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I was thinking about holding off to write this yak during orientation of our students, but in the end I wanted to express gratitude and extend hope to our community before embarking on our official journey today!! Before coming to instructor......Read More
This day’s experience: Painting. Although visual art seems like a simple thing, I have to say, I have always been intimidated by it because “I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler” and my hand writing is best when it is written in ALL......Read More
The sounds of my alarm forced me awake as I longed for more sleep. However, today was a big day because we were going to IMAP. a farm in Guatemala. At 5:30am, I rolled out of bed, changed into my day clothes, and walked out the door. Once we arrived......Read More
Journal entry 5/28 This morning, our cooking team made chocolate pancakes for breakfast where we met for the first time Dave Haffeman, a Dragons administrator working with us. Shortly after, we ventured to a local park in Washburn; we met with Axel......Read More
Inspired by Kimberly Blaeser’s poem “Haiku Journey” and Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” NA Students each wrote a section in this haiku sequence about their exploration of Houghton Falls Nature Preserve, a......Read More
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
