An adventure 4,200 metres above the sea

School teacher James Lanzon has been supporting Plan for almost four years, and in July visited his sponsored child, Hugo, who lives at high altitude in Ecuador. This is his story.

"I was picked up by Plan workers at 7am, and we started the long journey to Hugo's community. We finally arrived after four hours, which were largely spent talking about Ecuadorian culture and also learning about the area we were visiting.

On the way Plan staff advised me about appropriate gifts to buy and we stopped to pick up some drinking water, rice, sugar, washing powder, baby milk powder and a football. Then we made our way down a track which was not for the faint-hearted, especially at 4,200 metres above sea level. Then it was time to meet Hugo.

We were taken to a room which I think was a sort of meeting room which was incredibly dark. There were guinea pigs running on the floor. I gave him the letters and the gifts we had bought including some hooded tops with our school logo on. He was initially quite shy so I started asking him lots of questions about his life and his family, school and friends.

After this, it was time for a tour of the surrounding land, guided by Hugo's father, where I saw where the family grow broad beans, potatoes, corn and onions and where they kept about 10 sheep and a cow.

As the visit progressed, Hugo started 'opening up' and was soon asking me questions about Chelsea FC and David Beckham. For lunch they gave us a huge bowl of broad beans and boiled eggs to start with, followed by 'Locro de Cuy' which means Guinea Pig Soup. We were a little reluctant to eat the Guinea Pig but we ate the soup and it was very tasty.

During the visit, I learnt about Hugo and his family and his daily life. He is a very pleasant and intelligent child who has hopes and aspirations for the future. He is also very determined as he has to walk for an hour and a half uphill to school in the mornings, setting off at about 5.30am.

His life is very hard and he is expected to work on the land. The climate at that altitude is very harsh and the land is exactly like the moors in England.

I also learnt that the child mortality rate is high and during the visit we stopped to take some medication and milk powder to a very sick baby. Then it was time to leave.

I really enjoyed meeting Hugo and his family and I think that they were happy to meet me. I would definitely go back and would definitely recommend visiting your sponsored child too."