Reflections

It is hard to describe the past few days. I am very eager for the adventure that awaits me on the Galapagos Islands and cannot thank Mogs enough for all of the hard work that she put in to making this adventure possible. Please check out ROW Adventures for all of your international adventure travel needs and of course state side whitewater adventures. You will not be disappointed! I am also very excited to get home and see the boys. It has been truly foreign not having them by my side for this length of time. Yet it was with a heavy heart that I left Loja at 5 am this morning.

We accomplished a lot in the two short months that we were down here. Each student achieving varying levels of success, and each truly changed by the experiences that they had while down here. The social science team collected 83 surveys, did 4 community mapping sessions, and 16 key informant interviews. We turned rural rapid appraisal on it's head!  None of this would have been possible without our cohorts at UTPL. Veroníca and Rossana are amazing individuals and I feel truly privileged to have had the opportunity to work with them. It is for this reason that the goodbyes were so difficult. However, I know that I will have friends in Loja, Ecuador for the rest of my life and it is always a place that I can call home!