Crowded train in general class.Countryside of India, view from the train.Our train in India, and one of the memorable characters we met during our journey.Happy Birthday Tucker Joseph Peterson!Birthday party!Morning boat ride on the Ganga River.Ganga sunrise.Mornings on the Ganga and the start of our old city tour with Pinku-ji.Our master stone carver, Maya.… Read More
Dinner at our stone carving teacher’s house.Jed Foreman teaching us about Buddhism at Sarnath.Watching the beginning stages of silk saris being woven. With weavers from the sari factory.Rickshaw travel is exhausting and fun!Happy Halloween from the Shiva crew!Bobbing for apples!Fire show performed by Kate, Sarah, Doug, and Hannah.Pinku teaching us Hindi!Hindi class! Bahott achaa!… Read More
By Isabel Armas
Namaste loag!!
Let’s just start off with how we got to Varanasi; it was quite the experience. Our departure day started amazingly. We ate with the “family,” said bye to Kolkata, and made it 2 hours early to the train station. It was about 30 minutes in when we realized that we missed our train. Whoops. Rawr. Our amazing leaders, Kate and Doug, were able to get… 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 Owen Kumasaka
I’m sitting right now on the ground level “balcony” that serves as the roof to the bottom floor of our homestay house as well. The bottom floor is inhabited by the big animals that belong to our host family, a cow and a mule. They both share time in the little patio (pictured), however, aside from those animals, it is difficult to tell which animals belong to… Read More
By Sarah and Madeleine
Howdy from your southern belles, Sarah and Madeleine!
We arrived in Flores Wednesday and met our contact Deiter who gave us some introductory information about Flores and the week ahead, then had free time. Some of us swam across the lake while others enjoyed immersing themselves in local culture by eating at Pollo Campero. On Thursday we toured the Yaxha ruins and camped overnight in tents.… Read More
By Emily Radek
Our travel day(s) to McLeod Ganj was a long and odd one. We left at 4 am, took a 5 hour train ride, spent 7 hours in Delhi till our 12 hour overnight bus ride to Dharamsala. We got to our cute hostel in the beautiful towering mountains of McLeod Ganj, and we all passed out in the lounge on the roof– cute group cuddle puddle, as… Read More
By Rebecca & Elizabeth
Hello beautiful family and friends,
We write to you from the depths of Tanzania in a small town known as Iringa. The air smells of eggs and french fries. We are sitting at an internet cafe in the post office, reflecting on our past week at Wildlife Connection.
On Monday we arrived at our campsite that was situated just 20 minutes away from Ruaha National Park.… Read More
By Duncan Nofsinger
This past week, we got to spend our time at homestays in the Fijian village of Nakuku, and it’s safe to say that it was everyone’s favorite part of the trip so far. During a few hours of each day, we got to build a footpath through the village. We worked hard on it, and it paid off just in time for rainy season.
For the rest… Read More
By Eric Sale
After we exited Savu Savu we headed the Vuadomo village. As soon as we hopped off the transport we were greeted by dozens of villagers singing, clapping, and showering us with a welcome we will never forget. We were seated (on the ground) inside a shed (it wasn’t really a shed but they called it that for some reason) and were introduced to the village by Kali… Read More
By Sarah Kelly
This week has been wild! I don’t think any of us have had a moment where we aren’t doing something or moving to our next activity. I’ll do my best to summarize it all. We arrived in Kolkata (Calcutta), which was the capital of India during the British rule, last Tuesday. On Wednesday we signed up for and received our placements in the Mother Teresa homes. Kate… Read More
Walking up through the jungle to the site.Climbing one of the steep pyramids.We made it to the top!Learning from our guide Dieter about the history of the site.Taking a closer look at how the temples were built. The Mayans would add one staircase on top of the other to add height to their structures.Watching the sunset from the top of one of the pyramids.The … 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 Alexander Nemzek
Greetings everyone,
Picking up from where Audrey left off last week, we had one last day of fun in Morochos before heading to Peguche. In our last day with Pete as our contact, we hiked a slightly grueling trail around the mountains that encircle Lake Cotacachi, but thankfully the beautiful views gave us motivation to keep going. Later that night, we had the opportunity to purchase 100%… Read More
By Mariella
Hi family and friends! We have finished our time in Australia and have been in Fiji for the past week enjoying the sun, water and local hospitality of the islands. Commencing this part of the trip was a bittersweet moment because we had to part ways with one of our beloved members, Justin (aka J-Wade), in Sydney. We have missed his presence from the humorous comments he makes… Read More
By Eve and Ellie B
Mambo!
We just spent our first week here in Tanzania taking Kiswahili classes at a language school at a Lutheran seminary in Morogoro. We also went on a beautiful hike up a mountain to get ourselves acclimated with the town. During our stay at the seminary, we lived with homestay families that live on the campus. Some of us were alone, while others stayed in… Read More
By Kelly Tobin
Our day on October 17 started bright and early with a visit to a travel agent in Rishikesh to work on our Student Directed Travel plans. We then proceeded to take a 20-minute Jeep ride on a mountainous road to Phool Chatti Yoga Ashram.
At Phool Chatti, we had the opportunity to participate in a seven-day yoga, chanting, and meditation program along the Ganga river. Our mornings… Read More
