Badgers Abroad

Episode #11 - Ecuador with Hannah Bennett

• UW–Madison International Safety & Security

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In today's episode, we are talking about Ecuador and the Peace Corps with Hannah Bennett, the UW-Madison Peace Corps Representative. Hannah served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the agriculture sector in Ecuador from 2004-2006. After that, she worked as a farmer in southern Minnesota and in management at a food co-op in Minneapolis. She earned an MFA in Design Studies from the School of Human Ecology at UW-Madison in 2017 and has been working as an independent artist and Art Department Lecturer at UW-Madison. She is originally from central Kansas and has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas.

UW-Madison students interested in Peace Corps can contact Hannah at peacecorps@international.wisc.edu. 

References and resources from the podcast are listed below:


Jeremy Rohrer: All right, welcome to the Badgers Abroad Podcast. My name is Jeremy. I'm the Assistant International Safety and Security Director at UW-Madison's International Division and the host of this podcast. Today, I'm here with a special guest, and I will let her introduce herself.

Hannah Bennett: Hi, I'm Hannah. I'm the campus Peace Corps recruiter in the International Division, and I'm also a lecturer in the art department. And I was a Peace Corps volunteer 20 years ago in Ecuador. I was there from 04 to 06 as an agriculture volunteer. And I have been back to visit a couple of times, once over New Year's from 07 to 08, and another time about 12 years ago.

Jeremy Rohrer: So what inspired you to travel to Ecuador and join the Peace Corps? Back then, you couldn't really pick where you went. When you applied to Peace Corps, you just applied to Peace Corps. You didn't apply to a specific country the way you can now. But I will say I got exactly what I wanted, and I'm really glad that I got to go to Ecuador. So what inspired me was my parents, who were in their 50s at the time, had joined the Peace Corps towards the end of their careers and gone to Belize. And so I had gone to visit them. And then I also just wanted to do something really challenging, and I wanted to go abroad. I didn't so much want to travel. I wanted to live somewhere and really get to know it. So that's something that's, the Peace Corps is different from just like a travel experience.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah, you're actually living in the place and becoming somewhat intertwined in the community and having those day-to-day experiences.

Hannah Bennett: Right. The idea is that you're there for two years and you're living at the same basic level as the other people that are in your site, whatever site you're assigned to.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah. So it's a big commitment, but you're learning a lot about the community, and you're really developing those relationships and things like that.

Hannah Bennett: Right, exactly.

Jeremy Rohrer: So, how did you prepare to travel to Ecuador? Did you practice language skills and cultural skills? Did you work on financial planning or do any security preparations?

Hannah Bennett: Well, at the time, I was in my 20s, and I didn't really have any finances to do any planning about. So, I got my invitation to leave maybe 5 weeks before I was to be on a plane. So I sort of knew it was coming, but I didn't have much time to prepare, really. I will say in advance that I had taken some Spanish. So I'd audited a class at the university where I was living, just so that I would have the basics. I was in the agriculture program, and I had a lot of agricultural experience. And so they were willing to let me go to Latin America without the normal level of Spanish that they require, but they did want me to prepare. And so I audited this class. And it sure would have been nice to have more going in, but at least I had that. And then honestly, with Peace Corps, I mean, sure, it would have been nice to have more savings, but you don't necessarily have to have a nest egg to do it. And as far as packing, I just used what I had. I didn't buy any special equipment. So yeah, I brought what I had, and I didn't buy anything extra, and it was fine. I'm glad that I did it that way, actually. I did buy some like snacks that I really liked.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah. So you kind of just took what you had and figured it out along the way.

Hannah Bennett: Yeah, people live in Ecuador.

Jeremy Rohrer: Absolutely. And they have what they need.

Hannah Bennett: And, it turns out that I didn't really need anything else besides what was available.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah, sometimes we forget that. We tend to overpack. You know, you go to a place, people live there, and they buy stuff there too. So, you know, that's probably something to consider. That's a good point.

Jeremy Rohrer: Before you left, did you have any concerns or anxieties? Did you encounter any of these concerns? And how did you overcome or accommodate them?

