We had a good final week of classes, wrapping up the “study” portion of the term that makes up our Study-Service term namesake. On Friday evening the students hosted all the host families and other program partners for a despedida, a goodbye celebration. Next week we travel as a group…
As a part of her SST experience, Amanda has been involved in a special sign language track here in Ecuador in which she has been dividing her morning class time between learning spanish and sign language. Beyond her individual class time, her host family has several deaf family members who…
Last spring I was involved in a community development project in the amazon basin, and through that project I met Francisco Guevara, who became a good friend of mine. Francisco is a chef and culinary/gastronomy professor at a University in the city of Ibarra a couple hours…
Students are working on getting the public transportation system down, orienteering from their homes to la Fundación then on to Casa Goshen and maybe the other way around! Students are getting more comfortable slowly but surely! Yadira working on her independent project during…
This week after a couple days of class we made the trek west through the mountains to the region of Mindo for an extended weekend. The lush cloud forest was a refreshing break from the congested concrete valley of Quito. Leaving Wednesday morning from the Fundación, we…
Orientation and the first week of class are already behind us! Wow, we’ve already covered a lot of ground! I think everyone felt like the time has flown by. Here is a glimpse of the story in pictures: Orientation breakfast at our partner organization la Fundación Sobrevivencia…
On Tuesday evening our SSTers arrived safely in Ecuador and are beginning their orientation to their new Ecuador surroundings! One student has been held up by visa issues. We are working hard to remedy the problem and plans are taking shape for her to rejoin the group soon. Our thoughts and…
Yep, you got it, we’re back! For all of you who forgot you were subscribed, get ready, we’ve got a new adventure coming your way! After more than a year and half of Study-Service Term (SST) unit cancelations we are jump-starting things again here in Ecuador. On Tuesday, 6…
What is “Service”. The concept of service in a North American context generally revolves around productivity. In our lead-up to service with the current Ecuador SST group, we spoke at length about what service is and is not in a global context. A short synopsis is as follows: Service =…
If you’ve been checking the Ecuador blog for updates over the past two weeks you’ve been met with silence…. at least internet blog silence. The final two weeks of the study portion of Spring 2020 SST have been a blur of non-stop action. It began with an intense session of…
