greetings from otavaloooooo!

Archive South America- INTI
This dark saturday eve finds us nestled in between mamma and pappa volcanoes in the ever magnificent Otavalo Ecuador. After two weeks spent working the farm at Rio Muchacho, today we were able to satisfy our insatiable American need to consume, storming one of the largest handicraft markets in South America, scouring the streets for gifts, plauging store owners for their unnescesary knick knacks made of alpaca hair. We now… Read More

A Curandera, a Slaughter and Some Jaguars!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
We are wrapping it up here in San Andres, spending some time with our families and preparing some thankyou gifts. We have been emmersed into some of the historical Myan beliefs of San Andres, including a visit to a Curandera(a shamanistic herbal healer.)At the Curandera we learned about some of the common sicknesses amongest children and ways of healing them. One of the illnesses is caused from the transfer of… Read More

A bit of a rant…

Archive Southeast Asia- SABAI
Hey There everyone.SOO much has happened its difficult to recap it. Some highlights are as follows: Our group did a Tuk-Tuk ride for peace on International day of peace in Battam Bamg(No idea if that’s the correct spelling, seen many version for the name of this city). Lots of fun, we got some advice there from a Buddhist Monk. He guided us through mediation telling us the the importance of… Read More

Quetzales in the Bank, Shawty Whatch Drank

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Its our third day at our second homestay, in San Andres. We apologize for the lack of blogs thus far. We thourghly enjoiyed ourselves in Poptuon and were fortunate enough to have participated in the local Guatemalan Independence Day festivities. These festivities included, sack races, music, a compatition with horses and a scramble up a 30 foot tall, lard covered log. Alex and Robert were champs and participated in the… Read More

Mzungu

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Hey, this is Zach. Alright so the last few days in Africa have been long, tiring and paintfilled but none the less a blast. We just finished up painting the classrooms with Soft Power in Bubugo and are now chilling at the NRE hostel just outside of Jinja. Working at Bubugo was challenging but incredibly rewarding and fun. In the mornings we split up into two crews. The first (Britt,… Read More

Bueno

Archive South America- INTI
Hi Family! We are having such a great time in Rio Muchacho and want to tell you all about our trip so far! We started out at Saiunanda, a beautiful place just outside of Bahia. Alfredo, the owner, opened our eyes to a new way of living, as we all tried something new and did a singing bowls meditation. Peacocks roomed the land, along with many other birds and animals… Read More

Living in Heaven

Archive India- SHIVA
After the pandemonium of Paharganj, Delhi, the serenity of Sikkim came as a breath of fresh air (literally). We are currently at a homestay, and staying with a fantastic family, the Lepcha’s. They have been more than amazing to us, accommodating our every need and opening their house to us in every way. They also have a beautiful 14 month old boy, who is terrified of Drew (a leader). Its… Read More

FUN FUN FUN in East Africa!

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Hello!…Kirsten here:I can’t believe we have been in East Africa for less than a week; we have done so many exciting things and our jamii is bonding better than ever! On Sunday, we had our first day of adventure; a scavenger hut into Kampala. To our surprise, Britt and Zik sent us off into the busy city ALONE! But with some helpful advice and tips from our worldly-experienced leaders, we… Read More

Let’s Paint!

Archive Southeast Asia- SABAI
Hey everyone,I would tell you where exactly we are but my role in the group does not involve pronouncing or spelling names correctly. What I will tell you is we are painting! Painting classrooms to be exact. We finished our two base coats of white paint in the three classrooms we’re working on and graduate to sky blue paint tomorrow. We’re painting classrooms for the street families compound where we… Read More

Soft Power Education

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Hello everyone!We just wanted to let you know that we arrived to work with Soft Power Education, the first school we’re working with. Tonight we’ll be settling in, getting ready to start our Swahili classes in the morning and paint one of the new buildings for the school. We had an incredible day rafting the White Nile yesterday. We’ll let the students fill you in on the details in a… Read More

We made it!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Having met the group after months of only knowing them over the internet has made this whole journey become real. It started as we sat in a circle on the ground in the airport playing games and getting to know eachother. After a 6 hourt flight to El Salvador and another half hour to Guatemala City we hopped on a 7 hour bus ride to Finca Ixobel. Alex managed to… Read More

Scavenger Hunt

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Today we went into Kampala with a few partners to look for a few things that Britt and Zik thought would give us a good feel of the city. It was awesome and truly eye opening. I look forward to cool adventures such as this in the future.-Kaan… Read More

9.13.09

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Mambo!All of us just returned from the most amazing dance experience! For 3 hours we watched and participated in traditional Ugandan dance and song! We ate a traditional Ugandan meal which watching men and women swirl in colors and dance to the beat of drums! It was such an incredible way to end our stay here in Kampala! We are so grateful for today and can’t wait to continue the… Read More

IN THA CITAYYY

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Right now my scavenger hunt team and I are sitting in an internet cafe, sweating, full of rice and maybe unfriendly chicken. Everyone here has been very helpful and smiling towards our strange questions and requests. “What is that fruit called?” – “One killogram.”We’ve been running and dodging flying motorcycles, while trying to keep our feet dry. We were surprised by the bustling locals in collared shirts and clean pants… Read More

The First Few Days-

Archive India- SHIVA
Flying was a chore. By the time we reached Hong Kong for our rather long layover, we all (besides being nearly vegetative from jetlag and lack of sleep) felt as though we had known each other for much longer than mere hours. Upon landing, we deliriously came to the decision to visit the world’s largest sitting Buddha, about 45 minutes by bus outside of Hong Kong. Even through our tired… Read More
Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Great first day in Africa. Spent most of the day safe and sound in the hostel. We got a chance to play pool, some card games and enjoy an African rain shower. Also we saw two monkeys who live outside the hostel! Can’t wait to get into Kampala.– Zach Yesterday our plans to visit kampala were delayed because of unexpected rain fall. The rain here in Uganda is an intense.… Read More

Apologies

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Sorry folks, Our AWESOME group of students did, in fact, update the blog today. Unfortunately, however, they didn’t realize they needed to click “publish post” in order to allow you to be able to read what they wrote. Since they didn’t know how to ensure the blog was published, you have yet to hear from them personally. Sorry about that. Rest assured that we are all still safe and sound… Read More

Safe and Sound in Kampala!

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
The students will all be updating the blog tomorrow, but Britt and I just wanted to take a quick minute to let everyone know we’ve arrived safe and sound, and without incident, to our Backpackers hostel here in Kampala. We are all in high spirits to be a part of such a great group, and psyched to have gotten the adventure underway. We’re also pretty tired after so many hours… Read More

Greetings from Bahia!!!

Archive South America- INTI
We´re here!!! After a verrrrrry long day of travel, we have arrived at our orientation location on the coast. We´ve been released into the city of Bahia de Caraquez by Jeff and Dawn, who (very lovingly) said to us this morning, `Now leave this beautiful hostel we´re staying in, fend for yourselves, and come back for dinner! No, we won´t be helping you. At all.´ So here we (Will and… Read More

we´re here!

Archive South America- INTI
hola amigos! we have made it here to ecuador and are in la ciudad de bahia de caraquez! this is our first stop so we havent seen much of the city, but the hostel we are staying at is mucho bien. there is even a sloth that live in the kitchen. we are on a scavenger hunt and are hoping we find some great things. the new culture is sometinhg… Read More