As I prepare to leave, the one nagging question I have is how to keep this experience alive.  After embracing the country, the culture and the people, how do you make sure this is not all a distant memory a year from now?

I understand that for many people who choose to volunteer abroad for a short period of time, all they are looking for is a once in a lifetime experience.  However, I know there are many people like me out there who don’t want this to remain a collection of memories.  I want to continue to strengthen my relationship with South America through work and travel.  I suppose my biggest fear is that upon returning to my “normal life” I will lose sight of all the promises I have made to myself while being here.

Fortunately, when I head back to the United States I will be attending graduate school and will have more flexibility in making sure my desired career path keeps me connected to Latin America.  I can definitely stay current on cultural events offered at school and keep up my Spanish skills through classes.  At the very least, I think its important for all of us who volunteer and work abroad to come back as positive ambassadors for the country we have come to love.  We can dispel negative myths and inspire those who are considering taking the same leap.

I obviously don’t know what the future will hold for me, but I do know that when I return to Chicago in a few short weeks I absolutely will have left a little piece of my heart in Ecuador.

For more on Ecuador, check out posts by La Vida Idealist blogger Dan Malin.

Photo courtesy of graffiti-shop.nl

When I first arrived in Ecuador everyone wanted to call me Lorena, but I was very adamant about the fact that my name was LAUR-EN.  Not Lorena.  I felt that I was making an effort to pronounce everyone’s names correctly (I wasn’t calling José “Joseph” just because that’s what it is in English) so I assumed everyone could try a little on mine.

However, as the months went on, everyone kept calling me Lorena (along with niña, mi hijita, and mi amiga Lora-lynn) and I began protesting less and less.  I even started introducing myself as Lorena.  The eventual surrender of my name had me thinking about what aspects of your identity are important to keep while abroad and what aspects you should allow to flex a bit.

Most importantly for me was to remain true to the person I was at home.  I came to Ecuador with a desire to help, to learn, to relate to a culture and to be a positive ambassador of my country.  While I may have Chilean blood in me, I still remain true to having African and Caucasian roots as well.  Although I’m diligently trying to learn the language with the proper pronunciation, I don’t talk to my friends at home in an odd accent.  And while I’m trying hard to understand and maybe even sympathize with Ecuador’s complex relationship with the United States, I’m never going to start dogging on my country.

However, I’m also not trying to overtly push my culture in a place where I’m the minority.  While I find a lot of things frustrating about the systems here in Ecuador, I make a point to never say “We do this so much better in the United States.“  I consider myself a very “independent” woman, but I’m respectful of the fact that this is a male-dominated culture.  And even when I’m in a place where I know the people also speak English, I will always at least try to exercise my mediocre Spanish first, because that is the language of this country.

At the end of the day, I think it’s about blending without totally assimilating.  Letting people call me Lorena seems a small price to pay to share and take part of this beautiful culture.

Check out this other post about maintaining your identity: “Your Friend the Poncho Guy” by fellow La Vida Idealist blogger, Curtis Fox.

With a Chilean grandmother, the events of last week hit especially hard for me.  Fortunately, all relatives of my family are safe and were several hours away from the hardest hit areas.  I did have the opportunity to speak with one of my cousins in Chile and she was able to give several recommendations on great organizations to donate to for those looking to help.

Un Techo para Chile – This organization typically works with constructing new neighborhoods in Chile’s poorest regions.  With the many people left homeless following the earthquake, Un Techo para Chile will be an instrumental organization in helping with reconstruction.

Cruz Roja Chilena - As the Red Cross of Chile, Cruz Roja has been responding to the quakes since the beginning.  They have even set up a separate site to help families who have lost contact with relatives since the earthquake.

Bomberos de Chile - I recently learned that the firefighters in Chile do not receive salaries.  These professionals are assisting with the rebuilding efforts on a completely volunteer basis.

Armada de Chile – The Chilean Navy has also been critical in responding to the crises over the past week.

While the devastation to the country of Chile is immense, fortunately aid appears to be reaching those in need in a timely fashion.  Currently I have plans to travel to Chile in late April.  I hope to be able to report then that the country is well on its way to recovery and that the people of Chile will prevail.

To learn more about the earthquakes in Chile, check out CNN’s dedicated site to coverage or for first person accounts of life after the quake on The Pulse.

“I don’t know the language.” While it can be intimidating not knowing the language, this is something that can be overcome.  An easy thing to do is take a class when you first arrive.  This helped me immensely.  Also, you would be surprised just how much you can communicate with very few words.  A positive attitude, a smile and a willingness to try the language will go very far with locals.

