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EAST LONGMEADOW - During her nine months in Ecuador, Erin Duffy began to think and even dream in Spanish. Her goal in the Central American country, however, wasn't to become bilingual - it was to teach children in the small village of Tonsupa how to read, write and speak basic English. She achieved much more than that. Duffy was a volunteer with United Planet, an organization "devoted to fostering cross-cultural understanding and friendship, supporting communities in need, and promoting social and economic prosperity among cultures in order to unite the world in a community beyond borders," according to their Web site. Before arriving, Duffy pictured the province to be very rural, with lots of farmland and swaths of jungle and a widespread population. Instead, she found a densely populated village with farms stretching up into the mountains. The host family she stayed with and other villagers knew what the United States was like, but only through television programs like "Full House." "What they see on TV is so different from what they know that it wasn't real for them. 'Full House' to them is like 'Star Wars' for us," she said. Duffy went on to say that because of the way they live, there is no real planning for the future in that part of the world. "Everything is 'right now.' Life is about survival," she said, which leaves little room for an emphasis on education. "Education is poor in that region, especially English education," Duffy explained. "The most English most of them know is 'Hello, my friend.'" After arriving in Ecuador last September, Duffy began volunteering at the tiny local school teaching for an hour to an hour and a half a day. She and her fellow volunteer Taylor Jackson also began teaching simple physical education, geography and art classes during their stay. The hardships students faced in Tonsupa made Duffy rethink her own education. "I suppose I took it for granted, but it wasn't until I'd started working with the kids in Ecuador that I realized it," she said. "If Americans aren't exposed to situations like these, it's not their fault that they take their schooling for granted." Once Marilyn, Erin's mother, started spreading the word about the work her daughter was doing, donations started being gathered for the students. "We never once asked for money, so we want to sincerely thank everyone who gave," Duffy said. With all the monetary donations, Duffy and Jackson decided to do something more momentous for their pupils: they were going to build a new school. Despite a number of problems, including labor, legal, and meteorological delays, the new school was essentially finished by the time the volunteers left earlier this month. "Leaving when we did was hard, but I'm glad to be home," Duffy said. "There are things I miss and will continue to miss." Duffy studied psychology in college, but after her "totally amazing, incredible" experiences in Ecuador she thinks that she'd be very interested in becoming a teacher. "I really enjoyed the teaching aspect," she said. "If I don't become a teacher, I'd like to be a counselor. A school is someplace I'd be very happy to work." To read more about Erin Duffy and the volunteer work she did abroad, visit the "Making a Difference in Ecuador" page at www.thereminder.com. | ||||||
