I hadn’t been to school in quite a while, so I figured that it was about time to head back for a little bit. 😉 And the past two weeks have certainly been one of the best “back to school” intros!
The two schools at which I am both teaching and learning is found amongst the lusciously green, rolling hills of south western Uganda, in the small village of Kitanga.… Read More
Hello world and welcome to another post of the cool side of the blog. your host Valiant Val!
As you know, and actually as you probably don’t know Valencio is currently in the beautiful country of Belize, where the water is warm and the sky is blue as a really… blue sky…. What did you expect.
Any who back to business, Valencio is working hard and doing things right. Not… Read More
Project Bona Fide. Permaculture farm on a volcano, on an island, in a lake, in the heart of the tropics. Imagine one of those early fly over scenes from Jurassic Park and you’ll get the gist of it. As I’m writing this I’m watching the silhouetted volcano fade in front of a sky that’s literally traffic cone orange. The orangeness is just ridiculous. But so is everything about this island,… Read More
Giddy from down unda’!
It’s been six weeks since I arrived in Bunbury, Western Australia, (aka “The Dolphin City”), and I can’t believe how fast the time is passing.
I’ve been lucky to be doing my FVP at the Dolphin Discovery Centre, a volunteer-based organization on the coast of Australia. Because of the warmth and safety of this one small bay, hundreds of wild bottlenose dolphins roam free. It’s the… Read More
Two weeks ago, the Carpe group was at the animal rescue and rehabilitation center Paseo de Los Monos. Every morning at 8am a few of us would accompany one of the workers to the fruit shed where we would prepare breakfast for the animals. While distributing the meals, we learned some of the creatures´names.
Two of the Chorongo monkeys were named Bebe and Yaya. Bebe is an attention seeker who… Read More
Our week of intercultural immersion in New Zealand began with a traditional powhiri, the Maori word for welcoming ceremony. We were called on to the Marae with a sound of a single female voice and Kawharu, a prominent man in the Raglan community, recited his whakapapa, or family history, for us. The ceremony continued with the exchange of songs, and finally, the much anticipated Hongi, or the Maori greeting practice… Read More
Hello family and friends! Our week with the Mirror Art Group has been amazing! The Mirror Art Group is a NGO that works with various hill tribes in Northern Thailand alleviate some of the problems they face including poverty, education, and Thai citizenship. Our role here has been to help build a wall to protect their road from flooding as well as experience some of Chiang Rai’s attractions and get… Read More
Greetings from Kolkata!
Hello outside world! It is Paulo Alfaro writing on behalf of the Shanti group here in India. The last week has been a whole new experience out of this world. India’s diversification never ceases to amaze me. Every single place we go is a completely different, wonderful, jaw-dropping experience. It is truly magical. And everyday I am grateful to have chosen such a beautiful place to spend… Read More
This week for our journey, we came to a quaint little city called Puyo and just on the outskirts of it is a little place called Paseo de los Monos. Paseo de los monos is a refugee camp for rescued animals (mainly monkeys) but there are other animals such as tortoises, parrots, pecardis (hogs with a white collar around their neck), a margay, a kinkachu, coati (supposely a mix between… Read More
¡HOLA!
I am writing this in a small internet cafe in Guatemala City.
Cars zoom by, honking their horns at any pedestrians who dare assume they have the right of way. We are immersed in the sights and sounds of a bustling city.
It is strange to remember, then, that just yesterday we were in The Mystical Yoga farm, one of the most tranquil places that I have ever visited.… Read More
My past month in Morocco has been a blast to say the least. Instead of giving a summary of the past four and a half weeks, I have chosen to share the events of this past Friday night.
My homestay brother Taha and I entered his cousin’s house, dressed head to toe in traditional Moroccan regalia, and greeted by the traditional “Salaam Alaikum” which was followed by a handful of… Read More
Solscape- a hostel or a way of life? As we pulled up to Solscape on the evening of the 3rd, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Our sleeping accommodations were a mix of upcycled train cars and eco-tipis in the woods. Yoga classes are offered overlooking the ocean and all the food in the cafe is grown on site. Our first morning we met with Phil, the creator and… Read More
Greetings from Chiang Rai! We bid our farewells to the Dhamma Center last Friday. The day before we left the monastery, we took a vow of silence for the better half of the day. The purpose of this was to reflect on what Laurie and the monks had taught us during our stay at the center. Most of us took the day to journal, read, meditate, and explore the grounds.… Read More
It’s been a very eventful week here in Thailand. We celebrated our time with our host families at a farewell party at the ecolodge on Friday night where we ate, danced, performed our Thai speeches and rousing renditions of “Wagon Wheel” and “The Elephant Song.” We also lit floating lanterns, “loy gratong,” to bring good luck to our group and our host families. We said a tearful goodbye to our… Read More
From Varanassi, greetings!
THis past week we’ve been in Agra, Varanassi, and the long railway in between. Our one full day in Agra was spent celebrating my birthday at the Taj Mahal (this is James, not Georgia). Other than the mahal, Agra was smelly and crowded. We went to a semi-abandoned mall with a haunted house which gave Caroline nightmares. We drank tea at an enlightening cafe run by victims… Read More
