.


(Photo credit: Libbie)

Third -- Did some yoga with Miho and Ally before breakfast--doing yoga while listening to animals snoring and birds chirping is one of the most relaxing things I've done. We went on a morning hike where this time we saw 3 different types of monkeys while hiking. But, while we got super excited seeing the first monkeys, we also got two of our girls get stung by wasps, in which I definitely was lucky since they were both in front and behind me in the hiking line that we had. But anyways, after the hike all of our group went for a float-in-the-river. Quite a hilarious picture if you ask me--a bunch of kids literally FLOATING in the river with a life vest on. But it was also one of the most amazing/relaxing experiences. And apparently if you kept on floating down you would eventually reach Brazil. We then had a presentation by a lady that researches and follows monkeys for 8-12 hours per day, which was followed by a night hike with our awesome guide Jose. We saw some taranchulas, a toad, frogs, a tree snake, banana spider (and other super dangerous spiders in which names I have forgotten), huuuuge ants that bite, and many MANY more. And to close the last full day, a couple people and I layed out in front of our cabins to star-gaze. In the darkness where you can barely see your hand right in front of your face, even the slightest star dust was visible and sky looked so bright in the darkness of the rainforest, and it felt like the occasional shooting stars lit up the whole world around us. With that two days of major nature therapy, I packed my stuff to leave the next day early in the morning.

(Photo Credit: Katie)

Fourth -- Before we left though, Ally and I did a morning hike with Jose (the nicest guide ever). This trip we saw two different types of monkeys, obviously a bunch of spiders and insects, and fresh armadillo foot steps :) ---I might add that I made the biggest fall that morning also. I landed right on my tail bone but I'm glad I didn't fall on some insect that could have stung/bitten me and put me to bed for the next couple of weeks.
The hike ended quickly, we had our last amazing breakfast there, I bought two bracelets from one of the workers, and we headed to the indigenous community for a quick visit (which I must say, made me super uncomfortable because it definitely felt like cultural exploitation), and headed our loooooooooooong journy back to Quito.

It was a mini-trip to the Amazon but I definitely came back feeling amazing and as well as exhausted. The number of mosquito bites I got from this trip is absolutely ridiculous but I feel like it has been a constant reminder of the amount of biodiversity there, making me conscious of my consumptions back in the city, and making me remember how responsible each individual is in preserving the most biodiverse place in the world.

Weekly Internship Post 2

Weekly Internship Post for the week of March 4 (monday) to March 7 (thursday)


On the 4th, I worked with the Leonsitos (3-4yr olds) at FEVI/Muñequitos de Lumbisí.
Recently I've been feeling quite exhausted from this cycle of waking up at 5:20am and leaving the house at 6:15am and taking 45-60minutes to go to Lumbisí to go run around chasing the children around, going to class and taking 3 hours trying to decifer 4 pages of the spanish readings and taking 2 more hours trying to make 50 sentences.

Not to mention the laziness that has taken over my body since coming to Ecuador which has also transformed me to a person that never checked nor posted on Facebook to an addict.

But of course, I knew working with children is not easy, I knew it would be physically demanding but this is what I agreed to do so I want to be able to get the most out of these experiences.

So, what I've been observing about the Leonsitos is that they always lack volunteers compared to the Ositos (4-5 yr olds).
Even though it is only a year difference, they are also A LOT more difficult to manage and organize.
One simple activity outside or inside the classroom is impossible to organize because there are always a group of boys or girls that do not want to participate nor follow directions even after being told multiple times to come back to take part in the activity.

Perhaps they are in a mini phase of rebellion since there are definitely a couple kids that just do things just to make the teachers and volunteers upset or break the class rules knowingly and enjoy running away after seeing the supervisers' reactions.

Anyhow, it's been interesting seeing the different personalities of children.
The differences in how they behave is also quite interesting to observe even when they are only one year different from one another.
Maybe the Ositos are a little more mature in that they want to be recognized for their ability of following directions.

D.Bryan recommended me to read The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner after having a meeting with him about the creative journal project and discussing my possible topic on childhood education and the balance in life.
I  saw the different learning styles that were written, I hope I can see some connection with the different learning styles with the children as well.

                  On the other hand, I worked with the big kids at CENVIDA for the first time on Tuesday. Honestly speaking, although it was definitely a lot easier than working with the younger kids who do not speak at all, it was more difficult working with the older kids because there was nothing much I can help out with. Perhaps it was just that the teacher didn't have anything for me to teach that day or I just could not find work to do. But even though the older children are able to speak a little bit, it was still difficult trying to understand them and a little sad when they would immediately turn to the teacher when I didn't understand something they said rather than try to communicate with me a couple times. Being here definitely makes me realize the difference of organization between CENVIDA and FEVI.Most of the time the kids at CENVIDA have a task to do but also are just standing around or are very easily distracted (I am not sure whether the inability to hear has an effect on that) and it seems as though many of the lesson plans are not planned.  I wonder what kind of aid or protection children with hearing disabilities have in this country.    



Weekly Internship Post 1

Here comes the first weekly internship post :)

Since I would like to have a more profound experience and reflection with my internships, I will be writing a weekly blog about the two locations and write a final reflection blog on my own at the end of the semester.


Firstly, I intern every morning from Monday to Friday.
Monday and Wednesday: FEVI + Muñequito de Lumbisí: leave my house 6:10am-12pm
Tuesday and Thursday: CENVIDA: leave house at 7:30-12pm

I started volunteering (interning) with the two schools at the end of January, except the schools here have a two week vacation prior and during carnaval so I recently just resumed with the kids just two weeks ago, after my return from the Galapagos (honestly speaking I wanted to stay there forever).




