Alumni Spotlight: Lisa Zychowski

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Highlights: So many truly amazing moments during volunteering it is hard to pick just one. I would have to say one of the more touching experiences was with a child named Danny. I was walking with one of the directors picking up children around the Thursday market and we met a new child. Now usually new children refused to come with us. We usually give them pictures to color and sort of work on gaining their trust.After a several weeks of repeating this process, the child will begin to recognize us and eventually allowed us to lead them to the volunteer site.

This child, Danny, decided to come with us even though he was a bit shy at first. I worked just with him on our projects for the day, which was learning the color blue and different shapes. After working with him for the whole time, I asked him to identify the color and the shape we learned about. He not only remembered the color was blue but he also knew it was a square! For his first time Danny far exceeded any of our expectations. After this day Danny kept returning and I hope in the future that he will be a part of the program for a long time. It is certainly very small steps but its all part of the bigger picture so that these children can attend public school in the future. Remember as Mother Teresa once said "We can do no great things, only small things with great love."

Morning: In the morning I woke up around 730, got ready and put on my UBECI volunteer shirt. I would eat breakfast with the other volunteers in the volunteer house and around 830 we would go to the office. After arriving at the office, we would be debriefed on the learning activities for the week. Then all of the volunteers would go together with the staff to catch a bus to the volunteer site. Once arriving at the market we would begin to set up tents and pick up children from the market. During the first hour of our time with the children we play with them, read books and most importantly give them an opportunity to be kids!. Afterwards, we would sing and dance for a while and then begin the activities. Although you can work with any age group from 1-14, I worked mostly with children from the ages 4-6. We worked on activities enforcing colors, shapes, and numbers. All concepts being crucial for a child to enter public school in the future.

View of Quito

Afternoon: After finishing our morning session with the children around 12:30 we would all go together to get lunch. You can bring lunch as well but the lunch deals in Ecuador are unbeatable and usually quite tasty. After eating lunch, we would return to site and begin our afternoon session from 2-4:30. In the afternoon, the schedule with the children was mostly the same but the activities would differ. Some of the same children return in the afternoon as well which gives you the opportunity to form really close bonds with them as well.

Evening: After volunteering, many times the volunteers would spend time together. Sometimes it would be as simple as getting coffee but several times we would go out to a new place for dinner or go see Quito’s sites at night. That being said the volunteering is quite tiring some days we would just relax at the house after work with the family. Some of my most memorable nights were spent simply just speaking with my host family. We always at dinner together though at 7 and I really felt like part of a family when I was there. Not only did I have my volunteer family but I was also just as close to Monica and Bryon my host family.