Featured Yaks
Welcome to our forum for courses in the field. The Yak Board is a digital group journal where students and staff share photos, stories, reflections and group updates while on course. Check out our Featured Posts below or explore Yaks by program by clicking on the icons above.
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“How was Africa?”
The students, Participant
Yak of the Week
Greetings to everyone following along on our journey, In these final days of the course, we shift our outlook from new experiences and learning to an integration of what we have learned as we all transition back home. While we start that process......Read More
Throwback to Patan’s Breakfasts
Mihai and Coen, Dragons Admin
Yak of the Week
This was our third day into the student-led breakfasts in Patan. Our group was comprised of Mihai, Ellie, Coen and Lily. On this day, we attempted to make a 16-person Spanish Tortilla and this video captured our miraculous tortilla flip. The art of......Read More
Words we do not have
Harry, Participant
Yak of the Week
It’s going to be weird being back home. Three months ago, I never had a word for the act of knocking mangoes out of a tree with a stick, achieving the proper atayya foam, having my leg fall asleep, shooing chickens, cooling down hot coffee, or......Read More
Humbling
Slate, Participant
Yak of the Week
The mountains have a special talent for reminding you how small you are, and not in a demeaning way but in a humbling way. Mountains are good at humbling you. Living in a city has created separation between me and nature and until coming on this......Read More
Definitely Go Chasing Waterfalls
Justin, Participant
Yak of the Week
A throwback Yak from our time in the Amazon: The day started like how you expect when living in the RAINforest with Miles, Braiden, and my stuff and tent soaked from the rain. After getting ready for the day and gobbling down another great......Read More
Life in Gundu
Instructors, Instructor
Picture of the Week
Namaste dear friends and families, The group has been in Gundufor 9 full days, as of now! Students have been helping out in building firepit and root cellar, cleaning the cow shed, cob mixing, pruning the plants, weeding, painting on chicken coop, harvesting potatoes, garlic and ginger, taking cooking classes from experienced chef and students baking the bread and making pizzas for dinner on the farm where all the ingredients comes from the garden however we are also having discussion over tea time about – Where our food comes from, What does it take to grow a plant or crops,… Read More
Don’t get lost
Harry, Participant
Yak of the Week
I said the Thies market deserved its own Yak, so here it is. It’s as close to sensory overload as I’ve gotten, I think. Hands, elbows, shoulders, and buckets full of vegetables push up on all sides of me, their owners seemingly not caring that......Read More
The Land Before Time (1988)
Spencer, Participant
Yak of the Week
Words spoken in lockstep conversation while climbing upwards endlessly into the sky tend to be of the surprisingly deep sort. Where, I wonder of my own brain, is your endless grace, your Old Man River, your million and one bug bites? Careful, I warn......Read More
Choquequirao (aka Choquequirwow!)
Instructors, Instructor
Picture of the Week
Hello friends, family, and fellow Peru enthusiasts, I write you now from Urubamba, where the whole crew has settled into homestays as a part of their x-phase plan. After many weeks of adventure and almost constant movement, we have all been enjoying this new speed, relishing in a routine and the comfort of becoming familiar with a space. It is because of all this adventure and movement that we are a bit behind on sharing stories from our experiences, so I want to tell you all a bit about the trek we just completed. I must admit, after an experience… Read More
Motherland
Khi’Aura, Participant
Yak of the Week
I fall more in love with us woman , more and more as I’m in Senegal! Since I’ve been here i can see why we call it the motherland. 7:00 am. The sun is shining in my room, the roosters are doing their hourly call as I’m slowly waking up,......Read More
Tangana
Harry, Participant
Yak of the Week
The streamers never fail to catch my eye. Red, green, yellow, blue, white, they flutter in the wind, sometimes letting out whiffs of fried eggs or cafe touba into the crowded streets they spill out onto. Painted on the metal doors that flank either......Read More
Vulnerability Buy-In
Tom, Participant
Yak of the Week
Not a big emotions guy ya know. Don’t like conveyin em. Don’t like talking about em. And that has been pretty satisfactory for me. There are times where I might make a friend and it might go past the surface level, and when that happens, I’m......Read More
The Grace of a Mother
Esther Daugs, Participant
Yak of the Week
The terraces of lush green plants contrast the blue sky, as the village sits on a hillside. Women care for their children, along with the earth that feeds them. Amma wakes up as the roosters outside interrupt her deep sleep. She shifts to her right,......Read More
Leaving Village Homestay with sweet memories
Dave, Shanti and Hemant, Participant
Picture of the Week
This morning, all our students arrived with their respective homestay families accompanied mostly by children and mothers! They all were wearing garlands and tika on their forehead and faces! These 9 days in Chokati Village homestay has been such a lovely experience for our students and for us Instructors too! They welcomed our students to their home with open heart and we are so grateful for their hospitality and love they have showered on our group! “The Hardest goodbyes are the sweetest memories.” – Esther
