Week 32

This last weekend was our final retreat. We traveled together to a town called Banos. We had group events but also plenty of free time to play. Banos is one of the major tourist towns in Ecuador and there are many fun things to do there. Our students did everything from renting ATVs and bungee jumping to hiking near waterfalls and relaxing by the pool. We ended our weekend with one last community communion service. It was a great weekend.









The other photos I am including are also from last weekend. Before we left for retreat we all went out for ice cream and ice-skating. We had a great night the Minnesota kids pulling everyone else around on the ice and then starting a snowball fight with the shavings for the skates. We stood out just a little!




Yesterday and today family and friends started arriving for our commencement weekend. I will update this blog one more time after the weekend is over.

Blog fans of the week: Anders and Kristen (for your many words of wisdom)

Photos: Kira, Bob and Mandy riding on top of a bus called a Chiva to the top of one of the mountains surrounding Banos; Karianne being a part of a flame throwing show that we saw (no one was hurt); Alex, Peter, Elle, and Elin doing a skit about the year during one of our night sessions; one of the waterfalls we hiked to (if you look closely you can see people on the look-out points, they are all students, and this gives a good perspective of how large this waterfall is); we went across the gorge in a basket/cable-car thing and this is it going; Hannah, Luke, Tyler and John pretending to be afraid of the basket ride; John on a large tire swing that we found; Greta, Elle and Elin getting excited about skating; Mary, Hannah and Ellen showing off their Minnesota skating skills; Azurlee, Anna and Tess forming a train