Name:                           
Email address:              
***(please provide email only if it is ok for other volunteers to email you about project)
Partner organisation: Yanapuma
Start date:                    27 October
End date:                     28 November
 

1. What were the main tasks you undertook at the project? Did you have any prior experience or knowledge that helped you with these?

Teaching children english. Some experience previously in Cuzco.
   
 

2. Was the explanation and support you received from the organisation adequate to ensure you could carry out your work successfully? If not please explain why.

The school has been really great. Supportive and open for any questions, and helpfull where they could.  The only thing is that there isn´t many (any) material. So it is wisely recomended to bring (or make) material; drawings, cards with words (remember you are teaching children).
The teachers are helpfull during the classes with translation (they know some english.
 

3. Would you recommend working with this organisation to other volunteers? What are the main areas of skills and interests that volunteers need for this work? Please give reasons.

Yes. Speek english, patience and understanding, interested in working with children, improvisation, creativity. Teaching experience is not a must but it will help a, especially if teaching children something in a short time. Speeking spanish isn´t a must eighter. But knowing some helps a lot.
 
 
4.     Was the communication and support you received from Yanapuma, before and during your time volunteering adequate? Please comment on the initial orientation session, showing you to your site and communication throughout.  If not, please specify why and how it could be improved.
 
 
Yes. Contact has allways been good. I liked beeing contacted by my contact person before hand. And if you have any quastions you can ask. My introduction to my site was great, no comments on that. There has no communication throughout, no need for that.
There wasn´t really explanation about my work., for that it was quite obvious. Though there was about the place of staying. What I missed was information about the school. I think it is best when your contact person has actually been at the school (project) so he or she knows the situation. Also I recomend to be informed up to date about any vacation periods. The first two weeks there were no classes! Make sure you ask exactually when the volonteer can start (knowing the school can be quite unclear about that themselves).
   
 
5.     How would rate your overall experience at this project?

Overall: 8
 
 
6.      Any other comments?

No
   
7.     If you would like, please write a short paragraph summing up your project and experience volunteering, as well as if and why you might recommend this volunteer site to others in the future. We will put this information on our Volunteer Ecuador website, as a direct quote from you to help others learn about your experience.
 
This will come later.  
Volunteer Ecuador Evaluation

Name:

Email address:

Partner organisation (Volunteer Site): CERRO SECO

Start date: 5/4/09

End date: 6/29/2009

• What were the main tasks you undertook at the project? Did you have any prior experience or knowledge that helped you with these?

The main tasks I undertook at Cerro Seco were teaching environmental education, English, and computers.  My time was spent very differently than I had originally expected, given that I had made a trip to Cerro Seco while in Manabí in March specifically in order to make sure that I would be spending my time making as much of a positive and lasting impact as possible while also learning and meeting my personal goals.  The original plan was to teach environmental education and conduct a species inventory.  Here’s what actually happened:

Teaching/education

Environmental Education

When I arrived, I learned that there wasn’t any environmental education program really set up (though it had been “going on for 9 years and served 2000 students”).  Marcelo helped find a teacher who wanted environmental education programming for his class and the plan was to teach twice a week for about two hours.  Ultimately this turned into once or less than once a week.

Achieved:

• Mural: Designed, managed logistics, and painted with student help a mural about nutritious and non-nutritious foods.  Mural connected with environmental themes such as compost, healthy river systems, and separating organic and inorganic waste.  Students demonstrated that they understood the concepts of healthy eating and the connection of food to the environment.  However (and unfortunately), it is not clear that they learned anything new.

• Classes: Planned and taught for two weeks.  Although the original plan was to alternate classroom sessions (information and activities) and walks in the forest (practicum - for example: a classroom session on birds’ characteristics, reproduction, and flying would then be accompanied by a birdwalk and live identification), this did not end up working out.  During Class 4 (practicum), we headed up to the forest and because it was impossible to plan, we planted trees along the way from the school to the reserve, where we collected seeds.  I was totally unaware of the plan or where we were headed with it, but then we started to create a...

