Summer Adventurers Return Home
Blair Alumnus Hosts Dinner in Ecuador

Blair offers students and faculty the opportunity to travel to foreign lands over the course of the summer – a wonderful way to study what has been learned in the classroom and gain a sense of the world at large. History teacher Quint Clarke led a trip to Africa with a group this June and kept the Blair community abreast of their adventures via email. Click here for Quint’s comments and photos. Chinese teacher Susan Kramer and Blair students traveled to China (photos to come). Finally, foreign language department chair Don Morley directed Blair’s first Summer School in Ecuador – which also awards academic credit – and kept in touch with the campus (and parents) through his creation of a marvelous Web site, complete with diary, photos and even a blog! Click here to see what we mean: web.mac.com/morled.

Don reports that at the end of their trip his group met up with a Blair alumnus who lives in Ecuador (see group photo above). “Last night we had a very special treat – our final meal in Ecuador. Humberto Mata, Blair class of 1954, was told that a Blair student group was in his country for a month. Humberto called me in Cuenca and asked if he could invite all of us out for dinner during our final night in Guayaquil. As you can imagine, we readily accepted. At 8 p.m., Humberto picked us up at our hotel and took us all to the Hilton Colon Hotel for a marvelous buffet dinner. We were able to enjoy many Ecuadorian treats, ceviche de mariscos, seco de chivo, corvina en salsa, etc., in as much quantity as we wished for one more time. A perfect, final Ecuadorian culinary delight! Thank you, Humberto! We are pictured here with Humberto as well as in the Guayaquil photo album.”

Don added, “So it is over. Blair Academy’s Ecuador pioneers are all back, safe and sound in the United States. While we have truly and sincerely enjoyed our time in Ecuador, I also know that everyone is ready to reunite with their families and friends and tell tales of Ecuador… I’ll see your children again in early September, for we need to get ready to present a chapel to the entire Blair community about our Ecuadorian experiences early in the fall. Your children were praised many times during our farewell dinner in Cuenca on Wednesday evening. One of their Spanish teachers told me that this was her first experience working with high school students. She had been warned by many that she was in for a handful of trouble. María Elena told me last week, however, that she had never enjoyed teaching a group of students as much as she had this summer…They were fabulous ambassadors for Blair Academy. You should be very proud of them. I certainly am.”

Posted 8/1/07

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