posted by: Kathryn Schmidt Dear: 2016 Spring SST-ers, During one of our meetings you dubbed yourselves America’s Best Foot Forward, because that is what you aimed to be during your SST term. I’d like to congratulate you on being exactly that. Thank you for proving that America’s next generation can be:…
Posted by: Kathryn Schmidt; Photos: Brynn and Melanie Ayacucho has a population of about 151,000; a highland city, it is situated at 8,858 feet (2,700 meters). Local draws include Quinua, a town famous for ceramics, horse-back riding, a monument to the Battle of Ayacucho; a zoo; the Museo de la…
Posted by: Kathryn Schmidt; bird photos by David Leaman-Miller SST is a community experience, we go through it together. But it is hard work. It’s a mountain-top, it’s a spiritual and emotional boot camp. It’s a physical marathon. It’s life-changing, it brings people to tears, to…
Saturday the students and I rose horses! What? Posted by Kathryn Schmidt; photos by Melanie Drinkwater and Brynn Godshall We are in the middle of service visits. All students are doing well in their various locales! For us SST leaders, this is a busy time…
Marissa Hochstetler attended a very impressive party with her host family in Lima last month. Here is her riveting account. Note: students on SST frequently call their host families “mom, dad, brother, sister,” etc. Text and photos by: Marissa Hochstetler The day before the party, my dad gave me the…
Posted by Lena Charles; photos by Lena Charles Lena and Andrew This girl, about to help her family make Cuy! Jonah and Zachary What do you know, the bus is stuck in traffic…
The students are currently on service. All are safe, and well! Until we visit them and can provide more accurate updates and photos, we’ll be posting several journal entries from the last 6 weeks of study. Posted by: Abby Banning; photos by Bekah Shrag and Lena Charles I rolled over…
The word “despedida” means farewell, and the SST program here in Peru has a long tradiation of Despedidas. The students organize an event at the close of the first 6 weeks of the “study” portion of the program, and it is a fairly elaborate affair! We had a very…
Posted by Kathryn Schmidt; photos by Lena Charles, Bekah Shrag Believe us, the view in our dreams was spectacular. We’ve just come back from a whirlwind of a week; we survived Machu Picchu in the rain! Also: a harrowing bus ride down into the Sacred…
Posted by Kristopher Schmidt Pictures by David Lehman-Miller and Kristopher Schmidt While Peru is fairly large (about the size of Alaska), most of its population is found along the coast (~60%) and especially in the coastal capital city of Lima (~10 million). Lima is so dense because it has always…