Hannah Bennett: I didn't really have a lot of concerns. The main thing was for me, and this was like a fairly unique circumstance, because my parents had been gone for almost two years, I was a little concerned that was gonna, that meant that I was away from my family for four years. And so that was probably the biggest thing. And then also the fact that I didn't have very long to prepare in a way that gave me less time to worry. But also, I also knew it wasn't like I was just going to Ecuador by myself. Peace Corps eases you into the experience. The 40-some that were in my group, we met in Miami for staging. We were there for two days, and then we flew as a group to Quito. We were there for a couple of days, and then we went to our training host families. So it's like a very gradual, giving you independence.

Jeremy Rohrer: So you talked about your family, you were concerned about being away from your family for that length of time. While you were abroad, did you do anything to help alleviate that concern? Or was it not as big a concern as you thought it would be?

Hannah Bennett: My parents did come to visit. About, I'm gonna say like six to seven months into my service. They came to visit for a few weeks. And that was great because the people in my site really loved getting to meet them. And they got to see where I was living, which was, you know, a really beautiful place that was totally unlike where I grew up and Belize, where they had been serving. So, and then we got cell service where I lived about a year into my service. And then it became really easy to communicate. But before that, I would have to make an appointment at the phone place, which was a two-mile walk from where I was. And I would just have to be there at the right time. Yeah, but it worked okay. And then if I went to the city, there were these phones, they call them cabinas. And you could basically get time to talk, and it was pretty affordable.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah, so you found ways to sort of deal with it by them visiting or being able to call occasionally. And I'm sure you're occupied locally too, to where you probably didn't think about it as much as you expected to.

Hannah Bennett: Yeah, and the other thing is, so I had lots of Ecuadorian friends, and I had the other volunteer friends too. So, where I was placed, I was fairly remote. Like I said, it was a two-mile walk. So it took me about an hour to walk to where the phone was. But there were volunteers, there were probably 10 volunteers within two hours of me, who I could see pretty easily if I needed to.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah, so those local relationships really helped with that. Well, that's a great answer because it segues into my next question. So tell me about the most memorable interaction you had with locals. I know you've probably had lots of interactions, but can you think of one or two that really stick out in your mind?

Jeremy Rohrer: Just like right off the bat, we did training in the north of Ecuador near Quito. And then I ended up with a site that was about 15 hours south, like way in the southernmost province. And I moved there, and I was staying with a host family for the first couple of months. And it just so happened that the oldest daughter, who was about 10 years older than me, so she was in her 30s, we just immediately were friends. And it just happens that way sometimes. And my Spanish was still not very good, and she didn't speak any English, but we somehow just had this relationship right away that has continued for 20 years. I really want to go back and visit this summer. So those relationships with that family are so important to me.

Jeremy Rohrer: So, now our next question is, what was your favorite food in Ecuador, and where did you get it?

Hannah Bennett: Oh man, this is hard because I really like the food in Ecuador. A lot of people complain about it being bland, but I thought it was fresh and delicious. Like I have this memory, sort of towards the end of my service with my host mother calling me in, and she had this plate of fresh cheese that she had made and fresh fava beans. So they were like sort of young fava beans. And I just sat there and ate those together. And it was so delicious. And it was so simple, but the milk had come from her cow, and the fava beans had come from their field. So just like the freshness of food there was so great. And fruit also, there was this market that we all, the Peace Corps volunteers, like to go to. We called it, I think we called it the everything market, because it seemed like she had everything. And she told me once that January is the month when all the fruits exist. So you could get mangoes and pineapples and passion fruits and apples and plums and just everything that was available was available in that month. The rest of the months were more like mangoes would sort of run out at some point. But yeah, the tropical fruit was amazing.

Jeremy Rohrer: So, what was something that you used in Ecuador that you couldn't have lived without?

Hannah Bennett: Well, you can live without a lot of things.

Jeremy Rohrer: That's true. 

Hannah Bennett: But so now you would have your smartphone and you'd have like your audiobooks and stuff, but we didn't have that. And so, some volunteer had left me a boombox. And then we had, down in the south, where I was, there was sort of a gathering point in the city of Cuenca where all the Peace Corps volunteers would stay. It was like $2 a night or something. And we had, that's where everyone would leave the books they were done with or the audiobooks. And so, I found, I think I had two or three different audiobooks. It was like Harry Potter, one of the Harry Potter books, and then some other book that was just like a modern novel. And I listen to those over and over and over again to fall asleep at night.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah, that's interesting.

