Teachers from Brantford, Ont. share love of music, language and ukuleles in Ecuador
Global News
Genevieve Rochette and Catherine Gorecki finally were able to make a 5,000-kilometre trip to a language school in Banos, Ecuador they've been planning for years.
A pair from Brant County, Ont., who are teaching English abroad are using music, specifically, ukuleles, to educate students in Ecuador.
Genevieve Rochette and Catherine Gorecki took their love of song and 20 ukuleles on a 5,000-kilometre trip to St. George Centro de Nivelacion, a small English as a Second Language (ESL) School in Banos.
Tears were shed at the airport when the pair landed considering years had been put into the planning of the gig before it was put off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It got shut down like the day we were leaving back in 2020,” Gorecki told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton. “So being here is a dream come true to be able to put our plan in action and be able to help just because that was the original idea.”
Rochette, an early childhood teacher at Ecole Dufferin, and Gorecki, a retired Grand Erie District School Board teacher, were invited to teach at St. George Centro by Josh Beedham and his wife Natalia Campana.
Beedham, who’s from St. George, Ont., founded the school after moving to Ecuador in 2012.
He connected with Rochette after learning of the unique ukulele-language program offered at the St. George-German School in Brant County.
Seeing a great opportunity for kids to learn English with music, Rochette recruited Gorecki and the planning began with the most critical part of the trip – the packing of the instruments.