Amazon Adventure
Matts story - Road Less Travelled
Last year we wrote about a past student and College Captain Matt Cooper who raised funds for VESA so he could participate and experience all that South America and Ecuador has to offer.
Working with Volunteer Eco Students Abroad (VESA) has allowed Matt and many other volunteers to be part of large scale humanitarian project in regions of the world where traditional charity and aid has not addressed.
Group 2 Matts Story:
In the jungle, everyone enjoyed finding a scorpion, a huge pregnant grass hopper, a tarantula and a bunch of different insects. (Every single person put the tarantula on their face and a special mention to Hayley who even put it on her tongue.) My response to finding a scorpion in my room; WOW! THIS IS SUCH AN ADVENTURE!!!!
Team Leader Katrine says thanks all for being excited about all the activities, learning about the plants, the culture and trying to learn español.
Team Leader Xavier continued the adventure by talking about the weather which was difficult because it changed really quickly between rain and sun. We all had such fun and the kids were always with us after lunch. The last day when we had finished work, we enjoyed playing football even with the climate change again moving to rain. This didn’t put anyone off, all the volunteers wanted to continue playing in the mud!
There was lots to see in the jungle and it was great finding insects. The volunteers said “this is the jungle adventure” “and everything was good!”
What we did in the Village-
- dug two holes which was difficult because we hit lots of rocks and water
- made the walls in three septic tanks
- carried gravel to the where it was needed in the village
- made the bathroom floor in three places
- mixed concrete and made one septic tank cover
- made three structures for the bathroom (walls of the bathroom)
- built two fully functioning bathrooms that were in the middle of the previous group
- extracted sand from Misahualli river
- carried building blocks to the two news places
- Loaded all the materials needed for construction like cement and gravel and sand for the new two places
Teacher Maria-Jose said that “group 2 was the most funny and energetic group I ever met.”
The mix of the work like construction, education, jungle treck, rafting and afternoon activities made the program perfect for the volunteers.
Maria-Jose sent thanks to the volunteers for being great teachers at the school and having that extra energy to play all the games with children. Group 2 was always positive even in the hard rain. It’s great to meet wonderful people!
What we did at the school-
- EDUCATION: Our main topic to teach were:
- ‘’the weather’’+ song + question.
- Subtractions, additions with big numbers (millions),
- each student had the chance to go at the front and participate with the volunteers to interact with some questions and vocabulary
- Children also learned new games that the volunteers taught.
Visit our Face Book page to see more photos of this amazing adventure
