Moral Courage Today was our first full day in the community that we will work with for the next 3 days. Our service projects today involved fixing and painting the stands next to their soccer field, painting school buildings and painting their water tower. We worked alongside community members and (attempted) to have conversations…
Continuing on the theme of animal restoration, we paid a visit to RAREC (Rainforest Awareness Rescue Education Center). We walked through the property and learned about different animals rehabilitated in enclosures spread throughout the jungle. Our group favorite animal was the mini anteater, Maki. We moved on to the enrichment projects for the different animals….
Great day at Carite 3.0, the group is learning a lot from one another and soaking up all that our amazing host Fernando has to offer. We’ve also been learning from our friends Sergio, Carmen, and Gui about life in the Puerto Rican mountains. Today was capped off by a great workshop about Javier and…
A travel journal entry from Annadelle A in response to her experience watching dancers from Kenya: Tears rumbled as I watched the beautiful people of Kenya share a piece of their home and hearts. I watched as their movements unfolded the stories of their tribes. Their feet moved to the sound of the drums as…
The second morning here at the hotel in Kathmandu was quite different than the first. On the first morning, I did not know what to expect, but this morning I was full of reflection on the previous action-packed day and excitement for what was to come. The morning started on the rooftop restaurant, which has…
Waking up to the dogs barking and pigeons happy outside me and Emma’s window was a gentle reminder that I was far from home. I immediately got my personal journal, book and camera, and headed straight for the rooftop restaurant at our hotel. I wasn’t the only person who wanted to be up there first…
To begin our field study in Peru, we explored the beautiful city of Iquitos! After fueling up at the hostel (The Jungle Hostel), we headed out into the city on Tuk-Tuks (motor powered bike taxis), our first stop being the city’s main market. The sensory experience was unmatched, with smells coming from left and right,…
One Big Idea: Today, school leaders attend to a broad influence of mental health issues in their school communities; the challenge is finding the time and resources to address what’s upstream, where today’s problems were once in a more manageable, nascent form, and where tomorrow’s challenges simmer. Why It Matters: Another wave of research connects…
We’ve stayed in our home stays now for two nights and it’s been really great to get to know the host families and get to see their daily lives. We helped today by visiting two schools where we spoke, danced, and played with the students. We also toured the schools and helped to paint a…
We started by taking the trolley to the airport to pick up rental cars. We traveled a 30 minute drive to the US Mexico border on the coast. We met up with Alex and Daniel. Daniel is a Spanish teacher and an activist, supporting transnational relationships. Daniel discussed Friendship Park, which was created with the…
Today our group started out with an early morning trash cleanup. We got out to the beach and paired up to start collecting the plastic together. We learned methods of picking up trash that made our efforts much more effective and quick. After our beach cleanups, we then headed into the house for breakfast and…
Today we visited Jungle Mike’s butterfly farm and learned about all different species of butterflies and all the insects and bugs that live in the jungle. In the afternoon we played soccer with all the local kids. It has been a lot of fun to connect with the community here and it has helped me…
Hello, back home! We began our eventful day with a morning 30 minute walk from our home away from home, our hostel! From our hostel, we traveled to the historic site Chicano Park. Chicano Park has a profound history, as it is an important landmark for Chicano citizens in San Diego. The Chicano community in…
Today we went into Coyote to watch the festival to celebrate Guanacaste’s joining of Costa Rica where some of the students we’ve worked with preformed traditional dances. We then went to the hatchery for our final day of work, finishing off the mesh surrounding the eggs. Our driver, Henry, chopped some coconuts for a refreshment…
Today we spent a lot of time with kids from a school in Coyote. We arrived and began an activity that explained the predators of newly hatched turtles to the students. Then we were given costumes that portrayed the predators while the kids dressed up in turtle costumes. We played a game of tag, where…
Hello, back home! Our first full day in San Diego is coming to a close and we have already learned so much. We started our day riding the trolley to Old Town where our incredible host Alex Gomez taught us some of the history of California, including the impact of the Mormon church in fortifying…
Today we went to a local school and had the opportunity to work with the children there. We did an activity where we were able to teach the kids about insects while practicing our Spanish. Afterwards, we played soccer on their field and built bonds with the children. In the afternoon, we came back to…
The entire San Diego group has arrived safely and is ready to begin their field study in ethical leadership.
Yesterday we left San Miguel and Turtle Trax, which was bittersweet. I am very grateful for the time I had there, as I learned so much and made memories that I will never forget. For me, the most impactful part of working with Turtle Trax was being exposed to the amazing, thoughtful NGO leaders and…
To start off the morning we visited the local elementary school and saw some traditional dances. We all loved watching the dances and learning about how the girls learned how to dance. In addition, we showed the kids some American line dances and taught a few of the girls the Cotton Eye Joe. We loved…
Today was our groups first day of service work! We began our day with an early breakfast from our wonderful chefs and then hopped on the bus to the turtle hatchery. We split up into groups working on patching holes in the netting, weeding to create a path, and removing nails from the posts in…
This post is from July 21…. Today we got the opportunity to really see the effects of all of the plastic waste in the world. We started off our morning by cleaning up as much trash as we could around the hatchery, and in doing so, we saw so many things that are such common…
It was a long day of travel so there is no post but the leaders report the group has made it to La Fortuna and is settled in to finish the last phase of their field study.
After a long day of travel, there is no post from the group, but the leaders report that the group has made it to the field study site and is eager to begin their work with Turtle Trax tomorrow.
The Turtles II group has arrived safely in Costa Rica and is now driving to meet our partner Turtle Trax at their field study location.
Today we spent time with jungle mike who is an expert with insects and gave us a good insight of how insects interact in different climates, we also went on a jungle hike in which we were able to see how different species interact with the environment around them. We were also able to eat…
Uncomfortable. I know some would like me to sugar coat it and market this trip in a way so that more people will come, but this trip was uncomfortable. While uncomfortable might seem like a weird way to describe this trip, I’d like to bring up something Neil Christansen (founder of Give + Surf) mentioned…
Today our group got to meet with Alex from Mother of Corals and learn about how they are trying to restore coral reefs in this area. After his presentation, he took us snorkeling to see the coral regrowth process up close. At the Basti school center today, we got to play soccer and kickball with…
Today, we started the day by sleeping in until nine. After breakfast, Juan took us on a walk on the beach. Because it was so hot, we found a shady spot along the beach where we sat in a circle as Juan, our guide, taught us the process that must happen after finding a turtle…
oday was a mix of learning and relaxation. We were able to go to the turtle trax office and learn more about turtles from a researcher that we haven’t seen before. She had a lot of knowledge and expertise about specific turtle facts. The information helped us be more aware of all the threats to…