Day 1: Welcome to Nairobi

We arrived in Nairobi LATE last night (this morning?), after 24 hours of traveling. But despite the long travel, all of the girls were excited to finally be here! We were met at the airport by our guide, Kate Spencer, and our two drivers. It was a quick 20 minute trip to the house where we were staying the night. Our driver, Moses, introduced us to the "sleeping policemen" - the enormous, hidden speed bumps on the roads here, and an "African massage" - riding down the very bumpy, clay driveway to the house.

Our house mother, Anna, met us with a warm smile and biscuits. We rallied for a few minutes to make a plan for the morning and then fell into our beds. We woke this morning to the incredible sounds of the local wildlife and a homemade breakfast with fresh eggs and African tea. Our itinerary today includes a visit to the giraffe sanctuary, a charter plane to the Lewa Conservancy, and settling into our camp.

More updates later (from the students, next time!).

Romania: We Made It!

We made it to Romania! It has been a LONG (with a three-hour on-the-tarmac wait at Dulles!) two days, but so worthwhile. The folks at Pro Vita have graciously welcomed us with open arms and have fed us with a fantastic meal. We are all now off to bed to rest for the journey that begins for us all tomorrow. Check in on our post tomorrow afternoon (your time!) to see what we have been up to!!

Headin' to Dresden!

And our day to fly to eastern Europe finally arrived! Here we are waiting patiently at Dulles for our flight to Dresden, but we have a 5-hour layover in Amsterdam before we get to Germany. Now, at the Amsterdam airport, we wander the wide and infinite walkways by coffee shops and electronics venders and get in some serious lounging [See pic!] but will soon be in the air again. Everyone got some reasonable shut-eye on the flight and were in good spirits after deplaning. What a wonderful group! Next up for our blog entries: Taylor Bordes and Mia Howard. Can't wait!

Kenya bound!

We've successfully completed the first leg of our looong journey! We arrived to Dulles IAD in plenty of time for our flight. All of the girls (and Mr. Cotter!) are excited and eager to be in Nairobi. Next up is our 12 hour flight to Doha, a couple of hours to layover, and then a five hour flight to Nairobi. We will be getting in late and most likely going straight to bed, so hopefully we can update the blog again Saturday morning Kenya time! 

Kwaheri!! (Bye in Swahili)

Romania: SAINTS All Ready To Go!!!!

We are packed, excited, and ready to head off to visit our friends at Pro Vita! We are looking forward to sharing this amazing experience with one another, and with the children and adults who we will meet and connect with in Romania. Stay tuned to this blog, as we will update (as long as we have internet access!) with student perspectives every day of our journey.

SPAIN EXCHANGE 2017- The Anticipation!

Some American hosts and Spanish visitors will be reunited this week in part 2 of our Exchange.

SPAIN EXCHANGE 2017- The Anticipation!
by Jordan Taylor

My sophomore year, I decided to venture outside of my comfort zone and join a group of my peers for a service trip to Nicaragua. I had only traveled out of the United States once, and that was on a family trip to Costa Rica when I was nine that I can barely remember. Not only that, but we were to stay with host families, and I was nervous, not about staying with people I hadn’t met, but how I would adapt to a culture that I had no knowledge of. At about this time last year, I was getting ready to board a plane to Nicaragua, not knowing that it would be a place that I would soon fall in love with. Now, I’m getting ready to go to Spain, and I couldn’t be more excited. I can’t wait to experience everything: the culture, the food, the language, and the people. Not only that, but I get to see the exchange student I hosted in the fall, Marta, and the other Spaniards again and meet Marta’s family (and her dog, which I am very very excited for). I’ve always wanted to go to Europe, and it seems so crazy that I’ll be there in less than a week. I’ve been waiting in anticipation for this trip ever since I signed up, and now the time is finally here! It’s completely surreal. I only hope that I can speak Spanish somewhat okay and the bar isn’t set too high since Marta was basically fluent in English (I am fluent in Spanglish though, since that’s pretty much what we spoke in Nicaragua). In any case, I know that this is going to be an amazing trip, and one that I’ll never forget. Spain, here we come!

SGG China 2017! Post #1: Pre-departure

Testing, testing 123...Welcome to our first entry for SGG 2017 China! Today we had a pre-departure meeting and ordered "Chinese food" for the students. We're all SUPER excited for our trip!