Follow the Journey

This past week on the banana farm has been an incredible experience filled with music, delicious food, Spanish, dirt, jokes, discussions, bugs, and of course, tons of bananas. With an average consumption of 3 to 5 bananas a day (not including the bananas in our meals), we knew from the beginning that the farm was going to be a great place. In fact, the family on the finca (farm) created an extremely open environment with the intention of giving and taking both knowledge and love.
Toward the beginning of our stay, Juan Carlos (in charge of the banana farm, teacher, pastor, awesome guitar player) gave us a tour of the land along with an explanation of the process of growing bananas. As we became more familiar with this process, we dedicated a day to working on the farm. Carrying heavy bags of bananas on our shoulders to the station, hanging, washing, packing, and even stickering the bananas were done for hours before lunch and then into the afternoon. Sharing this experience with the family allowed us to understand the amount of effort that is put in to each banana we eat absent mindedly at home. It also gave us time to talk to the family members and to learn about their values.
The sharing continued as a bunch of us helped prepare a dinner of empanadas, spicy salsa, and a cole slaw. As we introduced our ways of making some of these foods, the abuelas (grandmas) guided us with their tips. With a few funky looking empanadas and many good ones, we were able to eat our food with satisfaction. From stuffing homeade peanut butter into plantains to making more salads and salsa, each exchange in the kitchen made us SAM members feel even more at home.
The family shared their knowledge of Spanish as almost all of the family members served as our Spanish instructors in the mornings, and we helped them differentiate between English words like ¨keys¨ and ¨kiss.¨
One of the most memorable activities was when we all crowded around a campfire. We started off as Ryan sang a song in English, then Juan Carlos sang in Spanish with his family, then the SAM girls sang Wagon Wheel…we switched off between English and Spanish and laughed that in both languages we don´t know the lyrics to songs. This exchange lasted into the night and even the heavy amount of mosquitos didn´t stop us.
The night before we left, as we were making cookies to say thank you to the family, one of the family members who is around our age told me ¨no olivides Ecuador¨, that I should never forget about Ecuador. With the generosity of the family on the farm and all of the amazing exchanges in which we were able to participate, I know I will never forget my experiences here in Ecuador.