Monday morning we visited Mercado Santa Clara with Chef Francisco Guevara, currently a culinary/gastronomy professor at the Universidad of Ibarra a couple hours north of Quito. One of the oldest markets in the city, Francisco showed us around and explained typical cuisine from various (coast, mountains, amazon) regions of Ecuador. A very rich history of food and culture descending from Ecuador’s first people groups. This is an herb and natural medicinal section of the market. After making our puchases at the market we returned to Casa Goshen neighborhood community room for cooking class with Chef Francisco! The shrimp ceviche was a hit! Gretta and Ana preparing the orangesRuby working on the patacones and Joel with the shrimpCadence and Noelani with the cilantro!Grace and Saige shredding tomatoes, messy but effective technique!Onion crewNow we all build our cevichesAlena’s dishTuesday began a full week of spanish class in the mornings back at the Fundación Cofan. Here is Ana working with Profe María TeresaTuesday afternoon, Alexandra Meneses shared with us about her work regarding movilidad humana (human mobility).
Alexandra provided historical context for various waves of migration and immigration into and out of Ecuador since the 1960’s through present day. We appreciated her explanation of how the economic crisis of 2000 and decision of converting Ecuador’s currency from Sucres to the US dollar impacted this subject especially in the early 2000s. She shared about her current work with Quito Mennonite Church and their ongoing relief and development work with refugees mainly from Columbia and Venezuela. Loli’s spanish class WednesdayCoffee breakWednesday afternoon was a free afternoon, several decided to go out to lunch together.Wednesday afternoon coffee and homework in Batan AltoSilvia’s class decided to find a new space for part of class Thursday.Thursday afternoon we did our weekly Casa Goshen gathering time on the roof. Our Spanish teachersFriday morning for Spanish class the teachers took all the students to visit the Guayasamín Museum.
Oswaldo Guayasamín, internationally know as one of the most famous painters and artists in Ecuadorian history. Wait…. we are missing someone!! Friday afternoon we took a dance class at Pro-Arte cultural center in our Casa Goshen neighborhood.With Samantha we learned the fundamentals to Salsa
