This is Benjamin, signing in to tell you a little bit about our time this past week…
Like a television signal descrambling itself to create a coherent picture while begging broadcasted from one place to another, we needed a slight adjustment of our group operating system to go from Free Travel in Jamez Springs and Santa Fe back onto the reservation life, this time in San Carlos Apache, where we… Read More
G’Day Mate!
This week has been our first week in the land down under. We have kicked off Australia volunteering with the CVA (Conservation Volunteers of Australia). We started our orientation at the CVA headquarters in Adelaide, where we found out our projects and where our work sites would be and who was going to which work site, at the deep creek site was Bea, Tera, Emily, Katelyn, Evin and… Read More
Alright, 45 minutes to whip this out. 3, 2, 1, GO.
First of all, this week the group split, our OE the one and only Mr. Robbie Frankle, took the lovely Anna away to Brookfield, a conservation park about four hours from the rest of the group. Two gone, six left to a different park called Deep Creek. Well, the six of us and Rick, the hilarious, dread locked Aussie… Read More
I woke up the morning of the third excited for two things: it was the first day of free travel and my eighteenth birthday. While other teenagers may wake up on their eighteenth birthday in a dorm room or resting at home, I got to wake up to the beautiful mountains in Jemez Springs. The cottonwoods were changing colors to a patchwork of gold and red. It was a very… Read More
How creepy would it be to walk into a room in which every wall bears numerous crucifixes with all the macabre grotesqueness of the Spanish Inquisition? That was my first experience when I entered the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, NM during our free travel week. And from a first hand perspective, when you have the eyes of dozens of bleeding crucifixion victims looking down at you while… 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
I woke up the morning of the third excited for two things: it was the first day of free travel and my eighteenth birthday. While other teenagers may wake up on their eighteenth birthday in a dorm room or resting at home, I got to wake up to the beautiful mountains in Jemez Springs. The cottonwoods were changing colors to a patchwork of gold and red. It was a very… Read More
This week, our eyes were opened to the majestic ancient world of Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya being the capitol of the Ayutthaya Kingdom that spanned from 351 to 1767. There were many ruins that included many Pegotas and stupas. The first day we arrived from an overnight bus and promptly rented bikes and were guided By blake to several ancient ruin’s including the famous reclining Buddha and three identical stupa’s that… Read More
Querida familias y amigos,
After a full 24 hours of travel, we triumphantly arrived in Cusco, Peru on Saturday afternoon. Our hostel is run by the one-and-only Mamma Cusco. She wasted no time with pleasantries and wrapped each of us up with a big hug and a smile, calling us “mi amor,” and ushuring us to come sit down and eat. It must be exhausting to pour so much maternal… Read More
Our time in Bodhgaya was delightful and a much needed rest stop for our group. During our three day stay, we visited the Bodhi Tree, the 80-foot statue of Lord Buddha, rode bikes throughout town, and spent a couple hours wandering around and looking at different Buddhist monasteries from around the world. It is an incredibly peaceful place and allowed us to re-group after a very busy week in Varanasi.… Read More
OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti,
We are back in Rishikesh after a week of yoga, meditation, calm, and quiet. Before entering the ashram we spent a night in Rishikesh and celebrated Diwali the festival of lights, which is the most important holiday in Hinduism and also an important celebration for Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs. In Hinduism Diwai is associated with several events: Krishna defeating the demon Narakasura, the return of Rama… Read More
This is the view from the Tibetan monastery we visited in Gangtok. I’m not sure who those people are, but their silhouettes are so lovely. The temple itself was also beautiful.
At the monastery we got to watch a bunch of monks get ready for dinner, which involved chanting and playing instruments. They didn’t offer us any food, but we were kind of eavesdropping so I guess that’s only fair,… Read More
Kia ora, everyone! Shelby speaking.
We’re here in one of Christchurch’s finest jails–the historic Addington Jailhouse-turned-hostel, that is– saying our farewells to New Zealand and recovering from a week of nonstop kiwi adventuring. After hours of planning, booking, bargaining, and a little creative budgeting, we finally arrived at one of the most highly anticipated weeks of the trip– free travel!
We began our student directed travels in the coastal city… Read More
A traditional Irish song, “The Parting Glass” seems appropriate this week, as we’re preparing to leave beautiful New Zealand and all the lessons we’ve learned along the way! I’ve been charged with writing a farewell post, and while there have been many great writings about our time here, I’ll fill in some spots with what I know.
Our first few days in Auckland left us amazed – a huge city… Read More
Being in Pasac during Dia de los Muertos was an incredibly enriching experience. We were lead by locals to the cemetary about ten minutes away, along a narrow rocky path in between dilapitated houses and yards. The cemetary was filled with families; women in traditional Mayan clothing, crowds of young teens dressed in all black with their hair slicked to the side, old men in traditional kilt-like clothing and red… Read More
Becks here! Sorry I couldn’t post pictures before! Here are some now for your enjoyment, though I see Peter has been doing a great job keeping the visuals up to date! In order we have Tia climbing Mount Doom; Patrick, Tia, and Caitlin also on Mount Doom; Gabrielle abseiling with Dan’s help; the group on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing; the group chilling for lunch… Read More
Welcome to Uganda! We arrived on the 30th of October, and the next day we found ourselves at the home of Edirisa. Our first volunteer program was based at a place called SNEC (the Special Needs Education Centre), located just outside of Kabale Town. Here, the group mixed cement and built a side walk for kids who have physical disabilities to get to and from class everyday. The work was… Read More
Hello friends and family,
Just wanted to give you all a quick update on the past couple days here in Kampala. Kampala is definitely the busiest city we have been to thus far on our journey. To me this is a little stressful, especially trying to cross the street, but some people really seem to enjoy city life. Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit one of the eight Baha’I… Read More
