In July 2016, David Harvey spent one week in Santo Domingo de Onzole, an African-descended community located in the jungle of northwestern Ecuador. This community, and others like it, were founded in the jungle by escaped slaves 400 years ago to prevent discovery by and contact with the Spanish.

 

Recently, Santo Domingo de Onzole has begun to integrate itself into the larger Ecuadorian society, both politically and educationally. After much resistance, the community finally succeeded in soliciting funds from the government for teacher salaries and materials to found a school for the local children. Because of its isolation, poverty, and previous lack of educational resources, teachers are primarily people who have simply graduated from high school.

 

David, who also works with the Ecuadorian Consulate in Queens, returned to Santo Domingo de Onzole this summer to participate in a long-term teaching project -- collaborating with Santo Domingo’s local teachers to share pedagogical approaches and help develop educational and curricular improvements. Over the two-month project, David led professional development workshops with Ecuadorian teachers to identify activities that link educational content to student experience to add contextual meaning to the learning process. As part of that work, local teachers collaboratively generated new lesson plans based on cacao, one of the region’s staple crops, and also introduced open-ended group games in math classes, rather than having students work alone on memorization and skill repetition.

 

David was joined by his wife Maritza Ordonez, who worked in Santo Domingo de Onzole’s new library. The library was built with assistance from the non-profit Onzole River Project, and developed a daily afterschool program to improve literacy among young students in the community. During the trip, David also dove into local culture by milling sugar cane and assisting on teachers' plantain plantations. He also hiked a 15,000 foot active volcano with a local indigenous guide, while learning about Ecuador’s immigration struggles.

 

Thanks to David for sharing this inspiring and worthwhile educational adventure with us!