Blog

Amritsar!

By Sea Arriving at the Golden Temple in Amritsar immediately felt different from the rest of India. A few of the main focuses of the Sikh religion are equality among all humans, generosity, selfless service, cleanliness, facial hair, devotion, and connection to God. This was immediately apparent with the marble tiles that made up the streets surrounding the temple and the lack of garbage littering them. The people were all… Read More

WAVES & Eco Yoga Inbound

By Matt Harmon Hola a mi Carpe Diem Familia! We started this week with WAVES (Water, Adventure, Voluntourism, Education & Sustainability) in Lobitos, and ended in Cusco with Eco Yoga Inbound. Our final two days with WAVES was full of magic and lifelong memories. On Monday, we woke up at 6:00 am to go out fishing with locals. This wasn’t just any ordinary fishing, we were one with the line,… Read More

Arrival in Peru

By Naomi Garcia Monday morning in Junín. High energy breakfast. Why? Biscuits, jam, AND cream cheese! A simple sounding breakfast for us back in the States but such a delicacy for us here (some even snagged jam-filled bread rolls in their pockets for later… Shhhh). After fueling up our bodies, we went on a five-ish hour hike through the cloud forest. Surprisingly, the clouds were so dense, we got to… Read More

The Cambodian People: Resilient & Determined

By Eliza Patterson For about the past week, we have been exploring the cities of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia. These two cities have offered us two very different, but interesting, experiences. Siem Reap is a city built for tourists. There were three different night markets within walking distance from our hostel and at least two fried ice cream roll stands on every corner. Chocolate croissants and even… Read More

Escuela de la Montaña Adventure: Part II

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

Escuela de la Montaña Adventure: Part I

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

The Misadventures of Tula the Pineapple

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

Celebrating at Mufindi Children’s Village

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

Cultural Constipation

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

KAVA TIME!

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

In the Village of Nakuku

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

Dharamsala a.k.a. “The Farm”

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

Fiji: I Will Never Forget You

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

“Mr. Coffee… But He’s a Potato?”

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

Eat More Gosh Darn Bananas!

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

¡Bienvenidos a Guatemala!

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