Amazonas Explored

Thank you

Group 1

Sardinas Community

The first day of work with the first group of this season everything was normal we started the adventure again, but the road had us a surprise in these four months the plants grew and the road to the community was hidden, so we had to open the way.It was fun to use the machete but tired, I loved the attitude of the group and the spirit, a strong group that never gave up at work were great all, the group was so strong that even in football they wanted to lose even if they were tired , the last day until we played the rematch against the locals it was great to see how they had fun, at work they all seemed like professionals.

In total we completed three bathrooms.

• Carved four holes.
  Loaded gravel and sand to the respective places, also stones .
  Loaded blocks to make the walls, cement.
  Made three bases of the septic tanks.
  Three floors for the bathrooms.
  Built three walls of the bathrooms.

Sardinas Community - ESCUELA CECIB VICENTE LEÓN

Visiting the school and the children again were great in our first day, three new students and three left the school to continue secondary school. The teacher told me they were happy and with confidence because they had basics knowledge with English through VESA’s continued education program.

Volunteers had the opportunity to see how smart the children are, not only because they learn so fast but also because we could see in the blackboard, they learn subjects in Quichua as their native language and Spanish too.

We concentrate having a review about what they learnt last season, also teaching our new students so they can have the same level of the rest of the students.

• played the hangman to practice the alphabet
  writing of the words in English
  complemented our teaching with English songs and games too.

Jungle Experience

This group was amazing, and I can definitely say they made great friends from this experience; whether during construction, while teaching, tubing down the river, holding a tarantula or taking selfies or even during a mud fight!!

The jungle hike is quite an adventure and the volunteers learned a lot about medicinal plants, insects and animals. We also learned how to make bracelets and delicious chocolate! Finally, we had an amazing demonstration of a Shaman’s ceremony.

Group2

Sardinas Community

Groups like this one makes you feel very proud to be part of this program, it was wonderful to see how they enjoyed everything.
The work, it was hard and fun to see the progress was very rewarding, and to feel a united and collaborative group, positive people and curious to know the culture of Ecuador.

• moved a lot of gravel to two houses that is more or less a kilometre away,
  loaded cement
  dug three holes,
  loaded the block to the houses that were building the bathrooms,
  made three floors for the bathrooms and three bases for septic tank,
  made walls in two septic tanks,
  made two septic tank lids

Sardinas Community - ESCUELA CECIB VICENTE LEÓN

Thank you to everyone, it is super nice to meet beautiful and fun people who volunteer with us in the community. We could see the energy out in every day in construction and at the school. It was a pleasure to work with you teaching English to the children at the community. And a personal thank you to William B for being so kind with the family and Margarita 🙂

• We proceed having a review about all the topics in English.
• Most of the topics we could teach with flash cards
• We played Bingo, one of the favourite games of the children.
• We visited also the little kids to spend some hours singing, playing and dancing.

Jungle Experience

This group was truly amazing. They got along so well and all became one big family. About ten of them already knew each other from a previous Africa VESA trip which made the dynamic of the group a little extra special. A great highlight from the jungle would be our bed time stories. Each night, when everyone was in bed, one of the volunteers would read out loud a bed time story to everyone!

Group 3

Sardinas Community

In the work of volunteers we continue on a path well managed and focused to finish the season well, as all groups in this season very happy very positive guys to do the program and help with much enthusiasm, naming one were unjust were ten warriors very united and dedicated and very funny (all for one and one for all).

• moved gravel to the sites they needed
• extracted sand and loaded the different houses
• filled the sides of the septic tank
• moved and loaded block,
• mixed concrete for three septic tank bases, and three floors for bathrooms,
• built the walls in three septic tanks
• mixed concrete for the lids of four septic tanks,

We finished two bathrooms completely, the other two are almost ready (GREAT WORK, GREAT SEASON)

Sardinas Community - ESCUELA CECIB VICENTE LEÓN

It was lovely to work with such amazing group to end the season. As I told you last day, thank you for being so cool with the kids, strong at construction and for survive the jungle trek. I’m super happy because we could see a big advance in this season, not only in construction, also at school with our sweet children.

Jungle experience

The jungle trek was challenging as always but we all survived and learnt so much about this incredible part of the Amazon Basin.

Fabio show us how make a trap in the jungle to get lunch. We made and ate chocolate as well as getting a mask chocolate – it was so good and felt like a spa in the jungle.