July 16-25, 2009
The Park City 5 Memorial Group was able to accomplish more than we initially imagined possible during our first trip to Ecuador. Thanks to the 47 volunteers who joined the expedition and all of you, who have supported our goals, the people of the small villages of Galte San Juan and Galte Miraloma, located about an hour and a half outside of the Riobamba area, received desperately needed resources, which will benefit the children and the community as a whole, for many years to come. We felt very welcomed by the people from the community and learned so much from them about what really matters in life. This experience changed many of us for the better and has really impacted our lives. We are grateful to the donors and participants in this project who helped us with this project and to help keep the memories of these five young people alive in our hearts.
Many of the expedition members were students from Park City High School who wanted to serve others by participating in a humanitarian project, enhance their Spanish language skills and foster cultural understanding and empathy. We were so impressed by their hard work, compassion and dedication to this project. It was inspirational to all who participated. Some of our accomplishments in Ecuador were:
- Funded construction of an upper primary school building
- Renovated the lower primary building and stocked it with teaching supplies
- Built a school cafeteria
- Build two community ovens w/ the help of an Equador “maestro” or master builder
- Taught cooking classes for future enterprise projects
- Built two playgrounds
- Ran two medical clinics
- Taught computer classes and supplied new programs for those computers
- Taught classes in English, hygiene, family planning, nutrition and first aid
Some highlights were presenting the mural of the PC 5 to the Mira Loma villagers and realizing how much we really have in common. We all have loved ones we lost and will always remember. A highlight outside the village was going to the Cuenco soccer game and chanting with the locals!
Reuerdos para toda la vida!