• Huerto escolar: The class turned into constructing a school garden to grow vegetables.  That a previous garden had existed not too long ago was pretty evident (and frustrating).  We spent several weeks: having students plant seeds in fundas (little plastic baggies) (for this activity we did not have bastante fundas ni bastante abono); cleaning up the garden; collecting trash around the area while pretending to help Ruben (works at Cerro Seco) and another volunteer build the wall around the garden; “paint” the wall; etc.

In practice, “teaching” this class was quite a frustrating and disappointing experience. 

Among the frustrations:

• I learned two weeks into the class that the majority of the students (all boys) had already received programming from Cerro Seco and thus finally understood why they seemed so familiar with the dry tropical forest and the reserve and the basic facts.  This was frustrating on two levels: first, Marcelo always wanted me to do “algo sencillo” (meaning that the students would just relearn and re-regurgitate material with which they were already familiar); and second, other classes and other schools (including the girls’ school across the street) had not had the opportunity to visit the reserve or to learn about dry tropical forest ecology.

• There was “always” and therefore in practice never time to sit down with the teacher and/or Marcelo to determine the objectives of the class or what they wanted.  The answer always was “como tú deseas.”  For some people this might be liberating, but for me it was frustrating and became especially tricky and a moot point when Marcelo redirected the class toward building a school garden, which involved logistics I couldn’t handle on my own.  Also, my idea to integrate the class with ecology terminology and concepts was swiftly rejected as “too difficult,” even though later, I discovered that in fact the government had included an ecology unit in the 6to nivel textbook for Ciencias Naturales.

• Frequently there would be logistical conflicts and so we ended up having class only once a week.  I was so occupied with the other school (below) that it didn’t make me “bored,” but I could see future volunteers feeling their days to be very empty.  Communication of logistical conflicts was also very poor: one glaring example is that my last class was rescheduled from the usual Wednesday to Friday in order to include a newly arriving volunteer.  I called and confirmed Friday with the teacher on Tuesday, only to find out on Wednesday at the other school that province-wide there was no school on Friday.  We (Marcelo and I) had to proactively contact the teacher to confirm that school was not in session. 

English and technology education

Upon arrival I was asked if I could teach English and computers in the little escuelita (I suppose that’s redundant) in Bellavista, the community in which Cerro Seco is located, just outside of Bahía.  Against my better judgment (because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to “quit” if I started, given that it’s very hard to “abandon” children) I agreed, because 1) I was actually being asked by the community to do something specific and 2) Marcelo was very enthusiastic about this contribution.

Below is a summary/my personal experience; there is a longer document for future teachers about the actual material taught and about all of the students.

“Achieved”:

English, 2ndo (ages 5-7): Children at first received instruction 2-3 times a week for 40 minutes, when school was in session (3-4 days a week, depende).  For the final four weeks, children received daily instruction (when school was open) for 15-20 minutes a day, and progressed much more rapidly.  Very little learning was actually achieved (we worked on introductions, numbers 1-5, and verbs) but they are primed to continue if there is someone to take over, and have now developed good attentive habits. 

English, 3ro-7to (ages 7-14): Because each level encompasses a range of ages (in 3ro from 7-10, in 5to from 8-14, etc), instruction at first was given to the entire group (they’re already all sharing a classroom) for 60-80 minutes 2-3 times a week.  Why such long classes?  Sometimes I was asked to start at 8:40 or 9am, and “recreo” was at 10am.  Given the logistics and the state of the school/teaching staff/planning, it seemed to make more sense to keep the kids focused and entertained all the way until recreo.  Ultimately this changed: Teaching this entire group together did not work, and neither did “sharing” the classroom.  I started bringing small groups into the “comedor” (which is a very beautiful room that is rarely used) and sat them seminar-style around a table.  Students achieved varying levels of knowledge and pronunciation and some have the potential to progress rapidly with daily instruction.  English program for older students generally was a failure given lack of communication among the school’s teachers (a “director” who everyone is trying to sack, an 18-year-old teacher who got the job through nepotism, and a volunteer from a nearby community who feels very strongly about the developed world, among his other dislikeable characteristics).

