The Onzole River

A Quick Summary

David and I went to a small community called Santo Domingo, located in northern Ecuador on the Onzole River. We spent our week visiting Carlos, who is a Canadian missionary working with the Onzole River Project.

Mainland Ecuador 

The Onzole River Project

The Onzole River Project was started when Carlos' predecessor, Nikki, heard about the community in Santo Domingo. The community had petitioned the government to build them a school, but had been told no because they were a black community. Nikki raised funds from Canada to help them build the school, and the Onzole River Project was born. Now, the organization helps with all sorts of things, from building a new health clinic, hiring teachers, helping the community to continue to advocate for themselves, and much more. If you are interested in learning more, their website is here.

Walking through Santo Domingo 

Carlos' Story

Carlos also told us some of his stories from his time working here, which were pretty incredible. I wish I could have included all of them here, but this is just a tiny bit of his story and the things he has been up to. 

Carlos grew up in Canada, but his parents were from Zimbabwe and he always dreamed of working in Africa as a journalist. When he was in university studying journalism, he took a short trip to the Onzole River, similar to what David and I did. The following year of school, he couldn't get the Onzole River off his mind, even while working his dream internship as a journalist in Zimbabwe. 

Realizing that God was stirring something in his heart, he decided to see if there might be something in Ecuador for him. After a miraculous fundraising effort which saw him raise the exact dollar amount he needed literally on the day before his flight, Carlos came back to Ecuador. He was 23 years old, and committed to working here for 6 months just to see if he liked it. 

That was 10 years ago.

Now, Carlos has taken over for Nikki and he is the only Canadian working here. I was constantly in awe of his drive to love people as practically as possible. Since he is a team of one, he is responsible for helping organize all the different projects in the community, as well as spending time in Canada fundraising. On top of his work with the Onzole River Project, he uses his own money and time to support members of the community however he can. This has looked like opening a bakery in Guayaquil to provide jobs for people who have moved there, helping his taxi driver friend buy a new car after it was stolen, and pay legal fees after a corrupt lawyer stole money from a wrongfully convicted community member. During the pandemic, when most of the other international support left, Carlos was living in Guayaquil, where things were really really bad (apparently people were literally dying in their homes faster than the authorities could pick up the bodies). He would take whatever donations he had to deliver groceries for people who couldn't afford food, all while trying to avoid the police curfews and stay healthy himself. 

While we have been here, I've felt super lucky to get to know Carlos and hear some stories of ways he's been able to help people. 

Our Time Here

Carlos just recently returned from a fundraising trip to Canada, so a lot of our time here was spent checking in on the different projects with Carlos. It was really neat to get to see all of the different things that are currently happening in the community. Apart from that, here are a few other things we got up to this week!

Hanging out with Carlitos

One day when it was raining, a kid also named Carlos came over to hang out for a bit. People call him Carlitos, meaning "little Carlos". Carlitos wasn't able to speak until he was about 6 or 7, and everyone in the community thought he was mute. However, the extra teachers that were hired by the Onzole River Project were able to work with him 1 on 1, and eventually he started speaking. 

Now, he's 11 years old, and he won't stop talking! It was so fun hanging out with him, playing cards, building towers of blocks, and watching him make these hilarious vlogs on David's phone. 

Playing cards with Carlitos

If you listen closely, you can hear him saying nada a lot, which means "nothing". In this vlog, he is talking about how there is nothing in the fridge or the freezer or the bedroom. 

Farm visit

One day, we got to go with one of the local farmers to visit his farm. The farms here are spread out in the jungle, so our commute started with a 40 minute hike through the mud to get there. 

The climate makes it really easy to grow fruits, but it is hard to sell anything outside of the community since it all has to get transported 2 hours by canoe, followed by a truck on the other side. Most people just grow a smaller amount of fruits for themselves and to sell within the community. 

We started the day out helping harvest cocoa beans. This is one of the few products that they do sell outside of the community, since the cocoa from this region is very high quality.

Afterwards, we went to check on his animals, which included pigs, chickens, and cows. Unfortunately, when we got to the cows, they had all escaped! We spent a while climbing around in the hot sun trying to find the cows and them herd them back into his farm. 

Finally, we stopped to grab a bunch of fruits to take back for the community. We picked some mandarin oranges off one tree, then some larger oranges off another. There were some plantains and bananas to take back as well, and he even found us some guava fruit for a snack on the walk back! It was really cool getting to try fresh fruits everywhere we went. 

Picking mandarins

Carlos getting some coconuts

Fresh orange juice!

Soccer tournament

This weekend, there was a big community festival happening which included a lot of dancing and singing (literally non-stop for 3 days, 24 hours a day), and a soccer tournament! The whole community comes together once a year to host teams from nearby communities for the tournament. They have all ages and both guys and girls teams, which was neat how pretty much every single person here plays soccer. It was really fun to be a part of the celebration, eat lots of good food, and watch the soccer. Watching the games made me look forward to playing soccer again when I'm home!

Reflections

On doing what you can

When Carlos was only 4 months into his 6 month "trial" period, he was actually put in charge of the entire Onzole River Project, since Nikki had to go back to Canada. I couldn't imagine being dropped in the middle of all this need, without really knowing the language or how to help. Carlos said it was overwhelming, but he just chose to just do what little he could, and to trust God to take the rest. I think sometimes when I see a need, I can get overwhelmed and end up not doing anything because I don't know what to do. In short, not knowing how to help isn't an excuse for not helping at all. 

On resilience

For all the success stories that Carlos shared, it seems like there were an equal number of disappointments. One in particular was the school in Santo Domingo. The school had been falling apart for years, and after the government refused to do anything, Carlos was able to raise the money to rebuild the school. Recently, the government finally decided to come and "fix" the school, so they destroyed the newly rebuilt school to make their own. However, the project then subsequently ran out of money and stalled, so the community went from a perfectly good school to a half-built one they can't use. 

Current state of the school

Even just hearing these stories are pretty discouraging, but I've been really impressed at the resilience of the community in the face of these disappointments. I've noticed they have two things: a deep sense of hope, that things will get better, and a sense of self-worth, that they matter and deserve better treatment. I think these have given the community resilience to overcome the setbacks and continue to advocate for themselves. 

A Little Update

It's hard to believe, but the trip has basically come to an end; we will be travelling back to Canada later this week. I will make one last blog post about the whole trip on Wednesday (hopefully) so stay tuned for that!

Extra Photos

Cooking by flashlight when the power went out

Eating fresh sugar cane