In this interview, we hear from Caroline Williams. Caroline is working as a Peace Corps Health volunteer in Ecuador. What Caroline shares gives us a better understanding of the work volunteers do. We learn about the challenges, rewards, and personal growth that happens from volunteering in a new place. Caroline talks about living in a different country, working with local people, and dealing with surprise situations. Join us as we learn about Caroline’s journey and see how volunteering with the Peace Corps can change lives.
Table of Contents
- Volunteer Experience and Motivation
- Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
- Surprises and Challenges
- Advice and Support
- Practical Tips and Language Learning
- Social Identity during Service
- Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. Can you tell us more about serving as a Health volunteer in Ecuador?
Working with an international non-profit
As a Health Volunteer in the pretty developed, and bustling city of Cuenca, Ecuador, I have had the opportunity to dip my toes in all sorts of collaborative work with my host community. I began working with an international non-profit that put on health workshops and fairs in low-income, rural schools.
During this time, I collaborated with college students to create, organize, manage, and even lead life-skills and health workshops for students from elementary through high school age. The end of the school year was finalized with a peer-reviewed document, which included 11 topics taught in the school workshops throughout the year to be left for teachers and college students who were a part of the year-long collaboration to be used in future years.
Volunteering in the game room of the regional public hospital
Starting at the mid-service mark in my Peace Corps time, I began volunteering in the game room of the regional public hospital where I prepared workshops and entertained kids with toys, board games, crafts, and reading.
During this part of my service, I enjoyed creating new connections with local and foreign volunteers as well as providing a sort of emotional support through a listening ear to the challenging circumstances faced by those hospitalized and their family members.
Creativity workshops in the public market
Throughout my service, I enjoyed putting on creativity workshops in the public market and with another local non-profit that focused on self-care and expression for kids, often overlooked due to the challenging social and economic circumstances faced by their families.
And like most U.S. volunteers, I’ve spent many an afternoon having coffee chats with friends, old and new, to help them practice their English. Early mornings teaching workshops or helping out in the soup kitchen, to afternoons playing cards in the market or listening to the challenges of parents in the hospital, the life of an Ecuador Health and Wellbeing volunteer is anything but boring or predictable.
2. What motivated you to join the Peace Corps and choose Ecuador?
While studying microbiology at Arizona State, I found myself plugged into my hobbies, classes, and community, making staying on campus for the four years of my degree a no-brainer for me. Topped by the unexpected arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself without many opportunities for extended study (or living) abroad.
Nonetheless, a short 6-week volunteer trip with a couple of friends gave me a glimpse into a life of service abroad, particularly for an extended time in a stationary place, securing my desire to seek another more extended chance upon graduation. Peace Corps felt like the obvious choice – an opportunity for service tied with cultural integration that would be challenging and growth-filled for young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed me.
As a New Mexico native, choosing a Spanish-speaking country was essential to improve my skills for future social and professional reasons. Ecuador was one of two options that offered the health and well-being program that sparked my interest, and it felt like the most unique, exciting option.
Spending my secondary and college education in and out of clinics, medical offices, labs, and science-based conferences drew my focus to the health and well-being program, which focuses on promoting the basics (exercise, nutrition, alcohol prevention, and other healthy habits) through collaboration with local health clinics, institutions, and non-profits in the community.
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. Tell us more about your home situation:
Throughout my service, I’ve had the greatest blessing of living with a wonderful host family who welcomes me with open arms into their family gatherings while providing me with the space and comfort needed to rest. As a young, quiet couple in their mid-30s with no kiddos (unless you include the curious cat and rambunctious dog), our lifestyles and habits align nicely.
My host dad and mom
My host dad, also quite the night owl, prefers working into the night, meaning my later arrivals after evening dance rehearsal aren’t too much of a bother to him. On the other hand, my simple and reserved host mum loves a quiet afternoon watching Disney classics, painting, or crafting her new artistic masterpiece. I can relate to her creativity and care to share that unique side with the world (particularly at this time as a head art teacher to the rowdy high schoolers of colegio militar).