Computer education: The Rotary Club has not only funded a gorgeous new playground for the school (which kids enjoy on a daily basis and have also vandalized with rocks and paint) but has also supplied six spanking-new computers to the school, for which the community funded and built a beautiful room.  Six computers are plenty to stick kids in pairs and do some real experiential education.  Here’s what happened:

• Began teaching with experiential exercises such as “vamos a hacer nuestra propia carpeta” y “vamos a dibujar en Paint” to practice skills directly on the computer.  Kids in general responded well to the activities and demonstrated incredible respect for the room and the machines.
• Found a typing program -- free, in Spanish, without viruses, compatible with Vista -- downloaded it, installed it on their computers, and got these kids started learning how to type.  Kids did not question the value of “home row.” 

After quite a bit of success and feeling inspired, this golden feeling was squashed.  Esteban (my fellow computer teacher) informed me that he was going to return to teaching on the blackboard and doing “theory” in preparation for their exams (which he draws up).  I think he was also afraid that if some sort of “supervisor” showed up and saw me there, he might not get paid.  At first I tried to understand the context, the processes, how I might fit in (given that I was originally asked to help teach this class).  Then I gave up, after having spent oodles of time on something that, although fun and interesting, was not aligned with my original goals. 

Among the frustrations:

• The school rarely informed me ahead of time when school wasn’t in session or when teachers would be leaving early or coming late.  The schedule changed constantly.
• Teachers flat-out refused to assist me with discipline issues (on the 2 occasions I specifically asked for help), the response being “it’s your problem.”
• When I approached Marcelo and Rumaldo (the older man - 70 this year - who lives at Cerro Seco and is also the President de la Comunidad) about my concerns at the school, the answer repeatedly was, “it’s your problem.”
• And teaching kids keyboard shortcuts when they can’t even “click and drag” or type to save their mother is like putting aerodynamic gel on a tortoise’s shell to make it walk faster.

Administration/miscellaneous

Among the other ways I attempted to be helpful:

• cleaning and organizing, organizing and labelling the “library” (with color-coded stickers)
• assisting in translation of a few emails until Marcelo realized it was not a priority of his
• assisting in translation of descriptions from a bird guide for their database of birds in the forest (this project was also tabled for unknown reasons)
• typing up a bunch of stuff in English for a student there so he could plug it into a translator (against my better judgment but probably one of the most individually useful things I did)
• general house cleaning and maintenance

Sala de educación

The idea with the “education room” was to redo the posters and make an education room.  At the moment this room is regularly used for hosting guests in the late afternoons for “afternoon coffee,” if you will...

I spent some time planning this and working on the posters but eventually let it go for a variety of reasons -- this isn’t all that important anymore, so I’ll leave out the details.

Prior experience/knowledge

Environmental education experience:
I thought I was going to be able to use my prior experience teaching environmental education (I taught an outdoor ed school for a season, two 3-hour classes a day, every day) and leading guided hikes here. 

Technology:
Upon arrival, I realized how easy it would be to contribute using my computer skills, given the presentations Marcelo frequently gives in PowerPoint and given that the reserve is trying to make a database of its species.  Unfortunately Marcelo doesn’t know how to use PowerPoint (he just has other people do it for him) and was not too interested in learning, nor does he have much interest in “improving” his presentations.  As for the database... whatevs.

Unfortunately, I discovered here that the best way to feel useful here (under these circumstances) is to do construction, preferably a project that includes Ruben (the construction wizard who makes any project turn to gold)...

* With all of the above, there is more detail (especially if anyone were to take over or repeat any of these projects) about what worked and what did not in a project report.

• Was the explanation and support you received from the organisation adequate to ensure you could carry out your work successfully? If not please explain why.

Marcelo is an amazing man with an amazing story and an amazing personality.  OK, he’s amazing.  He gives long, detailed, thorough explanations in clear and coherent Spanish.  He has an incredible attitude about life and relationships and community development. 

The “support” for projects in theory is there, more than adequate, and above-and-beyond. 

In reality, Marcelo is often “afuera” for unknown lengths of time and sometimes at very inconvenient moments.  (For example: it’s Monday morning.  I wake up at 6:15 and go “arriba” at 7am to talk to Marcelo about a plan for the day to do a project we have planned.  He says he has to “bajar a la ciudad” and will be back at 9.  Two new volunteers had arrived late the night before.  They wake up and forage for breakfast.  It’s 10am and Marcelo still isn’t back.  I don’t know what to tell them.  I orient them to Cerro Seco and try to get them started on a project I’m working on.  Marcelo rolls in at 1pm.) 

