In Peru, preparing for new students
We have been in Peru almost three weeks, getting settled in to the apartment Goshen rents for SST leaders and making preparations for the GC students who arrive on September 1.
We’ve been greatly assisted by three Peruvians who have worked with many previous SST leaders. Celia Vasquez has been aiding us as we make our schedule of lecturers and field trips, and she has also been helping us find families and and take care of a myriad of other details as we learn where to do our shopping and pay bills, how to get around Lima, etc. Willy Villavicencio is making arrangements for two of our field trips, including the major one to Cuzco and Machu Picchu in October. Next month he will help set up service assignments for the students. And Alicia, the housekeeper, has been helping with meals and housecleaning so we have more time for SST work.
A little bit about ourselves: Maria, Assistant Professor of Spanish, has been teaching at Goshen College for seven years. She first began teaching Spanish while working for the Peace Corps in Nicaragua, her native country, in 1994. She has worked with four GC study abroad groups in Nicaragua and, prior to that, several years with study abroad groups in Nicaragua from other colleges and programs. Doug, Professor of Chemistry, has been teaching at Goshen for 12 years. He has lived in Nicaragua for 15 years and worked there with three GC study abroad groups.
We have three grown children who may come visit us at different times while we are in Peru for the next 11 months. Jessica, 24, graduated from GC in 2010 and lives in South Bend, IN with her husband, Peter, and works as a nurse. Juni, 22, is in her final semester of the nursing program at Eastern Mennonite University. Josh, 18, just graduated from high school and will be taking a gap year as a volunteer in Ecuador (right next door to Peru!) with the Mennonite Mission Network program called Journey International.
The 13 students coming to Peru for the fall semester will leave Goshen at 7 a.m. this Thursday, Sept. 1, and arrive in Lima, the capital of Peru, shortly before midnight. We will meet them at the airport and take them to a local hostel where they will stay two nights. On Friday and Saturday we have a full schedule of orientation activities for the students, and Saturday evening the host families will come pick up their students for the next six weeks.
Our next update should be early Friday morning, after we’ve picked up the students at the airport.
