Week five is almost over and that means it's time to go home. It's bitter sweet. I have enjoyed my time in Ecuador so much and made so many friendships that I hope to continue once I return to Winnipeg.
This week Alana and I said goodbye to all our students. We got to be apart of their open house, and were featured in their school paper. It was amazing to see the motivation that Alana and I brought to the classroom over these 5 weeks and I hope we encouraged some students to continue practicing English. From this experience I also gained an enormous amount of knowledge about the Ecuadorian culture, school systems and learnt to speak some Spanish.
After being in Ecuador for these 5 weeks I have revised my thoughts towards my initial statements about Ecuador and the way they may perceive Canadians. In Canada English is the primary language and then French, in Ecuador Spanish is the primary language then English. Ecuador and Canada are not that much different because they both value programs that promote language and cultural exchange but these aspects are not reveled until you dig deeper into both cultures. My initial statements behind Ecuador being poor and Canada being wealthy were also rejected when I experienced the system and order that Ecuador does have in place. With their well developed highways, beautiful parks, and organization of their city I kept finding more similarities toward Canada. This is not to says that Ecuador does not experience poverty and after discussing with my teacher and the United Nations presentation many people in Ecuador do live in poverty but the country as a whole is striving for improvement and hopefully in the next few years will be able to reduce their numbers.
I'm so thankful for this experience and am so happy to have meet such amazing people on this journey.
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