Blog

Adios Guatemala!

It´s officially our last day in Guatemala- we´re off to Nicaragua tomorrow. Although we will all miss Nicaragua, we are also excited to explore a new culture. We definitely made the most of our last few days in Guatemala. On Thursday, we bought some paint and headed out to a rural community to help paint the basketball court at the local school. We worked alongside the students to paint the… Read More

UAACC

Driving through the gates, into the UAACC (United African Alliance Community Center) it quickly became apparent that we were in for an exciting few days. The outside walls were covered with beautiful graffiti created by some of the students of the community center. There were powerful messages about equality and peace. These are two things that Pete and Charlotte O’Neil bring into their everyday lives. Pete started the Kansas City… Read More

Rwanda

Rwanda is a beautiful hilly green country in the middle of Eastern Africa. It is a very small country and borders Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital, Kigali, is a big city with a population of around 2 million people, very clean, organized, and developed in the western sense of the word. This is where we spent our short three nights in Rwanda. We… Read More

Blue Mountain Adventures!

After we left the Marae, we headed to National Park Village and stayed in a hostel there for the night. The next morning, we got picked up to go to Blue Mountain Adventure Center in Raurimu, the next stop on our journey. We started off the afternoon with a few team building activities, involving tires and planks of wood and wooden mushrooms, and then we did a high ropes course… Read More

A Week of Celebrations

We´ve really been enjoying our week in San Andres so far. There is a weeklong celebration going on in San Jose because sometime last week was the day of their patrón saint, so even 15 minutes away in San Andres we can hear music and ¨fiestas¨all day long! On Saturday night, we decided to join in the fun by attending the fair. We had a blast riding on the Ferris… Read More

Bolivia and Peru

Hey Guys! Its Andy Piper here from Cusco Peru!! I am currently into my second placement in Latitudes and am loving it. But first a description of what exactly I have been doing. Villa Tunari, Bolivia From early January to early February I was in Bolivia, at Inti Wara Yassi a wildlife refuge center for monkeys, pumas, other jungle creatures. I worked from 700-1800 everyday. It was hard work but… Read More

Hola From Cuzco!

Another week has gone by and we have reached the half way point! After leaving Achupallas with a tearful goodbye, we arrived back in Otavalo for some hot showers and retail therapy! We were really successful, especially Kai who is now the proud owner of 2 hammocks and a hammock chair. The next day we took about a 2 hour bus ride and arrived in Quito to explore the city… Read More

San Andres

Hello all, we have offically started our second language schoolin the beautiful town of San Andres. The town is located on Lago Peten-Itza which is very clean and warm for swimming. The weather is very hot and humid here so the lake is ideal for cooling off after our morning classes. We are all staying in individual homestays and it seems that everyone is enjoying their families. We had our… Read More

Our time in Achupallas

It´s been a while since the last blog post. We spent ten days without any internet in Achupallas- a very rural community in the mountains above Otavalo. Otavalo famous town with one of largest outdoor markets in the world. They sell everything– blankets, jackets, instruments, jewelry, food, hammocks, hats, etc. After the time we spent there before and after our rural homsetays, the twelve of us could probably open up… Read More

Safari!!!!!!!!

WOW what a great last three days, we saw so many great animals like lions, elephants and giraffes. This one lion walked about three feet from our car and our leader Robbie was hanging out the window shouting a video about a foot from the king of the jungle. We also got to see the wildebeest migration, there is no way to describe how many we saw every direction we… Read More

Maasai

Last week we stayed in a small Maasai village called Lemonata and partnered with Maasai Wanderings to paint some classrooms in Matimu Primary School, a school that they sponsor. While we were in Lemonata we were blessed with the opportunity not only to live along side the Maasai but also to be integrated into a little bit of their culture. It is during this time of the year that the… Read More

Coban and Semuc Champey

The last few days have been quite the adventure. After arriving in Coban on Sunday afternoon, we learned that our planned week in Rocj Pumtilla was not going to happen. We were all disappointed at losing the opportunity to live with families in a Mayan community and do some serious volunteer work but we got good news soon afterwards. Semuc Champey, a series of water pools, falls, and caves, was… Read More