When i first time came to Cabo San Francisco, i was overhelmed by its nature,
but also very tired. It is a journey about 7 hours from Quito to San Francisco
and the last two hours lead over a country road on which it is difficult to
drive, and when it is rainy you cannot even pass it. At the end of this road
lays Cabo San Francisco, a village of 120 families with uncountable children.
It lays on the ocean side of the Pacific and all around is tropical rain forest.
By my first vist i stayed for three days and had to get used to its clima, because
although the sky is most often cloudy, it is very hot and humid on the coast
of Ecuador. Also for my second visit i stayed for three days, and i was celebration
time for the people there. The people,most of tehm living of fishing work, had
a party during one week. Every year the same time they sing, dance, drink ans
elect a beuty queen. It was very nice to participate in this party and the men
taught me how to dance Salsa. It seems like th e children here were born with
the rythme of the Salsa, because they dance as if they had never done anything
else.

My third time in Cabo i stayed for three weeks. Then i got there by sea and
not by country road. The nearby bigger village is called Muisne. It is an island
about one hour from San Francisco. From Muisne you can take a boat riding up
the river and after 20 minutes you reach a beach, which you can follow all the
way to Cabo. It is a beautiful way to get there. It was my job to take care
of the children of the village. I went to the school and the day care to show
the children how precious nature is. By making a statistic i found out, that
there are about 420 children living in the village. Most families count a lot
members and there are families with up to twelve children. The doors of the
houses are to everyone and the citizens all know each other. The children go
from house to house, they are very curious about everything and ask a lot of
questions, which helped me a lot doing my work. But the education system still
has many faults, the children are often sent home because their teacher is sick
or has anything else to do. That is very sad, because i felt the childrens interest
in learning while i taught them. The health system has also many troubles to
deal with. There is no physician living permanently in the village and it is
hard to get medicins. It is also a task of fthe Fundacion to help improve the
living conditions of the people. The persons live under simple conditions, for
the high amount of family members there are sometimes up to eight people sleeping
in one room. They live of fishing and their Fincas, land they own in the surroundings
from which they gather fruits. But it is difficult to sell their products because
of the bad situation of the street. Altough the condition of the way is negative
for their business it has also an advantage, because the place is rarely influenced
from outside and only seldomly visited by tourists.

The people of the village were really nice to me and they explaines me over
and over again that they care about my well-being. They gave me fruits as presents
and invited me to their houses. Once i was given the possibility to accompany
two fishermen into the sea to watch them doing their work. People there like
to talk and i was asked a lot about the country i come from and my experience
in Cabo. I am sure it is not always easy, many problems occur and make a work
more difficult and sometimes even impossible. Still my styay there was short
but very nice and i am sure to return one day to this place and its people.
The work there is in any case a challenge, a team.work which contains giving
and taking and every one learns of the other and widens his horizon.

Martina Schild / translated by Simona Haenni