Follow along on the journey
The MAYA group has arrived safely in Guatemala! They are on their way to Earthlodge, where they’ll be spending the next few days for their orientation. They are ready to have a rest, some breakfast, and then dive into getting to know each other, the program and Guatemala. We look forward t their updates – they will post an update about their orientation early next week.
The PDXchange group has arrived safely in Ecuador! They have already made it to their hostel in Mindo, a lovely little town in the Cloud Forest, where they’ll be spending the next few days for their orientation. They are ready to rest after a long day of travel, and look forward to learning more about the program and Ecuador in the coming days.
By Sahra
February 19th was literally pretty fun. We are a couple days into our homestays which is really fun. Yesterday we were at a party where the whole village was there. My host sister Sophie is about 17 and she’s really funny and she really loves to dance. Earlier that day we went on a field trip an hour from Diakhanor. It was a small town where the first president was born at. The village was built from the community. When they ate their oysters they would keep their shells,
By Khi’Aura
Hey hey welcome to my Ted talk! On February 16th we arrived in Diakhanor which was about 30 minutes away from our first location . I met my homestay sister her name is Jenny, I was really nervous at first and still kinda am. We comunícate through hands and I learned to speak a little French to her, like a few words and they go along way ( I, Want , shower, thank you, cook, help, sorry , im good, how are you ) lol.
By Sahra, Slim (Maddox), and Sam,
After landing in Dakar and having our first encounter with the language barrier at customs, we were greeted by a breeze and the bright tropical sun as the i-Team introduced themselves. We piled in the van to embark on a two hour journey, passing Baobab trees, many towns, a prolific goat market (including a vehicle comically packed with them clown-car-style), a school, and many locals going about their day. In typical Senegalese fashion, many were spotted beating the heat in patches of shade.
Written By Tania, Will, Jahmeil, and Grace
It is with sadness and hope in our hearts that we write this final blog. We feel no need to pull punches: we are nothing short of devastated to be saying goodbye so quickly and abruptly to our new, bright, nomadic little family.
Just a few short days ago we were alerted to the true panic of the worldwide Corona Virus (gotta remember that we didn’t have a constant source of news!) and alerted to the possibility to the program ending early. Mimicking the shocking pace of events that is occurring around the globe, the short span between a possible ending, and being already on a plane bound for the USA was truly jarring. Though a somber, somewhat scary notion, the reality was understandable: it was time to return home to our families, to the safety of the US, and a certain extent: to the uncertainty that awaits us all in these weeks and months to come.
Swatdeekaaaaah,
Greetings from an airport cafe in Taipei, Taiwan. This past week has been a kerfuffle of events. We began the week in Chiang Rai, refueling after a long stay with the Hill Tribes full of games, learning bamboo skills, chickens, and amazing foods. City life was popping. Our hostel was mega bougie. There was a pool table and a real life pool. It hosted our spa nights as well as well as our Shrek movie nights.
Our journey continued on the Sahainan permaculture farm on the most windy road we had ever been on. A couple hours of hairpin turns and many Dramamines later our group lunched on some noodle dishes and arrived ready to get our hands dirty. Sandot and Shen, our hosts, welcomed us with open arms and tasty vegan food. Highlights from the farm included Whitney climbing a banana tree and whacking down banana flowers with machetes (much harder than it looks) and Daniela and Fields learning the art of an inexact banana cake recipe (sparking a debate over the differences between a ‘palmful’ and a ‘handful’ of baking powder). As always our journey included a companion animal. This time it was a white and orange cat named Crispy, after crispy bacon (a common threat to the cat while it died to eat from the communal table). As we were settling into the slow steady pace of farm life, life outside began to go nuts.
Written By Liona & Ben
We started this week off with a spectacular welcome into the grand city of Xela. We met our host families for this week. We are no longer doing one on one classes however we are definitely getting our Spanish practice in by talking to our host families and our teachers. We have explored many places in Xela and visited many restaurants.
Written By Rosalba
Hola todos! Oops wrong country
This is Rosalba, writing the blog in an A/C hostel room while everyone else is out getting Thai massages. If you think I had to stay behind to write this, you thought wrong. Thai massages are way too painful for me to endure again, so I’m happily typing away!
For the past few days, things have been going all sorts of ways; up, down, sideways, you name it. If you don’t quite understand what I’m saying, don’t worry, I will explain more in detail.
When we finished decorating the well, Ban Apa gave us a farewell party! The whole village was present enjoying the feast and there was plenty of food to go around. Once we finished, we were put in beautiful Akha traditional dresses by our homestay moms and then walked towards the center of the village where a bonfire was waiting for us. We spent some time dancing around the bonfire, or at least trying to keep up with the tempo.
