SST

Apr 13 2022

At this point you are likely wondering “what on earth is a ‘kebun’ “? Well luckily I am here to enlighten you: “kebun” is the Bahasa Indonesia word for farm, plantation, garden, gardener, and many others. It is one of...

Apr 08 2022

During the service portion of SST, I have been volunteering at a foundation called Su Cambio Por El Cambio (SCXC) in a little town called San Simon. SCXC’s primary missions are to provide a safe after school environment for local...

Apr 05 2022

When I was living with my Indonesian host mother in Philly, Bu Wendy, she mentioned that Indonesian parents are generally more strict about their children’s whereabouts. During one conversation in particular I noted that it seemed like Indonesian kids and...

Apr 05 2022

On Wednesday of this past week during my service placement in Timor I got to visit a seaweed farm. This was an interesting visit and I was able to discuss and learn quite a bit throughout the day. I could...

Mar 30 2022

In January, I took a 3-day trip with my host family in Quito, Paola (host-mom) and Sammy (host-sister). It took 2.5 hours to get to Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas. We took the Cordillera de Los Andes road. This very...

Mar 30 2022

These pictures are from my 1st day of teaching English class in Indonesia. I have 2 classes, one lower and one higher level course. I have found as I have begun to teach here that I actually enjoy teaching. It’s...

Mar 28 2022

Before we left for SST, we were told to prepare some gifts for our host family. The suggestion we got was to prepare some things from Goshen or our College. But at that time the bookstore was already closed. I...

Mar 26 2022

Nina and I keep in touch regularly with the students via phone calls and texts, but we especially enjoyed visiting students at their service internship placements throughout the last few weeks. We continue to be so grateful for the many...

Mar 21 2022

Soccer games with the family, an example of so many things I’ve experienced and learned throughout only six short weeks in Ecuador. Every Sunday except those during which we were out of town visiting Mindo or Tena, my host dad...

Mar 16 2022

There are a lot of hard things in Quito. For instance, my walk to the Fundación, where we have our classes, is up a very steep hill. My little commute is one of the best parts of my day, however,...

Mar 13 2022

The names of the people in the photos are me (Antoinette Mpawenayo), my host grandma in Philly (Popo) and my roommate (Courtney Templeton). The two photos are important to me because they show an amazing relationship that Popo and I...

Mar 13 2022

As the saying goes it’s always sunny in Philadelphia, however, that doesn’t mean it’s not cold. So, here we are another frigid day, but sunny, in downtown Philadelphia. Now, you may be wondering from the photos why we are gardening...

Mar 13 2022

This is a photo of Ben and I with our host parents Pak David and Ibu Eva at the 17 anniversary of PPC (Philadelphia Praise Center). On this day we attended church with our host parents to celebrate the 17th...

Mar 13 2022

This a photo of my host family I was staying with for the previous 5 weeks. From left to right is Oliver (the baby), Kevin, Sandy, Trey (my roommate), Joy and I. Although I do not have a picture from...

Mar 13 2022

One of the highlights of my SST experience was celebrating Chinese new year with my host family. This was my first time celebrating Chinese New Year, and I didn’t know quite what to expect. Pastor Aldo had mentioned when we...

Mar 13 2022

In Philly, I stayed with Hendy and Marina and their three kids Judah (middle) , Levi (left), and Asher (right). Staying with Indonesian host families was a great opportunity to practice our bahasa and learn more about Indonesian culture before...

Mar 13 2022

During weekly lectures with guest speakers, we learned a lot about how the Indonesian immigrant community supports each other. One of those ways is through food. Sharing meals brings people together and fosters a sense of culture through the traditional...

Mar 12 2022

About halfway through our time in Philly, in the third week of February, Modero Dance Company began their weekly Balinese Dance classes open to the public. Sinta is the woman who teaches this and a variety of other dance classes...

Mar 12 2022

So…What have we been doing lately? Well – the blog has been quiet recently because we have been very very busy! We heard February 22nd that all of our visas had been approved to travel to Indonesia! This in itself...

Mar 03 2022

Students left for their service placements on Saturday morning  all arriving by the evening and greeted by their new host families. 🙂 We mentioned previously that last Thursday afternoon we spent some concentrated time discussing/reflecting/anticipating the upcoming transition to service...

Feb 27 2022

During our last week of the “study” portion of the term, students traveled to several hours east of Quito to explore the upper Amazon basin. We combined several experiential learning activities – both cultural and environmental, based on the region’s...

Feb 20 2022

We had a full week of classes and wrapped up several large academic pieces to the term. Friday evening students hosted their families for a program and goodbye party.   Last night (Saturday) we arrived here to Hostal Pakay in...

Feb 13 2022

After a few days of class in Quito we took off for the north, arriving to the beautiful city of Otavalo in the province of Imbabura for several days.   Here is a short clip of some of the music...

Feb 11 2022

Hello again from Philadelphia! We continue to work and live amongst the gracious and lively Indonesian community here in Southern Philadelphia.