Spirits are high in our homestay community of Wakra Urcu! Our group is working hard to help build the multi-use environmental learning center. Students are practicing their Spanish and engaging with Wakra Urcu’s community members while sharing the work load to help establish the new structure. Mixing and laying cement is one of many daily tasks at hand this week. The group walks about 20 minutes to arrive at the worksite, from their home stay, and everyone working at the site enjoys a traditional lunch together at a local school.
Leader Dan ran a great yoga class that the whole group participated in during the weekend. The whole group had a blast over July 4th weekend on our host Raul’s farm. Many matches of soccer and volleyball were played and a big campfire with singing took place at night. Students enjoyed a few rounds of chess as well with their hosts. A comical event on the farm was when 11 group members laid side by side to all squeeze under a mosquito net together, to escape the mosquitos! Ahh, nature.
Two students have cooked a meal with their host families consisting of making a dish similar to tamales – vegetables & meat mixed into a corn meal base, all wrapped up and cooked inside of a leaf. The group is enjoying learning about local cooking and sharing music, including playing the guitar, with the host community members.
This weekend the group will be heading off to Quilotoa for a fun hiking adventure with one night’s stay at a youth hostel. Quilotoa is a water-filled crater of the most western volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. This site will hopefully provide some fantastic views.
The group is doing really well in the homestay community and starting to think about other ways to further engage with the local community outside of the worksite – there may be more music sessions in the coming days!
