Week Eight – Leaving the Field School

Author: Masha

Week Eight – Leaving the Field School

July 2019

This week was our last week at the field station. We had our final classes, and took our final oral and written Kichwa exams. We also celebrated the end of the term. We sang the Kichwa songs we learned for some of the family of the program director, and we sang the songs again at our despedida with the well-known Kichwa singer, Carlos Alvarado. It was a great time, and overall I am very grateful for all I learned during my time at the field school.

Moreover, this week on Monday, my husband and mother arrived in Ecuador, to spend a week at the field station before vacationing elsewhere.

The last week was full of goodbyes and reflection on the last seven weeks. Many of the graduate students studying at the field school are in very different fields, thus I have met people working on endangered languages, mental health communication, art history, spider behavior, and agroecology, to name a few. It has been fascinating to learn about other student’s research and make professional connections, of course in addition to making good friends. 

On Saturday, my husband, mother, and myself, got in a taxi and took the long road back to Quito. The Baeza route was technically still closed, so we took the six-hour southern route through Puyo, Baños, Ambato, and Cotopaxi. We arrived at the airport in the late afternoon. My husband and I continued on to Quito, and my mother and step-father continued on to Bolivia for vacation.