Last time teaching at Barrio Amazonas

Trip Start Jan 10, 2009
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Trip End Jul 09, 2009


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Where I stayed
A homestay
(Tena hotels)

Flag of Ecuador  , Napo,
Tuesday, March 17, 2009

This afternoon was my last time teaching the kids at the Barrio Amazonas rural community.  After the teaching the boys wanted to play football so Tom and I were the captains in a 5-a-side match.  The boys were only aged between about eight and ten but they gave us a good run-around!  Presumably because they don't have computer games and television to waste their time with, they are outside playing football all the time instead.  Certainly half the time only the girls would show up at Barrio Amazonas to learn English, and on asking them where the boys were, the answer would inevitably be "ellos estan jugando al fútbol"!

After half an hour or so we gringos couldn't take the heat any more so we and the kids went down to the nearby river to cool off.  I absolutely loved playing with the kids in the river, either helping them do back-somersaults into the river, or ferrying the younger kids who can't swim that well, across the river and back, with them on my back Me about to jump from the overhanging tree 1
Me about to jump from the overhanging tree 1
 .  This is what I am going to miss most about volunteering in Tena - not the teaching itself, but playing with the kids and seeing how much they enjoy themselves; I doubt they receive this kind of attention from their families.  It sounds clichéd, but there really is something special about getting a child to smile or laugh, especially considering how poor they are.  Ok, so some of the families do have a TV, and there is Internet access in town for them to play computer games, but it is the simple things in life, plus having vivid imaginations (and actually using them!) that makes them happy.  It makes me angry to think of all the spoilt brats in the Western world with their own computers, TVs, games consoles, iPods and the rest, and they are still never satisfied; whereas these kids can have a great time with some sticks, some plant leaves and a pile of rocks, let alone if you give them some paper and colouring pens!

Anyway I digress.  At the river there is a high bank on the far side with an overhanging tree branch from which the older boys were jumping off.  Naturally I had to give this a go.  From ground level it didn't seem too high, but once I was actually sitting in the tree looking down at the river it was a different story!  The jump was over six metres high; I still did it though, and it wasn't *that* painful to hit the water from that height!

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