My time in Fiji has been something out of a story book. I went into the village stay expecting to be sick the entire time. I was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome we received and how comfortable I felt living the village life. Oh and not getting as sick as I thought was also nice. From the playful children to the strong women of the families, I learned the… Read More
Imagine, 11 students and 2 leaders piled in a bus with all of our belongings, bouncing along with every bump of the gravel road below us. That is how we started our week long student directed travel at Vatia Beach Resort. Our suspicions of a dirt ramshackle hut were quickly destroyed by the view of white, sandy beaches, wooden swings for our lazy afternoons, and crystal clear water reflecting the… Read More
Hills of green and skies of immense fluffy white clouds were the scene as we loaded up into our dugout canoes for our 3 day trek in lake Bunyoni. The rain came and went periodically while the nine of us, along with our new friends from France and Sweden, paddled across the lake from island to island and hiked over hills and through valleys.
Our first day we departed from… Read More
Hello and welcome to the cool side of the blog,
I am Valiant Val and I will be your host today as we follow the adventures of one group of young adults as they find them selves in the middle of the Arctic!!!
No wait that’s not right…. oh yes Africa!
Now now settle down, I know you are jealous of them I mean so am I, I can not… Read More
Hola familias y amigos!
WOW what a week it’s been! We arrived safely in Guatemala City on Tuesday and were greeted at the airport by our two new hosts, Alfredo and Ricard, who picked us up in their incredible yellow VW van. They took us to a three-story building in the heart of the city, the home of their organization G-22. The first floor was the hostel area, where we… Read More
Our time this week was spent in Morogoro with our gracious host families enjoying their hospitality and beautiful homes. We spent the days attending class to learn Swahili and socializing with with our local teachers who had the patience of zen masters. In the evenings we hung out with the students playing sports or relaxing with our families enjoying the comforts of home. Every meal was met with home cooking… Read More
This past week was our second week living in the rural Fijian village of Nasolo. After completing our community service project of revamping their community hall, we had four days where we were able to learn more about the activities and jobs that make up their every day life and build strong connections with members of the village. This week included activities like prawn fishing, weaving, going to their private… Read More
This past week was an interesting one. It was the week of our free travel where the students are able to decide where they want to stay for the duration of the week. I am still not quite sure how, perhaps we have a little leprechaun following us around, but we were able to reserve an amazingly beautiful house right in front of the beach! Our own little island of… Read More
This week was our week to decide where we wanted to go, what we wanted to do and when we wanted to do it. Carpe Diem dubs it “student directed travel.”
Rishikesh sits in the small hills overlooking the Ganges. The two main parts of town are separated by the river and connected by a big suspension bridge (where the monkeys liked to hang around and snag your chip bag… Read More
Peru is already a favorite among many group members. We arrived in Arequipa and I became instantly enamored with the landscape. A very dry city, home to almost 800,000 people, Arequipa is surrounded by three volcanos, Misti, Chachani and Pikchu Pikchu. The tallest, Misti, reaches 19,000 feet into the air. Jack, Hunter, Peter and I stayed with the Meza family. Mr. Meza is a volcanologist who studied the mountains surrounding… Read More
Two weeks ago we arrived in Arequipa, Peru. Having spent over a month in Ecuador I thought I knew what to expect from Peru environmentally; lots of green and lots of moisture. After all the country is separated into the same three geographical regions as Ecuador: The costa to the West on the Pacific Ocean, the sierra located in the highlands of the Andes Mountains, and the selva, the lowlands… Read More
After logging a week of homestays and enjoying typical Peruvian food alongside our newfound Arequipeñan family members, ten perpetually hungry teenage boys were released into the small world of meat, sweets, and live music at the Food Festival in Arequipa, Perú. The festival was located in a small town square overlooking a large part of the city. In the backdrop you could see the massive snow-capped mountains forever overseeing everyday… Read More
Hamjambo Friends and Family!
We have done so much recently! After saying goodbye to our friends at L’Esperance, we finished our time in the rolling hills of Rwanda. Our flights seemed to bounce around as we touched down in Kenya and finally in Tanzania. Dar Es Salaam has a very different feel than Kigali, Rwanda. Some of us hiked up six flights of stairs at our hotel the first night… Read More
Shanti arrived in Rishikesh on the 25th of October from Calcutta by Plane, Train, and an auto which took us to what seemed like nowhere near our hotel. We gathered our packs and wits to navigate our way through a refreshing change of scenery. A few minutes into the walk our crew was compressed onto, and stretched out over, what seemed like a one-way bridge: we soon remembered there are… Read More
Exerpts from my journal while in the village!
“You know how you never actually use all the ink in a pen. You either lose, replace, or break it before hand. Well, I have succeeded in finishing the ink in, not 1, not 2, but 4 pens. I only brought 4 pens with me. Thank goodness I still have the pen that Cheridynn gave out as a scavenger hunt prize back… Read More
Bula Vinaka from Togalevu, Viti Levu, Fiji!
Over the past two weeks, the Hongi group has been lucky enough to live amongst the amazing people of Togalevu. During our time here, we have been welcomed to experience what it is like to live and work in a Fijian village. Although our time here is coming to an end, we will carry the things that we have learned and the relationships… Read More
After 4 hard days work at Mirror Foundation we started our Trek to the Akah village which is a hill hill tribe in northern Thailand. The trek started out with a drive to our guides village where he showed us the Hill Tribe village museum which was an eye opening experience to see how these villages work and the tradition that the Thai government is trying to make disappear, which… Read More
Namaste everyone,
Arriving in Kolkata at 3:30am, with no idea of where we’d be sleeping, put many of the Carpe kids on edge. Another contributing factor being that many of us had a stomach bug, which was causing some not so pleasant trips to the bathroom. Aside from all these factors, the Shiva group knew we’d soon be heading to The Mother Teresa House, to start some very rewarding volunteer… Read More
( Adapted from personal blog – http://www.jackdubreuil.blogspot.com )
The Ecuadorian villiage of Pucará is a solid candidate for the title of World’s Most Unassuming Place. It’s a humble little town, small in every sense, with modest buildings dwarfed even further by the Andean monoliths that pierce the horizon in every direction. The center square, complete with a small church, two stores, and a volleyball court, branches out into a few… Read More
Hola y Buenas Dias!
This week we moved in with our homestays in Matagalpa. This is the most progressive and feminist city we have visited yet. We are all a little relieved to be finishing our last week of Spanish classes and we have been involved in several different cultural activities. From cooking, to history, to dancing, we finished our last activity this week with a testimony from a LGBT… Read More