He also is unable to plan in the long-term.  Yes, he thinks in the long-term, but he does not plan in the long-term.  Therefore, attempting to teach a coherent environmental education class with an arc that would have a sense of conclusion was nearly impossible (see above).

Furthermore, Marcelo thinks all help is good help and is very gracious about any help he receives.  However, for me it’s very hard to see previous projects having been left by the wayside.  For me personally - because it’s not difficult to entertain myself with my own reading and writing projects, hikes and ecological research projects - I lost interest in doing any sort of projects for the reserve knowing that it was more for my benefit than for anyone else’s, unless I were doing construction.  Therefore, I recommend Cerro Seco for construction projects.  I am reluctant to recommend it for teaching projects.

• Would you recommend working with this organisation to other volunteers? What are the main areas of skills and interests that volunteers need for this work? Please give reasons.

Yes, I would recommend it to other volunteers, depending on the time they wish to spend, their goals, and their personalities (reservations listed below).

In short, I would recommend Cerro Seco to volunteers wishing to spend one month mostly relaxing in a really sweet ecosystem.

Skills (any of the following):

• Construction/labor
• Teaching
• Environmental science/biology (GPS, mapping, etc as well)
• Technology (with a plan)

Interests (any of the following):

• Ecology/environment
• Teaching/education
• Construction/labor
• Chillaxing

Reservations:

• Lifestyle: not for everyone.  I don’t think I would want my 18-year-old daughter here during her gap year (womanizing/pot-smoking/partying/disrespect of cuerpo/ambiente machista).  That’s not to say it wouldn’t be a good learning/life experience for some people.
• Project management and support: would not recommend this placement for folks who are particularly set on beginning a project and seeing it come to fruition.  It’s better for people who truly are ok with being one step in a long process (and knowing that the project/process may disintegrate).
• Escuelita in Bellavista: at the moment undergoing some serious political strife, and communication is very poor/non-existent.  I would recommend this only for people who really want to teach and only if the volunteer can commit to several months.  Then again, it’s really important that someone provide some sense of continuity and learning, so if volunteers can be kept continuous, that would function as well.

• Was the communication and support you received from Yanapuma, before and during your time volunteering adequate? Please comment specifically on the powerpoint orientation session, being taken and introduced to your site, and all contact throughout. If no please specify why and how it could be improved.

For the most part, I had been very satisfied with the communication and support from Yanapuma, although I felt that the organization could do a better job - especially with so many interns coming in and out - of digitizing informational materials and promoting institutional memory (this is not just in reference to my project but also in reference to my experience visiting Laure in Puca-Chicta).

In another case, I might have written that “knowing that Yanapuma was ‘there’ was really helpful.”  However, based on my experience in the final two weeks of the project and Yanapuma’s response, I would not recommend working through an agency to my friends.  The ultimate point of working through an agency for me was the back-up and back-end support (it’s not that hard to pilfer information off people’s websites and gather ideas for places to go, Planet Drum volunteers usually make it there on their own, and I even had visited Marcelo beforehand to discuss my own project and how we would work together).  I was surprised to discover this lack of “back-end” support.  Luckily it was only surprising and not demoralizing, given that I had some really great friends in Bahía to turn to with my concerns.

• How would rate your overall experience at this project?

“Mixed.”

If I hadn’t had the freedom to leave when I did (e.g. had prepaid, was doing an official internship) or had paid more, I would have been upset.  But given that I’m my own free agent, was able to make the most of being here, observe what I could, etc, I would rate my experience as “mixed.”  The good was very very good (magnificent ecology, awesome place, some very cool people, and a lot of learning), and the bad really not cool.

I do feel that I learned a lot more that I might have in another placement (Spanish, ecology) and also have a lot more rich material to reflect upon and think about for the future than I might have had in another setting.   

• Any other comments?

I have also sent some documents future volunteers might find helpful, as well as the “informe” for Marcelo’s web site -- basically a “sell sheet” for working at the reserve.

Muchas gracias!!!

