On my first day working at the Centro Inicial in Imbaya back in September, I was miserable. I had decided that I hated working with little kids and I knew very little Spanish. I didn’t know anyone in the town and they didn’t know me, and I didn’t feel like I would be able to do anything besides sweep the floors after the kids eat.
A full month out of my experience in Ecuador, I look back and could not be happier that I was given the opportunity to work in the Centro Inicial this year. Working with the kids gave me more visibility in the community because I saw them and their parents as well, allowing me to feel more comfortable in Imbaya. I felt that the kids trusted me and that I had grown to care about them, motivating me to do my best every day because I wanted them to get the best education possible. I gained the language skills to communicate well with the kids and have good conversations to get to know the other teachers as well. I learned the ropes to the point where I could be left alone with the kids when necessary to plan and execute lessons that emphasize things like motor skills, as well as learning colors, numbers, animals, etc.
I saw such an improvement in myself this year through my work at the Centro Inicial, and because of that I wanted to document a day so that I would be able to remember it forever, to be able to look back after my year and see how far I’d come, and to remember everything this year means to me.
All footage was taken on March 27, 2017:
[vc_video link=’https://vimeo.com/215891169′]