Lot’s of classic Americanized necessities
With one of the most urban site placements in Ecuador, my house is comfortable and adorned with all the classic “Americanized” necessities, from a hot shower to an oven and air fryer! It’s a quick jog from my favorite riverside trail and an easy 15-minute bike ride from the city center.
Lots of yummy food
The food is yummy, thanks to my family’s cooking skills, with some collaboration in this effort by me whenever I can. I have liked cooking for myself too from time to time, particularly during quiet, slow mornings with the Ecuadorian classic breakfast: coffee, eggs, and bread.
The one thing I will say is we followed suit when national apagones (or cuts) took electricity for extended hours at a time, many weeks in a row during the fall months of drought beginning late September and reaching into early December. Aside from losing electricity, my host home experience has given me all I need and more!
4. Any memorable experiences or interactions you’ve had?
Living with a host family has come with an abundance of fun, fulfilling, and eye-opening cultural experiences I’ve just adored. One of my favorite memories is celebrating carnival with the family in the campo (rural part out of the city), in which we roasted the Ecuadorian delicacy, cuy (guinea pig), with my extended host family.
Using the recently deceased animals plucked from the crates in abuelo’s (grandfather’s) backyard, we turned the cuy-impaling wooden sticks over the burning coals for nearly an hour, watching the frail white bodies become a toasty golden-brown. After a few hours of prep, including the long simmering of pork and hominy mote-pata stew, we feasted on cuy asada, seasoned potatoes, dulce de higo y durazno (sweetened fig and peach), and of course a side of LOTS of mote (hominy).
The feast was followed by more traditional carnival fun – splashing passers by with buckets, bottles, and balloons filled with chilly hose water. Make sure to bring your raincoat to this playful occasion so you don’t catch a cold! Feliz Carnaval indeed!
Surprises and Challenges
5. What has surprised you most about challenges in Ecuador?
Something most shocking in my adaptation to life in Ecuador has been communication. Coming from a US culture of direct, tell-it-how-you-feel-it speaking, it has been quite the journey navigating a total opposite form of conversing and collaborating. From the simple shifts that feel so communal – greetings to everyone from the grocery store clerk to the stranger you pass on the street – to the bigger ones, communication differences ooze into every part of PC life in Ecuador.
I notice it when conflict arises in the workplace, home, or friendly outings, the way addressing a problem becomes an elongated, complicated process. It starts with the indirect noticing, exclamations of good day and hope you’re well, and the all too common so SO sorry for the bother. This leads to questions of the reminders, casual and quiet, so as not to bother the person being (supposedly) confronted.
As you may have guessed, this likely will lead to nothing, requiring a second (even third) comment on the situation- everything ok?- to which the response is often “todo bien” regardless of apparent annoyance. Navigating these different ways of addressing (or not) conflict or just basic differences in opinion is a complex, frustrating piece in the challenges of living as a foreigner in Ecuador.
6. What challenges did you face while working on Health projects?
Working on health projects in Cuenca, I found it challenging to collaborate in planning and executing health projects (particularly in a culture that uses primarily indirect communication styles). Coming into a meeting with many ideas, especially elaborately thought-out plans for how a workshop could be run or what information could be relayed, may be seen as overbearing and controlling.
I quickly learned how to be more intentionally indirect by listening more, contributing less, and using a lot of fluffy words any time new thoughts or objections are brought up (apologies for the inconvenience! Or excuse the bother, usually do the trick) would help my efforts to communicate more culturally appropriately.
Supporting sustainable development in an area so highly influenced by culture as health involves a lot of grace for yourself and those you work with, realizing spending hours chatting with a child in the market about why she feels so icky after eating nothing but salchipapas all week (an Ecuadorian snack of french fries topped with a hot dog) or snacking on an apple after a soccer game while your teammates eat loads of rice are small but meaningful ways of starting slow, positive change. So much comes from just setting a good example and sharing your experience, something that has brought me a lot of joy and purpose as a health volunteer.
