Top: Jenna (teacher), Maeve, Kate, Camden, Katherine, Ryan, Kate, Claire, Mabel (teacher), Meredith (teacher)
Bottom: Arden (teacher), Adelaide, Chloe, Cambyr, Tula
The Traveling School’s 40th semester has begun! Thanks to everyone’s collective efforts to finish the application, work with your school, schedule the doctors’ appointments, and submit all the paperwork – now the fun and learning can begin. Our Washington, D.C. orientation was filled with duffel checks, name games and community building activities, last minute errands, skits about travel safety, and so much more. We enjoyed meeting the student cohort and many parents. We missed those who couldn’t join us. If you’d like to watch (or re-watch) the presentation for parents from Saturday night, click here and the password is D=y5X*!4
Most of the group flew out on Monday to begin their adventure. Two of our students couldn’t fly that day for health and logistical reasons; one has rejoined the crew already and the other is hoping to join them soon.
The group arrived in Quito on Monday night, tired but in good spirits. The next morning, they were picked up by our longtime partner and friend, Humberto, who took the group to their hostel in the Mindo Valley. Along the way, they stopped at the equator and learned about how the Quechua and other Indigenous groups settled in the exact latitudinal center of the area, knowing their position according to sun dials.
The group has now settled in their first home away from home in the Mindo Valley. They have been doing orientation sessions to anchor their semester together, ranging from group bonding and creating community norms to learning how to wash their own clothes!
