Ecuador: Santa Elena

Choosing to spend six weeks of my summer in Ecuador was one of the best decisions I have ever made! Over the six weeks I realized how much I love to speak Spanish and appreciate using my Spanish to listen and learn people's stories. I stayed with two different host families, giving me a chance to experience living in two very different communities. Amigos Immerse helped me to gain more independence and self confidence after two years of being constrained by COVID.

Living with another family for an extended amount of time allowed me to experience life with my host families, from celebrating family milestones, the small activities of watching telenovelas after dinner, to cooking dinner with the family. I spent a lot of my time sitting in the kitchen helping my host mom cook or just talking to my host siblings about their days. In the evening we would often play cards, something everyone in the family from the five year-old nephew to my host mom loved. It was a great time for me to share games I enjoyed playing and they taught me games they enjoyed, and of course, UNO was a big hit.

Another big part of what I did was running Talleres, camps for the kids in my community, five days per week. We taught the kids about ecology, recycling, creative expression, and leadership. While planning our lessons we tried to incorporate games to make it fun. It really taught me to think on my feet and be flexible to adjust the activity to support the kids energy on a specific day.

AMIGOS offered such an amazing opportunity to be able to have new in depth experiences, in Spanish to learn from others, while at the same time learning so much about yourself. AMIGOS cares so deeply about all of their volunteers and over the past 60 years has learned how to best support teens while at the same time letting them have their own experience that is unique and special to every person who participates.

If you are thinking about participating in an AMIGOS immerse program I would strongly encourage you to do it, you won’t regret your decision.