Hello, it’s me, Shiva!

Written by Kate and Doug Let’s look at some numbers, shall we? We were 9 humans From 8 different states in the USA We traveled to: 1 big, diverse county for 84 days We visited: 8 cities And 2 towns And 4 villages All in 8 different states We traveled by train: about 2,363 miles By bus: about 1,071 miles By domestic flight: about 2,276 miles By raft: about 50… Read More

Rafting on the Ganga

Written by Avery With our big bags stored and our goodbyes said we headed across the Laxman Jhula bridge to the last leg of our whirlwind India adventure. In the town square we were picked up by 2 friendly guys from Red Chilli adventure. After a surprisingly short ride to the Red Chilli office we got briefed by Kate’s new snack life role model, Vipin-ji, who gave us a small… Read More

Missin’ Momos in McLeod

By Hannah Tashi Delek! Hey, again friends, family, and followers! Our long days of travel from Varanasi to Delhi and Delhi to Dharamshala have come and gone pretty smoothly. We’ve spent the last week exploring McLeod Ganj and all the cool sights and experiences it has to offer. This is our Student Directed Travel week, the week where we give Doug and Kate a little break and take over all… Read More

Hindi Class and Celebrating Halloween: A Photo Story

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

We love Pinku Ji (Varanasi)

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

We Found A New Family and We’re Not Coming Home

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

Jhadol, Agra, and Leh (One week, three states!)

By Avery Greetings family and friends! We have had a busy week in India. We started with a couple days in Jhadol, a rural village near Udaipur where an NGO started a school that gives opportunities to young girls in villages that would not otherwise have access to education. During our time in Jhadol, we stayed at a homestay with a family. Our homestay involved sleeping on the porch near… Read More

A Week in Jaipur

By Maya Hertz Hello! We have had a very exciting past week. Last Wednesday, the 19th, we took a railway train from Delhi (where we finished orientation), to Jaipur, the “Pink City,” where we stayed with our first homestay families. Rehka-ji, one of our contacts in Jaipur, was a host to Avery and Sarah and also let us use her home as a classroom for Hindi and Indian history lessons.… Read More

Scavenger Hunt Time!

By Hannah, Tucker, Maya, and Isabel Today is our first day going into Delhi without the OEs. It’s been an adventure. After stopping to get lunch at a street stand, we took a rickshaw to central Delhi in the government area. We are in a tourist information center writing this blog. The people are very nice and helpful, we already love it here!!! After this we will go and try… Read More

Shiva has landed

We’ve received word that the mighty Shiva group has safely arrived in New Delhi and have met up with their final group member (Maya) at their hostel. They are tired from a long journey, but happy to be there and starting their semester. Shiva, we wish you all the best, and the blog is now in your capable hands. Stay tuned for more from India.… Read More

Shiva crew has met up in San Francisco

By Program Director James Simmons We’ve received word that the entire Shiva crew has gathered safe and sound in the San Francisco airport. Spirits are high and everyone is excited to begin the journey! Thanks to everyone back home for all of your support in getting our students to this first courageous step. We can’t wait to follow along on their adventure and will be wishing the crew the best… Read More