Amigos de las Americas - Volunteer programs in Ecuador

It was amazing to live with a host family and feel completely accepted by the community. I loved working with the kids during the "Campamentos" (Summer camps) we did and they were really helpful in making us feel at home. It was really great to experience a completely different culture and view of the world; I came home with an entirely different perspective on the world. My favorite part was in the evenings after we finished our Campamentos. The kids would play and the teenagers would play the Ecuadorian version of volleyball while their radios blasted reggaeton music. The women would sit nearby and keep an eye on their kids while they knit and had a meeting for the knitting cooperative we started. We would just sit there, hang out with everybody, and feel like a part of the community. There were a few difficulties, such as overcoming the language barrier, but we adapted really quickly and our project staff were great resources at helping us. This was a fantastic program. I would do it again in a heartbeat and definitely recommend it to a friend, or basically just anyone.