7. Could you share some of the secondary projects you have been involved in?
Living in a vibrant, bustling city filled with need and opportunity has come along with a number of incredible chances to get involved in secondary projects. Apart from my main work organizing workshops in the rural schools and public hospital, my work and collaborations have been focused on empowering low-socioeconomic youths through play, creativity, and educational support.
Lots of art workshops
Connecting with a friend of my host family running the creative project “Vamos al Mercado,” I supported her execution of artistic workshops with children and adults with a focus on poetry, writing, photography, screenprinting, painting, and more.
Additionally, I found a local non-profit called Fundacion Nur, which organized workshops for kids aged 6 to 12, primarily coming from migrant families.
And teaching English
Towards the end of my service, I was connected with Fundacion GRACE, which implemented basic-level English classes for children and adult migrants seeking improved conversational skills to support economic opportunity.
Having a positive impact on children
Over the months and years working with these various projects, I developed a positive, consistent rapport with the participants through the organized club spaces, which gave students a chance to embrace creative development, practice needed school subjects, and promote positive self-image.
Activities executed with children ranging from 3 to 15 years of age include games (Uno, categories, cards, and freeze tag), life-skills lessons (positive communication, goal-setting, self-image, recycling, values, and healthy habits), and tutoring in various needed school subjects (English).
Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds were often found to spend large amounts of time without needed supervision, encouragement, or care, so these small interactions at the foundation and public market create a lasting impact through teachings on values, decreasing screen time, increasing social skills/engagement, heightening creativity, and promoting play.
Advice and Support
8. What advice would you give to someone considering serving as a Health volunteer in Ecuador?
Beginning the journey as a PCV is full of emotions. The excitement for a new adventure mixed with the sadness of leaving behind loved ones and the fear of being in a new place so far from home. Nevertheless, I felt welcomed into my new home of Ecuador and embraced into this new crazy experience by the many PC staff working to help me succeed (language learning, cultural adaptation, health workshop teaching, and more), to the soon-to-be host families ready to receive me into their homes to the social groups I was soon to call my own.
Deciding to jump in head first into this incredible opportunity, taking every chance I had to serve, participate, share, and learn, made the Peace Corps one of the most rewarding and impactful experiences. Being in a new place can be hard, but deciding early on to make the best of every unexpected twist and turn by saying yes to opportunities that arise to culturally integrate and not letting the hard, frustrating, and embarrassing stuff get you down will help you get the most out of your Peace Corps experience.
9. How has the Peace Corps training helped you during your service?
I found Peace Corps training to be immensely helpful to my language and cultural integration at site due to opportunities to work extensively in small, like-minded groups with our language and cultural coordinator, reflecting on everything from past tense verbs to the Ecuadorian healthcare system. Having the chance to learn, reflect, and ask questions in a more intimate group setting allowed for more authentic learning that improved my ability to integrate and adapt to my experience at site.
I also learned a lot in technical training sessions about various health topics, such as nutrition and exercise in the country. I felt I lacked more practice in creating and executing successful health workshops to arrange for students ages, a skill which came with time, especially in my second language. Volunteers with previous, more specialized experience in teaching health topics may be more successful in health-specific roles in Ecuador, particularly in many rural sites; however, meaningful work can be found through need in any open, collaborative community willing to meet you halfway.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
10. Anything that you packed or didn’t pack that you’d like to tell future Ecuador volunteers?
Coming to a quite developed country which also hosts a huge population of expats and has a large percentage of migrants as well, Ecuador had many, if not all, of the major commodities one would want as a PCV. Supermarkets in all major cities have all the go-to snacks, sweets, and pantry items- although a few specialty items such as various curry spices, peanut butter, Reese’s products, and Cheez-its are more challenging to find (and quite expensive if you can track them down).
Outdoor markets have affordable clothes at varying levels of quality, only lacking decent shoes for sizes above 8 U.S. Other go-to must-haves include favorite creams such as facial washes (CeraVe), sunscreens, and toothpaste, which are much more expensive due to high import prices.
