After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, our family lived in California for a couple of years, in Irvine near Disneyland. Both of us wanted to have an overseas experience for our family, and when Beau had the opportunity to transfer to Hong Kong with his job as a lawyer, we readily accepted. We lived and worked in HK for three and a half years. We lived in a very nice community of mostly expatriates like ourselves. Our girls attended a private international school in our community, and we generally had a very nice life. We had some wonderful experiences learning about HK and Chinese culture. We also traveled around the region to Thailand, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia.
When we were first married, we had decided to use the holiday season to give to a family that was in need. After arriving in HK, we really wanted to continue the tradition, but realized that, because of the great need that existed in some of the surrounding countries, we could probably do much more than just help one family. Some good friends of ours had started an organization called HelpOneFuture (http://www.helponefuture.org), which was dedicated to helping the educational opportunities of children in the Philippines.
After communicating our intentions to join a service project over Christmas vacation in the Philippines, we also realized that we had many friends who were excited to help us with this first project, and were overjoyed by the response and support from our friends. We worked with HelpOneFuture our first Christmas to organize a book drive in HK, and then take books and school supplies to under-privileged children in remote villages in the Philippines. This was an extremely rewarding experience for us as a family and changed the way we viewed ourselves and our ability to be of service to our fellow human beings. From then on we began looking in earnest for other opportunities to help different communities in and around HK. We became involved in helping the migrant Indonesian and Filipino communities in HK that were so often neglected and abused.
Beau was getting more burned out as the days passed and he wanted a more fulfilling life like how we felt when we were helping schools in the Philippines. Our family had been blessed to have a great job where we were able to save a little money, and so Beau began searching for an opportunity to volunteer for a year as a family. This was surprisingly challenging, as most of the organizations he contacted either did not want to care for an entire family or did not think that children would be able to live in the environments in which they worked. Eventually Beau connected with The Tandana Foundation (http://www.tandanafoundation.org/).
Anna Taft, the executive director of Tandana, agreed wholeheartedly with the vision of an entire family embarking on a year of service and agreed to accept Beau as a long-term volunteer intern with the foundation in Otavalo. Beau assists with medical volunteers that come work in the more remote communities around Otavalo that are less likely to get the medical attention they need because of distance and the maze-like medical system. Every 6 months medical professionals and additional volunteers spend two weeks visiting communities and providing medical and dental assistance. Beau will also help those who received medical attention to get necessary follow up treatment throughout the year.
In addition to the medical visits, Beau teaches a computer class at the local school where our children attend. There were about 25 computers donated by a group about a year ago for the school and they are trying to make the best use of them. Few of the school children have computers at home and are familiar with some games. Most kids are not familiar at all with computers. It is a challenge to teach such a variety of ages and levels of familiarity.
Tandana also provides a scholarship program to help students attend high school. High school is only available in Otavalo and many times students do not continue their education after primary school because it is too far away or they cannot afford it. With scholarships these students are able to continue their education. The family that we live with has a daughter (Monica) that is a scholarship student. She was offered a scholarship based on the family’s financial need and her academic achievement.
We live in a small community called San Jose de Quichinche, which is about a 10-15 minute bus ride outside Otavalo. We really wanted the opportunity to live with a local family while volunteering in Ecuador, but realized from the beginning that this would probably be a difficult thing to arrange for an entire family. To our excitement, the local Tandana folks were able to locate a family that agreed to host us during our time in Ecuador.
We live with Carlos Lopez and Suzanna Perugachi (husband and wife always keep both their family names) and their family of five children (yes, that makes eight kids and four adults in one small house). They belong to the indigenous group of people that have lived here for centuries. They have given us half of their house to use. They have been very generous and are the kindest people. They are like family to us already. We do all we can to help with chores and cooking; there is a lot to do with all of the kids and animals to care for. We share all our meals and do most activities together. We learn a lot from our host family; they work very hard and love each other. The kids all love each other and have a ton of fun together (their Uno games sometimes get pretty intense!).
As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have connected with the local church community and have enjoyed the friends and assistance that have been available to us. Although the language is different, we have felt the same familiar Christ-like love and family that we have always enjoyed everywhere we have lived. Although our host family does not attend the same church as we do, they are wonderful people and we all work together to be more Christ-like and help others. We take turns praying at mealtime, and love learning from each other and enjoying each other’s company.
As a family our goal is to learn Spanish, learn about the culture of Ecuador and Otavalo, find service opportunities and strengthen our family bonds. Quichinche is a nice quiet place where most people know each other. It is fun to walk the kids to and from school and greet everyone on the way with “buenos dias”, and “buenas tardes.” We ride the bus often to Otavalo to attend Spanish classes, buy groceries, have our excess laundry washed (we always seem to fall behind with the laundry because the kids are always getting dirty, and we aren’t yet as fast and efficient as Suzanna), and attend church meetings.
The indigenous people of Otavalo produce large quantities of textile goods. There are many different handycraft items for sale in the Otavalo market. Tourists come to Otavalo every weekend to shop at the market and see some of the sights. There are several volcanoes and lakes in the area. Otavalo is at a very high elevation which is why it is so cold, and very close to the equator which is why the weather does not change too much (at least seasonally speaking – but it will be cold and rainy and then blazing hot in the same day).
I hope this answers some questions. I very much enjoy reading the comments that are left on the blog. Please leave more comments. I am interested to know what everyone thinks about our experiences and if you have questions – we’ll try to be better at responding to questions. We are very grateful for the love and support that friends and family have offered. Please keep in touch!
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