The first thing that hit me as I stepped outside the airport in Accra, Ghana was the intense heat that is West Africa. Within minutes my clothes were soaked with sweat as the humidity clung to every inch of my skin. I was welcomed by my contact and his wife, and after a restless nights sleep in a dingy hotel, we made the six hour drive to Kumasi where I… Read More
Hello Family and Friends!
This week was our student directed travel week! The week began with a trip to Hobbiton, the film set for both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. During our visit we had the opportunity to walk through the shire and learn all about how the movies were made. Pierce and Aislinn, our die hard Lord of the Rings fans, was bursting with excitement the… Read More
Blog from Tyler C Writing this hiding from the heat that’s only getting warmer as the days go on. The rainy season on Koh Tao is over and the dry season is approaching with only my fan to keep me cool. But don’t worry many cold showers are being taken to try to stay cool.
I arrived on this island kind of lost and with very little idea of where… Read More
I couldn’t have made a better choice than to come to New Zealand for the second semester of my latitudes year. The past seven weeks here in the Tasman Region on the South Island have exceeded expectations, and I’ve had a blast at my FVP.
Interning at Whenua Iti Outdoors, an experiential education organization that brings in school groups for multi-day expeditions and camp programs, I’ve been documenting activities and… Read More
Blog from George Geike We continued our cultural immersion in the highlands of Southern Tanzania through a two-part program in Igoda province organized by Foxes NGO, a non-profit dedicated to child welfare and regional healthcare.
The first half of our program was a four-night homestay with farmer families of the Hehe tribe. Here, our Kiswahili and “kulima” (cultivation) skills gained over the past two weeks at Lutheran Junior Seminary and… Read More
Blog and photos from Anna Rapson 7 weeks ago, I arrived in Yarra Junction, a little bit confused and extremely exhausted. My host was nowhere to be seen, and after three hours of traveling to get to the valley, I was upset and already in a bad mood. After about an hour, my host Travis picked me up on the side of the road. I discovered that that day was… Read More
Blog from Deanna. Photos from Diane and Peter After leaving Varanasi, the group arrived in Bodhgaya. We’ve spent the last six days studying Buddhism and meditation while staying at the Root Institute for Wisdom Culture. Here the group would start the days with meditation and dharma talks. During our meditation we would meditate on love and compassion. Some would consist of us meditating on our love for our mothers and… Read More
A few snapshots of the group’s time at the farm outside of Varanassi last week and in Saranath. Thanks Dianne and Peter for the great photos!… Read More
Ashram life is breathtaking, unusual and full of energy! Cali, Colombia is a beautiful city with lots to do so you will never get bored here. I arrived at Yogendra EcoAshram at the end of January with about a week to rest, explore and try to make this place feel like home for three months. It was difficult for me at the beginning trying to figure out how I fit… Read More
Day 1
The crew piled into the two vehicles and headed for Santo Domingo! After a long and bumpy ride we arrived, hungry for adventure and maybe a second lunch. We split up into our houses and then met back up to hang out before dinner. There we met our guide Miguel. A man who was friendly and was ready to show us around the mountain. He described the plan… Read More
It has been a jam packed week full of all things Bayamo. Bayamo is one of the most historic cities in Cuba, allowing us to better understands this beautiful nation’s history. On our first day in Bayamo we began the day by riding horse coaches throughout the city. We quickly learned that about 40% of the city relies on horses as a means for transportation. The city felt almost farm… Read More
7 marzo, 2017
I write this sitting in a friend’s living room, listening to the rain beat some ancient rhythm outside as it has been for the past few days. Jack and I are staying here at Kike’s tonight because the room we’re living in has leaks in the roof and we’d prefer not to wake up again to a floor that resembles one of the surf spots here, Piscinas.… Read More
We started our week at La Escuela de Montana, a Spanish school in the middle of the jungle. The staff and teachers were fantastic and everyone’s Spanish has improved exceptionally. Throughout the week different lectures and activities were available such as an early morning hike and history lessons on mayan culture. For our last day with our teachers, we competed in an intense game of futbol (we practically won). To… Read More
Last week we left Finca Mono Verde, a beautiful, lush permaculture farm on the Ecuadorian coast and we arrived in the bustling and breathtaking city of Baños surrounded by mountains and a large active volcano! This week was different for us because we were living in pairs with host families rather than all of us living in one place together. Living with people we never met before, in a city… Read More
When you hear about other people’s travels, it usually only includes the glamorous, exciting sides. A lot of people like to leave out the parts that are immensely challenging and test you to your limits. I remember being so ecstatic to finally be going off completely on my own. Heading to a foreign country not knowing anyone. Not knowing the language. It all seemed like a fun challenge that I… Read More
Kia Ora friends and family!!!! We are currently in Raglan, one of the twelve transformation towns in the world. We are enjoying our last night in the scenic eco hostel, Solscape, before embarking on our student directed travel for the next week. Although we are looking forward to seeing more of New Zealand, we will miss our Maori cultural immersion. In the past week we had the pleasure of being… Read More
Blog from Dani G. Hello all! Dani here, checking in from the small island paradise of Koh Tao in the south of Thailand. The last several weeks have flown by. It’s hard to believe it’s already the middle of March.
After traveling 7,771 miles in forty short hours, we finally made it to Koh Tao. After the warmest of welcomes by New Heaven we began to slowly settle in.
The… Read More
Namaste from the Holy City of Varansi!
G’day 🙂 it’s Zoe here as this week’s appointed blogger. I’m sorry it’s taken a little while for me to put this up. What an experience we’ve been having! It’s crazy to think we’ve been in India less than a month. We’ve already seen and experienced so much.
Varanasi is such a beautiful and intriguing city and there has been absolutely no shortage… Read More
Hello everyone. My name is Luke and I will be your guide this blog to the world of Thailand.
You may think that Thailand is a very homogeneous population and that everyone living under the Red, White and Blue flag considers themselves Thai. But alas as is the case with everywhere in the world, different populations will not consider themselves the same people.We started our three day trek through the… Read More
It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Costa Rica for over a month. In some ways, it feels like I just got here with everything I’m learning during my time as a volunteer, and in other ways I feel like I’ve lived in my town that is the size of two main streets for years. Over this last month I’ve been working with CIRENAS (Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales… Read More
