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

This past week was an interesting one. It was the week of our free travel where the students are able to decide where they want to stay for the duration of the week. I am still not quite sure how, perhaps we have a little leprechaun following us around, but we were able to reserve an amazingly beautiful house right in front of the beach! Our own little island of… Read More

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

The sun has been shining for hours by the time you wake up. It’s 7:00 am. “Yadra Nana and Tata!” (good morning host mom and dad.) Tie up the mosquito net, grab some toilet paper and head outside to the bathroom. Check for frogs and other mellow creatures making shelter in the concrete cubicle before getting down to business. Afterwards wash your hands with antibacterial soap in a sink or… Read More

ut After a few bus rides, a hostel stay, and a four hour ferry ride, we have arrived to our village, Nasolo! We rolled up driving through their grass and sat around in their community hall for the welcome ceremony all wearing our new fancy sulus. None of us were accustomed to any Fijian words or traditions yet but we all sat around fascinated of what I think was a… Read More

The Bay of Islands were so beautiful and some of us went kayaking or just chilling on the beach. We had an awesome dinner for our last night in New Zealand. We didn’t do too much for the 2 days that we were there so it was nice to have a break after working at the farm for a week, but we all had fun and some good quality time… Read More

Bula bula! 2015 walkabout group has wrapped up our month in New Zealand. We made it safely to Fiji! We are all ready for tropical shorts and flip flops weather. We arrived yesterday in Nadi then took a short van ride to our hostel in New Town. The city is very unique and not like anything I have experienced before. I love the island vibe and all the positive energy… Read More

Kalie, Ryan, and I (Syd) got a chance to go fishing with our farm contacts. We went out on this tiny little boat and the water was really choppy. Once we finally got out far enough, we cast our lines and started catching fish almost instantly. We caught a bunch of KaWe and some Red Snapper as well. Ryan and I were doing great but Kalie wasn’t having much luck… Read More

This past week living and working at Sheila’a organic farm has been unbelievable. When we arrived on Monday, we were welcomed to a beautiful property by the wonderful Sheila. Her and Anne have been so generous with their land and time and I know our whole group appreciates what they’re doing for us. Our first two days of work were spent on Anne’s farm, completing projects like chopping up wood… Read More

Being a wwoofer(willing worker on an organic farm) has been an amazing experience so far. I have a new respect for all farmers because the work is surprisingly challenging, gross, and energy consuming. The mornings have been lots of hard work and the afternoons have consisted of lots of pool and ping pong. My first task this week was a two-day job at Anne’s farm. Jessie and I partnered up… Read More

You know its going to be a awesome night at Carpe when it starts with trying to put pasta sauce into a milk carton. Only fun can ensue after that. For a little context it happened while we were staying on a Marae for the week. A Marae is sort of like a community center for the Maori people who are the indigenous people to New Zealand. They have a… Read More

This week we went tramping up Karioi mountain. When we reached an hour in, our leaders told us to all spread out and we were going to take 15 minutes to sit by ourselves, reflect, and just have some solo time. Living with a group, it’s hard to find some time to yourself and when I finally had it, it was so peaceful. I decided to take the time to… Read More