Hey guys, Ben here with a quick update on our last week and a half! As the sun beat down, we hopped aboard the old, rustic ferry that would shuttle us to the island of Omotepe. Although the boat leaned significantly to one side and was packed with both people and random junk, the ride was rather relaxing and uneventful. The boat ride provided a nice break from driving in… Read More
On behalf of my fellow walkabouters I think I can safely say that we’re going to make the best of our new group arangements and carry of with our heads high and our hopes higher. But before we move foward with our journey I want to take a minute to step back and reflect on our time spent in Vatusekiyaswa. Going into the homestay I don’t think anyone expected to… Read More
Hello friends and family of the MAYA group! We´ve taken a bit of a vacation from blogging as we were trekking from Xela to San Juan over the course of three days and two nights. We departed form Xela by bus and were dropped off in a small village about half an hour outside the city. The first day was by far the most difficult. We climbed up steep mountain… Read More
We have officially left the cloud forest community of Pucara, and are residing in Mompiche, a beach town, before our exodus to Peru. Over the next week or so we will be making blog posts detailing what we did in the “lost weeks”.
In Pucara, we worked with the resident Carpe Contact, Pete, who educated us on sustainable agriculture and reducing our carbon footprint. The entire group with Petes property… Read More
Hi again!
We have just wrapped up our week at Pun Pun Organic Farm, which is located around an hour outside of Chiang Mai. Overall we all had a wonderful time. The farm itself was beautiful. It was green and lush, and in the distance massive haze-covered mountains stretched as far as the eye could see. Living conditions were rustic but comfortable; the students all were living in a treehouse-like… Read More
Holy cow how the days have been flying! Our stay in Vatusekiyasawa, Fiji was a beautiul and challenging experience. More accounts from the group to come, but wanted to share some pictures below. Late Thursday night we arrived into Auckland and after many obstacles, such as missing luggage, the strictest bio contamination regulations in the world, and uncooperative airport ATMS, Tera (our transport captain for the week) landed us an… Read More
Namaste my fellow Americans.
Evangeline here (I’m the New Yorker that lacks the fun accent and has a confusing other identity known as “Eva”), this week I get the honor of sharing our latest adventures with you! Every week the Carpe students rotate specific roles and this week I’m the blogger! Other roles include “hot wheels”(responsible for our transportation), “cribs”(our housing), “gratitude”(expressing thanks to all our contacts along the journey),… Read More
So after three days of being in Bodhgaya, the place where the Buddha received enlightenment, we began our crazy journey to Calcutta. It was not an easy journey to say the least. We were wait listed for seats for the train to Calcutta, which we luckily did make it on; but we had to sleep two to a sleeper bunk on an overnight train. We were suppose to board our… Read More
Bula from Fiji,
Our group’s stay in beautiful Fiji is coming to a close today. We spent the last two weeks in the friendly village of Rewasa near the town of Rakiraki on the north side of Viti Levu island. Our experiences inside the village will always and forever be remembered as a time where two cultures were able to share and take from one an other. The group’s time… Read More
Hey everyone!
We just spent our last few days in the village this week and headed out for our free travel in Nadi this past Wednesday morning. We are now spending some time at a resort in Nadi and have a very early wake up call tomorrow morning to fly out to Auckland! All of us are very excited for a change of scenery but will never forget our beautiful… Read More
I never thought I’d be back in school so soon, but who would’ve expected a school where you could swing in a hamock while sipping coffee in an outdoor classroom? The last two weeks have been nothing but amazing. Throughout the remainder of our time in Matagalpa the group continued to participate in activities organized by the language school. We visited an organization called Agentes de Cambio (Agents of… Read More
¡Hola Amigos y Familia!
We are currently sitting in the deserted, gringo-opperated internet cafe here in Xela, listening to the daily thunderstorm overhead. This past week has been adventurous, thought-provoking, stomach-inflating, and generally a positive experience for all!
Coming from Pasac (population 1200), the city life in Xela has been a welcomed change. When we`re not spending all of our Quetzales on overpriced hipster cafe food (and by that we… Read More
Hello all,
I am posting from an internet cafe near Pucara. Sorry this will be a really short post but I want all to know that there is no internet in Pucara, so we most likely wont update until Monday when we leave Pucara. However, that is the begining of group directed travel which, depending on what we decide to do, may or may not allow for internet access! Updates… Read More
This shot was taken by Jenny on Grant’s camera during home-based care visits to the sick and vulnerable. During our time visiting each home we encountered sadness, joy, hope, and inspiration mixed in clouds of empathy as we say in Kiswahili “Pole”
Our group has had it’s fair share of health struggles here lately, but all in a matter of perspective after these home based care visits as the majority… Read More
Hello friends and family- Katie here! This morning, our group had to say goodbye to all of our friends that we made in Mufindi.
Before arriving at Igoda Childrens Village (Orphanage+), our group talked about the “single story”. The idea of a “single story” is that it is the stereotypical view or idea of something. So, our single story for an orphanage was that it would be a sad place,… Read More
We’ve just returned from a sticker factory, where we alll designed MAYA 2013 logos to represent our group. As we sat “ohhing” and “ahhing” over the designs and wondering which ones would turn out the best, we were reflecting on each student and thought you all might like a little update on who exactly is forming this wonderful little group. So without further ado, here are Jessica and Brent’s updates… Read More
Greetings from Kampala! Lilly here!
This past week has been incredible. We went white water rafting on the Nile River last Monday and we all had a blast. We went on class 3 and 4 rapids. Nobody fell out and the raft did not tip over. We spent the night at Nile River Camp, which was very much like a resort. We got up early the next morning and took… Read More
Namaste from Bodh Gaya! It’s been too long since our last post… So sorry friends.
Since the last posts, we’ve been in Jaipur and Varanasi – two very different {amazing} experiences.
A quick list of highlights: In Jaipur First of all, our contacts Rekha-ji and Rishi-ji were wonderful teachers and hosts. They truly made every day chock full of Jaipur’s finest. From Hindi lessons to yoga and ancient architecture, our… Read More
Namaste everybody!
This week has been full of surprises and fun activities. We attended the teachings of His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, adventured to an amazing waterfall in Bagsu, and we drank boatloads of chai (as usual). We have all been learning Hindi, and apprenticing in trades such as Tibetan Massage, Tibetan cooking, and jewelery making. We had the opportunity to watch a documentary that explained the Chinese occupation… Read More
Greetings from Thailand! We are now back in Chiang Mai, after a fun two weeks with our home stay families. This past week we continued to practice our Thai language skills, rao puut passaa Thai dii maak. Which mean we speak Thai very well. Apart from our lessons, and spending more time with our families getting to know them better. Our teacher ajhan Petchara gave us a mini cooking class,… Read More
