TFS’ First Service Trip Builds Community and Cross-Cultural Bonds

Twelve days in March marked an unforgettable experience for 16 students from TFS.  Students from Levels II to V journeyed from Toronto into the remote highland region of Ecuador, to help Me to We build a community kitchen with the people of Chizmaute.

Just getting to the village was an adventure. After landing in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, the TFS group and their teacher-supervisors, Ernest Ngongo and Susan Tonin, spent a few days acclimating to the high altitude. They also toured the ancient city and ventured to the equator.

Finally, they boarded a bus for the day-long trip to Chizmaute, a village home to the Quichua, the indigenous people of the region. The following morning, the TFS team was introduced to students at the local school, as well as to community members.

Over the next four days, the students harvested rocks from the mountains surrounding the village, pulverized them into gravel, created a mortar-like substance and spread it on the ground to form the kitchen’s floor. The kitchen is being constructed to allow cooking to take place outside of the villagers’ homes, since the rudimentary forms of cooking pose serious fire and health hazards.

The students also spent part of each day learning about the community and Free The Children’s (Me to We’s sister organization) activities in the region. This included spending time with a local women’s group, who told them how they earned money through alternative income programs. The students were also given the rare experience of touring the women’s homes, and then joining them in daily chores, such as milking cows and taking sheep out to pasture.

On the fourth day, the school held a thank you ceremony for the TFS team. After saying goodbye to their new friends, the students travelled to an eco-lodge in the Ecuadorian cloud forest for a leadership retreat, lead by Me to We facilitators. Then, 11 days after their powerful journey started, the students headed home.

What did they think of the experience? The participants say it best:
 “It was intense to see how different women’s lives and rights are in Ecuador, but it was amazing to see them work so hard to have their own income and be their own person.”

 “It was so incredible to see the contrast in living standards and it was so inspirational. The best part of the trip was the sense of accomplishment that I got when I knew that I had really helped people.”

But perhaps the greatest testament to TFS’ first group of students to go on a service trip is that they all expressed the desire to stay longer in the village, to help out even more.