School Visits in Otavalo and Cotacachi

After the first couple of weeks of classes, everyone in my program split up into four different tracks according to our interests and what we want to do during out internship time here in Ecuador. I'm in the Education track, the remaining three tracks being Environment, Public Health, and Micro-Finance. This past Monday and Tuesday, we went on excursions with our groups to visit possible internship places and learn more about the topic. My nine classmates and I, along with two of our teachers, took a trip to Otavalo and Cotacachi, two primarily indigenous towns about two hours from Quito.

In Otavalo, we went to a school called Raul Pavon Meija which is a private 'primary' school (Elementary and Middle School ages). It was a very unique setting where they teach all of the basics, plus English, and some agricultural things too. Students have an opportunity to learn the process of buying and raising chickens until they are ready to be sold. They also have a garden where they grow beans and tomatoes. As most of the kids in the school will continue to work in agriculture as adults, this teaches them tasks that are relevant to their reality as well. The director mentioned to us that the students learn English because Otavalenos commonly move to the US or Europe seasonally to sell hand made crafts. Typically these people make enough money to make the trip every year and go on quite the shopping spree once they return to the low prices of Ecuador.

That afternoon, we made our way to Cotacachi where we visited Laguna Cuicocha, or Lake of the Cuys (Guinea Pigs). Cuicocha is actually the crater of a huge volcano that is filled with melted snow from neighboring peaks. Apparently the volcano itself is still somewhat active and releases gases into the water, but hasn't erupted in over three thousand years. It was a beautiful lake with very clean, blue water and the surrounding cliffs and peaks were incredible.

That night we stayed at Ranchero Santa Fe in Cotacachi, a beautiful hotel, where we were all able to relax and get some much needed sleep. The next morning we headed to our next school in a community called San Pedro outside of Cotacachi. The students and teacher at this school prepared a huge welcome program for our group, including decorations and traditional indigenous music and dancing. It was a really amazing experience, they were all very welcoming and proud to have us there. This school is a model for inter-cultural bilingual schools in the area. There they teach both Spanish and Quichua, the most prominent indigenous language in Ecuador, which is very rarely taught in schools. The entire student body is of indigenous descent, and therefore they are taught to preserve and take pride in their language and customs. One of my classmates is going to start an English class there as well, and I'm sure she is going to have an amazing time at that school.

We visited a few smaller schools that day before heading back to Quito. It was a really amazing trip and great to see the different education systems that exist in the area. Enjoy the photos!