Into the Jungle

Near the end of the week I spent volunteering in Ecuador, we went much deeper into the rain forest to visit a tiny little school in a tiny little village, the name of which I cannot remember. It was something short, one-syllabled. The village was more unlike any village I've ever seen. We woke up that morning to rain. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel then took a cab out of town. The taxi carried us over a gravel road and through river until we reached a bus stop.

This bus stop was just a lonely little covered bench on the side of a

narrow gravel road. There was absolutely nothing else around, just rain forest. After a short wait, a Peace Corp volunteer directed us to a footpath into the forest and off we took, on foot.

The walk wasn't that long, and soon we were at a river, the name of which I cannot remember either. There were two young men waiting for us at the river with a handmade boat cut out of a tree trunk. They each had long, long sticks that they used to steer the boat through the roaring river. They were speaking an indigenous language but quickly switched over to Spanish for our benefit. Another volunteer stepped carefully into the boat, and we followed the directions to squat down and hold on to the sides. I was a little nervous.

We made it to the other side where we were greeted by a few people from the little town. When the rest of our group had arrived, we walked over to the school, which was surprising to me. It was an ugly, wet, unpainted collected of boards nailed together and hoisted on stilts. There was one classroom downstairs and two upstairs. The students all wore government-issued sweatsuits and sat in handmade desks of wood. They were quiet. I felt like I was imposing.

As a fifth-grade science teacher, I really appreciated the student work hanging on the school wall.

After facilitating an art exchange and getting to know the school and students, we all walked back over to river and waited while the students prepared a traditional dance for us. I asked for a bathroom. I followed the instructions to walk 15 meters into the forest, and I found it:

So that was interesting. And finally, after much preparation, the dancers were ready.

One of the volunteers in our group, a 16-year old high-schooler, is a trained ballet dancer. She has been dancing much of her life. I was impressed when she danced in rubber boots on the muddy jungle floor. It was really cool and will certainly be a story to tell on her college entrance essays. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it. Instead, I have a couple of pictures of all of us free styling together in a big circle. We didn't even have music. It was a great experience.