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Before you Go

Important Documents

Tandana Intern & Fellow Manual

This manual is for all interns and fellows.

Staff Manual

Read this manual if you will be helping to lead volunteer groups.

Ecuador Homestay Handbook

This contains advice from past interns about navigating a homestay.

Otavalismos

These are phrases commonly used around Otavalo

If you will be helping to lead volunteer groups, please visit our Staff Training Page and complete the exercises there.

Watch this video for some great tips on adjusting to a new community!

Wondering what your host family will think of you? Watch this video to see what hosts appreciate, find difficult, and feel about hosting interns and volunteers!

Resources

Before you go, learn what you can about what to expect. But, try to keep your expectations flexible. There is no doubt you will be surprised! Be sure to read the Tandana Intern and Fellow Manual.

Information about Ecuador's Culture

Language Lessons

Blogs by past interns:

Jun

2

An unforgettable experience at The Tandana Foundation

Dear members of The Tandana foundation, I wrote the following blog to share my experience as an IT intern at the foundation. In this sense, this message is very special to me. It has been a long time since I arrived at the foundation, and I want to share everything I learned and exchanged with … Continue reading "An unforgettable experience at The Tandana Foundation"

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Apr

30

Community, Friendship, and Gardening in Ecuador

For eleven short weeks in 2023, I had the incredible opportunity and honor to serve as Tandana’s Environmental and Horticultural Intern. I’m a third-year student at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where there is a wonderful co-operative education program which allows students to explore career paths and build real-world skills through work-study trimesters. Español … Continue reading "Community, Friendship, and Gardening in Ecuador"

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Jul

11

A look inside Tandana’s virtual ESL program

Learning a new language can be difficult for anyone. There are so many new words to learn and conjugations to memorize. Nevertheless, everyone in Tandana’s English as a Second Language (ESL) program this school year managed to learn and teach one another about their different languages and cultures. Español Français Students of all ages from … Continue reading "A look inside Tandana,;s virtual ESL program"

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Nov

22

Inside Tandana’s Virtual Host Family Program

To continue making and fostering global connections through their work, The Tandana Foundation adapted its ESL (English as a second language) and storytelling internship positions in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the community’s and the interns’ well-being this summer, Tandana hired Mallory Woods from Pennsylvania and Hannah Nivar from … Continue reading "Inside Tandana<;s Virtual Host Family Program"

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Oct

4

Learning by Doing: An Internship with Tandana

By Camille Greenfield I must say it is hard to pick one moment that best describes my time with Tandana, as a part of the horticultural internship. However, there is one memory in particular that occurred in the first few weeks, which would have a major impact on my future projects. My host family had … Continue reading "Learning by Doing: An Internship with Tandana"

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Jul

28

More Than One Home

By Melissa Seehausen During Tandana Orientation, I almost always volunteered to introduce the Tandana blog and find a volunteer from the group to write a blog post. “It’ll be fun and easy!” I sang. To all those who I placated with this claim, consider this my formal apology. I returned from Otavalo, Ecuador, from Tandana, … Continue reading "More Than One Home"

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May

16

Mix of Traditional and Western Medicine

By Joanna Caldwell During one of my first days working with the Tandana Foundation, I went to a foundation in Otavalo called Vista Para Todos with a few patients to see an ophthalmologist. The patients’ eyes were burning and itching, and the doctor prescribed each of them the same medicine and also recommended they wash … Continue reading "Mix of Traditional and Western Medicine"

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Mar

10

What Connects Two Worlds: Sharing Experiences and Strengthening Relationships

By Shannon Cantor “Click here to confirm your flights.” I was prompted by the small tablet screen. “Ida: Quito-Baltimore, December 19, 2016; Vuelta: Baltimore-Quito, December 26, 2016.” I had just talked to my mom, and my grandmother was sick. Her birthday is the day after Christmas, and no one knew how many more she would have. … Continue reading "What Connects Two Worlds: Sharing Experiences and Strengthening Relationships"

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Mar

2

People Were the Best Part of an Intern’s Experience in Ecuador

By Timothy Grant My internship in Ecuador began with an adventure before I even arrived there. My first plane to Bogota from New York arrived at the airport late. I thought that this would mean a shorter layover — yeah! — but as I got off the plane in Colombia, I discovered that my second … Continue reading "People Were the Best Part of an Intern~;s Experience in Ecuador"

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Dec

13

Potatoes and Community – The Staples of Life in Highland Ecuador

By Matthew Spehlmann “Men of Corn” Herman’s dialogue to the volunteer group brought me back to the moment. There at the table sat a handful of volunteers from the States and a number of community members. In feast fashion, food was piled high and long spanning the length of the table. Potatoes, varieties of … Continue reading "Potatoes and Community – The Staples of Life in Highland Ecuador"

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Questions to Think About

Have you done a similar kind of volunteer program or internship in the past?

What part of the  experience made you want to participate in another program?

How do you feel about going to Ecuador?

What are you nervous about?
What are you excited about?

What kind of work do you expect to do?
What do you expect to give?

What might you receive from the experience?
Imagine an intern from Ecuador coming to work in your community. What would that intern do?

What might that person do that would bother you?
What might that person do that you would really like?

What will be hard about living with a host family?
What will be great about living with a host family?
What strategies do you have that you know can help you when you're feeling uncomfortable?
What are some of your personal needs that might be hard to meet during your internship?

Can you think of alternative ways to meet those needs and take care of yourself?

What are your strengths as a person and a leader?

How can those help you adapt to a new environment?

How do you hope to change or grow through this experience?

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