Today was our first day waking up in Guaranda!
We started the day (after breakfast, of course) with a complete tour and scavenger hunt of some of the major historical and cultural landmarks of the town of Guaranda! Each Glimpser got a picture and they had to be on the lookout for when we passed the landmark in their photo. Our program coordinators, Stephanie and Camilo, gave us an excellent history lesson at each stopping point. Some of the major landmarks we saw were:
1) A statue of Simon Bolivar, the leader of the movement for independence from Spanish rule in Ecuador as well as the surrounding countries Colombia, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela (these nations were briefly a single country often referred to as “Gran Colombia”).
2) Two of the cities main universities, one of which is where our Glimpsers will be teaching English classes to local students!
3) The city’s main supermarket, where independent vendors sell fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and other foods. Our Glimpsers formed groups and were able to meet some vendors and buy fresh fruits and vegetables!
Later in the afternoon (after some free time and bonding) we did our first planning session for students’ English lessons. We discussed how to design good lessons, learned a little bit about the students we’ll be teaching, and broke out into groups of 3 or 4. Each group will be responsible for teaching a class of 12-13 students. We ended with our groups beginning to plan their first lesson. Our Glimpsers will teach two hour lessons Monday thru Friday next week!
After dinner, we ended the day with some time to get to know each other a little more deeply. Students split into their “reflection groups” of 5 students, and held intimate conversations about where they come from and who they are. We’ll continue to have these conversations throughout the trip.
Lastly, as we end every day with Global Glimpse, we had our nightly meeting. We started a discussion on what we’ve learned about colonialization, fights for liberation, and indigenous cultures and began thinking about how students can take what they’re learning back to the US. Jonathan, Denise, and Cara passed the torch to our first student leaders of the day (“El Lider del dia”) Kaia and Jakob! They set the bar high for showing off their talents, too. Kaia did some impressive rapping while Jakob accompanied with some masterful juggling!
Now all our Glimpsers have gone off to bed to rest for our Indigenous Worldview Day tomorrow!
I hope everyone is doing great… seems like a great start to the journey!
Hi Nicko , Hope you’re having a fun time
I am vicariously traveling with the group via your photos and Google Earth!! The museum, La Guitarra is shaped like a guitar!! Today sounds like another fun filled day!! Guaranda Forever??♂️
Did you get to try some of the fruits and vegetables Andy? I bet they were amazing!
xo
Loving the blog! Thank you!
What a great update. Kathleen we miss you and hope you are having an amazing time. CAB asked if he could FaceTime you there. NAB team still in All Stars.
Double update! What an incredible experience for all of you. Enjoy and absorb all of it!
Can’t wait to hear from Nicko and Zack! I hope you guys are enjoying the beautiful country that is Ecuador and hopefully you take it all in! Make your Ambassador proud! 😉
Celia, you continue to make me proud for mentoring of this year’s delegation. You are an Ambassador Extraordinaire!!!
Hola Celia,
Te extraño!! Espero que tengas un buen verano
Great narrative. The pictures add so much more to the story as we read these daily blogs. The streets and neighborhood is so clean and picturesque.
Kikue! Did you eat the pineapple jelly???
I couldn’t figure out which trip was yours until now but I’m glad to see you are having fun!!I hope you are having an amazing trip and trying all the food for me. Osito misses you so much and so do all the other Zavala’s. Can’t wait for you to come home Alex?
I couldn’t figure out which trip you were on but I found it and I’m glad to see you having fun!! I hope you are having an amazing trip and trying all the food for me. Osito misses you and so do all the other Zavala’s. Can’t wait for you to come home Alex ?
I accidentally sent it twice sorry