What inspired you to work for El Terreno?
El Terreno, in Bolivar's province in Ecuador, is the poorest province in the country and the last province in every statistic. It has the worst economy, education, technology, environmental policies, social development, etc.
However, my father is from this province and I know the situation, so I feel the obligation to help in any way to improve the communities, and help people. El Terreno gave me the opportunity to be part of a corporation to help people and develop projects for them.
Describe a typical day at work.
We wake up early and have breakfast. At 8 am we have a check-in that consists of a warm-up, and a quick speech of how we are feeling. Then we start working, usually, we have to go for a walk around the community, talk to people, and gather information.
At noon a community lunch is served and after that, I do some class with my interns to help them in their projects. At night I teach or just share a moment with others before turning in.
Why do you do what you do?
My professional success has been given thanks to all the people who throughout my life have taught me something that has allowed me to solve the problems of my projects. One of my mentors taught me that knowledge should have no cost and he was always ready to teach me and correct my mistakes. Also, my parents and grandparents always taught me that one should help whenever possible and that we should never deny help to someone who needs it.
I believe that these teachings deeply marked my life and I try to apply them whenever possible. Life has given me many things like health, work, and employment and I must return those blessings to the community in some way.
On the other hand, interacting with people from other countries has allowed me to improve my English and has also allowed me to see other points of view about the same reality from the eyes of these people. It has also allowed me to know hidden corners of my country where I never expected to be but that has allowed me to see a social reality that is not known in the cities.
All this has motivated me a lot to strive as a person, try to learn more, and help more. He has taught me great lessons and I have met spectacular people, many of whom I now call friends.
I have been able to know the kindness of people, and solidarity, and experience the sadness and abandonment of other people and communities and this has given me the strength and conviction to continue on this path of volunteering and social help to try to help not only people, but also nature, try to rescue forests that directly influence the quality of life of people. Finally, this has allowed me to know myself more and break my own limits reaching new skills and abilities.
On this trip, we visited 38 students at their school in the Bramadero Chico community.
What challenges do you often face and how do you overcome them?
The lack of information is the main problem usually, but people are very kind and helpful. With a planificación of interviews and questionnaires, we are able to gather the necessary information. Sometimes people are resistant to change their minds, so the best solution is to work together with them while trying to explain in logical ways why they need to change their minds and stay open to new ideas that can help them improve their social situation.
What are some current projects you are working on?
I am leading a project to reforest the higher part of a community in order to use the native trees as cloud catchers. Atandahua is between Chimborazo (nevado) and the Coast. On the Coast the seawater evaporates and forms clouds, with the wind the clouds move to cordillera de Los Andes (Chimborazo) and then it falls as rain.
So when they pass through Atandahua the trees catch the clouds that turn into a mist, they grab the water and send it to the soil that in lower parts goes out as water streams. The problem is that people have cut down trees and the capacity of the forest to catch the clouds to get water has been reduced and this has caused the community to suffer a reduction of the drinkable water supply and also the irrigation water. Another new project is to work with the organization of the community because they don't have a real leader, so now we are working with the young people to form leaders that can fight for the wellness of the community.
What advice would you tell your pre-travel self?
Keep in mind that you are not a savior for the people in the community, they are possibly happier than people who have more money and comforts, but you come to help them solve problems and they are willing to collaborate with you. You also have to understand the way of life of the community and respect their beliefs and traditions. When you understand this concept you come to the community with respect and with an open mind at the same time to have new experiences and adapt to a totally different pace of life.
It would also give me the advice that I must first listen, understand, think, and speak. That is, I cannot be an engineer in a community full of farmers and farmers, you have to listen to them, understand their way of expressing themselves, and then speak the same language as them. I mean that I must communicate in a way that they can understand me and that I can correctly convey my ideas. That is the success of a project, that it can be transmitted to a group of people so that they understand it and carry it out.
The last advice I would give myself is patience, we are different people with different lives and different personalities. If we want to do everything our way, we will create conflicts so patience is a very powerful tool to have a good relationship with everyone.
This was a fun class in the Casa Comunal for the interns while in Atandahua.
Why should someone choose El Terreno over competitors?
The community of Atandahua is next to the snow-capped volcano Chimborazo, the closest point to the sun. It is a unique community with very friendly people dedicated mainly to agriculture and livestock. Unfortunately, in the community, there are several problems such as low income, little education, and little access to technology among others. The intern will live within the community where he will experience the culture, customs, and traditions in a safe environment surrounded by mountains and beautiful agricultural landscapes and the work of the intern will be a great contribution to the development of the community.
