We were lucky to have met a teacher named James on our way to Entebbe Town. He was kind enough to bring us to the school at which he teaches, a school for special needs children. The kids were the happiest we’ve ever seen, and have never been welcomed by strangers like that before. We were hugged and loved from the second we walked in. We felt overwhelmed with joy.… Read More
Today our group for the scavenger hunt met Isaiah Kayanja. and Ibrahim Ssemakula who gave us a tour of Entebbe. During our walk Alvin extended a helping hand to local Ugandans by carrying heavy sacks of cement for a construction site. Isaiah and Ibrahim were extremely helpful in answering all of Breezy and Talia’s questions. It was cool to meet local teens and compare and contrast our everyday lives.… Read More
Greetings families and friends of the Carpe Diem East Africa crew,
I just got word and a picture that the whole group has arrived! They are going to head to sleep soon I’m sure since they all just traveled for over 24 hrs to Uganda. The next blog post will be from the group in the next couple days, stay tuned for news from them in the coming days.
All… Read More
Hello Family and Friends of Nkula group,
Colin and Avy are in the air with 3 students. The departure was full of excitement, hugs and some tears. The whole group will come together slowly with two students to be picked up in Seattle and the rest of the group in Amsterdam for their final flight to Uganda. Go Team Africa!
Sincerely,
Carpe Diem HQ Picked up two more! Three to… Read More
Mambo Vipi Nkula Crew!
Avy and Colin here. We are so excited to travel with you next week! We are having a fabulous time here in Portland preparing for the trip and hope your own preparations are going smoothly as well. Our upcoming adventures through East Africa will undoubtedly challenge and transform each of us – we are so honored to be a part of this journey with you! Over… Read More
Hey everyone!
Here are a few photos from our time in Zanzibar. We are so grateful for all of the awesome people we met throughout our journey and for the people back home who made it possible for us to have this experience. Peace & NKULA.
… Read More
We bawled our eyes out after taking this photo as everyone went through customs, got their passports stamped and waved final goodbyes. After we said goodbye we bargained for a taxi back into the city. We did laundry in the sink in the afternoon. We ate bright red, spicy chicken and french fries at a street stall in the evening. We fell asleep to the sound of our ceiling fan… Read More
Time is supposed to move slowly on a tropical island, right? Not for this naturally nomadic crew. We FILLED the last 2 weeks of our semester so full that we had trouble finding enough time to post a final blog about all our Zanzibar adventures. We gave it a good shot but internet cafes were always full, computers were too slow to upload our beautiful beach sunset photos, or it… Read More
Hey there guys!
So during student directed travel we went to the Udzungwa Mountains, after our time in Mang’ula we got up at 4:20 am on the 27th, walked over to the bus station by 5:00 am and boarded our crazy train to Morogoro. We finally starting leaving around 6:30 or so and then no less than 10 minutes into our trip there was a problem. A truck somehow managed… Read More
Hello from Dar es Salaam!
We just arrived in Dar es Salaam after spending a full day in Udzungwa National Park, in the southern part of Tanzania. After a 4am wake-up Monday morning, we took a 6 hour bus ride from Njombe to Mikumi and then a very bumpy 1.5 hour ride to a campsite outside of Mang’ula, the village near the Udzungwa park headquarters. After exploring the surprisingly vibrant… Read More
Hi everyone, Becky here
Sorry for the late post, but from November 16 to November 24, we were at Ohana Amani. This beautiful organic farm is home to two sisters, Curry and Chevy. They are the wonderful people who set up our home stays. We spent two days with them before our home stays. They helped prepare us with Swahili tips and information about what to expect. They also filled… Read More
Kamwene everybody! Just wanted to share some of our favorite photos from the last two and a half months. Thanks for following along, and thanks a ton for sharing all these wonderful people with us. It has been an amazing journey and it just keeps getting better. Tomorrow we begin Student Directed Travel. The crew has big plans including waterfalls, monkeys, long dusty rides on rough bumpy roads, tropical paradise,… Read More
Hello family and friends back home!
These past four days have been spent in a small village called Kanani. We were split up into groups of two and were sent separate ways to stay with different families. Although a few of us were sick, we all tried as best as we could to help out around the house. We helped cook the meals, clean the dishes, and carried a number… Read More
Hey everyone!
We’ve just arrived in Njombe after spending the past 10 days at the Igoda Children’s Village in Mufindi, where orphaned children without extended family can live. During our time here, we got to know the children and their guardians through a variety of activities. During the day, we were split into small groups and took turns visiting Igoda Primary School, the Kindergarten at the Children’s Village as well… Read More
So we as a group wanted to blog about our special safari experience in Ruaha National Park about two weeks ago, so here goes!
As we were driving from Iringa Town to Ruaha (a two hour drive on an open safari truck) we could feel the staggering heat cloud down upon us. We drove along a long, bumpy, dirt road with the dust billowing behind us for about an hour… Read More
Hey everyone!
We just got back to Iringa after our 3-day safari with Warthog Adventures at Ruaha National Park. The experience was amazing, and we were able to see the “Big Five” (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino). We’re moving on to Mufindi Orphanage tomorrow, so look forward to seeing some great safari photos and hearing about our time at the orphanage in about 10 days!
-Becca… Read More
Since we didn’t have the world’s most interesting week (and we know that you all depend on us for your weekly dose of excitement), we’ve decided to spice this blog up with short bios of everyone on the trip, so you have an idea of who all these people are that we talk so much about.
In no particular order, here are the members of Carpe Diem Nkula, Greta and… Read More
Hamjambo, Marekani!
We are currently in Iringa, celebrating the one week anniversary of our arrival in Tanzania. We flew from Kigali to Dar es Salaam last Thursday, stayed the night in Dar es Salaam, and then took the world’s hottest and longest bus ride to Iringa, a city in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Although apparently no one on the 9 hour bus ride to Iringa wanted to open their… Read More
Greetings from Kigali!
We’ve been in Rwanda for the past four days and are having an amazing time. Shortly after getting settled into our hostel here in Kigali, we got lunch as a group and made our way to the Hotel des Mille Collines (where Hotel Rwanda was based). While there, Mia (as this week’s NatGeo) led us in an awesome discussion about the Rwandan Genocide. She was able to… Read More
Hello everyone, Becky here!
The past few days have been full of incredible sites and delicious food. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll post a few. We finished our time at SNEC (you’ll hear all about that from Duncan) and headed back to Kabale for a night. Then our incredible trekking guide Martin showed us Lake Bunyoni for a few days. The first day we set out… Read More
