Today was our last day at Munaychay. We woke up at 7:15 and had our usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and bread. At 8:00, we headed down to Santa Rosa and began clearing out a space for farming. About an hour into our work it started raining so we went to the house and chilled…
GOOD MORNING VIET-MERICA! Today was a great day. One of the best at Munaychay. I had a great night’s sleep and a weird dream that I was in a video game. We had hard boiled eggs for breakfast with the always delicious bread and jam. After our yummy breakfast, we headed off to the farm…
The morning began with an impromptu breakfast composed of bananas, tea, and granola. After, we met our guide, Pedro, who took us to Moray– an ancient Incan site entailing agricultural terraces. Our eccentric guide told us that the terraces were filled with spirits of fertility, duality, and “good vibes”. He continued to explain the ancient…
Something that’s always bothered me is our society’s need for everything (and everyone) to be groundbreaking and extraordinary at each moment in order for the activity or person to be noteworthy. This leads to raging disappointment (at least for me) when I am a part of something that doesn’t shout “impressive!” However, as I’ve grown…
The view from my new home is incredible. I live in a second story room on a refurbished coffee plantation that was built on an island created from 2 massive volcanoes. The porch outside overlooks a torn down building; covered with a mixture of a vibrant green moss and pruned ferns. Tall trees surround the…
Our second day of work greeted us with the bluest skies and hottest weather we had seen since arriving in Nicaragua. Despite the heat, we were all optimistic as we began our day’s work. Once we arrived at the worksite, Janier, the leader of the construction project, appointed us the task of creating and mixing…
At the end of our first work day we were laying on the dock as the crickets chirped beside us and the waves splashed below us. We gazed up at the stars reflecting on our first days on the island. As we talked, we realized that despite being from Boston, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas, New…
It was warm out this morning rather than the usual cool. Our breakfast crew, promptly after wake up, cooked a delicious breakfast of oatmeal -Mazel tov. Everyone got ready- two full water bottles, sunscreen and full brimmed hat in hand – and began the walk down to the bus, some stepping with exhaustion, some with…
We awoke from our slumbers quite early. We stuffed everything we could in our packs in preparation for the excursion to Isla Del Sol. Although we were tired, the lively city of La Paz was fully awake. Our breakfast consisted of bread and corn flakes, a nutritious start to our day. The bus to take…
This place feels like home. It’s a strange thing to say, because I don’t usually sleep with a bug net over my bed, find geckos in my shower, or live on a tropical island. Yet, only two days into our stay at Ometepe, it feels like home. After a delicious breakfast at the Hacienda Merida,…
I’m not phased by a lot. In most settings, this is helpful (like being the only one not to cry at the end of The Notebook.) So when I stepped out of the Nicaraguan airport, nothing really hit me except for humid air. Granada, of course, was wonderful, as you heard in Jaxon’s amazing post….
Car horns screaming, people shouting, buses filled to their max with people on their way to work. A motor bike zips by inches from the side of our bus. It appears like a over crowded developing city resting in a valley between foot hills of the Himalayas. At first thought I wondered how such a…
Yunie is my homestay mom and she is 22 years old. Every day she wakes up at 5:30 to make breakfast, wash some clothes and clean the house. She has to cook for all of the family (me, Elena, her husband, Miltito, Julio, Jocelin, and herself) and the meal is usually rice and beans eggs,…
Detroit impacted me in multiple ways, both in physically and mentally. The biggest way I was impacted was probably, how my appreciation of everything changed. And when I say everything, I mean everything especially the little things in life we don’t notice and perhaps even take for granted. For example, I have the luxury of…
So here we are, day 10, and so much has changed between the first few days in Playa Gigante and now. On our first day when we were assigned homestays, I was given a very limited amount of time to freak out about who and where I was going to be living with for the…
Today we went to the pasture to follow a buffalo hunt. Upon arrival, the young bull buffalo (tatonka) had been shot and field dressed, ready for processing. Before hunting the buffalo, the Lakota ask the buffalo to offer up a young male for the hunt. The grandmother (Unci) buffalo chooses the male, who is then…
We started today early this morning with our typical breakfast of bread, butter, eggs, cheese, assorted teas and papaya juice. After helping to clean up we returned to our room to finish packing up our bags. Once the bags were packed we headed to the Museo Historico Regional where we got to see illustrations of…
For those parents who are a bit worried about their babies being away in a foreign country, fear not, we are thriving in the glorious mountains of Peru in the little village of Munaychay. As we feasted upon a hearty breakfast of rolls with jam and butter and oatmeal with lots of milk, we struck…
We began the afternoon by collecting bundles of wild sage, which was later used in a cleansing ceremony for Lakota youth who had suffered from trauma. After the children were cleansed, and the older men finished their inipi (the rite of purification), we entered the inipi for our own experience. The Unci (elder grandmother) opened…
Yesterday we built tipis for a Lakota children’s camp. We built the first few tipis, and it was fairly simple after understanding the ways to construct one. The tipis have so much symbolism for the Lakota people. The tripod (the foundation of the tipi) represents the morning, evening, and north stars. The remaining seven poles…
On the second day of the horse festival I began to play with the kids from the orphanage. I would run up and down the side of the hill, chasing the children to try to tickle them. After only ten minutes it seemed like we had known each other for quite some time. They would…
Throughout this one day, I feel like the group has accomplished its entire mission here as Students Shoulder-to-Shoulder. We have all creating lasting bonds with the people here, halfway across the world, despite the language barrier, and despite our very different backgrounds. I think I’ve really learned what it means to connect with someone with…
It’s been three days now that we have been here at Koh Preah and although the physical labor is beginning to be strenuous and the work is feeling more like work on our blistered hands and sore backs, the energy of the group remains undeniably positive as we continue to make remarkable progress both on…
Before I get started reflecting on the SStS: Detroit course, I want to take this opportunity to look back at what we, the students and instructors, accomplished. What did we really achieve while we were in Detroit? I know we are asked to talk about this and present these findings to our schools and communities…
I went to Detroit, a big city known for its steep fall into bankruptcy, and being left to oversee their own reconstruction. A city not defined by their population, economy, or diversity, but by the hope that the citizens still have after everything that has happened. That’s pretty unconventional if you ask me. I…
We started the day planning our lens presentations with our partners, but that was not the true highlight of the day. I know, you can barely believe that, but it’s true. The truly great part of the day came when we headed down to Playa Amarilla to meet up with the Jovenes for our final…
The last couple days have been jam packed with different activities centered around creating bonds with the “jovenes”, or youths, of the community. We started by teaching an English lesson for the kids. We put together lesson plans a few days prior and then our two groups taught colors and sports. It’s nice to be…
A long time ago (perhaps a week), in a country far, far away, a group of students was settling into life at Munaychay Children’s Village outside of Urubamba, Peru. Teens and instructors alike were getting used to early mornings, local soups and dishes, and glacial showers. The children of Munaychay and students from the Northern…
Around three o’clock this afternoon, we got back to Kangding and had finished more than 80% of our Tibet course. Up until the moment that we left our guide’s family’s home, I hadn’t really realized that it’s almost time to start heading home. But when we came back to the hotel where we stayed in…
This week was different and I met a lot of awesome people on this trip. I wish that I had more time in New Orleans to help rebuild the wetlands and have more time with the amazing people that were on this trip. This trip has taught me that life is not easy and that…