Volunteer Ecuador Evaluation

Name:                                     
Email address:              
***(please provide email only if it is ok for other volunteers to email you about project)
Partner organisation:   Het Andere Reizen
Start date:                    22-02-2010
End date:                     21-03-2010

• What were the main tasks you undertook at the project? Did you have any prior experience or knowledge that helped you with these?

Our main tasks were not much, because of the Ecuadorian way of doing things. Everything runs slow en efficiency is not a priority here. We started our own project in the community Bellavista, It´s the community where Marcello Luqe lives. There are a few things can do in Cerrro Seco;

• Planting: several types of plants need to be planted in Cerro Seco but it´s a days work because there aren´t that many plants
• Teaching: You can teach English on the locale school in bella vista but thats just for 1,5 hour a day.
• Support: You can support Marcello with things he intend to but he has little spare time so you can do several things to improve the community and Cerro Seco.

All these things were already filled by other volunteers when we arrived so me, my girlfriend and another volunteers agreed start our own project.

• Was the explanation and support you received from the organisation adequate to ensure you could carry out your work successfully? If not please explain why.

It was in a way adequate because most of the work you can do doesn´t take much of your time, but for me as a volunteer I had work days in my mind from at least 4 to 5 hours. But you are lucky if you can help for just 2 to 3 hours a day.

• Would you recommend working with this organisation to other volunteers? What are the main areas of skills and interests that volunteers need for this work? Please give reasons.

If you create your own project or find satisfaction in little chores I would certainly recommend this small and humble place because you feel more than welcome here in the community en Cerro Seco because they know you are here to help them and the people will make you feel more then welcome. But the only skill you need is an awful lot of patience. Because things here doesn´t run fast or efficient which can be a pain. Sometimes you need to adept to things you don’t want to, because you know you´re right and more efficient but those rules doesn´t apply here.

• Was the communication and support you received from Yanapuma, before and during your time volunteering adequate? Please comment on the initial orientation session, showing you to your site and communication throughout.  If not, please specify why and how it could be improved.

I didn´t go by Yanapuma but a sister organisation and haven´t heard much from it until Fran Henry contacted us. But during the volunteering I didn´t hear a word from any organisation.

• How would rate your overall experience at this project?

The experience was great! The people are more than friendly and helpful and everyone tries their best to make you feel at home.

• Any other comments?

Things run slower here what can be annoying at certain points.

• If you would like, please write a short paragraph summing up your project and experience volunteering, as well as if and why you might recommend this volunteer site to others in the future. We will put this information on our Volunteer Ecuador website, as a direct quote from you to help others learn about your experience.

Because all the things to do were filled or already done by other volunteers me, my girlfriend and another volunteer agreed to renovate the soccer field in Bellavista and managed to do that with funds from family and friends. We didn´t have any experience in organizing projects like this one. At first hand it seems to be quite small en quick to do but in the end it´s harder then it seems. By the help of Marcello we could manage it properly because he has all the contacts in town and in bellavista. Without his help I think we couldn´t have managed. The people from the village became very enthusiastic and were very helpful because we didn´t know how to lay cement and in a day we had several contacts who were willingly to help for free after work. It took us almost 4 weeks to complete the soccer field and it looks stunning if I may say so. Before it was full of holes (sometimes really big) and cracks and now all the holes are filled and reinforced. The goals are as good as new and the stairs look great with bright new paint. We still had money left for schoolbooks and school materials which the teachers were thankful and the children too.
I really recommend to start your own project because you can fix things the people can´t afford and you need them for help and questions.

Muchas gracias!!!

Volunteer Ecuador Final Evaluation

• What were the main tasks you undertook with the organisation? Did you have any prior experience or knowledge that helped you with these?

Trail maintenance, cabin site maintenance, sign painting (directions and tree/plant/animal information for the trails), informally teaching English, creating laminated pamphlets showing all species of plants, birds, reptiles, etc endemic to the dry tropical forest.

• Was the information and support you received from the organisation adequate to ensure you could carry out your work successfully? If not, please explain why.

Yes. Marcelo was always clear about what he wanted me to do, and depending on your level of Spanish (mine was low at the beginning) he speaks simply so that you understand. It was a very personalized experience because there were (and probably often are) only a few volunteers at one time.

