Blog
Bird Loving in South Africa
During the process of completing my FVP, I think I have become the ultimate mother figure. Well…A mother figure to about fifteen to twenty (depending on the day), screaming, filthy birds. I spend most of my work days in a very small, hot room, and watch my children, catering to their every need and desire. Every one hour, I sit on my tiny stool, and force dog food, or fruit… Read More
Latitudes Year: Reflections
This has been the fastest year of my life. I honestly can’t believe it’s coming to an end after I’ve been thinking about this year since my junior year of high school. I’m not ready for it to be over in some senses (traveling, adventure, different culture, my carpe friends and community) but in some ways I feel more prepared than ever to take on college and go forward in… Read More
New Crew in Newcastle
The true start to our smaller, reinvented semester began with tree planting, vegan smoothies, cute shops, and ocean pools. Newcastle was the perfect small town respite that we needed after the emotional rollercoaster that was Fiji.
We were welcomed by Elise and Kaz, two members of Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA.) The last five of us were overjoyed to spend the week staying in a house with a full kitchen and… Read More
Thank you to our donors!
We would like to thank every one who donated to our Fiji cyclone relief effort! Over the course of 3 days our group delivered rice, flour, lentils and other essentials to 4 villages who suffered greatly in the aftermath of Cyclone Winston. The devastation was much larger than we could have expected, (our own village Nananu lost 42 houses) but the gratitude and generosity of the people we encountered was… Read More
Fiji transitioning to Australia
To quote one Charles Dickens, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Our time in Fiji was a roller coaster from start to finish. Some of our favorite moments in Fiji were the first few days at Bamboo Backpackers, enjoying our opening kava circles, late night pool swims, and lazy afternoon hammock naps. We visited one of the most pristine beaches I have ever witnessed… Read More
Neti-Potting a Day Keeps the Doctors Away
Greetings Everyone,
We have just arrived back in Rishikesh after a week long stay in a yoga ashram. We had six days starting at 5:30am full of yoga, meditation, chanting, nature walks, and believe it or not neti potting. Although challenging at times, we loved the warm people and beautiful surroundings. On one of our days, we took a nature hike to a waterfall and spent a couple hours relaxing… Read More
Bona Fide
Hola amigos y familias!
This is Saya writing my blog draft in a mango tree. After a long week of ups and downs and the longest travel day yet, we arrived at Isla de Ometepe. We are staying at Bona Fide, a farm that focuses on experiential learning on permaculture. We also have afternoon workshops on basket weaving, jam making and chocolating. We are surrounded by nature here with no… Read More
Mcleod Ganj- Tibetan home stays!
Hi guys! It’s Blanca here not to be confused with the name that’s being attached to this blog- some of us forgot our passwords and Haley Murphy is such an amazing human being for letting us use her account! 😉 P.S “Holi Camel” was written by Travon Braswell and he deserves credit for it 🙂
Back to buisness!.. After two very tiring over night train rides we finally arrived to… Read More
Mangroves, Mud, and Mischief
We started off the week by travelling by van from Phnom Penh to Kampot where we worked with the mangrove conservation project. Being in a remote village was a nice change after the busy city. An awesome Cambodian guy named Sela led us through our week. On our ride to Kampot, all 13 of us along with Sela and our driver were jam-packed in a small van with our huge… Read More
Arequipa and Colca Canyon
For the most part, our week was relatively quiet. Everyone had Spanish lessons, either in the mornings or the afternoon, depending on skill level, which left half the day to roam free and explore the city of Arequipa. The real height of our trip was the weekend trek the group chose to do, through the Colca Canyon. As we learned, it is one of the largest canyons in the world,… Read More
Safey Stop
Hello all! I’m checking in here from Koh Tao, a small island off the coast of Thailand where the sun is hot and the water is blue. I am here working as an intern with the New Heaven Reef Conservation Program which is actively trying to protect and restore the ocean ecosystem around Koh Tao. On an average day I’ll wake up and be at the dive school by 9am.… Read More
At Home with the Elephants
It’s crazy to think about where I was one year ago. I was in my second semester of my senior year, frustrated and worried about my future. I had applied to several universities, and was starting to hear back, rejection and acceptance letters, and began to feel like I was being led down a path that didn’t feel right for me. It was my mom who actually suggested that I… Read More
The Shanti crew lives to trek another day
Dear loved ones,
After a beautiful excursion through the pristine wilderness of the Himalayas, we’ve stopped in the rolling hills of Darjeeling for a few days of rest. We’ve found great food, atmosphere, and an amazing abundance of tea in Darjeeling. However, tonight is our last night here and we’ll be moving onwards to Rishikesh for a week long yoga retreat in the morning. There is no stopping the powerful… Read More
Village home stays and english classes
Greetings friends, family, and whomever else that is reading this blog!
This afternoon the Shiva group has arrived to Udaipur and was promptly treated to a filling and delicious Thali plate lunch by the wonderful Rishi Ji (I may or may not have fallen into a food coma while creating this post). We just completed our village home stays and teaching English to and all girls’ school. I would say… Read More
From Kolkata to Gangtok & the Himalayas
Namaste. We have been trekking in the Himalayas, far away from Internet cafes. Here is our hand written blog post from midway through our time in the mountains. We are heading to Darjeeling today, so stay tuned.… Read More
Angkor what?
Hello from Phnom Penh! We’ve had another jam-packed week here in Cambodia. Our last few days at PTD in Battambang included a field trip to the Phare Ponleu Selpak Circus, which is run by a nonprofit arts school that helps disadvantaged children. We really enjoyed watching all of the complicated acrobatics. Although we were sad to leave the children and staff members we befriended during our time at PTD, all… Read More
Matagalpa
Hello from Matagalpa. We traveled from our student directed travel weekend in Granada on a 3 hour bus ride to Matagalpa. The climate is a lot cooler here than it was in Granada. We have been here for about a week, studying at the spanish school. It is a little bit different because we are not doing one on ones, instead we are with smaller groups based on our level… Read More