Blog

Hello again!   Lucy here, by the way, forgot to sign my name on my last blog. We have been enjoying our time on the Marai so far. We arrived late Monday night and met the members of the Marai who have been so welcoming and generous. On Tuesday we hiked through the magnificent mountain ranges surrounding our new home to go down to the river. We stopped among a forest… Read More

Gangtoking it up!

By the time we left Calcutta on Saturday night we were all prettyfrazzled and worn out from a week of hot weather and hard work. Idon’t know about the rest of the group, but I was definitely dreamingabout fresh air and mountain views. After an overnight train and afive hour jeep ride through the mountains we finally arrived inGangtok, the capital of Sikkim.The population of Gangtok is 30,000(compare that to… Read More
Sam I Am kicked off our fourth week rounding out an eleven hour bus ride. We rolled into Otavalo at 6:30 in the morning for a free day to enjoy the city. From the bus terminal we groggily stumbled the eight or so blocks to our hostel. Luckily, we found it to be equipped with hammocks, delicious breakfasts, and the best damn showers we have encountered in Ecuador thus far.… Read More

Quick Update

Heyo from the other half of the group. We spent the week on the beautiful Lake Bunyoni, where we dug a garden, dug out a space for a compost bin, and assisted in after school activities. Jill and Adam ran a P.E. course, Bridget oversaw an art class, Saxon did dance and became godfather to a chicken. In our free time we swam, went canoeing,  took a hike, and watched… Read More
Hello All!   Writing to you from the beautiful lake town of Taupo. We have begun our journey to the Maori village and stopped here yesterday for one night. We're all very grateful for the immense amount of work Emily put in to set up our transportation. We've been taking responsibility in our roles and supporting each other to develop the skills of a traveler so major kudos for Emily's dedication… Read More

Team Gorilla

We have now left Rwanda and have started our adventure in Uganda.  Before we left though we were able to visit the Kigali Memorial Center where we learned about the genocide that occurred in Rwanda.  The tour began by going through multiple gardens which very artistically helped convey the different emotions, actions and people affected by the genocide.  Once we finished our time pondering through the gardens we entered the… Read More

aaaand pictures.

This is a shot of what Highfield Farm looks like from a distance but doesn't nearly do it justice. That white house way out there is the place where we've been staying.   Sorry about the delay of photos… and if this last one turns out sideways, but I hope you enjoy the few I've managed to get on here!   Sincerely,       Ryan Gasdia… Read More

Bugga.

Well, as you can see from the below blog post, there are no pictures. I have failed you! But i have not yet given up. It's pushing 2 am now, but I refuse to leave you – our family and friends – without a single picture! I will try to make sure that before we leave today at 515 am that you will have at least one solid picture!… Read More

The Last Night At Highfield Farm

Well hello there! The days have flown by since my last posting. I'm not sure if it's the work schedule or the regular hikes through the hills, but time here has certainly taken an agressive pace.   It seems like it was just earlier today when we were getting the stuff out of our bags but now, as I write even, we are all working on cleaning and packing our bags… Read More

Goodbye Kolkata and Hello Mountains!

Namaste! We just finished up our week at Mother Teresa house, and have an 11pm train to gangtok tonight. We’re all excited for the mountain air!volunteering at Mother Teresa has been challenging, but reallyrewarding and I think we’ve all taken a lot away from it. We said ourgoodbyes to people we’ve been helping and other volunteers, and weeven got sung a song that goes like this “We thank you thank… Read More

Relaxation on the Shores of Lake Atitlan!

Hi all! Well, here we are, almost done with a relaxing week in San Marcos, Guatemala. It is incredibly beautiful here! It really is like a relaxed, tropical paradise. It was so amazing to arrive here, especially after our crazy 3 day trek. All in all, our trek was a total of 48k, with some pretty ridiculous mountain climbing the whole way. We crossed rivers on tiny log bridges, walked… Read More

Organic Farm Week

Hello friends and family!   I'm writing you from a very pleasant cow farm a few hours drive north of Auckland, New Zealand. In fact, I'm writing this blog with the soothing voice of Willem in the background, reading off the prologue to Star Wars II (We are all jazzed about the plasma screen that this nice house is sporting).   We arrived just a few short days ago and have spent… Read More

Second week in Cuenca

Dear readers of SAM blog, We started our second week in Cuenca off with an amazing hike through a national park in Cajas. We continued our Spanish classes, which took place in our classrooms and out in the city, where we visited markets, museums, a zoo, etc. After searching for the past week or so we were finally able to acquire a frisbee, which got a lot of use in… Read More