La Vida Ecuadoriana: Teaching English in Ecuador.

by Michael D’Entremont

A FEW YEARS ago, I saw a film at the Smithsonian Institute about the Galapagos Islands. When I saw the sea lions and the penguins lumbering and sunning themselves on the volcanic rock, I knew that I would go there someday. In February 2003, I began to ask myself, why not this summer? So I began searching on the Internet for summer teaching opportunities in Ecuador. During my search, I explored Web sites where travelers could post advice about their experiences for other travelers considering visits to the same countries.

I read notes from people who said that if you want to teach in Ecuador, all you need to do is go to Quito and start knocking on doors of English language schools. Others suggested checking out bulletin boards in ice cream parlors and looking for ads for private English tutors. However, I didn’t really want to teach in Quito. Moreover, the cold call approach did not appeal to me, and neither did job hunting in ice cream parlors; I’m lactose intolerant. I wanted to teach English at a school that really needed help, at a place where I would be really appreciated, and that was located preferably in the Galapagos Islands.

After investigating several organizations, I came across WorldTeach, a highly organized volunteer organization based at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. WorldTeach places volunteers in several countries, including China, Costa Rica, Namibia, Poland, and Ecuador. Volunteers may serve for a year, for six months, or for eight weeks in the summer. There is a fee, and the amount varies depending on the country of choice and length of stay. For a summer in Ecuador, volunteers pay $4,000 (tax deductible), which covers round-trip airfare (from Miami), travel expenses to and from sites, housing, food, medical insurance, one week of training and orientation in Quito, a site visit, and on-going support. Admittedly, at first it was hard to justify paying for the opportunity to volunteer teach. And although I was excited to discover that WorldTeach does sometimes place volunteers in the Galapagos Islands, officials told me that they could not guarantee placement; they were up front about this. However, during the application process, I did have a chance to write an essay expressing my preference of location. So I wrote the most convincing essay I could, mailed in my check, and kept my fingers crossed for the Galapagos.

About ten days before our departure date, June 20th, I received an e-mail that confirmed I would be teaching at a high school in Puerto Ayora, the major city on the island of Santa Cruz, in the Galapagos Islands. This will be perfect, I thought. WorldTeach took care of everything. Before we arrived in Quito, the coordinator of the summer program in Ecuador spent weeks visiting schools all over the country in order to find just the right locations where administrators, teachers, and students were eager to have native English speakers come and help them learn. WorldTeach found in-home accommodations with warm and welcoming families, as well, for all its volunteers (except for me and three others—I’ll explain shortly).

The advantage of the home stay is two-fold. Visitors learn first-hand about the local culture, and they get to practice their Spanish, as the majority of hosts speak very little English. There were 15 volunteers in my summer group from all over the U.S. Most were still in college or had recently graduated, although a few of us were experienced teachers. We all stayed in a hostel in Quito for one week of training, orientation, and Spanish language classes; then we were whisked off to our respective sites, where we would remain for seven more weeks. Seven volunteers were assigned to various cities, towns and villages on the mainland (el continente), and eight were placed in the Galapagos Islands. On the islands, few people have extra rooms to be able to take in visitors, so WorldTeach found a house in Puerto Ayora for me and three other volunteers to share. Compared to most of the houses on the island, it was large and comfortable. There was a high stone wall all around it, and we had a beautiful grassy yard that was canopied by four coconut trees. The house came completely furnished. We even had cable TV. But volunteer teaching opportunities are not about canopied yards and cable TV—they’re about teaching: I was assigned to teach English at the Colegio Nacional Galapagos, the largest public high school on Santa Cruz, just a five-minute walk from my house.

Students ranged in age from 11 to 18, and their English language proficiency varied greatly. Although the teaching assignment was ideal, the school itself was not, at least, by U.S. standards. The walls were unpainted cinder blocks and the floors were cement. There was no glass in the windows—just metal bars—so each class could hear noise from surrounding classes and from the soccer field, which was conveniently centered on campus, and where students seemed to play perpetually. Some of the white boards had large holes in them, and often there was no electricity. There was a new computer lab with several computers, but no Internet connection. Despite the austere environment, the teachers and students were amazingly upbeat.

All day long, the school was alive with activity—students practicing for the band, students rehearsing Ecuadorian dances for the Diez de Agosto celebration (Ecuadorian Independence Day), students hunting for plants and trees around campus for a science project, and, of course, students playing soccer. I worked with three of the English teachers, Luz, Cleo, and Nuria, all native Ecuadorians who had not traveled to an English-speaking country. In total, I had eight classes (about 150 students) for two hours each week. From the start, the teachers and the headmaster stressed that the students needed conversation practice. I had a choice. I could use the textbooks assigned for each class and follow the curriculum for each level, or I could design my own curricula. I chose the latter, focusing more on speaking and listening than on reading and writing.

The students seldom get the chance to hear and practice natural, everyday English with a native English speaker. For every class I wrote, typed, copied, and distributed short conversations with common, everyday phrases such as “How are you today?” “Fine, thanks, and you?” “Where are you from?” and “It’s nice to meet you.” I focused some of the conversations on travel and tourism and on business (shopping, buying, selling), because many of the students work in those sectors after graduation. We covered contractions, reduced speech, formal and informal greetings, and vocabulary for places around town. Sometimes we practiced together, sometimes students listened and repeated, and sometimes they practiced in pairs while I listened. I dictated while students wrote on the board, we played unscramble the sentence and other grammar games, and we even sang a few songs. In short, we crammed a lot into seven weeks.

I also spent four hours per week just with the English teachers. I gave them mini-lessons on how I teach various grammar points in my ESL classes, and I helped them with their English pronunciation. They helped me practice my Spanish. I was happy to spend this time with them, especially because it gave us the chance to get close. The students received me enthusiastically. I don’t know if they ever learned my name, but the minute I walked onto campus I was regularly barraged by students calling, “Teacher!” and saying, “How are you? I’m fine, thank you,” with thick Ecuadorian accents. After a week, I also began to hear it on the streets and in the shops and kiosks (outdoor cafes) as well. Puerto Ayora is a small town, and I was easy to spot. On my last day of classes, the students threw two parties for me. They gave me T-shirts and key chains and a little toy penguin to show their appreciation; they fed me chicken and rice, and insisted that I learn to dance salsa. I was flattered by the fuss. But when the headmaster sang a moving traditional Ecuadorian song, I had to wipe away a few tears. At that moment, I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to call up my college and family in Boston and say, “Sorry, guys, but I’ve decided to stay in the Galapagos for a while. They need me here.” And they did.

But what of the sea lions and the scenery? I swam with sea lions, the penguins and the giant green turtles. I rode horseback up the volcano, sunbathed with the iguanas, and watched the endless mating dance of the albatross. Yes, I did all those things, and I had a wonderful time. Those are the things most people go to the Galapagos Islands to do. This trip, however, was so much more for me than just exotic animals and scenery. The return far outweighed the investment. Thanks to the WorldTeach program, I not only toured in the Galapagos, I also worked, studied, shopped, played, sang, danced, laughed, and yes, I even cried a little. I lived in the Galapagos Islands.

During my going-away party, Luz, the English department chairperson, pulled me aside and asked if I would come back next year. I told her that I wasn’t sure I would be able to, but said I’d think about it. And so I am.

For more information about the WorldTeach program in Ecuador or in other countries, check out their Web site at http://www.worldteach.org.