By Duncan Nofsinger This past week, we got to spend our time at homestays in the Fijian village of Nakuku, and it’s safe to say that it was everyone’s favorite part of the trip so far. During a few hours of each day, we got to build a footpath through the village. We worked hard on it, and it paid off just in time for rainy season.
For the rest… Read More
By Eric Sale After we exited Savu Savu we headed the Vuadomo village. As soon as we hopped off the transport we were greeted by dozens of villagers singing, clapping, and showering us with a welcome we will never forget. We were seated (on the ground) inside a shed (it wasn’t really a shed but they called it that for some reason) and were introduced to the village by Kali… Read More
By Sarah Kelly This week has been wild! I don’t think any of us have had a moment where we aren’t doing something or moving to our next activity. I’ll do my best to summarize it all. We arrived in Kolkata (Calcutta), which was the capital of India during the British rule, last Tuesday. On Wednesday we signed up for and received our placements in the Mother Teresa homes. Kate… Read More
Walking up through the jungle to the site.Climbing one of the steep pyramids.We made it to the top!Learning from our guide Dieter about the history of the site.Taking a closer look at how the temples were built. The Mayans would add one staircase on top of the other to add height to their structures.Watching the sunset from the top of one of the pyramids.The … Read More
By Daisy and Luke Numerous times during our Maori experience our teacher, Tiaki, would ask us to reflect on experiences using only thee words. So we thought we should let the group sum up their time in three words to utilize one of many lessons Tiaki taught us.… Read More
By Park & Rachel Our group spent the last week living and breathing the lifestyle of Greg and Rachel Hart’s permaculture farm. We spent some early mornings doing daily farm chores that ranged from bottle feeding lambs to dodging bouts of excrement the cows habitually released whilst we milked them, standing as perfect targets, in a ditch directly below the danger zone. We can all agree it was worth it… Read More
By Alexander Nemzek Greetings everyone,
Picking up from where Audrey left off last week, we had one last day of fun in Morochos before heading to Peguche. In our last day with Pete as our contact, we hiked a slightly grueling trail around the mountains that encircle Lake Cotacachi, but thankfully the beautiful views gave us motivation to keep going. Later that night, we had the opportunity to purchase 100%… Read More
By Mariella Hi family and friends! We have finished our time in Australia and have been in Fiji for the past week enjoying the sun, water and local hospitality of the islands. Commencing this part of the trip was a bittersweet moment because we had to part ways with one of our beloved members, Justin (aka J-Wade), in Sydney. We have missed his presence from the humorous comments he makes… Read More
By Eve and Ellie B Mambo!
We just spent our first week here in Tanzania taking Kiswahili classes at a language school at a Lutheran seminary in Morogoro. We also went on a beautiful hike up a mountain to get ourselves acclimated with the town. During our stay at the seminary, we lived with homestay families that live on the campus. Some of us were alone, while others stayed in… Read More
By Kelly Tobin Our day on October 17 started bright and early with a visit to a travel agent in Rishikesh to work on our Student Directed Travel plans. We then proceeded to take a 20-minute Jeep ride on a mountainous road to Phool Chatti Yoga Ashram.
At Phool Chatti, we had the opportunity to participate in a seven-day yoga, chanting, and meditation program along the Ganga river. Our mornings… Read More
By Nico & Sophie Hey everyone! We just finished up a beautiful week on the beach in the small village of El Paredon. We spent our time with an organization called La Choza Chula, a social enterprise focused on providing educational resources to the people of El Paredon.
Throughout our time there, we participated in a variety of workshops based on the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development. This included… Read More
By Charlotte Clarke and Paige Buchanan Everyone’s been sick and visited the hospital except for Rebecca in the past 10 days; talk about a wild ride!
Everything started off in Varanasi: cow poop in the streets and poop problems in the sheets. And then, the first case of Dengue. Kelly was out for the count, the mosquitos had got to her. Yet, we traveled on. What was supposed to be… Read More
Cole playing the guitar in an alleyway while we waited to check into our Granada apartment.At a Gnawa show at Cafe Clock, an international restaurant in Marrakesh that hosts traditional Arabic music performance weekly.… Read More
By Asia and Ethan Asia and Ethan checking in after this very busy week! It started out with a bumpy ride to Cerro De Oro where we experienced a yoga and meditation retreat led by our zen OEs. We tried out acro yoga, yin yoga, and mastered our sun salutations. This was a great time to relax and have time for self-reflection. During the day we had a lot of… Read More
By Lexie Our time here is coming to an end as we set out on our next adventure. I think all of us can agree than the past 2 weeks have been some of the most challenging and best days of our trip thus far. Fortunately, we were all able to power through and make the most of our experiences. We started off with a few days in Leh to… Read More
By Adalyn Richards Our Rayah group is a lot of things. We are a tight-knit, adventurous, international (thanks, Cole!) group with a sarcastic sense of humor. We collectively speak 7 languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, German, Japanese, and Hawaiian. And we may or may not have a benign addiction to chocolate-covered digestive cookies from Spain. But snack preferences aside, we are also a fairly musical group.
Despite our hefty travels… Read More
