Students use a traditional canoe-like vessel and mallets to mash manioc, one of Ecuador’s staple crops, before extracting the fibers, adding sweet potato juice and storing the mixture. Students made aswa, also known as “chicha,” which is a fermented beverage offered as a sign of hospitality in the Andes.
Students attend the Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun), which marks the Winter solstice. They were invited to participate in the festival as invited guests with a local community near Cayambe.One of the research group’s teams. Each student was assigned a role: recorder, scribe, translator, or interviewer.