Photos…and a blog soon to come~

I got word from the group that they are doing GREAT! After an amazing 3 days of orientation in a small beach town outside of Wellington, they headed to the Family Farm to begin their week WWOOFing. They are diving into all things farm-life now and will be sending a more detailed blog soon (they had some troubles getting the blog to upload). For now I’ll leave you with these… Read More

Gettin’ Stoked for the South Pacific!

Avi and Lauren here, welcome to our first blog post! We are hoping that everything is going well for you with packing, preparing, and feeling mentally and physically ready for our semester. We are here in Portland preparing for our amazing upcoming adventure. All of the folks at Carpe have been eagerly preparing our lessons, plans, games, and all the other fun amazing things that we are looking forward to… Read More

Final Walkabout

The past 36 hours have probably been the biggest rollercoaster of emotions in my life. Starting the morning on the 9th off in the park for our final group activities. Kalie put together little gifts for everyone of things that reminder her of each person which was one of the sweetest things. Alana lead a closing meditation where we took the time to reflect and appreciate each person on the… Read More

Beauty in Sadness

As we began our outback tour on December 3rd, the final full week of our trip commenced. As per usual, it was a week full of laughter, endless fun, and great memories. We spent the whole week doing group activities so we were able to really appreciate each individual member of the Walkabout family and close the trip with beautiful memories of being together as one. Ryan and Cheridyn, our… Read More

SCUBA

After four long educational days, most of the students are now SCUBA certified! The first two days we had classwork and practice in a pool, then for the third day we headed over to Fitzroy Island and did couple of beach dives. We stayed at the resort on Fitzroy for one night and got to enjoy the luxury of a real hotel. For dinner we all put on our nice… Read More

Safari Njema from Your OEs

Well we’ve done it. After a swift escape from the sweltering labyrinth of Dar es Salaam, we write you from the southeastern coast of Zanzibar, basking in the cooling breezes of the Indian Ocean. Slowly, through this white coastal sunlight, the dust is finally beginning to settle, and we’ve been able to wind down and reflect on the powerful adventure we shared with you. As your leaders, we couldn’t have… Read More

Free days in Cairns

During the past week we were given three free days in Cairns Australia. All though these were supposed to be seen as days to get some relaxing in, we packed them full of fun activities, including an awesome road trip. We arrived to Cairns late at night and many of snuggled into bed, while a few of us ventured out into the city to find the night market. The next… Read More

Safari Njema, Kifaru!

We just got word from Alison and Simon, our extraordinary Overseas Educators, that the entire group is safely on their flight and currently in the air on their way home. The semester is officially over, and to all of the friends and families of the Kifaru students – a huge thank you for your ongoing support. It’s been an honor working with each of you, with the students, and with… Read More

Nkula Fall 2015 Recap: A Final Goodbye

Nkula is on the way home! Brooke and Jonathan just let me know that the group passed smoothly through security and are about to board their outbound flights. Here at HQ we are so grateful to the families and friends of the Nkula students for their ongoing support, and especially grateful to Brooke, Jonathan, and each of the students for such a successful semester. Please enjoy this final note from… Read More

Thanksgiving

On November 25, Walkabout celebrated Thanksgiving. It started out with some intense debate; we quickly found out that everyone’s Thanksgiving traditions are wildly different. Some people have the classic turkey, some make lamb or tofu. Some people need gravy or there’s no point in celebrating, others feel the same about rice. Some of us start our “dinner” at 2PM, some people eat as late as 7PM. Of all things, all… Read More

Conservation Volunteering

This week our family got seperated in half an we each went to different areas to do conservation volunteer work with the CVA (Conservation Volunteers of Australia). I think we were all in agreement that it was weird not being together with a huge group of 12 all the time. Just from the excitement and smiles and hugs when we finally reunited, it was clear how much we missed each… Read More

kickin’ back in Noosa

After our four hard days of work at the conservation project the fam reunited to spend 3 amazing days in beautiful Noosa. It felt so good to be back with the rest of the group. Time has been flying by and we cant believe theres only 2 weeks left. After being seperated from half the group for four days we all realized how much we are going to miss eachother… Read More

Odds Are…

Odds are Jay wears a bra at dinner at the Murai Odds are Ben wades through a murky pond at Sheila’s farm Odds are I wear a tiger hat around Auckland Odds are Rebecca wakes up Ryan and Cheridyn in the middle of the night to say she had a nightmare Odds are Morgan sprays all the perfumes in the duty free store on herself in the Fijian airport on… Read More

Vinaka Fiji

My time in Fiji has been something out of a story book. I went into the village stay expecting to be sick the entire time. I was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome we received and how comfortable I felt living the village life. Oh and not getting as sick as I thought was also nice. From the playful children to the strong women of the families, I learned the… Read More

Student Directed Travel

Imagine, 11 students and 2 leaders piled in a bus with all of our belongings, bouncing along with every bump of the gravel road below us. That is how we started our week long student directed travel at Vatia Beach Resort. Our suspicions of a dirt ramshackle hut were quickly destroyed by the view of white, sandy beaches, wooden swings for our lazy afternoons, and crystal clear water reflecting the… Read More

Balance

This past week was our second week living in the rural Fijian village of Nasolo. After completing our community service project of revamping their community hall, we had four days where we were able to learn more about the activities and jobs that make up their every day life and build strong connections with members of the village. This week included activities like prawn fishing, weaving, going to their private… Read More

Bloggin with Coconuts

Exerpts from my journal while in the village! “You know how you never actually use all the ink in a pen. You either lose, replace, or break it before hand. Well, I have succeeded in finishing the ink in, not 1, not 2, but 4 pens. I only brought 4 pens with me. Thank goodness I still have the pen that Cheridynn gave out as a scavenger hunt prize back… Read More