As the beat of the SST drum marches on, students shifted from a focus on Ecuador’s biodiversity to Ecuador’s ethnic diversity. Depending how you subdivide it, Ecuador has 14 distinct languages and more than 30 unique people groups and subgroups. The Ecuadorian constitution was amended significantly in 2008 to recognize…
Week three of Spring 2020 Ecuador SST thrust students into the biodiversity that is Ecuador and all the complexity that comes with it. One of the neat elements of SST is there is so much learning that takes place outside of a traditional classroom environment. This week our lecture on…
The theme of week two of SST has been ascending and descending…. After a lecture on the history of the Catholic church in Ecuador, students visited some of the historic churches in the Centro Historico of Quito. At the national cathedral they descended into the crypts below the church before…
Ecuador SST 2019-2020 version 2.0 kicked off this past week with strange global climate change induced sunny weather during the start to the rainy season in Ecuador. Students missing the sun in North America quickly realized just how intense the sun at high altitudes on the Equator can be. What…
The Spring 2020 Ecuador unit has arrived in Quito and has been safely delivered to their lodging at the Cofan Survival Fund facilities. Their first couple of days will include a host of orientation activities, including introductions to the public transportation system and a first look at the Historic Quito…
Fall 2019 Ecuador has officially come to a close. Students have returned to the warm embrace of their families and friends and have begun the process of reintegrating back into the life that they left behind three months ago. They have also begun the process of finding ways to incorporate…
Week 10 of Fall 2019 SST began with visits of all students at their service locations in Manta on the Pacific coast of Ecuador. Jan Bender Shetler, International Education director at Goshen College, joined SST leaders in the visit to Manta to cap her visit to Ecuador which began in…
Given that the focal point of the SST blog is to keep the GC community, family, and friends updated on what students are experiencing, the blog naturally slows down during service as students are away at their service locations. One of the most beautiful elements of service often is the…
Before leaving for the service portion of SST this week, students participated in a final activity together, riding the Teleferico (gondola) up to the foothills of Volcan Pichincha that overlooks the entire 40 km length of the city of Quito. The foothills of the mountain stand at 4,100 meters (13,300…
Needless to say our final week of the Study portion of SST in Ecuador did not unfold in a way any of us could have predicted. The previous week we had experienced a significant travel disruption in our return to the city as protests of recently passed legislation were initiated. …
