Cultural Center for Earthquake Victims in Ecuador

Now that the intercultural center is finished with its basic construction process, we have been inviting volunteers to come and work with us in the Children´s Library and Intercultural Center. We encourage volunteers that are traveling as couples because, this way, the workload is shared; after hours they enjoy the privacy of a beautiful bamboo home, and more importantly they embody a different manner of being a couple. In a patriarchal setting as Don Juan, this is fundamental to our gender focused objectives. Our current volunteers come from Germany, Tom is teaching a photography workshop with girls ages 10 to 12; Janina teaches English for adults in the afternoon. Both of them are hard working very organized and have fitted right in from the beginning. Our volunteers help us run the remedial reading program; homework assistance, Library support and also teach English in the local grade school. We would like to share their experience with you: Please tell us how you came to know about us My name is Janina Martens I´m from Germany. My husband Tom and I are travelling the world together. We did not want to be tourists and therefore we looked on the internet for opportunities to help and travel. We found “Workaway” and there we found this Project. We had not planned to visit Ecuador on our way through South America, but we liked the idea of a Library in a fishing village so much, that we changed our plans and came to Ecuador. Since you read our posting and knew what the work was and the accommodations, after being with us for several weeks what was something you were not expecting? We were surprised with the people; we knew there would be contact with the community; but that´s something every Project tells you. But we were really surprised that right from the start, with the village being so small it really works. we did not expect this to happen so fast. When you are volunteering around the world, you get used to the phrase “community relationships” every Project claims that it is building such a relationship. When we arrived to Don Juan, we were surprised to see how people greeted us on the street. After spending time with the kids in the Library and going out with them to the beach, we were immediately recognized and accepted as part of the community. Another thing we were not expecting is that there would be so many kids coming in the afternoon! We are used to a Library were one individual comes in, browses through the books, finds what she needs, checks it out and leaves with the book. Here you see children flocking in groups to read, play games or hang out with the volunteers. We were not used to kids spending their whole afternoons in the Library! We thought there would be 5 or 7 kids coming in, to take a book and leave. So in your experience with Libraries in Germany, what is it the difference. For me in Germany a Library is a place you go take a book and take it home. As a child I don´t remember being it a place you stay to have fun like the experience these kids have here. They come here as if they would go to a park, they use it like a meeting point, where they hang out; it’s a communal space. What is the best part of your day? By 4pm I find myself looking forward to the English adults class that I teach. After the whole day reading and talking in Spanish with the children, it is a soothing time to sit with adults and speak slowly in English. As a result of my work with the children, I can tell my Spanish has improved so much during these weeks, specially by how, by the end of the afternoon I need to sit with adults! I´m not really used to working with children, I have to admit I feel more comfortable teaching English to adults. What have you learned from this experience in Don Juan? For us it has offered a direct window to education. This is something we, in Germany, take for granted: education is something that really works well in Germany and I had never thought about it. You go to school, and you get an education. For these children, this is not necessarily so. So when you see how things are in a rural village like Don Juan, you get frustrated about the difficulties people have to get a good education. This is why volunteering with this Project has been so meaningful, this Library keeps the eagerness of learning alive. I think what this Library and Intercultural Center is doing is great, it not only changes the lives of the children who come in and spend their afternoons doing homework or hanging out with friends, games, books and volunteers. It also changes your life. Do you think what we are attempting here will have a long term impact? This is an honest question I often ask myself: I hope so, I think that just the possibility to go somewhere to meet people that pay respectful attention to you as a child, offers a new possibility that was not there before, this is a very different experience for them than going to the local school in Don Juan. As to gender dynamics, what do you thing you as a couple are teaching? It happens like in the background, you don’t even notice it, when we go out for a walk, we are the only couple to be seen. You never see couples walking around. Or maybe when people come and see Tom cooking they are intrigued and maybe this will eventually change gender dynamics and show them there is not one only way of being a couple; hopefully we are challenging gender stereotypes.

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