I sit next to an elderly gentleman on the plane ride to Guatemala City: he has a neatly trimmed snow white beard and glasses. Sabino. Carlos Sabino-- the author of Guatemala: La Historia Silenciada and a professor of history and sociology in Guate. He converses with me in English while I struggle to respond en espanol. A Coldplay song sings on the radio, something I wouldn´t expect. It´s amazing how American culture pervades nooks and crannies of the world. Mr. Sabino continues his Sudoku game ¨para expertos¨ as I eagerly await our arrival to...GUATE!!

We spend our first night in Antigua, an irresitibaly charming town with colonial style buildings and churches with intricate carvings. Women in traditional traje balance bundles of bankets and other goods atop of their heads. Men enjoy each other´s company along the curbs, sometimes staring at the 12 foreigners strolling through their turf. Smiles and holas are in abundance.

Our troupe of dragons pile into the van to head for Lago de Atitlan. We pass fields of various crops with men, women, and children among the rows. We pass villages with women doing their laundry in a common basin and flaunting colorful traje. It´s quite the sensation for the eyes.

We reach Panachejel and hop into a little dinghy to cross Lago de Atitlan. With the volcanoes surrounding us, in all their majesty and grandeur, we sit packed as sardines with some of the locals to reach our destination: San Marcos la Laguna. The villages around the lake are named after the twelve disciples (excluding Judas, of course, as Luispe clarified for me). Nickers sits to my right, conversing with a local man who carries a bunch of pink flowers. To practicar mi espanol, I ask, ¨por una chica?¨ He responds with ¨si¨ and some other spanish talk that I can´t quite understand...but soon enough, I will!

Well hello hello!

As we speak we are in the hotel room in LA getting ready to pile in the airplane for Bangkok! We had a wonderful meeting and orientation filled with food, those lovely "getting to know you" games, and much much love for our new friends. Basically we are pumped. And it has been decided. Best group ever.

love,

Team Sikkim. booty.

P.s. the guy to girl ratio is 2 to 8. hello estrogen

Dear Rwanda 09 students and parents,

My name is Liz Connor, and I will be one of your instructors this summer in Rwanda.  The Land of a Thousand Hills. Rwanda. Africa. These words bring images and ideas of a place, a place that we don’t know yet but that will soon be a thread in the beautiful and complicated pattern of each of our lives. My first priority this summer is to keep you safe and healthy while we travel. My second priority is to help you stay “present” or awake, and aware. One of the best things about traveling is that we get to leave our current lives behind in order to dive fully into the “once in a lifetime” experience. You will never again be the “you” that you are now. Love that YOU and throw yourself into this with your heart, eyes and ears open. Give yourself this summer in Rwanda. Celebrate the fact that all the busy-ness, all the plans, all the ideas of who you are or were, and how we should be at “home”, can stay at home. I encourage you to write yourself a letter now, of all the things you want to think about and do upon return from Africa. Write this note, and leave it in your bedroom, dorm room or apartment, and start packing. Pack for the person you want to be. Pack for a person who is ready to experience life at its fullest, all the grit and despair alongside with the joy and freedom that life has to offer. Pack lightly and plan to tread lightly, plan to listen more than you speak. Plan to dance and laugh more than you worry. We will bear witness to tragedy, we will be challenged physically and emotionally and we will balance that which saddens us with the inexplicable lightness that comes from living so close to people who live simply, as well as with music, poetry, dancing and daydreaming while watching beautiful landscapes slide by our bus windows. We will engage with people and each other unfettered by our cell phones and school work and important appointments. We get to just BE in Rwanda for 6 weeks. That is a huge gift for which we should be grateful and proud. I know already that the students who choose to Dragons programs are those who are looking for something to challenge them, to move themselves from comfort to learning, to expand the width and depth of their worldviews. I already know you a little bit, Rwanda students. You chose to spend your summer in Rwanda with some intention to go beyond your comfort zone. And that is brave and wise! Congratulations!

I cherish the moments before stepping into the unknown, all the excitement and anticipation and even the twinge of fear. Now, after leading a few Dragons programs, I know that nothing is predictable, except that each person experiences the world in a different way.  I love seeing students process and learn, forge friendships and bonds with each other and the people we meet along the way. I love this work fully and I am so honored to meet each one of you brave souls!

I am from Spokane Washington, and have spent the better part of the past ten years living mostly out of a backpack. I have led Dragons programs in Guatemala, Mexico, West Africa and India. I even spent a few years living in Boulder, CO working in the Where There be Dragons headquarters as the Director of Staffing.

I am currently taking courses to prepare me for nursing school in Durango, Colorado. I spent all of last week canoeing on the Green River in Canyon Lands, Utah. I really love driving into the desert on weekends. I want to work in community health someday as a nurse midwife. I paint a little bit. I hike a lot. I have a deep love for Africa that I can’t really explain. I have never been to Rwanda.  I am very excited to learn from Guen and Celestin with their extensive experience in East Africa. We hope to be a support for you as you experience Rwanda and as you prepare for the journey. Please post your questions on the Yak Yak board! Also, introduce yourselves! Let’s begin to form our little community, our traveling family which will have such a unique and magical experience in common.

Again, I look forward to meeting each one of you in DC and to experiencing Rwanda with you.

Happy packing!

Liz
freemariposa@gmail.com

In front of a Buddhist chorten (or stupa) in Dho Tarap

Will, Jeff and Jacob and the victory flag

Crossing the Numala at over 17,000ft- our first pass

Our campsite before the Bagala (our second pass)

Our same campsite the next morning...

Successfully over the Bagala with Pemba Sherpa our guide

On the shores of Phoksundo Lake with our staff

Phoksundo Tal at dawn

We have just returned to Kathmandu from a spectacular trek in Dolpo. We are thrilled to have completed the trek, especially as we got caught in a snowstorm while crossing a pass over 17,000 ft and had some fear we would have to descend and return. It was a challenging and spectacular trek and we are deeply thankful to our outstanding staff of cooks and porters and guide and horseman to have ensured our well being and comfort and to have made the trek such a success. We are also happy to have returned safely and on time in spite of road strikes and cancelled flights.

As we wrap up today and students will be flying home tomorrow, we will leave it to them to share with you in person the remarkable excursion we had over the past 2 weeks (and over the months before that). As we have just returned from the mountains, they will be returning to you a bit dirtier and leaner than when they left, but hopefully a bit happier and wiser as well!

Here are a few photos to give a glimpse of what the past 2 weeks have been like for us.

The Instructor Team