Now, here's the run-down for the two schools I volunteer at:

FEVI/ Muñequitos de Lumbisí
A school for children 3-4/4-5 years old. There are two basic classes: the Leonsitos (3-4yrs) and the Ositos (4-5yrs). Each class has more or less about 25 children and the classrooms are a nice size with tons of posters on the walls and resources to utilize for these children.

The coordinator there, Jaime, spoke to me passionately about his system of teaching, "art of play" (I believe is what he said..). Rather than forcing the children to stay in class and make them concentrate and participate in the class work/activity, his method is to let the children concentrate on class work for a certain amount of time and after each activity, allow to go outside to play.

He spoke of his responsibility to teach the children who will become leaders of the 21st century; the issues of the machista culture that is still very much dominant in Lumbisí; the hope of getting computers in the near future to have computer classes for the children; and the methods of teaching related to the educational laws that exist in Ecuador.

I feel a deep sense of care for the children from Jaime, and I am not sure if that is the reason, but the children also listen to him much more than the other teachers (the other teachers are women, I am not sure if that is a result of machista culture as well).


CENVIDA- Centro Escuela Nueva Vida
A tiny school for deaf-mute children ages 2-17.
There are three classes, generally divided into the youngest, middle, and oldest children that go to the school.
I have mostly worked with the youngest group here, just so that the comparison between FEVI is easier to do. (Although comparing children that can't hear and can hear are very much different)

The classes are more or less about 5 students each, the classrooms are rather tiny and the school has much less resources and the posters on the wall are all hand drawn/written.

 

 

The hardest part about this place is obviously communication.

To start off with, my spanish speaking skills are still very much entry-level.

Working at FEVI is definitely a struggle trying to communicate with the children what to do, what not to do, why not to do something, and disciplining them by explaining things to them clearly.

 

However, the chidlren at CENVIDA can't hear.

This would be a struggle in the United States, but trying to teach deaf-children here has been such an obstacle for me.

Most of the time they are in class, there isn't much of an issue because the teacher is looking over them as well.

But the most difficult thing is stopping a fight, finding out a way to have them be on good terms again but having them say sorry by not having to say sorry (if that makes sense) and having them share the swings, showing them what not to do, etc.

 

 

 

 

In both cases, I have really felt the importance of parents and surrounding adults being good influences and great role models for the children.

No matter what age or whether they are deaf or not, children learn by looking at how their parents/adults act, interact with one another, greet and thank others, etc.

 

Children catch up on so many more things than we think, and the way we raise/encourage/discipline/support/etc them will really shape their personalities and inner strengths.

In that case, it is really important to do the best to give the children the most we can so that we can provide a strong foundation for them to become successful people in the future.

 

For now, there are so many little struggles that I am facing trying to handle them, but so far it has been a pleasure working with the children (no matter how tired I am, I am instantly energized [to a certain degree that is] when I see their adorable faces :) ).

 

I hope I can make a personal connection with all the teachers and as many children as I can while I am here :)



First Bloggin' :)

February 25, 2013

It's been a month and 25 days since I came to Ecuador :)

 
The first couple of weeks definitely sucked after all that happened at the end of last semester.

I arrived with 7 of my classmates to a little hostal near the Mariscal (an area where a bunch of clubs and bars are). I am definitely grateful that I came with them a little bit before the BCA orientation to get comfortable with the new environment, but to tell the truth, it sucked to be around anyone with my psychological condition at the time.


But now that I think of it, even though it's still hard to face some of my raw emotions, I'm so glad I am here right now at this moment with my friends.


Although we are quite a crazy group, I truly love everyone in our BCA group :) From what I've heard in the past, I thought people in your study abroad program are the people that I wouldn't really get along with, but that is the completely opposite I do with the people in our group. Each and every single person is so awesome, I'm sincerely appreciative of each of their presense. And recently I have really been feeling a deep sense of gratitude for the study abroad coordinators (I'm not writing this just because I know the coordinators will possibly read this). I definitely believe choosing BCA Quito as my study abroad destination has been one of the best choices I have made in my life.

Denial from what had happened has slowly been transforming into acceptance as well. This is all thanks to the people here that have been supporting me and has been giving me the opportunity to see so much more than the small little bubble that I lived in back home.

I still haven't really gotten enough strength to really face head on to the deepest part of me to bring it back to my religious views, but I do believe that I still have made major progress and each step is still progress no matter how small.

However, now that I have actually admitted to myself that I am actually in love with the Galapagos and am considering volunteering there over summer, I really need to get my shit together to take some action in this mini problem that I had been facing regarding applying for an internship grant.

Considering this is my first blog ever and that I am starting this about two months after my arrival, I believe that I will be reflecting back on many passed events and trips as well. Many posts may be about my trips, BCA excursions, personal reflection, official internship reflection posts (required for USFQ credit), etc.

I intend this to be a personal blog (and for credit-receiving purposes), but I would be more than happy if I can expand my reflective/analytical/critical capacities by continuing and sharing with my friends and family :)

To everything that has happened so far and to everyone that I have met so far, thank you very much :)

I appreciate all experiences here and I truly hope that I can grow immensely from this trip and will do my best to utilize everything I have grasped here in my post-SA life back home or where ever I end up going.

To everything that is about to happen-- I hope to face you with open arms.

Allow me to grow! :)

Viva Ecuador/BCA!!!!