After another great leader check in, Angus and I are excited to have only good news to report about Bridge Southern Africa! The group has been in South Africa, Swaziland, and back over the past week. They have been staying at Karma Backpackers recently and enjoying homemade yogurt, fresh jam, lots of pancakes, and more. They have been resting up from their Swazi adventures and preparing for more great times in Lesotho (where they are headed today).
Sarah and Thatcher interviewed each of the students and asked for their biggest accomplishment in this past week. The answers were:
Ryan - hiking with the group outside of Kestell and dealing with my fear of heights.
Freddy - being able to teach 60 kids in Mbabane. (One of Sarah's favorite teaching moments was Freddy and Toni using experiential education to teach the class about measurement. They took the students outside and had them guess how far different distances were, like 100 meters, and then actually measure the distance with meter sticks to see how close they were. The kids had a great time running around measuring and they also learned alot.)
Winnie - despite feeling a bit under the weather, teaching multiplication to a 4th grade class in Swaziland.
Maia - teaching 6th grade Social Studies in Swaziland.
Jazmin - getting to know Bomi (a 3 year old she worked with in Soweto).
Ben - teaching "wants and needs" to a large, rowdy class of 4th graders.
Clara - teaching an English lesson about the environment in Mbabane.
Megan - teaching sex ed to 7th graders in Swaziland.
Toni - forming a bond with the kids at the SOS Children's Village in just 3 days.
Josh - interacting with the kids at SOS, leading big group games and learning about their lives and experiences.
Maddie - teaching math to a class of 53 sixth graders. (No one got the problems right and the teacher said to just mark them wrong and move on, but Maddie took the time to go around and explain the math to each kid invidually, and stayed in during morning break to finish grading papers.)
Allie - teaching math to a class of 47 restless second graders who didn't speak English.
The group had a decent internet connection at Karma Backpackers and were able to send in some pictures! They will be posted a bit later today. Check them out in the slideshow in the right hand column. You can click on a picture to see a larger version of all of them.
Now the group is headed to Lesotho until Thursday. We wish them well and are excited to hear about all their new adventures!
A Windsor Mountain International Student Travel Program. For more details go to www.WindsorMountain.org.
Windsor Mountain Website Information
Bridge Southern Africa is a Windsor Mountain Student Travel Program. For more details on our WMST programs or our International Summer Camp, go to www.WindsorMountain.org.
Blog Archive
Phone Call Schedule and Mail Stop Information
The Bridge Southern Africa campers will be calling home on these dates and times (Eastern Standard Time). Please make sure you are available to receive the calls - we don't want you to miss the chance to hear from them! Call times cannot be rescheduled.
July 4 between 10am and 12pm (quick check in call after arriving)
July 18 between 11am and 1pm
August 2 between 11am and 1pm (quick check in call before departing)
You can send mail to the Bridge Southern Africa group at:
Windsor Mountain Student Travel
c/o Karma Backpackers
P.O. Box 354
Kestell 9860
South Africa
The last day for mail pick up is July 23, please make sure your mail will arrive by then to ensure delivery. Families may send flat letters to the program particiants. Place student's name in the bottom right corner of the envelope. Please do not send packages or money.
July 4 between 10am and 12pm (quick check in call after arriving)
July 18 between 11am and 1pm
August 2 between 11am and 1pm (quick check in call before departing)
You can send mail to the Bridge Southern Africa group at:
Windsor Mountain Student Travel
c/o Karma Backpackers
P.O. Box 354
Kestell 9860
South Africa
The last day for mail pick up is July 23, please make sure your mail will arrive by then to ensure delivery. Families may send flat letters to the program particiants. Place student's name in the bottom right corner of the envelope. Please do not send packages or money.
