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Jun 14 2011

Five faculty members are saying farewell to Goshen College at the end of the 2010-2011 school year as they retire and begin the next chapters in their lives. The five retirees are John Blosser, professor of art; Rafael Falcón, professor…

Jun 12 2011

Our recent visit to Hospital María Auxiliadora was a chance to get an inside view of how health care is delivered to poor Peruvians. The range of medical facilities in Lima is broad: For those with insurance or the ability...

Jun 09 2011

Our service opportunity this week led us to Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II, an orphanage south of Lima that is home to 73 children between the ages of 4 and 17. Casa Hogar’s website tells the story of how Joseph...

Jun 08 2011

     After such a full and intense weekend of travel, we spent a good portion of our weekly reunión today debriefing and processing all that we had seen and heard.  We divided the students into groups of three and...

Jun 07 2011

Last Wednesday we had an extended reunión that got us out of our seats and onto the dance floor. Thanks to our expert instructors, Frank and Elizabeth, we learned some salsa and merengue moves while simultaneously providing entertainment for the...

Jun 07 2011

       Our final day of the trip took us to El Salto Estanzuela, a beautiful 15-meter waterfall, and Reserva El Tisey, a 9344-hectare nature reserve (the equivalent of over 23,000 acres). As we started the hike at Estanzuela,...

Jun 07 2011

After an early morning Spanish class, the group set out for a four-day adventure to Matagalpa and Esteli. Unfortunately, due to illness we were short two students, Jacob and Hannah, as well as Lisa and Geneviéve, who stayed back to...

Jun 07 2011

Our first stop in Estelí was Funarte, a nonprofit nongovernmental organization built around the idea of giving young children a chance to express themselves through art while learning how to work together to create murals. Children have free weekly painting...

Jun 06 2011

The Goshen College Board of Directors announced today that it has asked President James E. Brenneman to find an alternative to playing the Star-Spangled Banner that fits with sports tradition, that honors country and that resonates with Goshen College's core…

Jun 06 2011

Our plan was to arrive at Machu Picchu in time to see the sunrise, so we met for breakfast at 4 a.m. and were on our way to the bus stop by 4:30, armed with cameras, water bottles, and peanut...

Jun 04 2011

Just a quick note to say that we’re in the northern regions of Matagalpa and Estelí this weekend, visiting a coffee farm, an arts NGO, a paper-making cooperative, the grave of Ben Linder, and a museum dedicated to the heroes...

Jun 04 2011

We spent several days visiting towns and archeological sites in the Urubamaba Valley, also known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas—a beautiful rural region north of Cusco dotted with small towns and farm fields surrounded by spectacular mountains. First...

Jun 04 2011

Cusco is perhaps the most popular stop on Peru’s “Gringo Trail,” so we did our best to get out of the well established tourist areas and get a better sense of what life is really like in this beautiful part...

Jun 03 2011

Just outside Cusco are three particularly interesting archeological sites that we were able to explore during our recent travels. We started at Tipon, a 500-acre complex of hillside farming terraces and water channels carved in stone that the Incas took...

Jun 03 2011

Our week of travel started in the Andean city of Cusco, a UNESCO world heritage site considered to be Latin America’s archeological capital. By the 15th century Cusco was at the height of its importance as capital of the vast...

Jun 03 2011

May 30 is Mother’s Day in Nicaragua, and a special guest helped us celebrate this with our host mothers: Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Moisés Gadea. Gadea has toured internationally, but he prefers to perform for small intimate gatherings, which worked out very...

Jun 03 2011

Last Friday we returned to capital city Managua for the day, where we spent the first few days after the group arrived almost a month ago. (How did the month of May pass so quickly, we wonder?) We started off...

May 31 2011

We recently visited the nearby huaca (sacred place) Pachacamac, a museum and huge archaeological site just south of Lima that dates as far back as 200 A.D. and remained in use (by various groups for various purposes, but most often...

May 26 2011

Moravian Church and a Miskito Village by Sarah Sunday took us to the Moravian Church in Pearl Lagoon, where we worshiped with a lot of singing and rather long sermon in Creole about honoring one’s family and being obedient to...

May 26 2011

Johnny and Dancing by Brian Saturday was an eventful day in Pearl Lagoon. We began the day with a lecture from Johnny Hodgson about autonomy and the East Coast. Personally, I was amazed at the depth of his experience and...

May 26 2011

Friday on the East Coast by Kaleb After a long journey to Pearl Lagoon on Friday we were all ready to relax. We were going to spend the day at a private island in the Pearl Keys. We woke up...

May 26 2011

Co-leaders’ introduction by Lisa & Jen From last Thursday through this Monday we took an extended field trip to the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, on the opposite side of the country from where we are spending most of the term....

May 24 2011

Our most recent service trip took us to the rural village of Quebrada Verde, about a 70-minute drive south from Lima. There we spent a day and a half at Santa Rosa de Lima Montessori School, where we got a...

May 23 2011

The new Goshen Core curriculum will begin in 2012. Student response and feedback is important as this new “core” is finalized. Click for audio file