After two weeks in Copan Ruinas, a beautiful and important historical and cultural site in Western Honduras, at a La Guacamaya Spanish School, the group dedicated a week of their program to volunteer with OYE and learn about youth development efforts and national reality with OYE (Organization for Youth Empowerment). The EMU students spent the....
Diverse Narratives in the Shenandoah Valley
How could we have lived in this valley for 20 years and not know about places like Zenda, Long’s Chapel, Newtown, or the stories of Lucy Simms, Bethel A.M.E. church, Ralph Sampson or the Islamic Center of the Shenandoah Valley? Here they all were, right under our noses and yet we were not familiar with....
The Galápagos
Today Milton (the man who owns the farm we are staying/working at) told us some stories about himself, and the interactions with politics and the island. It was quite interesting to see the parallels between the history of activism on the islands with the history of activism in Bolivia. At one point, the island residents....
Working with the MAMA Project
June 3, 2013 Starting our first day with the MAMA project was exciting. Anticipation was in the air as we woke up early, packed our lunches, and loaded the vans to go. The hour and a half van ride was up tiny dirt roads into the mountains. A memory from Adam: “Oh yeah Jason, by....
A sad day: preparing to say goodbye
Today marks 29 days left. Less than a month in Honduras and less than 3 days left in Copan. What? It’s hard – and you can tell the group is feeling it too. We are just simply missing home. The realization of the actual length of 6 weeks has hit and it’s starting to cause....
Mother’s Day in Honduras
Mother’s day is a big deal in Honduras. The shops are decorated and I woke up to greetings and giggles as family members dropped in to say “felicidades!” to my abuela and give her presents. I then attended my first Spanish church service celebrating mom’s everywhere! I.understood.every.word. MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT. It was all about the mothers....
Cochabamba, water, monkeys and coca
I am loving the culture here and the importance of family. I have been struck by how close families are and how my host family took me in as their own child. They didn’t have to be so kind and understanding, but they have gone above and beyond the call to be my host parents.....
Hangul and Host Families
Wow! The first week is done already and many exciting sights, sounds, tastes and adventures have been accomplished. Before I start talking about the week and our time spent at Hallym University I want to briefly mention the pre thoughts about the trip many of us had. On our fights over to South Korea we....
Service Learning in Colombia
I visited Medellin, Colombia for our week of service learning during the semester. On Thursday, April 11, Emma Dalen, EMU graduate Jessica Sarriot, and I took the Medellin metro to Interamericana Filadelfio church which hosts a program called Fundacion Raices de Fe, or, Foundation Roots of Faith, for students ages 8-17. It is a before....
Free travel reports from the Middle East
Wednesday morning (March 6) Jake, Hilary, Lydia, and I walked to the Jerusalem central bus station and each purchased a ticket for bus #444 direct to Eilat. We departed promptly at 10 a.m., and with the help of our daredevil bus driver, we were looking out at the Red Sea at 2 o’clock that afternoon, an....