At the end of week 2, we began our trips to visit students in their service assignments. This week took us north of Quito to Imbabura province to visit Ray and Izzy in Ibarra and Micah and Alina in Otavalo.…
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Study AbroadService in Ibarra, Otavalo, and Pujilí
Study AbroadService Week 1
In preparation to leave for their service assignments last week, the students discussed what “service” means. Rather than thinking of this service period as work, they defined it as: the opportunity to be part of something larger in Ecuador giving…
Study AbroadFarewell, Yogyakarta!
At our farewell party on Friday, host families, teachers, language buddies, university administrators, coordinators and friends of the Indonesia SST program gathered at UKDW for a program put together by our amazing students. The students sang, played guess-who games, and…
Study AbroadWeek 6: Storytelling and Transitions
We shifted into this transition week by celebrating Lunar New Year, Lent, and the start of Ramadan. It felt fitting that so many people in Yogyakarta are marking a transition into a new season while our SSTers begin their preparations…
Study AbroadBuddhism and Borobudur
Our last group hurrah during Study Term was visiting Borobudur Temple at sunrise. We woke up at 4:00 am, climbed a small hill to a lookout point, and were rewarded with this view: We toured the exquisite, ancient Buddhist temple,…
Study AbroadDespedidas
It is a bittersweet weekend as we said goodbye to our Quito host families and each other and ventured off to our service placements. Our study portion in Quito culminated with a despedida (farewell) fiesta on Friday to thank our…
Study AbroadWeek 5: Cultural Investigation Trips
This week our Indonesia SSTers were broken up into 4 groups and given a topic and location to investigate. The assignment was designed to build independent research skills and dive deeper into one of our four Study Term themes: Indonesian…
Study Abroad¡Bailamos!
We’re experiencing lots of fun and smiles during our final week in Quito! Today, Gaby taught us how to salsa dance. There were lots of laughs as we loosened up, flung our arms, twirled our hips, and spun to the…
Study AbroadTravel Adventures in Ecuador
As we enter the final week of our study portion of the term, it is amazing to reflect on all of the sights and experiences Ecuador has offered us so far: from hummingbird sanctuaries in the cloud forest to participating…
Study AbroadGamelan Lessons (with recording!)
Since our arrival at the beginning of January, the whole group has been taking gamelan lessons each week with Pak Sigit and a team of capable (and patient!) instructors. The students each chose one of the many percussion instruments that…
Study AbroadWeek 4: Indonesian Arts
This week our academic theme is Indonesian Arts. Of course we have been experiencing all kinds of beauty, music and culture each day since we arrived on the island, but this week we are paying specific attention to a few…
Study AbroadPati Eco-Village with MDSI
During environment week we spent 3 days in the village of Pedak-Gower, in Pati, five hours northeast of Yogyakarta. MDSI (Mennonite Diakonia Service Indonesia) hosted us and invited a number of local religious leaders, farmers, and leaders of Javanese cultural…
Study AbroadEspañol, kichwa, lengua de señas
We are halfway through our study portion and our language skills are improving, slowly but surely. Each morning is spent in Spanish language classes with our three wonderful teachers, Silvia, Loli, and Fernanda. They help reinforce vocabulary and common phrases…
Study AbroadWeek 3: Indonesia’s Environment
Our academic theme for week 3 is Environment. This week we learned about Indonesia’s incredible biodiversity by reading articles and stories, hearing lectures from experts, visiting and learning from people who live along the Code river in Yogyakarta, and touring…
Study AbroadCarbon Onset in Mindo
This weekend, we visited the beautiful city of Mindo in the cloudforest. In an effort to onset our carbon footprint from the flights to Ecuador, we partnered with our friend Klever Tello, an employee in the Mindo municipal government, in…
Study AbroadCooking Class: Learning to Make Nasi Goreng
Our SSTers learned to make their own lunch! Nasi Goreng, Indonesia’s classic everyday meal, is a basic fried rice recipe with many variations. Usually containing flavors of shallots, garlic, chili (made as spicy as you like it!), some kind of…
Study AbroadPRAMBANAN!
A major highlight of our trip so far was visiting the famous Prambanan, a UNESCO world heritage site and the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. We toured the temple complex, and climbed many stairs to greet the Hindu pantheon of…
Study AbroadWeek 2: Religion in Indonesia
The academic theme for our second week of Study is Religion in Indonesia. Indonesia’s 17,000 islands contain incredibly diverse expressions of culture and faith. While there are 6 nationally recognized religions here (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism), we…
Study AbroadWeek 1: History & Politics in Indonesia
Our academic theme for Week 1 has been Indonesian History & Politics. We heard two lecturers on this theme, visited the Kraton (Palace and home of Yogyakarta’s Sultan), read historical sources and listened to an audiobook overviewing Indonesia’s dynamic history.…
Study AbroadThe Academic Side of SST
Daily life on SST provides incredibly rich learning experiences, from living with host families to simply experiencing waking up in a new culture each day. But the learning doesn’t stop there. Students also attend language class each afternoon, hear lectures…
Study AbroadGetting to Know Yogyakarta
On SST Indonesia ’26, students spent their first few days getting to know Yogyakarta: learning to use various transportation systems, trying new foods, exploring new places, and getting acquainted with the universities where they will learn from lecturers and language…
Study AbroadWeekend Adventures with Host Families
We had an active weekend! Many host families took their students on adventures in and around Quito. They visited Parque Metropolitano, centro histórico, teleférico, Otavalo, Pichincha, Parque Bicentenario, Mitad del Mundo, Lago San Pablo, Nono, Tabacundo, among others. Here are…
Study AbroadHistory and Art in Ecuador
This week, we became acquainted with Ecuador’s history and art, beginning with a tour of churches in Quito’s centro histórico. One of the largest and most notable is the Basilica, which serves as a large cultural and religious landmark in…
Study AbroadHost Family Ceremony
On Monday evening, 11 host families gathered at Rumah Goshen to meet the SSTers who will be living with them for the next 6 weeks. SST leaders Luke and Janie Beck Kreider hosted the event, and students expressed their gratitude…
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