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The Remote Schools and Communities in Ecuador
- The schools, students, and families are poor.
- The family income is by subsistence farming and/or $3 to $5 per day if employed.
- The students and families walk to their destinations. There are no school buses, only the occasional horse.
- Schools are rarely over 100 students.
- One teacher may be responsible for 6 grades.
- Schools and communities have no libraries.
- Teachers may work without pay in lieu of children's fees.
- Toilets are always outside, possibly in a back house, or behind a tree.
- Teacher pay is around $160 US per month. They commute or live in school and visit home on occasion.
- Kids love to get in front of a camera.
- Most students have 4 or more siblings.
- Students may be babysitting while at school.
- No schools have heating or air conditioning even at 12,000 ft. elevation.
- Most schools have grill work and no glass windows.
- Very few schools or homes have a TV, no telephones, or internet.
- Dogs, chickens and loose youngsters may wander in and out of school.
- Most people only have 2 or 3 changes of clothes.
- Students may have a machete with them at school.
- Students each have a utility knife to sharpen pencils.
- 10 year olds may take a bus to town 20 miles away.
- Soccer (futbol) is played bare foot.
- Many have never eaten in a restaurant.
- Daily newspaper is not available.
- Most families have no personal transportation, bike, car, truck.
- Community folks are very social.
- No one has running hot water only cold water in some areas.
- Most everyone has an imaginaton for self entertainment.
- NEVER BREAK OR THROW AWAY PENCILS.
- People visit a shaman when sick because they cannot afford a doctor or the bus ride.