And They’re Off…

carpediem Latitudes Year
Today is the day! Our 2016-2017 Latitudes cohort heads off into the world for their focused volunteer placements. Our orientation ended with shared wisdom, hugs, and laughter during our closing ceremony. As the Latitudes team, we couldn’t be more proud of this crew of students. Each of them inspires us with their courage, confidence, and passion. We’re so grateful to be a small part of their journeys. Safe travels, everyone!… Read More

Latitudes Orientation Continues…

carpediem Latitudes Year
It’s hard to believe we’re on our final full day of Latitudes Orientation already. Each of the days has been full of laughter, reflection, and preparation for the adventures to come. From fireside yoga in the morning to storytelling workshops, from shared meals to shared wisdom from different regions of the world, the entire Latitudes Team has enjoyed every second with the 2016-2017 cohort here at Camp Angelos and we… Read More

Latitudes Orientation Spring 2017!

carpediem Latitudes Year
Orientation began with lots of laughter, joyful reunions, and excitement here in beautiful Corbett, Oregon. The entire team is excited for a full few days setting our Latitudes 2016-2017 cohort up for success on their Focused Volunteer Placements. This year’s cohort has students going as far flung as Madagascar, Japan, Belize, and everywhere in between for their volunteer placements. We’re looking forward to a full orientation of sharing stories, learning,… Read More

Farewell Walkabout

carpediem South Pacific- WALKABOUT
“Travel leaves you speechless, and then turns you into a story teller,” said the famous Arab wanderer, Ibn Battuta. There’s a certain sense of quiet that fills you on those first steps back onto familiar ground, back home. It’s as if there’s a space opened up within you, and only silence and reflection can fill it. This is a good thing. For the past three months we’ve all grown together… Read More

Baadaye from Your OEs

carpediem East Africa- NKULA
Rainy season has commenced, and at what perfect timing. In our last few weeks here in Tanzania we all patiently awaited the rains to start here in Africa, whether it be waiting physically for the sake of our homestay families’ crops or rhythmically through song (insert ironically awesome reference to Toto’s Africa here- this one is for you Jada). It is bittersweet that our group left just hours before the… Read More

Farewell!

carpediem South Pacific- HONGI
Hard to believe three months has gone by! With teary eyes we said goodbye to the people that has become inseparable to our wellbeing. If you sit down with any member of our Hongi group, we will be telling you stories for days. This trip turned out to be a first time for many things. Whether it was first time away from home, first time in New Zealand/Fiji/Australia, first time… Read More

Final Weeks

carpediem South Pacific- HONGI
It seems crazy, but this is our final blog of an amazing three month experience! Nevertheless, these last two weeks have been just as meaningful and fun as the previous ten. After a free day in Cairns to relax after our SCUBA adventure we drove two hours into North Queensland to work in the Daintree Rainforest. In Port Douglas we met John Rumney and Damien Settle who are working on… Read More

Final Days in Zanzibar

carpediem East Africa- NKULA
Blog from Jada and Brent Salaama Lekum! Jada and Brent here reporting from Zanzibar, again. We have finally reached the last leg of our journey! We spent a week of exploring and getting lost in the streets of Stonetown, 3 days of which were spent interning at local shops getting a taste of what it’s like to work/operate a business in Zanzibar, more specifically Stonetown. Initially arriving in Stonetown came… Read More

Shiva Crew is on their way…!

carpediem India- SHIVA
We’ve just heard from the leaders with the update that the entire Shiva group is safely off on their next adventures! A few will be traveling on their own in Asia for a while before returning home, while most are currently on the flight headed back towards San Francisco. They had a celebratory last day and said a joyful, tearful goodbye. Check out this sweet “final group photo!” Much gratitude… Read More

Shanti is on their way…

carpediem India- SHANTI
We’ve just heard from the leaders with the update that the entire Shanti group is safely off on their next adventures! Many will be traveling on their own in Asia for a while before returning home, while others are currently on the flight headed back towards San Francisco. They had a celebratory last day and said a joyful, tearful goodbye. Check out this sweet “final group photo!” Much gratitude from… Read More

SCUBA fun

carpediem South Pacific- WALKABOUT
How ya goin’, Mate? This past week, we embarked on our long awaited scuba/snorkel adventure in the Great Barrier Reef. For those of you who don’t know, the Great Barrier Reef, located of the coast of Queensland is the largest coral system on Earth. It can even able to be seen from space! When it comes to scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef is widely regarded as one of the… Read More

Ebbs and Flows

carpediem India- SHIVA
Blog from Matt N. Part One: Shock and Awe Before diving into the shenanigans of Diwali, Varanasi’s own Festival of Lights of the Gods, let us delve into the bizarre business of banking. Immediately following the unexpected demonetization of all high-value rupee notes, the Rs 500 and the Rs 1000, the group began to fear the worst. Will the trip continue? Will we have to go home earlier? What do… Read More

SCUBA!~

carpediem South Pacific- HONGI
Like every other week of this trip, this week was none the less of amazing. So much has happened and we even became open water certified scuba divers.We had an interesting, unexpected turn of things at the beginning of the week when our flight from Alice Springs to Cairns wan cancelled. Which actually ended up being a treat because Quantas Airlines paid for everyone’s overnight accommodation along with $50 for… Read More

Thanksgiving, Dolphins, and Stone Town!

carpediem East Africa- NKULA
Blog from Matt and Jo During this past week of Thanksgiving celebrations, we are sure our friends at home are finishing coursework, reviewing the past semester and stressing to the max about upcoming finals. While they are anxious about freshman year, we are nonchalantly celebrating a Thanksgiving party with our homestay families, exploring the beautiful and historic streets of Stonetown in Zanzibar and swimming with dolphins in the Indian Ocean.… Read More

Happy Thanksgiving from Tanzania

carpediem East Africa- NKULA
Blog from Jada & Brent “Kamwene” (hello!!) From the Foxes NGO! After a fun week of student directed travel, we made our way over to the Mufundi highlands, where we started the week off in homestays. We were in groups of 2 spread among 3 villages within the community. During our homestays we had the privilege of learning and experiencing daily life in rural Tanzania. Students participated in everything from… Read More

Daintree Conservation Week!

carpediem South Pacific- WALKABOUT
Salutations! We just finished a great week in the Daintree Rainforest! We started off by staying at a local ice cream company, where we participated in a reforestation project while enjoying fresh exotic fruit ice cream. We planted over 100 trees in the course of two days! After the ice cream company, we traveled down the road to the Botanical Ark where we stayed for two days! Previously a cattle… Read More

Outbacking It

carpediem South Pacific- HONGI
Our group had an eventful week in the outback! We started off our days emerging from our cocoons (also known as “swags”). There is no easy way to explain what they are, so if you are confused click the following link- https://www.google.com.au/search?q=swags&rlz=1C5CHFA_enNZ710NZ710&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=618&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOn83ui7XQAhWITLwKHfgqCREQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=roll+up+swags . Although it took a little convincing, almost our entire group put our underlying fear of the unknown creatures of the outback aside, and slept underneath the stars… Read More