Many people, including myself, pack as if we are escaping to the middle of nowhere for a while, forgoing jewelry and “cute” clothes for Friday night. Although it is smart to leave values behind instead of risk losing them through travel or theft abroad, it’s definitely worth bringing clothes and accessories that you enjoy that make you feel like yourself and represent your personality to your new community (in an appropriate, socially-acceptable way, of course).
Shipping is VERY challenging and discouraged from the States, so it’s not recommended that you leave anything at home with plans to ship it to you later on. A solid portable charger, a sleeping bag, and a sturdy 25/30L backpack were among my top essentials that I’m glad I brought for the many long bus rides and visits to other volunteers.
11. How has learning the language been?
Spanish is the primary language spoken in Ecuador, a language extremely useful and more accessible overall than many other PC-learned languages. Compared to Asian and African languages, this Latin-based language is much easier to catch, as many PCVs grew up with some level of exposure to Spanish.
Language and Culture coordinators with PC Ecuador are great at working with volunteers to increase language proficiency and overall cultural integration, so previous language learning isn’t essential, although any bit helps to better prepare volunteers to integrate into their new sites. Even beginning daily streaks on apps such as Duolingo or exposure to media in Spanish (movies, music, podcasts, etc.) can begin the habit of listening to and engaging with the language before site placement.
Social Identity during Service
13. Did your identity lead to specific challenges or situations?
As a foreign female in a predominantly machista male-run Latino culture, I have learned how to stand my own, lead with confidence, and not take crap from others even when it means going against the grain – culturally, socially, and a bit internally too.
I am SUCH a people pleaser, something that makes service a challenge as I want to say yes and help everyone, but it’s something that quite obviously can never be done. Nevertheless, being a female in this Latino culture where I’m found responsible for receiving verbal harassment from a cab driver or getting swooped up my a flirtatious guy because I choose to engage in conversation at any point, I have learned how my gender influences my experience but won’t hold me back from successfully supporting my community through confidence, perseverance, and persistence.
14. What advice do you have for volunteers who share your identity?
If joining the Peace Corps as a woman really anywhere, it’s important to recall that your intelligence, ability, strength, and power can (and likely will) be questioned at any moment. Don’t let that stop you from pursuing your purpose and knowing you are so capable as a Peace Corps volunteer!
Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
15. How do you think your blog contributes to your overall mission as a Peace Corps volunteer?
I love writing through my experiences to not only process the lessons learned, particularly during the most challenging of these opportunities, but also to share those lessons with others. Letting others learn from my successes (and even more so mistakes) opens the door to so much more potential good to come.
Particularly, I feel this work also supports the Peace Corps mission as it expands knowledge and understanding of the good collaborative work we do in countries across the world, as well as the impactful, enriching lessons we learn from time shared between cultures different from our own. Feel free to follow along with my journey through the Peace Corps and further teaching ventures in the realm of work and integration beyond US borders.
Searching world – finding self has become an outlet for me to stay in touch with friends, family and loved ones as I explore life and self away from home. For the two years to come, I will be serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cuenca, Ecuador promoting health and wellbeing in collaboration with the local organization Child Fund International.
16. Any last comments you’d like to pass on to future Ecuador volunteers?
Ecuador is a country rich with history, beauty, nature, and more. Throughout my time as a PCV in Ecuador, I have swum with sharks, climbed glaciated mountains, played with monkeys, and tried roasted guinea pig, all while supporting locals to develop health education material. This country may be little more than the size of Colorado, but the expanse of its culture and diversity reaches far beyond its borders. You won’t regret choosing to spend a piece of your life giving back to (and in the end, receiving so much more than you could ever give) Ecuador. Take the leap!
What are you waiting for? Opportunities like this don’t come often. If you have a passion for service and an adventurous spirit like Caroline’s, apply to the Peace Corps today. Expand your horizons, push your limits, and create positive impact as a volunteer. You never know how serving as a Peace Corps volunteer could change your life.
The content of this post does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or Ecuador Government.