Coming to El Terreno is an excellent opportunity to carry out a project that will create a great impact on the community. Many farmers in the community live on less than a dollar a day, so community projects are part of the change we seek to improve people's quality of life. This will allow them to put all their knowledge into practice and acquire a lot of experience that will be useful in their professional life.
In addition, we focus on helping you improve your skills and abilities. Living in a natural environment away from the city with few technological resources, together with our support and experience will drive you to improve and learn new skills such as assertive communication, teamwork, working under pressure, exposure in public, creativity, and inventiveness. In addition, our interns always finish their projects with a very good level of Spanish.
Life in Ecuador is a unique experience. In the food, we have a huge variety of fruits and vegetables that allows us to have a wide and delicious typical food, and the climate is very stable because we are located near the middle of the world and have the Andes Mountains that cause the temperature ranges between 12 to 28 degrees celsius all year round.
Are there any developments with your organization that you would like to share with us?
In March 2023 we had our first intern in the engineering area, Chris lived a month in the community, and in the first walks, we showed that there was a serious problem with water. We went to visit the points where the sources of water from the ground are born and we observed that the native forest had practically disappeared. The native forest catches the clouds that rise from the coast towards the mountains, takes the water they need, and sends the rest to the ground that in the lower parts of the hills comes out as natural water sources.
This water is used for human consumption and for their crops and the scarcity of it affects the entire community a recommendation that came out of their work was that the Junta de Agua, that is the entity that regulates the use of it, buy the land in the upper part and reforest them in their entirety to recover the capacity of the area to retain water from the clouds.
A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasant news that the Juntas had bought land in the upper part in order to start the reforestation of that entire area, and we have achieved everything the same year. It seemed a job that was going to take a long time because there were many obstacles but thanks to the joint work of the authorities of the community, the community and our foundation have taken a big step towards rescuing water sources and ensuring water in communities.
What is your organization's mission and how do you continue to work toward it?
Our goal is as a center of cultural exchange and social innovation. We bring together local Ecuadorians and others from around the world through sustainable tourism, culture, education, and ecology, to create a more meaningful, sustainable, and prosperous world.
We achieve the objectives through a work methodology that focuses on cultural exchange. Once interns feel one with the community, we begin work on their projects which leads them to interact with leaders, authorities, and ordinary people.
Also through the projects they are involved with schools in the area where they can work with children learning from different cultures issues such as the importance of caring for nature. But not everything is work, many tourist trips are scheduled to different nearby communities where they know how to take care of their natural resources such as forests and water through social organization and can show how that directly influences their pace of life, economy, and social development.
Trip to Ungubi, a community that protects the native forest around Chimborazo.
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
I hope that they will develop a strong human bond with the community and with my country. In El Terreno we all get very actively involved in the community, we go around the community, we talk to people, we work with children, and the people of the community approach foreigners, talk, make jokes, and invite them to their homes. This is with the aim of creating a human link with all the people around us.
We focus on the intern feeling a strong connection with people and nature, at the end of his stay we want him to feel like another Ecuadorian and that at some point he wants to return to our country. As a mentor I try to leave a little of my being in each person who comes and that I have the opportunity to meet. I learn from each intern as well as try to pass on my knowledge to them and create a positive impact on their lives. We focus on making your experiences the best and unforgettable and this allows you to raise your level of human consciousness.
What questions do participants often ask you, and how do you typically respond?
Interns usually ask me about the political situation of the country, about the typical food, and about the most touristic places to visit in Ecuador that I recommend.
Regarding the political situation of the country, I give them a class where I explain the history of the last 30 years, how instability was formed in the 90s that led to the loss of our national currency, the sucre, and the adoption of the dollar. Also as an introduction, we see a brief summary of the history of Ecuador. Finally, we see how the political actors of recent years have been until the recent presidential elections. The subject interests them a lot and sometimes they want more detail on some issue and we do it in another class.
For typical food, I accompany them to the local market where they can taste a huge variety of fruits and vegetables. From time to time we prepare typical food in the communal house so they can make it back to their countries and we take advantage of the time to integrate more as a group and community.
