Middle East: Complexities and pleasures of life in Beit Sahour
We are beginning to find our rhythm, waking up for breakfast at 7:30am, attending Arabic class, and then our seminar class after lunch with potential evening adventures. I have deeply enjoyed building new friendships and learning new things about amazing people in our group and locally in Beit Sahour. The first excitement of the week....
Middle East: Bethlehem and Tent of Nations
On May 13th, at 10:33 pm we arrived at our guesthouse in Beit Sahour after 30 hours of traveling. We were immediately greeted with open arms by our hosts and a large array of Palestinian foods. The hospitality and welcome towards us has been a common theme during our time here. Our first week in....
Lithuania – Klaipeda in photos
Around Klaipeda – scroll through the album to see a few moments from these first two weeks.
South Africa: Our Final Weeks
April 13-17 As we began to conclude our time in South Africa we spent three days in St. Lucia, to have a time of reflection. During this time we had the chance to sit as a group and engage with one another about our time in South Africa and what that means for our lives....
South Africa: Wrap-up in PMB & the Drakensberg mountains
On Monday, we had an “Easter egg hunt” similar to the one we had when we met together at the Suderman’s before this intercultural semester. The scavenger hunt includes six clues and we had to solve one to get to the next. The final clue that awaited us was to look for our Easter eggs....
South Africa: Jeffreys Bay to Pietermaritzburg
Week 9, 10, & 11 (J-Bay, Mdumbi, PMB) Spring break on the coasts of South Africa was a blast. We started off the week at Jeffreys Bay where we stayed at the Island Vibes backpacker just a stone’s throw away from the beach. The waves were wild but fun. We celebrated two birthdays there and....
South Africa: Week 8 – Hermanus/Zwelilhe
This past week we spent our time in Hermanus, with homestays in the neighboring township Zwelilhe. We were split up among 8 host families, where we spent our evenings and early mornings. We spent the majority of our weekdays at Volmoed – an intentional community and retreat center. During that time, we took part in....
South Africa: SADRA to Table Mountain
Week 7: Muizenberg Pt. II Oscar and SADRA We spent Monday and Tuesday with Oscar Siwali, the head of the Southern Africa Development and Reconstruction Agency (SADRA). Oscar welcomed us warmly and introduced us to SADRA’s mission: to intervene in conflict and to teach others to intervene in conflict. Despite having only three full-time staff....
South Africa: Colesberg to Cape Town
We departed from Jo’burg on the morning of Saturday the 18th. We woke up, said our goodbyes to our hosts at St. Benedict’s, and hit the road. That day was a nearly 9-hour day on the road with a stop for lunch. We occupied ourselves with some games, music, conversation and a lot of procrastination....
South Africa: Host Families
For the past few Sundays, we’ve been worshipping with different local churches in South Africa. On February 12th, we went to Orlando Baptist Church. On February 19th, we went to Grace Community Church, where we worshipped with congregants from both Colesburg and Cradock. At the different churches, we are regularly called upon to sing a....