Friday 17 December 2010

Book Bus Journal - Ecuador 26/07/10

Book Bus Ecuador in Puerto Lopez

A warm hello to all of you from Puerto López. The Book Bus is spending 2 months here. We started the volunteer work this past week and had two girls on the team. There was a school break so, we gather children form anywhere and everywhere that want to in join with the activities and the reading. Here's a brief rundown of the the week:




Monday we had 27 children 3 to 11 years old in El Tamarindo, a very poor area made up of a few families.

Tuesday we were in Machalilla where we gathered 21 children from the school. We all fell in love with this place, Children participate and were willing to hear the stories of the the reading we did. 


Wednesday we went to Puerto Cayo and had 54 kids a bit too many for the three of us but at the end all went well.

Thursday in Puerto López we gathered 6 children we did just one group and the children were very keen to listen to the book we chose for that day.

Friday we were in Agua Blanca and had 21 children, we have wonderful drawings of this group.

It was a very interesting week, because we gathered children that wanted to participate and there were many joining us. There is so much to do here. It is difficult to motivate people to read. We are trying to find a way to get teachers involved in the reading and we are thinking of leaving a book to be read during the scholar year and, spend 5 minutes reading a little bit of the book. If the coordinators and volunteers share with us ideas will be useful for the future work here. 


Children here loves drawing and representing stories. We noticed that they need to develop their creativity, there were children drawing the pictures of the book or copying the drawing of other kids. To motivate the reading is a bit difficult because the education level of the teachers is low. They don't have much criteria and formation to have a better formation of the kids. Unfortunately there is a culture of just getting things they need but not working to get it. We have to read and at the same time to plant a little seed in them to care for the environment and their school. 




It is a wonderful challenge but here we are on the book bus bringing the magic of reading.

The volunteers say hello to you all and soon you will hear from them. they will share a little bit of their experiences of the last few days.

A big hug and we are in touch with all of you.
Love
Jenny
www.thebookbus.org