Follow the Journey

Part I: One Last Sunrise Before The Journey Home By OE’s Adam & Mandy It’s six o’clock in the morning (queue Lily Allen & T-pain) and the voice above is giving us a safety briefing, as we place our carry-on’s under the seat in front of us and buckle our seatbelts. It’s rap music. It’s an unsettlingly cheery juxtaposition against the slow, creeping realization of our soon-to-be end. We’ve been… Read More

Prema Shanti Marin and Sky A Koro Kind of Goodbye Greetings from the Koro group! For our final week of our big adventure, we spent time reflecting at Prema Shanti, a yoga and meditation retreat center in the Daintree National park of Northern Queensland. We were welcomed by our hosts Mara and Janardhan and made to feel at home right away in their beautiful temple. Our days at Prema Shanti… Read More

In the past week we all worked diligently to earn our PADI open water scuba diving certification. The first two days were split between learning scuba skills in the classroom and in the pool. We were enthusiastically taught by our energetic instructor, Rob. Rob is an experienced diver and clearly loves what he does. From the moment we met him outside our hostel in Cairns he was full of energy,… Read More

These Rocks Rock! During our time that we traveled in the outback we visited three big rocks… to sum it up. Our fiery tour guide, Gus, who has great music taste, made our experience one we’ll never forget. Let’s rock. On November 13th our first rock to conquer was King’s Canyon. The first piece of the hike was around 500 steps built by a farmer who previously owned the land.… Read More

G’day from the Koro Crew! To introduce ourselves to our new home for the month, Australia, we explored and worked in endangered habitats with the wonderful people at Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) in Newcastle. Our job for the week was to remove mangrove plants and seeds for the purpose of increasing the size of the salt marshes on Ash Island to make more room for migratory and native birds to… Read More

By Park and Rachel This week we dove into an outdoor education course with our new friends at Whenua Iti. This gave us the opportunity to try out multiple outdoor experiences that not only tested us physically but also mentally. Abel Tasman is the most visited national park in New Zealand with about 300,000 visitors per year. We got to see what it had to offer from not only inside… Read More

By Daisy and Luke Numerous times during our Maori experience our teacher, Tiaki, would ask us to reflect on experiences using only thee words. So we thought we should let the group sum up their time in three words to utilize one of many lessons Tiaki taught us.… Read More

By Park & Rachel Our group spent the last week living and breathing the lifestyle of Greg and Rachel Hart’s permaculture farm. We spent some early mornings doing daily farm chores that ranged from bottle feeding lambs to dodging bouts of excrement the cows habitually released whilst we milked them, standing as perfect targets, in a ditch directly below the danger zone. We can all agree it was worth it… Read More

By Overseas Educators Mandy & Adam Breathaking views. Learning how to garden and compost with our friend Tawwai. View from the hike of Te Toto Gorge. Going to the waterfall. New Zealand Gothic. View from Manu Wairu (where we had our sweat lodge).… Read More

By Overseas Educators Mandy & Adam Sunset silhouettes. Cow toe (Ko to). Selfie for the Moms (Mana Kahine). Happy Birthday Veda! Taikae and Tawhai (Our Maori Guides). Bridal Veil Falls!… Read More

By Wordmasters Daisy and Luke A sweat lodge is a hut, typically dome-shaped and made with natural materials, used by indigenous peoples for ritual steam baths as a means of purification. The sweat is intended as a religious ceremony—it is for prayer and healing, and the ceremony is only to be led by elders who know the associated language, songs, traditions, and safety protocols. “The inside of a tea kettle. … Read More

By Veda and Adam After adopting Bula into our everyday vernacular, it became easier to add other Fijian words as well. One of our of guides, a Fiji native named Villi, gave us a crash course on many other everyday words and phrases. We did this before we left for our Fijian homestay, so when we did arrive in the village, we would be comfortable and confident in our use… Read More

By Adam & Veda What’s one word that will make everyone smile, enable conversation with strangers, and light up any face? Here in Fiji today, we found just the right word…Bula. It means Hello by translation but carries much more than a greeting. It’s a way to instantly connect with anyone. It’s greatest use is to open the door, inviting conversation and questions. Thinking about our own culture back home,… Read More

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By Program Director James Simmons Dear Friends and Family of the Carpe Diem Koro Group: We are happy to inform you that the Koro group has landed safely in Fiji, just in time to witness a beautiful sunrise as they load up the van and transfer to Tubakula. Once there, they will engage in four days of Orientation activities as a means to get to know one another, set intentions… Read More

By Program Director James Simmons A warm welcome to our Koro crew calls for a photoshoot on the airport floor! Everyone in the group has arrived safely and is ready to kick off a great semester.… Read More

By Overseas Educators Mandy & Adam Bula! Kia ora! G’day! As we come into our final days of preparation, with our bags packed, our goodbyes said, and our visas secured, we are reminded of the quote from C.S. Lewis (maybe) that states, “only those who risk going too far, will find out how far one can possibly go.” These coming months are sure to test us as we enter wholeheartedly… Read More