Learning About Ecuador

I want Ecuador to be more than just a country my children can locate on a globe. I want them to learn in depth about it's geography, history, people and culture. We are doing this by reading books, watching films and even learning some Spanish. In a few years our family will visit Ecuador through one of CFCA's Mission Awareness Trips. We will be able to see firsthand how CFCA is making a difference in the lives of sponsored children and their families. We will also be able to meet our two sponsored children.

I will continually be updating this post to add more resources as we find them for learning about Ecuador and South America.

Books

Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio Quite possibly one of the most fascinating books I have read. Thirty families from around the world were profiled in this book. It offers an amazing look into people's lives and what they eat. This is a photo by Menzel of a family from Ecuador surrounded by the food they would eat in a week.

Ecuador by Colleen Madonna

Cultures of the World: Ecuador by Erin Foley

Children of the Ecuadorean Highlands by Barbara Beirne

Roses for Isabella by Diana Cohn

DVDs

Ecuador for Kids This documentary is narrated by children and contains delighful Andean music. There are stops to Ecuador's major cities with a focus on history, culture and food. My children ask for this DVD again and again.

Recipes

http://laylita.com/recipes/ A website with many authentic Ecuadorian recipes.

Learning Spanish

http://whistlefritz.com/spanish-completecollection.html DVDs, CDs and matching cards that help young children learn Spanish through immersion.

Humitas

In an effort to learn more about Ecuador and our new friends there we are trying out some South American recipes. I searched online and found a blog called Laylita's Recipes. The author is a woman whose parents moved from the US to Ecuador in the 70s. She was born there and moved to the US after high school. The blog is full of amazing and authentic Ecuadorian recipes and filled with step by step photos.

We first tried a recipe for humitas which are steamed corn cakes. We picked this recipe because we received a lot of corn that week from our local farm in our CSA box. Served with salsa they were delicious and tasted unlike anything I've ever had made with corn.

Our family had fun trying out such a unique recipe and eating a food that our CFCA friends must be familar with.

How I Named This Blog

One of the people I have always admired most is Mother Teresa. There is a wonderful children's book compiled by Edward Le Joly, Jaya Chaliha and illustrated by Allan Drummond called Stories Told by Mother Teresa.

One of the stories is called The Courage to Give. This is an excerpt from it:

She told this extraordinary story about a very poor family who showed love to their neighbors...

"A man came to our house and said, 'Mother Teresa there is a family with eight children who have not eaten for some time. Please do something for them.' So I took some rice and went there immediately. And I saw the children, their eyes shining with hunger. Their mother took the rice from me, divided it into two and then started to walk out of the house with the other half. 'Where are you going?' I cried. 'They are hungry also,' was all she said and then she left. When she came back she explained that her neighbors were hungry too. She had given half of the rice to them.

Now what really surprised me was not that she gave, but that she knew her next door neighbors were hungry, for usually when we are suffering or in trouble we have no time for others. But this mother had the courage of her love to give."

No matter how little we have we have to do our best to share with others. As Mother Teresa once said, “It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” This giving of ourselves, our time, our money, our love, etc. can take courage. We have to trust in God while doing His work.