Finally, in the tourist sites, in the initial information that is given to them when they first arrive at the project, they have a document with options for tourism nearby with logistics included and when they want to go to more distant places or that are not contemplated in the guide they are indicated and help plan their trip, sometimes a group is assembled and we all go. Apart from their internships, tours are planned for communities that develop community and sustainable tourism so that they expand their criteria and know how these people have done to join and improve their quality of life with the care of nature and sustainability.
Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?
The human eye is a camera that captures images, those images are processed by our brain but are interpreted by our mind. Then, we do not see reality, we only interpret it from our personality, principles, and bias in general, so many times what is bad for some people is not bad for others, it depends on the point of view. We also judge a situation based on our point of view based on our interpretation of the situation.
So the question is how do we break that mental barrier that does not allow us to understand other points of view? The answer is to travel to other places and get to know other cultures. First taking a trip takes us out of our comfort zones since traveling requires planning, leaving family and friends, and in general, leaving our daily routine towards something unknown.
Furthermore, each place is a culture, even within the same country each city and small town has its own way of life, they have their customs, traditions, and typical food. This teaches us to tolerate, not to judge, to respect, to empathize with others, to collaborate, to be supportive, and to be patient among other things. The language barrier often teaches us to speak less and listen more, to be observers rather than judges, and to trust our instincts.
The most important thing about traveling and experiencing new cultures is the possibility of learning different realities that show us different points of view of people who have other experiences, another economy, another education, another language, another climate, etc. When we enrich our understanding of the world by seeing different perspectives we come closer to being able to understand reality in a true way, not under our bias but rather we get closer to seeing the reality of the world as real as possible.
Team meeting with the authorities of the community and the intern in Atandahua.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
A meaningful trip for me is something that changes the way you understand the world. The goal of a trip is to get to know something new: places, food, people, cultures. You don't necessarily have to focus on a trip to give it a deep and revealing meaning, the experiences are what give meaning to the trip.
Every trip, whether short or long, is an adventure, for it to become an adventure means that you must have good experiences and bad experiences. Generally, good experiences are happy moments where everything goes well and allow us to be relaxed, happy, and calm. On the contrary, bad experiences are awkward moments where some unexpected situations or situations occur.
At the time of the event, they produce a lot of stress, worry, anguish, and pain, but later, when the situation has been resolved, this type of situation leaves us with a lesson and in many cases a funny anecdote. Having to solve problems and cope with difficulties in new environments that are different from us allows us to mature based on our experiences, as we learn from our mistakes or from the problems we solve.
The other point that can turn a normal trip into a meaningful one is to experience a moment so impactful that it significantly or crucially changes our way of seeing the world, our thinking, and even our principles and philosophy of life. Also, what gives an important meaning to a trip is how we assimilate the situation and how it takes on transcendental importance in our lives. Most of our interns experience life-transforming experiences.
Sometimes it happens to them individually when they go through the communities where the communities show them a face of the world totally new to them, at other times it is through the people. They interact with people from different countries, and from the same community, and the experiences of fun and work open their minds to a more human and more conscious reality.
What does ethical global engagement mean to you?
The world is globalized and we cannot avoid this global integration. This has brought many benefits in opening up the economy, technology, and knowledge to the world, which has allowed great advancements in humanity. Unfortunately, there is also a downside to globalization. In Ecuador's indigenous communities, globalization has led to the progressive loss of customs and traditions, as well as the exposure of other cultures as functional first-world stereotypes.
The main problems, in addition to the economic ones, that these communities face are that young people want to look more like the people they see in movies, social networks, and television and are ashamed of their culture, they do not want to wear their traditional clothes and they do not want to continue with the trades they inherit from their parents. Another additional problem is that young people do not feel that their lifestyle is enough and seek to migrate to other countries legally or illegally to look for jobs that pay them more money and this destroys families because not everyone lives together.
Taking into account the main problems that occur in the communities, I consider that ethical global engagement, as a tutor of a foundation focused on developing community projects, is mainly to create awareness. We try to show the economic inequality within the same community, the lack of opportunities, and education that leads to the loss of a sense of belonging to the community, but we also show the good, the people of the same community who maintain the customs and traditions, the struggle to preserve the forests and water, etc.
All in order for the interns to open their minds, we seek to create positive cultural impacts, to experience the needs that people have here so that they develop empathy away from personal ego and that their projects are engines of support for the communities that provide work experience to the interns at the same time. Also developing a personal connection with the environment by understanding their social struggles and our history gives them a sense of belonging and commitment to the community.
