Traveling to Ecuador on a Missions Trip
Ecuadorian Volunteer Journey an Eye-Opening Experience
Nov 9, 2009
There are two connotations associated with traveling: pleasure and purpose. Traveling for pleasure usually means the traveler will go somewhere to unwind and escape from the pressure of his or her life back home. Traveling with purpose or volunteering means the traveler has a specific goal or task he or she want to accomplish, whether alone or part of a team.
Both are rewarding in their own right, but the volunteer aspect is becoming a popular and cheap way for people to see the world while making a difference.
Matthew Bustin, an art student living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, traveled with purpose last March. Bustin flew down to Ecuador with a missionary team from Fall River, Nova Scotia, to help construct a nurse’s station at a camp outside a poor region of the country. The team stayed for a week.
“We got a group of people rounded up who were interested in going. After looking over costs of our travel, food and money to go towards the building project, we figured we would have to raise about $2000 each,” Bustin said. “We were incredibly blessed and ended up, through various types of fundraising, gathering more than we had aimed for.”
Fundraising Helps Deflate High Costs Of Traveling
Bustin described his first encounter with the culture after setting his foot off the plane.
“Walking out of the airport in Ecuador was immediately a culture shock. We were told right away to make sure we knew exactly where all our bags were at all times and to not let anyone carry our bags for us if they asked. We loaded onto a small bus and drove through streets I had never seen before,” he said.
“The architecture was different; there didn't seem to be any rules to the roads; all the vehicles were old and 90 per cent of them probably wouldn't pass a safety test in Canada.”
During the time the team was helping to build the station, they attended a church in a community called Block Six, a squatter town where people live in makeshift concrete houses built on top of sheet metal or anything they can find. The team ate lunch with the families in their homes after the service.
Ecuadorian Families Give When They Have Nothing
“This was probably the most eye-opening experience to me; seeing how little these people have, at least compared to all us middle-class Canadians,” he said, adding that the families were exceedingly willing to serve the team and very welcoming.
“They live in poverty yet appear to be happier than so many people here in North America. They're actually thankful for what they have instead of complaining because they don't have the latest iPod,” Bustin said.
Missions Trip Described As Eye Opening Experience
Bustin admits while working on the building projects were an exciting part of the trip and knowing he was contributing to better the future of the camp, it was the direct interactions with the communities he got the most out of.
“I can't say that it was life changing and I shouldn't have gone in with those expectations,” he said. “However, it was an eye-opening experience I will never forget and I'm so thankful I was able to go.”
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