“I don’t know where to find opportunities.” This can be tricky, but I would hope that if you are reading this blog you know about the incredible resources Idealist.org and sister site, Idealistas.org, offer.  That’s a great place to start.  Another good place to look is universities.  I found some really interesting organizations associated with my alma mater, and all it took was a few emails to get in touch with someone.

“I’m too old.  My time has passed.” I’m a firm believer that it is never too late to follow your passions.  Just yesterday, I met a man who just moved to Cuenca to start a new life as a business English teacher.  He’s of retiring age, has never taught before and is far away from his wife and family in Minnesota.  However, he has always wanted to move abroad so he went for it, knowing the other pieces would fall into place eventually.  His wife will likely move down here and with the increasing interconnectedness of the world, it’s hard not to keep in touch with your family wherever they may be.  If he can do it, you can do it.

Moving abroad can be scary, especially with so many unknowns.  But if moving abroad and making a difference is something you’ve always dreamed of, you owe it to yourself to explore the possibilities.

Lauren took the plunge and moved to Ecuador in October 2009.  Learn more about Ecuador through her personal blog.

However, within my very first weeks here I noticed a very disturbing trend:  a  lot of the kids cheat.  At first I thought it was just a few isolated incidents, but then I compared stories with other foreign English teachers and they said the problem was even worse in the high schools.  Talking with my aunt I found that the habit continues all the way through university.  What I find so shocking is that kids as young as six at our school don’t think twice about cheating.  And I’m not talking just looking at your neighbor’s paper, I’m talking about bringing little sheets of paper to discreetly keep in your lap.  Where is this coming from?

My aunt, who has lived in Ecuador for 30 years and is the principal at our school, tried to shed some light for me on the epidemic of cheating in Ecuadorian schools.  She first cites pressure from parents.  Perception and appearance is very important to Ecuadorian parents.  A child doing poorly in school is a direct reflection on the parents.  One that the parents do not want and made known to their children.

The second reason, my aunt points out, is flaws in the law surrounding Ecuadorian education.  It is against the law to hold a child back a grade in primary education (through 6th grade) unless the parents consent.  Unfortunately, with many schools requiring monthly tuition, parents are not apt to agree to hold their child back, regardless of poor performance, because this is seen as a “waste of money.”  After 6th grade, kids are able to get held back and my aunt broadly estimates that nearly half of Ecuadorian students fail 7th grade due to poor foundational skills built in primary years.  Failing just one subject means a child must be held back, so cheating becomes an even larger incentive after 7th grade, especially in subjects like English and math.

By the time a child is a teenager, cheating has become habit.  You can only imagine how having no conscience about cheating can permeate a culture and affect it negatively in the forms of corruption and dishonesty.

At my aunt’s school she tries to instill the value of failure – letting children know that it is okay to fail, but it is not okay to cheat.  We’re only one school, but hopefully, for the sake of Ecuador, other schools will begin to teach the value of honesty and allowing children the room to fail.

For more stories about teaching in Ecuador, check out my personal blog.

Now, to be clear, I agree that there are many problems back home.  I, by no means, harbor a blind patriotism that is ignorant of the progress we still need to make domestically and abroad.  But it’s not all bad.  Spending a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer opened my eyes to the incredible energy and dedication the American people have to keeping their communities alive and vibrant.

And these same people are dedicated to being good world citizens.  I have a number of friends who have gone abroad to volunteer their time and skills to impoverished countries, genuinely trying to make an impact.  The majority of my fellow bloggers on this site are U.S. citizens, and I believe each of them is sincerely trying to make a difference in his or her country of current residence.  Aren’t these individuals great examples of the good that comes from the United States?  I would never want to bad mouth a country that has genuinely good people fanning out all over the globe trying to make the world more just.

So my question is: how do we become good ambassadors?  How do we make sure that all those fantastic people out there, doing incredible work, are proud to say they are U.S. citizens?  Because I for one want to take credit for all the good that is being done by these people, these people and these people.

Lauren Foukes is currently teaching English and helping local businesses in Ecuador.  For more about her experiences, check out her personal blog.

As I’ve been working to learn Spanish these last few months, I have found that kids are incredibly good teachers.  They are patient, talk slow, and generally like to share their language with you.  I imagine for kids, who have adults teaching them things all day, it’s rather fun to be able to teach an adult something they don’t know.