Hannah Bennett: And then I also, I learned how to knit from my host sister. And then I just sort of took off with that. So that's what I would do in the evenings. So having something like that to decompress in the evening was really helpful. To take you out of that place.

Jeremy Rohrer: Even though you want to be in this place, right? You came to this place. There's a certain element of sometimes you have to leave that place and relax a little bit.

Hannah Bennett: You absolutely need those things. Hobby, something to take you away and maybe take you back. 

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah, that's really important. So what was the most significant challenge you faced in Ecuador, and how did you overcome it? And if you have more than one, tell us about more than one.

Hannah Bennett: Well, I've already sort of talked about this was like missing family. It also, this is a fairly typical Peace Corps story, especially as an ag volunteer. It was really hard to come up with work at first because people have their routines. And I had to realize that my idea of what being productive was not appropriate to the situation. Like being productive was making relationships with my community.

Jeremy Rohrer: That's a good point. At first, you know, and also learning to speak Spanish better so that I could actually make myself understood. And then gradually, it was fitting myself into already existing institutions. Like, I mean, my site was really small. There were 100 people there, but there was a primary school that already existed. So I would go there and just like, we started a school garden. I taught English. I got some books donated for a library. And I would do things that wouldn't necessarily appear on like a quarterly report. Like I would help make lunch.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah.

Hannah Bennett: Sometimes I would forget that I was a Peace Corps volunteer. It was just like, I'm an American living in this community somehow.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah, I understand what you're saying, like building those relationships and getting in tune with the local culture and the local community.

Hannah Bennett: That's a part of your job. Yeah. Whether you're studying abroad or you know, you're working abroad, things like that, you have to do those things initially.

Jeremy Rohrer: And that's work in its own right.

Hannah Bennett: Yeah, I had to become more resourceful. And ultimately, that has really been great to have that ability. It's been actually pretty critical to my current career.

Jeremy Rohrer: That's awesome. So what advice would you give to other individuals who are considering traveling or studying abroad, or joining the Peace Corps in Ecuador?

Hannah Bennett: Try to have no preconceptions because I mean, you're going to have some. There's no way not to, or you wouldn't dream about doing anything but just try and be totally open to new experiences. Yeah, you would say like, don't go into like too many expectations or preconceptions and things like that. Life is full of surprises.

Jeremy Rohrer: That's what makes it so interesting.

Hannah Bennett: Yeah.

Jeremy Rohrer: So how did traveling to Ecuador affect your personal growth and career aspirations?

Hannah Bennett: I mean that's a hard one to answer because some people do have really specific career aspirations. And I always had this sense that I wanted to end up being an artist at some point. And that's not a very common thing for Peace Corps volunteers. But I ended up being exposed to a lot of different fiber arts. Like there was a lot of weaving, a lot of natural dyes, a lot of beadwork where I lived. And so I worked with a women's group that did some of that. And then, I mean, it took about, ten years for me to actually start doing that myself. But that's what I do now.

Jeremy Rohrer: So you took that experience directly into what you do now.

Hannah Bennett: I came home and went into farming and then into produce retail. But then at some point, I started studying on my own those things. And it ties back to Ecuador for sure.

Jeremy Rohrer: Yeah.

Hannah Bennett: Although I do things in a different way than I would have if I'd learned there. But part of the reason that I want to go back this summer is to revisit those things with a new eye, because I have been a practicing textile and fiber artist for about 10 years now.

Jeremy Rohrer: Do you feel like without your experience in Ecuador, do you feel like you would be in the same place today?

Hannah Bennett: No. And I mean, I have no way of saying what would have gone differently, because this is what happened. There are basically two really pivotal things that I've done in my life. And one of them was Peace Corps. And the other one was going to graduate school. And they're sort of related. Yeah, they're both related to what we do here.

Jeremy Rohrer: Okay, final question. Is there anything we didn't cover or are there any other things that you'd like to share with future travelers?

Hannah Bennett: I think if you are interested in going abroad for a significant amount of time and you've been thinking about Peace Corps, like look a little closer. Think about it. You don't have to do it right out of undergrad. I waited until I was 27. And for me, I think that was a good time. Yeah, absolutely.

Jeremy Rohrer: All right, Hannah. Well, thank you for joining us today. I appreciate it. This has been great. And maybe we'll talk to you again later.

Hannah Bennett: All right. Thanks A lot.