From Adrienne and Devin The transportation gods of Tanzania continue to frown upon us (but don't fret – it gave us tons of good karma for better adventures later on in our SDT!) . Our decision to take the train from Mbeya to Dar backfired when the 24 hour ride turned into 40. We sat for hours on end in uncomfortable seats. In the typical Tanzanian fashion, one seat… Read More
Megan and David, our fearless Nkula Overseas Educators, just sent in these pictures from their time with The Olive Branch for Children working on literacy projects. Thanks Olive Branch for a fantastic week! Nkula is now on their Student Directed Travel and has made it to the island of Zanzibar – we can't wait to hear more of their adventures.… Read More
from Marley and Monica Once upon a time, eleven wazungu went into the wild. These are the things they saw…. lions, tigers, bears oh my! Just kidding about the tigers and bears, but the lions were a thing. Oddly enough, two out of the three times we saw these lions, momma and papa were doing the “downtown shuffle”. In those moments we all felt that we were right inside of… Read More
Greetings from the Seattle girls!
This is Marley and Monica blogging from Neema's cafe in Iringa, Tanzania. It's been a long and very unlucky transit to get here but don't worry moms and dads we made it. There will be a series of unfortunate transportation events that we will cover first starting off in Rwanda. Our wonderful day started at the airport early in the morning at 6am. We arrived… Read More
I espère you daaaaaaance (with Rwandans)!By Madeline and Jamie KIGALI. NYABAGOGO STATION. 3:17 PM. We emerge into a sea of persistent and perspiring taxi drivers. As our butts are slowly recovering from the drive and our stomachs are crying for the pizza party to come later in the day, we skillfully navigate our way to our hostel. We were greeted by paved roads, traffic lights, and newly developed buildings… Read More
After a bittersweet farewell to the children at SNEC, we headed to Bukinda primary school for four more days of home-cooked meals (Mexican food galore!) and goofing around with kids. It wasn't all just fun and games; however, as we helped construct a play structure and tire swing using fresh lumber and assisted in teaching a few lessons. While the workload wasn't super heavy, our abundant free time allowed us… Read More
What an incredible week we have had! Our exciting Sunday, Feb. 22nd was spent rafting through rapids on the white nile! We also got to swim in the vast calm areas of the river. Our lunch spot had such a majestic view. Our group and our guides were definitely elated to have such a great river trip. Monday morning, a few of us took a thrilling swing into the bay… Read More
Hello family friends and fellow blog readers!
This is Monica blogging from a tiny internet cafe in Kampala. We've been in Uganda for about 2 weeks now and it has been the craziest and most eventful weeks of my life. I'm just sitting here now in awe of what I have just done. We started off our week in a rhino sanctuary where rhinos would hang out right outside our… Read More
Happy Saturday! Today we arrived at the Nile River Camp right outside Jinja, Uganda! Our last week was spent at the Ziwa Rhino sanctuary and we made some insane memories. With the rangers and guides, we closely followed grazing rhinos, caught some friendly frogs, and watched some the immense beautiful birdlife. We've seen birds of every color of the rainbow – even turquoise! We learned so much about the gorgeous… Read More
Hello! It's Cat, Madeline and Monica here. After some very tiresome flight travel, we were driven to our hostel in unmarked taxis. We've encountered and shared rooms with many people from all over the world at the hostel already.
We went to these botanical gardens, and found a jungle instead! All the trees look so different. So many monkeys were there, and a few kind stray dogs. We had a… Read More
After 2 days of traveling, we finally made it to our hostel in Entebbe, Uganda! We have spent the past few days getting to know one another, doing orientation, and exploring this awesome place.
The town here is filled with a lot of curious locals, cute monkeys, and super red dirt! Our first day here we spent getting accommodated to using steripens, drinking warm water, and sweating yourself to sleep… Read More
Hi from Entebbe! We made it, y'all! We've had such an amazing few days getting to know each other. Feelin like a fam already. Uganda is incredibly beautiful, though we have yet to see much while we've been at our hostel for orientation. We did go to the Botanical Gardens and saw monkey mamas and babies! The attached photo is the group with our official rhino sorority signs. We are… Read More
I just received word that the Nkula team has landed safe and sound in Entebbe. The students are all tucked into bed and will hopefully get some good rest before beginning to explore their new "home" tomorrow. Back here in the Headquarters, I'd like to express gratitude to each of you for all of your support and help in getting your students to this moment, where the transformative adventures… Read More
We've received word from the wonderful Nkula that everyone has gathered in Amsterdam and now the entire group is complete. Our interpid travelers are currently on leg three of their long travel day and will be landing in Uganda soon – a smooth beginning to the adventures, we can't wait to hear more! … Read More
Just a note to say that 1/2 of our Nkula group is together… the extraordinary Overseas Educators, Megan and David, left Portland along with Cat and Cassandra early this morning (so early, in fact, that they were able to catch an epic sunrise over Mt. Hood). Now in Seattle, the crew met up with Marley, Monica, and Madeline. They'll depart for Amsterdam shortly, and we'll let you know when the… Read More
Greetings, Nkulars! We are getting (stupid) excited to meet each and every one of you fine ladies next week. Amidst all of our pre-trip-prep hullaballoo, we have still made time to laugh together, sip on delicious coffee, and relish in the uncertainties of the adventures ahead. Just to help you get yo' head in the game / help you prepare for study abroad in East Africa, here's a few pieces… Read More
Welcome home, ladies! We hope you are enjoying the cold weather and snow! Your family, the food, and all the things you missed (good peanut butter…) It’s a sad and happy day at the same time. For the last 2 maybe even 3 weeks, all the girls could talk about was what was going to be their first meal when they got back in the States. There was a lot… Read More
We received word that all of the Nkula students said their farewells to Colin and Mandy and made it safely on the plane. They are all now bound for home or on to new adventures. We wish them safari njema (safe journeys) – thank you Nkula crew for all of your hard and heart-felt work throughout this semester. We can’t wait to see what adventures you embark on next.
Avy… Read More
Hello my dear family and friends!
I’m sad to say that our trip has come to a close but what better way to end it than a week on Zanzibar?! We spent the first 4 nights at a lovely hotel in Stone Town called The Haven House where we got our own floor. After settling in on Nov 30th, we had some free time to explore. It’s safe to say… Read More
Hello my lovelies!
Hannah here writing from the immaculately beautiful Zanzibar! The group has just finished with our student directed travels and what a lovely whirlwind it was. The idea behind the student directed travels is that it is all up to us, the students, to find a spectacular place to explore another part of Tanzania. After days of research, phone calls and late night group meetings we finally found… Read More
