My four months in Ecuador have come to a bittersweet close, and I’m back in the cold city of Chicago for the month of January! With the holidays behind us and a busy spring ahead, I’d like to take some time to reflect on my experiences this past fall and review the goals that I had set.

One of the primary reasons I spent my fall abroad was to “learn what it means to be a part of another culture.” More than anything else, this trip was an opportunity for me to see more of the world and learn how similar Ecuadorian culture is to US culture and yet different in so many ways. As I’ve tried to highlight throughout my posts, living in another country has been a chance not only to meet new people and try new things, but also to gain a better perspective of the culture of the United States.

The main hard skill that I hoped to gain through this trip was the ability to use Spanish in a working and living environment. Working with FUNDAFIQ, I used Spanish to communicate with my supervisors, interview my photo subjects, and organize all of the events regarding my photo exhibition. In addition to working with FUNDAFIQ, I was able to volunteer in the pediatric branch of the local cancer hospital SOLCA, where I spoke with young patients and their parents. Not only did this provide a unique opportunity to practice Spanish, but it allowed me to meet a group of impressively strong people that opened my eyes and my heart in unforeseeable ways.

I also exclusively spoke Spanish with my host family and in nearly all forms of daily communication — from grocery shopping to art museums to the news on the television. I anticipate the ability to speak Spanish to be useful in my future work and travel experiences, but in the very least being able to speak another language offers a unique opportunity to connect and empathize with people from other cultures. 

In addition to learning Spanish in a working environment, I was hoping to offer a helping hand to local organizations in Cuenca. I ended up working most closely with FUNDAFIQ, an organization working to spread life-saving information and resources for people with Cystic Fibrosis. I would like to clarify that the goal of this partnership was not to alter the organization in any way or to “improve” it, but rather to help fill any needs that my supervisors had identified. Working as a volunteer intern for FUNDAFIQ allowed me to meet a variety of amazing people from Cuenca and learn more about the inner workings of local Ecuadorian NGOs. After some time getting to know the organization and the people working in it, my supervisors and I decided that awareness of the cause needed to be shared through a new medium. I photographed patients with Cystic Fibrosis and ran an exposition with the photos in order to spread local and international awareness about Cystic Fibrosis and FUNDAFIQ.

To see photos from my exposition, click here.

Another goal for this semester that I mentioned at the beginning of the fall was to be a representative of US culture for locals in Cuenca. With the city being a favorite location for many tourists and ex-pats, I had the opportunity to be a representative to locals of some American demographics that were less common: a teenager and a student. I was made friends with people in my boxing class, I volunteered to be a makeup model at a beauty school (they had no idea what to do with my freckles), I met up with neighborhood friends and visited their English classes, I taught English to some neighbors. I used these opportunities to discuss the differences between US and Ecuadorian culture, help people practice their conversational English, and be a general representative of American teenagers and students in general. 

This gap semester was, in every way, an opportunity to gain a new perspectives about the world, and while I don’t particularly recommend the organization that I went with, I wholeheartedly recommend the experience of taking an international gap semester or year to anyone looking to see the world in a new light. I came home with friends from all over the world and a better understanding of a new culture. To any current high school students considering taking a gap year — PLEASE feel free to reach out to me (my email is gturner903@gmail.com) if you want to hear more about my gap year experience and what I recommend!!

Thank you all so much for sticking with me through these past few months! I can’t wait to share the stories of my second semester learning wilderness emergency medicine with NOLS in Wyoming! Happy belated holidays to all 🙂