By Jon Hey, Jon here covering part two of our “Escuela de la Montaña” adventure. Big thanks to Dylan for part one. Give the man a Pulitzer, 10/10 writing. Anyways, let’s hop right into Thursday, November 9th, 2017. As it’s been explained, we had been split up into afternoon and morning classes. Now, there were two planned times for groups to go the local Mayan SHAMAN at a town called… Read More
By Dylan Crovo Sunday morning was spent in Xela (pronounced shay-la); like any other morning spent at 8,000 feet in Guatemala, the day broke shockingly cold. Shivering despite my poncho, an impulse purchase made at one point or another by every member of the group, I arrived at Xela’s central park. In the mere 10 minutes it took for the rest of the group to arrive at the park, looking… Read More
By Overseas Educator Matt Shamey Exploring bee fences as a means to mitigate elephant crop pillaging and doing some slashing of the grasses around the fences at the farm.… Read More
By Tate Scarpaci After our last week of homestays, we began our week of Student Directed Travel (SDT). Everyone was stoked for some more adventure.
An eventful ride in a microbus led us to the city of Leon, our first stop of the week. It is a large, slightly touristy city, but a quick bus ride will get you out of the hustle and bustle to a nice little beach… Read More
By Brad and LD AKA: The Gentlemen of Kifaru On Sunday, November 5th, 2017, the world was changed forever.
While at the Special Needs Education Center in Kabale, Uganda, we went to church. We thought it would be normal, but when they started to auction off goods to the community at the end of the service, our lives took a turn for the legendary.
As teenage boys, we really wanted… Read More
By Lily Hue This week started at Mufindi Children’s Village where we continued working on the projects we started the week before. Our days were long but full of rewarding and purposeful work that left us tired but content at the end of the day. We all got a chance to work in the garden, hoeing and weeding the vegetable garden that makes up a large portion of the children’s… Read More
By Grace Frances Nelson Do you find yourself questioning the monotony of the culture around you?
Have you never experienced what it feels like to be a minority?
Do you purposely choose to isolate yourself from the world beyond your precious city, state or country?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions you may be suffering from a mild to severe case of what I call… Read More
By Ashton Saltz Bula! Elliot and Ashton here to tell all of you about our Fijian adventures and homestay experiences. It has been a hot, humid, and hectic past couple weeks full of both good and bad. Some of the people in the group hadn’t experienced a third world country before this, and it became overwhelming at times for most.
On October 25, we all woke up at 3am to… Read More
By Jenny Olea Hey everyone! It’s Jenny here, writing all the way from Australia. I would like to share my experience during the last couple of days in the village of Nakuku. On November 3rd, we went to visit the school Vuni Salusalu, where we got to meet a bunch of wonderful kids! Personally, I loved doing this because I really enjoy interacting with kids, getting to know them, and… Read More
By Harrison Wohlfarth So this week was pretty dope. We started off with a bus ride from the O.G. city of Delhi to the humble mountains of Darhamsal after being delayed several hours (shout out to Indian transportation services). Despite having to wait several hours for the bus and meanwhile chilling on the streets of India, we eventually got to where we needed to go, though, which is all that… Read More
By Daisy O. Our time in Fiji from start to finish had to be two of the most amazing weeks of my life. From the moment that I stepped into Nakuku, my village now, I was in love. Everyone was tired and sick after being on the ferry for twelve hours, then bumping through back roads. No one felt good but as soon as we stepped into the hall we… Read More
By Chandler On my way to Fiji, I didn’t really know what to expect. I hoped the people I would come across would be nice, and welcoming, and helpful. I hoped that my upcoming time in the village would be an amazing experience. I hoped all these things, but I really didn’t have any expectations. Little did I know, what was to come were life-changing moments and memories. In New … Read More
By Siena and LD Bonjour and hello!
When we stepped off the plane in Kigali, we quickly learned that in addition to Kenrwandan, two of the other national languages in Rwanda are English and French! We noticed many other differences between Tanzania and Rwanda on our drive from the airport to the Discover Rwanda Youth Hostel which we would be staying in for the next four nights. We were impressed… Read More
By Deborah and Siena Hello!
After a short, two-hour bus ride, we made it to the Rwanda/Uganda border. For many of us, it was the first time going through immigration outside of an airport. We spent the past few days at S.N.E.C. (Special Needs Education Center)! Our projects were to re-paint the inside of their dining hall and to do art/games with the students in the classroom.
Aside from our… Read More
By Jake Anquillare and Anna Parker ¡Hola! Es Jake y Anna aqui estamos veniendo de Xela, Guatemala ahora. Pero antes de nuestro viaje nosotros tuvemos un noche al hostel de Costa Rica. For all you amateurs out there we will break it down for you.
Early Thursday morning we caught a ferry from the Nicoyan peninsula to Puntarenas and began yet another travel day. When we got off the ferry… Read More
By Adele Early Monday morning we left on our journey to Mufindi, the town where the children’s village is. It was a long day of traveling on public buses and a very crowded Dala Dala.
The next three days we dove into homestays in the village of Mufindi. During our respective homestays, we were able to practice our Swahili as well as teach our families some more English. Most of… Read More
By Overseas Educator Kate AbrahamHand-catching fish to eat/transfer them to a new pond at the Arajuno Lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The fish were strong and slippery!… Read More
By Jake and Nico Ciao and Hola from Jake and Nico to all Hongi 2017 fans. We are here to recount this past week’s adventures and experiences. Unfortunately, Jake and I were both out of commission with illness, which meant that a therapeutic Harry Potter movie marathon was called for.
We arrived at the Mangarara Farm after spending the night in Napier and were blown away by the beauty of… Read More
