March 2007 Newsletter

Saludos de Ecuador!

Time flies faster in the Andes! We sadly said goodbye to the Intersession Program in January, we are already two thirds of the way through the Spring Semester in the Andes Program, and the Ohio Quarter students are settling in quickly during their first week in Cuenca. We got thoroughly wet during the Carnival celebrations and are now preparing for the 450th birthday celebration of the foundation of Cuenca.

For the two and a half months that the Spring Semester students have been here they have visited almost every place imaginable in Ecuador, had a series of lectures on immigration, current Ecuadorian politics, and Andean healing practices, and are fully installed in their Cuenca homes with new siblings, new cousins, new mamis and papis. They have visited a women?s paja toquila weaving cooperative (the makers of ?Panama Hats?) in the rural town of Principal, hiked to the spectacular Girón waterfalls, snorkeled with sea lions and florescent fish in the Galapagos, fed iguanas in the park in Guayaquil, star gazed while camping in the páramo in Cajas National Park, and participated in an indigenous ritual in the southern town of Saraguro. They are now trying on their rubber boots in preparation for this weekend?s trip to Churute, where they will visit a cacao and banana plantation as well as canoe through a mangrove forest. While travel is a large component of the program, academics is just as important and the students are doing very well in their second-cycle classes as they prepare for their mid-term exams. Of course their excitement has already started to show as they start to think about the end-of-program trip to Peru, where they will visit Machu Picchu, Cuzco, Lima, and the beaches.

The ten Ohio University Quarter students had a smooth arrival in the cosmopolitan capital of Quito on March 20. While in Quito they toured the churches and colonial plazas of the city and visited ?Mitad del Mundo? where they were able to straddle the equator, with one foot in each hemisphere. They then visited a centuries-old hacienda, where they enjoyed live traditional Andean music, and toured a neighboring rose plantation. They later traveled to the indigenous town of Salasaca, where they were treated to a traditional weaving demonstration and more dancing to live music. The students visited the Tungurahua volcano monitoring station, where they learned about the recent eruptions, and participated in a ?cultural mapping? exercise in which they got to speak directly to the residents of the town of Patate and learn about the history of the area. On Saturday they arrived to Cuenca and met their host families and on Monday they began their Spanish classes. They participated in a city-wide scavenger hunt to familiarize themselves with Cuenca and are preparing for their first ceramics class in the traditional workshop of a well-known Cuencano ceramist, Iván Encalada. This weekend they will travel north to Ingapirca where they will visit the largest remaining Inca ruins in Ecuador, as well as visit the intriguing indigenous market of Cañar.

All in all, the students are thoroughly enjoying their first days in the Andes; they are making strides with their Spanish, making new friendships with their fellow students and their new host families, and are excited about their upcoming volunteer mural project at a local high school and the trips they will take to the coast, to the indigenous community of Saraguro, and to the Amazon rainforest.

Hasta Pronto!!

Your friends at CEDEI
Cuenca, Ecuador