Southern Africa Map
What Time Is It In Southern Africa
Meet Your Leaders
Sarah Foster
Sarah loves encountering and connecting new people, places, and ideas around the world, and she is thrilled to be leading her seventh Windsor Mountain travel program this summer. Sarah graduated from Brown University with a degree in literature with honors in creative writing in 2001, and from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in 2002. Since then, she has been teaching, performing, and traveling. She toured with a mask and puppet show across the United States in 2003, and then moved to Portland, Oregon, where she teaches physical theatre, playwriting and stilt walking all over town and, as Co-Artistic Director of the Nomadic Theatre Co, creates original shows and performs them around the Pacific Northwest. Sarah is an active member of Clowns Without Borders-USA, through which she has traveled several times to Haiti and to Southern Africa. Besides traveling and theatre, some of Sarah’s other favorite things in the world include biking around Portland, playing the trombone, ice cream, partner acrobatics, and jumping in the ocean. (New England Traveling Theatre `02 and `03, European Traveling Theatre `04 and `05, California Traveling Theater `06, Bridge Southern Africa `07).
Thatcher Glode
Thatcher currently lives in Jackson, Wyoming where he is a youth counselor in a group home for high school students. After growing up in the beautiful mountains of Colorado, Thatcher attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs. During his junior year he had the amazing opportunity to study abroad on Semester at Sea, visiting 16 different countries (including South Africa) over a span of 8 months. It was on this program that Thatcher fell in love with travel and education. He had the chance to hear Castro speak in Cuba, go on a safari in Tanzania, visit the Taj Mahal in India, and climb Mt. Fuji in Japan. This program has forever impacted Thatcher's life and greatly opened his eyes to the vast world around him. Thatcher is writing this biography from an internet cafe in Prague after visiting several countries in Europe and eagerly looking forward to leading Bridge South Africa 2009. When not traveling or working, Thatcher can be found fly-fishing the Snake River under the Tetons in Jackson, or skiing in the back country on Teton Pass. (Bridge Hawaii ’06 and ’07, Bridge South Africa ’08).
Sarah loves encountering and connecting new people, places, and ideas around the world, and she is thrilled to be leading her seventh Windsor Mountain travel program this summer. Sarah graduated from Brown University with a degree in literature with honors in creative writing in 2001, and from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in 2002. Since then, she has been teaching, performing, and traveling. She toured with a mask and puppet show across the United States in 2003, and then moved to Portland, Oregon, where she teaches physical theatre, playwriting and stilt walking all over town and, as Co-Artistic Director of the Nomadic Theatre Co, creates original shows and performs them around the Pacific Northwest. Sarah is an active member of Clowns Without Borders-USA, through which she has traveled several times to Haiti and to Southern Africa. Besides traveling and theatre, some of Sarah’s other favorite things in the world include biking around Portland, playing the trombone, ice cream, partner acrobatics, and jumping in the ocean. (New England Traveling Theatre `02 and `03, European Traveling Theatre `04 and `05, California Traveling Theater `06, Bridge Southern Africa `07).
Thatcher Glode
Thatcher currently lives in Jackson, Wyoming where he is a youth counselor in a group home for high school students. After growing up in the beautiful mountains of Colorado, Thatcher attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs. During his junior year he had the amazing opportunity to study abroad on Semester at Sea, visiting 16 different countries (including South Africa) over a span of 8 months. It was on this program that Thatcher fell in love with travel and education. He had the chance to hear Castro speak in Cuba, go on a safari in Tanzania, visit the Taj Mahal in India, and climb Mt. Fuji in Japan. This program has forever impacted Thatcher's life and greatly opened his eyes to the vast world around him. Thatcher is writing this biography from an internet cafe in Prague after visiting several countries in Europe and eagerly looking forward to leading Bridge South Africa 2009. When not traveling or working, Thatcher can be found fly-fishing the Snake River under the Tetons in Jackson, or skiing in the back country on Teton Pass. (Bridge Hawaii ’06 and ’07, Bridge South Africa ’08).
Followers
Bridge China
Bridge Peru
Bridge Puerto Rico
New England Adventure
You can also check out our website www.WindsorMountain.org for details on our
International Summer Camp and Student Travel Programs.