Best of the Guest Blog VIII: Experiencing Ecuador through Engineers Without Borders
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Posted by: Hopkins Insider | 
April 26 2010 | 
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Title: Experiencing Ecuador through Engineers Without Borders
Originally Published: December 25, 2008
Name: Carolyn Purington
Year: Class of 2010
Hometown: Rutland, MA
Major: Biomedical Enginering
Editor’s Note: To learn more about Engineers Without Borders at Johns Hopkins, check out their website.
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I arrived in Quito, Ecuador with two other engineering students at mid-day, after a quick stopover in Panama City. It was a surprisingly short flight (5 hours) to arrive to such a distinct location in South America. After we took a cab ride to our International Hostel, the first thing we did was to find a place to eat. Since our Hostel was located in the international and touristy section of Quito, it took us longer than expected to find an authentic Ecuadorian restaurant.
Although the food was definitely a memorable part of my trip to Ecuador, I traveled there as part of Engineers Without Borders. I am a member of the JHU Ecuador team, and we are partnering with a small community north of Quito, Santa Rosa de Ayora, to design, fund, and construct a children’s nursery. I traveled to Ecuador with my project co-leader, Yujie Wang, and a civil engineer, Ben Frison. We were later joined by environmental engineer Daniela Martinez, and professional structural and geotechnical engineer Paul Hu.
We spent the first 5 days in Quito, living in a hostel and meeting with various people in order to plan for the project. We visited several children’s nurseries in Quito in order to observe the floor plan and organizational setup. We also presented our project in Spanish to four Rotary clubs in Quito at their weekly meetings, and had an opportunity to interact with wealthy Ecuadorians. We met and partnered with the Católica University in Quito and planned to use their services to test the soil on our building site in Santa Rosa de Ayora.
When Daniela and Paul arrived, we packed our bags and left Quito for Santa Rosa de Ayora, a two hour bus ride north of the capital. In an effort to both save money and to culturally experience Ecuador, we traveled by public transportation as much as possible. When we climbed on the bus in Quito it was almost empty, but by the time we had been on the bus for an hour there were three people squeezed into most two person seats, and people standing in the aisle.
We then quickly settled into a hostel in the small city of Cayambe, and took a twenty minute ride on a smaller school bus to Santa Rosa de Ayora. We were warmly welcomed into the community, and quickly beckoned from the pouring rain into a car so that we wouldn’t have to walk the half mile to the pastor’s house.
We spent the next few days working constantly with the community in order to determine their exact needs for the children’s nursery. We surveyed the nursery site, visited the current nursery site, talked to the teacher and the children. We tried to document the trip well, and every time we took out the digital camera in front of the school kids, they all crowded around to be in the photo. We also attended a Sunday community meeting, ate several meals with members of the community, and were taken on a walk through the countryside of the community by a few of the children.
I have been a member of Engineers Without Borders since the beginning of my freshman year. I had actually heard about Engineers Without Borders before I decided where I was going to college, and I was excited to realize that Johns Hopkins had an active chapter. I joined the Ecuador team because I had an interest in improving my Spanish, and experiencing Latin American culture. Although I am studying biomedical engineering, I enjoy applying the basic engineering principles, fundamental to any discipline of engineering, to the project.
My trip to Ecuador in May was exciting because we gathered all of the necessary information to design the nursery building. Since our return, the EWB-Ecuador team has been working to fundraise and finish designs of the structure. We are hoping to implement the structure during the summer of 2009, pending on our meeting fundraising goals. After meeting so many people in Santa Rosa de Ayora, I definitely feel a greater sense of urgency to complete this project as soon as possible. They are waiting for us, and as engineers this is our opportunity to make a difference.