• What skills or interests would other volunteers need for this work? Would you recommend working with this organisation to other volunteers? Please explain.

No specific skills necessary, because Marcelo will find something for you to do that suits your abilities and interests. If you’re interested in educating children, make sure the timing of your trip coincides with the school year there. There is probably always trail maintenance going on, but other than that I think the projects vary depending on what Marcelo wants to tackle next and what the volunteers are most interested in doing.

• Was the information, communication and support you received from Yanapuma, both before and during your volunteer placement, adequate? If not, please explain why and offer suggestions on how it could be improved.

It was great. I had so many questions and Fran answered all of them. Getting put in touch with former volunteers was a great help, and I’d be glad to help future volunteers via email.

• If you would like, please write a short paragraph summing up your volunteer placement to help Yanapuma, our partner organisations and future volunteers learn from your experience.

Because it was summer, there wasn’t much education going on at the reserve. I mostly did trail maintenance- I cleared campsites, raked the trails, and painted about 60 wooden signs to be put up in the trails. Some of them were directional, some were the Spanish and scientific names of plants and trees, and some were depictions of mammals and birds endemic to the forest. The other volunteer, Kathy, and I informally taught a few kids English some afternoons. It’s a very communal atmosphere, where everyone helps cook meals, clean up, etc. On the weekends volunteers are on their own but often Marcelo will plan activities or trips. We went camping on the beach one weekend, and we went to an “eco-festival” at another forest reserve up the coast another weekend. The workers are very dedicated to continuing their efforts, making progress, and fully utilizing the skills and resources of volunteers, but at the same time it’s a relaxed and super friendly atmosphere.

• Any additional comments?

• Do you authorise Yanapuma to share the information contained in this evaluation with other volunteers and partner organisations?                   YES __XX__                 NO _____

We would like to thank you for volunteering with us and for taking the time to complete this evaluation. Volunteer feedback is invaluable as it helps us improve the programs and services we offer and assists us with our goal of providing meaningful experiences for both our volunteers and the organisations and communities with whom we work.

Thanks again,

The Yanapuma Team

Volunteer Ecuador Evaluation

Name:

Email address:

Partner organisation (Volunteer Site): Cerro Seco (Bahia de Caraquez)

Start date: 1st March

End date: 28th March

• What were the main tasks you undertook at the project? Did you have any prior experience or knowledge that helped you with these?

Nicky – Teaching English during the Summer Holiday Program to a class of 20 teenagers. Prior experience in teaching English one on one and a weekend TEFL course.
Simon – Compiling a regional plant species list. Previous experience – degree in environmental science. Assisting with building cages for animals and developing a garden for medicinal plants.

• Was the explanation and support you received from the organisation adequate to ensure you could carry out your work successfully? If not please explain why.

Marcelo was always extremely detailed with his explanations of what was expected of us and what we could do in our month stay. He supported us in all that we did and was extremely grateful for the work that we did.

• Would you recommend working with this organisation to other volunteers? What are the main areas of skills and interests that volunteers need for this work? Please give reasons.

I would definitely recommend Cerro Seco to other volunteers, as we both extremely enjoyed our time there and found Marcelo to be extremely accommodating. The accommodation and food were both fantastic and it was nice to be close to the friendly town of Bahia. A basic – moderate level of Spanish was required. Environmental knowledge and skills is always useful. For environmental education with the children a moderate level of Spanish would be required. There is always the need for maintenance and building work.

• Was the communication and support you received from Yanapuma, before and during your time volunteering adequate? Please comment specifically on the powerpoint orientation session, being taken and introduced to your site, and all contact throughout. If no please specify why and how it could be improved.

The support and communication we received before the project was fantastic, really felt as though we were helped through our decision of which project to do and given lots of detailed information about the available projects. The Powerpoint presentation was interesting. Although we didn´t receive any communication whilst on the project, it was clear to us that if we had any concerns that we could contact Yanapuma and I know that any of the staff would have helped us out.

• How would rate your overall experience at this project?

Excellent, would love to do another project with Yanapuma if we can afford to come back!

• Any other comments?

Muchas gracias!!!  De nada.