Now Enrolling for 2024. Apply today!
Day 3! After getting hardly any sleep following a full 24 hours of travel, day 2 was a bit of a blur. Today sort of felt like day 1. I’d like to start by recognizing just how amazing the food is here. Our cooks have yet to give us a meal that wasn’t enjoyed by…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””]Poem for part 1 Here’s a summary of the first half of our trip through a poem that I wrote along the way 🙂 sorry it’s long but it barely scratches the surface of the first half of this trip. These people take life with a grain of salt They were born into poverty…
Day three of the jungle was hardcore! It rained in La Paz which caused the river level to rise drastically. This meant we couldn’t walk in the riverbed and had to carry the filters directly through the forest. This was a lot harder than walking through the riverbed. The raised river also made carrying the…
We woke up in the pouring rain with 7/12 filters left to install. Although the weather was not on our side, we had to get our work done. We split up into groups and managed to finish with only a couple issues. 1) we did not have enough sand for our 12th filter, but our…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””] So after kind of drying, we were never dry due to the like 100% humidity, the work got intense. We walked back to the beach again, a “trail” that we became all too familiar with to transport the filters and sand. After an hour walk down we loaded these filters into wheelbarrows and…
I am currently writing this while watching the people of Kenya laughing and playing soccer with the Americans. The simplicity here is so very happy, and I have loved every moment of this journey. Earlier today was session two of the New Generation Leadership conference. During the session this morning, we talked about the things…
We spent our last day in NOLA planting bullrush along the shoreline of Lake Maurepas. We woke up early this morning to drive to the swamp where we were met by our new friends Blaise, T. John, Jeremy, and Mr. Steve. We took a pontoon ride through the swamp to get to the lake; passing…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””]Starting off the day, we traveled to a few monasteries, Lhamo Tse and Dotje Drek, that were close to the hotel in which we spent the night.  These monasteries were incredibly interesting, but I’d like to take a moment to describe one moment in particular.  As we left our first monastery, sheep wool that monks…
Today it rained for most of the day. We drove a hour and 15 min to get to the boat launch at Lake Maurepas, but ended up not being able to work due to the weather. Instead we went to Mr. Steve’s house to unload the plants that we were suppose to use. Mr. Steve…
Kwanza: (noun) beginnings; firsts Today was full of kwanza. It was the first official day of work at Tiriji. Some re-planted onions, and others created new beds for potatoes. Meanwhile, Stratford and I experienced kwanza ourselves. I used a machete for the first time to cut down tall grass to feed the goats. After spending…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””]As we got ready to leave Chengdu, I felt excitement for the inevitable beauty of Tibet, leaving for Kangding. Â Before we left the hostel, the reception lady at the front desk asked shyly for a picture with me and called me beautiful. Â I can remember both of our grins as we laughed and called…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””]Today we woke up at 6:30 to take off the training wheels and go to the marsh. Unlike the canals from Tuesday, we were working in the mushy dead plant matter that had collected on the bottom of the marsh. As soon as we hopped off the boat we sunk into the muck past…
Today we went to a special museum called the S-21 prison museum. The museum was an old high school that was turned into a prison/torture area when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. The museum was truly eye-opening, showing all of us the horrible things that the Khmer Rouge did to innocent people, people that…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””]It is the third day of homestay.  The day started with a well-prepared breakfast.  Acknowledging that we’re not used to the Napoli food, our homestay sister made us homemade fries for dinner last night and this morning’s breakfast.  We are very glad that our homestay sister speaks fluent English – no language barriers. Nikki brought…
Today we woke up at 6:45am to go to the Blind River for planting bullrush grass along the banks of the river. On the ride to our destination, we were all pretty tired but we still engaged in some jamming to music because we were so excited !! The first thing we did was load…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””]Today we went to the Panda sanctuary in Chengdu. Â I was incredibly excited to see the Pandas, having never seen one before. Â We were amazed by the creatures and spent a long time walking around the park. Â The park was also a chance for us to experience the culture and these particular people of…
Imagine finding kids in a garbage dump searching for anything to sell and to eat. Today we visited a program called Pour un Sourir d’enfant (PSE) which was created to help the children who were put into this tragic situation. PSE was started by a couple, whom the students now call “Mami” and “Papi”. Mami…
Today we started work in the Common Ground Relief plant nursery with the theme of curiosity in mind. Before we went, we listened to James – the manager of the wetlands – talk about what caused the river to overflow and break the levee back in 2005. We all started doing tasks like weeding, making…
When we first arrived in Kenya a few days ago, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I was with people I had never met, in a place I had never been, surrounded by things I had never seen. Arriving at the children’s home, none of that seemed to matter to anyone. Everyone, regardless of…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””]After a smooth 2 days of travel, we landed in Nairobi with a warm welcoming from Dr. Karambu, the leader and founder of the NGO International Peace Initiatives. We began our course visiting an elephant orphanage and giraffe sanctuary in a prosperous neighborhood. We later drove through Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya. Bess…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””]After a day of travel, we are happy to report that the NOLA SSTS krewe is safely bunked down at Common Ground Relief. We were able to participate in a community dinner at the Hare Krishna temple on Esplenade Street and had an initial walk around the Lower Ninth Ward. Students are tired, but…
June 21, 2017 Wednesday Day 1 – Kathmandu Waking up with the light was a new and interesting experience for me, with the added confusion of not knowing the time beckoning me to consider not waking up. After going downstairs (where it was clear that the sun had risen over cloudy Kathmandu), I noted that…
Dear Cambodia 2016 Crew, It’s about 5:20 AM on our last day in Siem Reap and I couldn’t sleep anymore, so as I lay in bed listening  roosters do battle (there are just as many here as on the island, but the concrete walls keep all but a hint of the sound out — thank…
The following day, we discussed the question–“what does it mean to be a global citizen?” Some of the words that came up were open-minded, resilient, caring, determined, and risk-taking. After thinking about this, I concluded that these adjectives mean nothing unless one is able to realize the world’s imperfections, rather flaws, and have a desire…
The SStS Nursery and Building Teams: The building we are currently working on is going to be more lodging and meeting space at Tiriji, their eco-center that will be used for leadership conferences and other income generating services, including bio-intensive agricultural training. Another self-sustaining aspect of the KACH model is organic agriculture. Â Today we prepared…
We have only been here in Nepal for about a week and I have already made so many memories that I will cherish forever. While in Kathmandu we toured the Monkey temple and several stupas. We were all blown away by the amount of prayer flags that lined the temples. It has been amazing seeing…
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,…
When I was younger I would always hear the saying, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened,”Âť but I never had many opportunities where this idea was vital to follow. But, tonight, after a day full of questioning government officials, and playing intense games of Wallyball (volleyball played in a smallish room where…
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…