With 18 AWESOME high school students, theres not much that can get in the way of a strong intercultural immersion in Ecuador!\u00a0 On Saturday, with the help of Marcello, our craftsman extraordinaire- our group succesfully completed the construction of a commuinity oven.\u00a0 Bricks, cement, and plaster, the community will now begin to bake breads and other goodies in the newly completed GR Oven.\u00a0 We are on track to finish the bleachers which will offer the opportunity for crowds to come to La Variante and participate in soccer tournaments, and in the futre volleyball tournaments.\u00a0 It is our hope that with crowds, and the oven, new recreational and monetary gain will begin to stake claim in the community.<\/p>\n
As most places in the world are experiencing drastic climatic shifts, it is no different here on the tropical side of Ecuador.\u00a0 Big rains have sweeped through the community the last several days, irregular for certain, as it is the dry season here in La Variante!\u00a0 As the\u00a0students continue to work hard mixing cement, hauling rocks, and moving dirt…\u00a0 I am so proud of them all in their positive attitudes toward the rain.\u00a0 A few days ago, I reminded everyone that in the face of rain we still have the opportunity to cultivate inner sunshine and broadcast such attitudes out unto the world.<\/p>\n
Because of\u00a0the students\u00a0efforts the last few weeks, Chau and I decided to take everyone into town for a hot shower, a good night{s rest in a wonderful hostal, and a nice hot meal.\u00a0 While RICE is plentiful in most of our food affairs, we are also enjoying fried Maduros (plantains), red beans, and other yummy fruits.\u00a0 Before arriving at\u00a0our hostel, we took an excursion to Piedra Blanca, a reserve on the wing of what would eventually lead into the Amazon.\u00a0 Our group hiked through lush, green hills, stopping to learn about medicinal plants, and treating ourselves to munching on raw sugarcane….fresh from the stick.\u00a0 Giant hummingbirds, a variety of incredible butterflies, and a fun swinging vine, and a culminating cascada (waterfall)\u00a0were all part of this beautiful hike in a land that continues to seek protection of its peoples and places.\u00a0 We learned that Piedra Blanca is also sought after by miners of gold and silver, and so achieving protected status is an uphill battle.\u00a0 Hopefully, by bringing more people to the reserve, awareness will climb and one day, the native peoples and plants of this sacred area will be protected.\u00a0 Please check out www.piedrablanca.org<\/a> to learn more!<\/p>\n With 10 days to go in La Varinate the students are excited to\u00a0prepare and serve\u00a0a good ‘ol\u00a0 North American BBQ for our community.\u00a0 We are now also exploring possibillities of our secondary service work with the funds raised from our\u00a0awesome bunch of students.<\/p>\n I am forever impressed by the attitudes, work ethic, and willingness to try new things of our group, and student Spanish skills are improving everyday!<\/p>\n Todo tranquilo aqui!!! <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With 18 AWESOME high school students, theres not much that can get in the way of a strong intercultural immersion in Ecuador!\u00a0 On Saturday, with the help of Marcello, our craftsman extraordinaire- our group succesfully completed the construction of a commuinity oven.\u00a0 Bricks, cement, and plaster, the community will now begin to bake breads and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecuador-galapagos-2011"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
– Daniel<\/p>\n