Further, kids don’t feel the need to vary their language all the time.  They will use the same phrase over and over again.  The repetition is great for anyone trying to learn a language.  Take for example my students at the school.  I have heard the phrases “Saca mi punta,” and  “Él me está molestando!” so many times that I will never forget how to ask to have my pencil sharpened or to express when someone is bothering me.  Multiply hearing these same phrases all day over the course of six months and you’ll find you’ve learned a lot of Spanish without ever opening a book.

So my words of advice to anyone who is learning a new language – start with the kids!  You’ll learn a ton and probably laugh quite a bit while you’re at it.

My most recent example of having to remain flexible came a couple of weeks ago.  For various, uninteresting, reasons, I was not able to continue volunteering with FINCA after the holidays.  Normally this would have left me flustered and disappointed that something I had “planned” wasn’t panning out anymore.  Yet, I had been here long enough to just take it in stride and trust in the fact that something new would pop up.

And sure enough, something did.

My aunt let a couple of friends know that my Wednesdays were free and I was hoping to help out with small businesses around town.  Within a couple of days our friend Hilda asked if I could help out with inventory management at their bread store in town.  Fast forward to this past Wednesday, and I found myself sitting in the middle of a large garage filled with everything from Cokes to bags of flour to candy to plastic boxes, all begging to be inventoried.  It’s still early, but I think I’m devising a pretty good system for them to start managing their inventory, which I’m excited about and they are grateful to have.

Being flexible and “going with the flow” is definitely an asset here.  Opportunities are at every turn, it’s just a matter of being patient and keeping your eyes open.  Working directly with members of the community is exactly what I came here to do, so helping the bread store put something into place that will really help them is an exciting proposition.  And of course, the free bread is a nice perk!

In any of the major living areas, you will discover that the constant stream of buses and trucks makes for a very smoggy experience.  Transportation aside, oil exploration, logging and road building are all contributing to the increased environmental concerns.  Given Ecuador’s incredible biodiversity (1,600 bird species, 6,000 species of butterflies and over 16,000 plant species, to name a few) it makes me sad to see pollution threatening the natural beauty of Ecuador.

So what are people doing about it?  I took it upon myself to compile this below list of some great organizations here that are dedicated to protecting the environment in Ecuador.  For those looking for volunteer opportunities in Ecuador, these orgs are a great place to start!

EcoCiencia – Promotes sustainable management of natural resources through conservation efforts.  Headquartered in Quito; projects in Esmeraldas province.

Zoobreviven Foundation – Committed to conserving biodiversity through reforestation, environmental education and economic development for local residents.  Headquartered in Quito; projects in the Choco region (northern Ecuador).

Fundacion Cabo San Francisco – Focused on flora and fauna conservation.  Headquartered in Quito.

Fundacion Ecologica Condorhuana – Promotes environmental education, sustainable use of natural resources and alternative land and resource development.  Headquartered in Loja.

Fundacion Brethren y Unida – Projects focus on sustainable farming efforts in rural Ecuador.  Headquartered in Quito; projects in Pedro Moncayo, Columbe, and Intag.

Fortunately, since I’ve been here, I have not run into any problems with my safety.  Of course there are safety concerns, but I thought it would be valuable to dispel some of the myths.

Myth #1:  “It’s not safe for a woman to travel alone.”
The trick to traveling alone is to be smart.  For example, I never ride the bus listening to my iPod.  I haven’t seen a lot of iPods in Ecuador, so using one is a dead giveaway you aren’t from around here.  It also makes you less aware of your surroundings.  Another tip I’ve learned is to always sit in the aisle seat, near the front.  Sitting in the aisle allows you to get up quickly if someone is bothering you and inform the driver if need be.

Myth #2:  “You’re likely to get mugged.”
Again, just because you are a foreign woman, does not mean you have a big target on your back.  The key is to not draw undue attention to yourself.  Don’t wear a lot jewelry or carry flashy purses.  Avoid getting money out of the ATM at night when you’re alone.  If you are lost, try to ask a woman for directions.  And if it’s not necessary to walk home alone – don’t do it!

Myth #3:  “Foreign women are frequently kidnapped.”
I blame this fear on movies like Taken.  There’s no need to smile and carry on with strangers – would you act like that in Detroit?  My aunt always tells me to walk around with a scowl on my face.  Another tip she taught me, is to hold your breath if a stranger comes up to you and tries to put something towards your face (this is how people have gotten drugged).  And of course, don’t make it obvious where you live.

Safety concerns exist for women in South America just like anywhere else in the world.  However, ladies,  if you act smart and know what to be aware of there is no reason to fear travel on this beautiful continent!