Hello beautiful people!
I'm bursting at the seams to let you all in on the amazing adventure I've been on recently. It was insane. Myself and 13 other cast members from Degrassi traveled to the heart of Ecuador in South America with a non-profit charitable organization called Free The Children during a hiatus in our shooting schedule. The purpose of the trip was to help out an indigenous community called San Miguel de Pomachaca, which is in the arid highlands of Ecuador.

The kids there are ill because the living conditions are unsanitary. There are stray dogs that carry disease running all over the place, and I watched the young children playing in the same mud that the dogs defecate in. Even simple preventative measures, like washing your hands, are not part of their way of life and so sickness is spread among the young and susceptible. Along with facilitators from Free The Children (who acted as our guides and translators), we helped the community build a new dining hall with attached kitchen where food could be prepared in a safe way, and the kids could eat in a clean place. Attached to the structure, we built a rainwater collection and filtration system that would provide clean drinking water for the entire village. It was quite an undertaking, and I'll tell you honestly, we worked as hard as we could from dawn 'til dusk during our time in the village. This was no publicity stunt.

During one of our first days in the village, we were shown the existing kitchen, which was such a mess it was no surprise that people were getting sick. There were bits of carcass, rope, and debris littering the dirt floor, and the walls were covered in thick black soot because there was no ventilation to speak of. We were told that the women of the village cooked there, but while doing so, they still had to look after their babies since the husbands were in the nearest city seeking work. This meant that the mothers would cook in these stifling conditions with their babies on their backs. Considering how blackened the walls were, just the thought of the lining of the infants' lungs was enough to light a fire under our group to finish the project.

We had tons of help from the village itself, and it was so gratifying to work side by side with the locals. It was clear that we were helping to make a difference. And even though some of the kids were very sick, they were the happiest children, constantly smiling, full of life and promise (not to mention the fact that they schooled us at soccer on a regular basis). It filled my heart with such joy to be able to pick these kids up and give them a hug and tell them that they were going to get better, and that they have a reason to hope. I'll be back next time to tell you more of the story.

For now, enjoy these photos!

Peace.
-e

Watch Degrassi in Ecuador Friday, December 19 at 9:00 p.m. on The N!