Ghana times

carpediem Latitudes Year
The first thing that hit me as I stepped outside the airport in Accra, Ghana was the intense heat that is West Africa. Within minutes my clothes were soaked with sweat as the humidity clung to every inch of my skin. I was welcomed by my contact and his wife, and after a restless nights sleep in a dingy hotel, we made the six hour drive to Kumasi where I… Read More

Wild and wacky student adventures

carpediem South Pacific- WALKABOUT
Hello Family and Friends! This week was our student directed travel week! The week began with a trip to Hobbiton, the film set for both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. During our visit we had the opportunity to walk through the shire and learn all about how the movies were made. Pierce and Aislinn, our die hard Lord of the Rings fans, was bursting with excitement the… Read More

New Heaven Dive

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Blog from Tyler C Writing this hiding from the heat that’s only getting warmer as the days go on. The rainy season on Koh Tao is over and the dry season is approaching with only my fan to keep me cool. But don’t worry many cold showers are being taken to try to stay cool. I arrived on this island kind of lost and with very little idea of where… Read More

Mufinidi & Fox Farm

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Blog from George Geike We continued our cultural immersion in the highlands of Southern Tanzania through a two-part program in Igoda province organized by Foxes NGO, a non-profit dedicated to child welfare and regional healthcare. The first half of our program was a four-night homestay with farmer families of the Hehe tribe. Here, our Kiswahili and “kulima” (cultivation) skills gained over the past two weeks at Lutheran Junior Seminary and… Read More

Peace Farm Australia

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Blog and photos from Anna Rapson 7 weeks ago, I arrived in Yarra Junction, a little bit confused and extremely exhausted. My host was nowhere to be seen, and after three hours of traveling to get to the valley, I was upset and already in a bad mood. After about an hour, my host Travis picked me up on the side of the road. I discovered that that day was… Read More

Bodghaya

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Blog from Deanna. Photos from Diane and Peter After leaving Varanasi, the group arrived in Bodhgaya. We’ve spent the last six days studying Buddhism and meditation while staying at the Root Institute for Wisdom Culture. Here the group would start the days with meditation and dharma talks. During our meditation we would meditate on love and compassion. Some would consist of us meditating on our love for our mothers and… Read More

Buenos Aires Living

carpediem Latitudes Year
When you hear about other people’s travels, it usually only includes the glamorous, exciting sides. A lot of people like to leave out the parts that are immensely challenging and test you to your limits. I remember being so ecstatic to finally be going off completely on my own. Heading to a foreign country not knowing anyone. Not knowing the language. It all seemed like a fun challenge that I… Read More

Maori Culture in Raglan

carpediem South Pacific- WALKABOUT
Kia Ora friends and family!!!! We are currently in Raglan, one of the twelve transformation towns in the world. We are enjoying our last night in the scenic eco hostel, Solscape, before embarking on our student directed travel for the next week. Although we are looking forward to seeing more of New Zealand, we will miss our Maori cultural immersion. In the past week we had the pleasure of being… Read More

Hello From Turtle Island

carpediem Latitudes Year
Blog from Dani G. Hello all! Dani here, checking in from the small island paradise of Koh Tao in the south of Thailand. The last several weeks have flown by. It’s hard to believe it’s already the middle of March. After traveling 7,771 miles in forty short hours, we finally made it to Koh Tao. After the warmest of welcomes by New Heaven we began to slowly settle in. The… Read More

Trekking in Thailand

carpediem Southeast Asia- SABAI
Hello everyone. My name is Luke and I will be your guide this blog to the world of Thailand. You may think that Thailand is a very homogeneous population and that everyone living under the Red, White and Blue flag considers themselves Thai. But alas as is the case with everywhere in the world, different populations will not consider themselves the same people.We started our three day trek through the… Read More

¡Hola mi familia de Carpe Diem!

carpediem Latitudes Year
​It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Costa Rica for over a month. In some ways, it feels like I just got here with everything I’m learning during my time as a volunteer, and in other ways I feel like I’ve lived in my town that is the size of two main streets for years. Over this last month I’ve been working with CIRENAS (Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales… Read More

Photo Updates

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The Shanti group is currently in Varanassi. While we wait for their next blog update, here are some great photos. The first is from Diane and Peter (taken at a building you might just recognize). The remainder are from our wonderful contact Rishi-Ji in Jaipur. Enjoy!… Read More

Anika the African Queen

carpediem Latitudes Year
“What am I getting myself in to,” I remember thinking to myself on a plane that I did not want to land, as I was afraid at what could be awaiting me on the other side. This was months ago, when all of my knowledge of Africa came from a Taylor Swift video and The Lion King. I had never gone into my gap year thinking I would do Latitudes,… Read More

Ohana Amani Holistic Retreat

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Blog from Jack F. Over that last week we had the pleasure of being allowed into the Ohana Amani experience. The Ohana Amani Holistic Living Center is lead by sisters Chevy and Curry Anton, Curry’s partner Luca, who pursue the holistic living style by not only having a permaculture-style farm, they also have a tree farm, and well-treated livestock. Hitting the ground running the first day (as all days start)… Read More

A week of ADVENTURE

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Hello from our third week in majestic-al New Zealand! We have been having an adventure filled week stuffed with hiking, biking, caving, rafting, and camping, so excuse our long break from the blog, as we would sooner have seen a centaur than found Wifi out in this wilderness. Through a mentally and physically challenging week, we got to know each other a lot better, both individually and as a team.… Read More

Shark Time

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Ladies and gentleman welcome to your anchor spot. Every morning here in the Great White Shark capital of the world, you are on board one of the two boats the Marine Dynamics associates its self with. One is Slashfin, named after a notorious White Shark whose dorsal fin was in fact slashed, the shark cage diving vessel or Dream Catcher which is part of Marine Dynamics sister company, Dyer Island… Read More

SHAAAARK SZN

carpediem Latitudes Year
Hello from South Africa! I’ve been here for about 5 weeks volunteering with Marine Dynamics, which is a shark cage diving company located in Gansbaai in the Western Cape. So far, life has been pretty nice and chilled out. We usually begin the day by waking up and heading to the Great White House, which is the headquarters for Marine Dynamics and Dyer Island Cruises. All of the volunteers start… Read More

Thai Time

carpediem Southeast Asia- SABAI
Hello everyone and all distinguish guest; I’m Martin Farias!. I will be the first author in writing our first blogs, as each week goes by, everyone will have a chance to write blogs. More than two weeks have gone by and our group, Martin (me), Brenden, Taylor (Malit), Cooper, Taylor (Nit noi) and, Luke have created a strong bond with each other as well our two important leaders. Also many… Read More