Good morning! (or whenever you are reading this) After a few delays and moments of incertitude, the SST Spring 2024 group has started orientation! As the students were leaving home, Ecuador’s people suffer moments of tension, sadness, and fear. News outlets suggest that we should be extra cautious.
Summer 2023 Ecuador students returned to the capital city of Quito this past weekend from their six-week service placements in smaller cities and towns across five Ecuadorian provinces. Their final weekend retreat was held at a beautiful rural location in the transitional zone between the high Andean valley where Quito…
My service has challenged me in a wide variety of ways. I have struggled to develop a routine and find my role within my service organization. Whenever I would take the initiative and ask what our purpose here was, our boss would say “Just observe”. This was very difficult for…
At this stage of the service portion of SST, a distinct highlight for me has been continuing to experience the abundance of natural beauty that Ecuador has to offer. In the study portion of SST, we were able to experience and engage with mountains, coast, and rainforests, sometimes within the…
As is often the case on SST, I found myself one afternoon on a bus with essentially no knowledge of where I was going. My mom quickly explained that we were headed to a funeral, and I became concerned. “Did you know her well”, I asked my host brother. “No,…
One of the first things you learn when you come to Ecuador is their love of choclo, which is essentially their variety of sweet corn. On one of our trips to different parts of Ecuador, we even drove past a giant choclo statue! Served degrained in soups or just boiled…
Teaching two hours of English daily is no joke, especially when you have no teaching experience and are creating your own curriculum. Teachers and students alike get tired and worn out by the constant focus it takes to learn a new language. With this in mind, you can imagine everyone…
I thought the initial bus ride from my study to service placement a few weeks ago was simultaneously the longest and shortest bus ride of my life. After finally getting comfortable with a schedule, host family, and fellow SSTers in the capital city, you are (what feels like abruptly) put…
The first words I heard used to describe my service town were hot and buggy. Upon hearing this I was a little apprehensive about what service would have in store for me and how my body would respond to the different climate. While I can confirm that over the past…
Most of SST is not glamorous. There are times of incredible joy and sadness, comedic moments, and discomfort certainly, but the majority of the time is very normal. For example: doing laundry. My host family doesn’t have a washing machine, so we have to do our laundry by hand.
