What is 31,397?!?! 3.5 Years of Community Service in One Summer!

Alaska Community Service, Barcelona PCE, California Community Service, China: Ancient Empires to Modern Wonder, Costa Rica Combo, Costa Rica Community Service, Ecuador/Galapagos Community Service, Hawaii Community Service, Peru Community Service, Peru Language Immersion, South Africa Community Service No Responses »

Nov 162011

31,397?!?! Is that … how many gumballs are in the world’s largest gumball machine? How high the tallest mountain is? How many miles to travel around the world?

Guess again!

We are proud to announce that Westcoast Connection / 360° Student Travel travelers completed 31,397 HOURS of community service in 2011!

What an incredible impact the Westcoast Connection / 360° Student Travel travelers have made! From Hawaii, to Peru, to Alaska, to China and beyond, our participants have truly made a lasting impact on the communities they have worked with and learned so much in the process. Let’s take this opportunity to highlight some of the amazing projects that our trips have been involved with in the last few months…

In California groups had the opportunity to work with Habitat for Humanity and build and construct alongside the families that will be moving into these homes in the future. Whether it was lending a hand with painting, caulking or hammering, our trip members didn’t hesitate to pitch in and help the community they became a part of.

Last summer on our Community Service elective on our Pre-College Enrichment program in Barcelona, 14 of our trip members worked at the Juvenile Center with children aged 5-9 years old. It was an incredible opportunity for our participants to interact with disadvantaged children to bring smiles to their faces while teaching English and practicing their Spanish.

Our summer in Costa Rica was a very special one. With Habitat for Humanity, all of our Costa Rica programs together help construct 3 houses in San Ramon. From the initial groundbreaking through the laying of foundation, floors, and putting up walls we did it all. An incredible accomplishment! We also worked with the Costa Rica Humanitarian Foundation building a brand new classroom for a school. The final group was able to hand the keys over to the teachers.

Our programs in South Africa had the unique opportunity to volunteer with the Morhotso Clinic where we spent an evening cooking a huge soup for all of the orphans and children. The next day our groups were able to play with and serve our soup to the children who were either orphaned because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic or whose parents were being treated at the Clinic.

Heading down south to the Amazon Jungle on the Ecuador & the Galapagos Community Service program, our trip members spent time clearing a soccer field for the Quicha community. We spent time with the local community playing soccer and practicing each other’s languages.

Congratulations to all our travelers who contributed to some amazing community service projects around the world. An outstanding accomplishment that works out to be 3.5 years of community service in ONE SUMMER!

Anna Put Her Hand in Jessica’s Mouth …

South Africa Community Service No Responses »

Oct 182011

Don’t worry, Jessica wasn’t a Trip Member on Anna’s Africa Community Service program, Jessica is a 10 year old female hippopotamus who lives in South Africa.

Everyone is Smiling!

When our groups visited Jessica last summer, she was quite hungry! Some trip members fed Jessica tea while the other group fed her sweet potatoes. According to Trip Director Anna, “We would place the sweet potato on her nose and then place it in her mouth – a pattern that she is familiar with. In between, you could pet her nose and her face. She drinks a CRAZY amount of tea and she loves coffee, but they cut back on coffee because her doctor said it wasn’t good for her!”

Feeding Jessica

Petting Jessica

Hippos are known to be aggressive, but not Jessica. The scientists studying her if she considers herself to be a human or if she sees her human visitors as hippos.

Check out the clip below to learn about the South African couple who adopted her and watch her behave very much like a house pet! Also see the Animal Planet clip about her here.

The Westcoast Blogger

Anna & Jessica

“Dumela” from Maun, Botswana – Africa Community Service

South Africa Community Service No Responses »

Jul 272011

Hello Africa Community Service family and friends!

FYI – “Dumela” means “Hello” in Setswana, the language of Botswana!

We have been having an amazing time traveling, doing service and making memories! Friday was our first day of community service in Botswana and we worked hard clearing an area of land for the garden at the Makalamabedi Community Bakery. It was a rewarding experience for which we truly felt that the men and women of the community greatly appreciated our dedicated service.

We also took the time to visit with the local school children we would visit again on Monday. It was wonderful to meet and play with them as well as to have the opportunity to compare our experience in South Africa to our
experience here. Though each school was distinctly different, we observed numerous similarities in the needs of children and were privileged to have the opportunity to witness first hand each school’s unique flavors.

Saturday was a unanimous “best day of the trip” because of the opportunity we had to work with Beauty, a representative from the Aglow International Botswana Organization. The organization works on projects for the destitute and elderly. She invited her family and coworkers to meet us and start off the day of service with a welcome to everyone. We joined hands and sang sounds in unity and anticipation of our teamwork on this project. It was a treat having Miss Botswana 2004 there to help out too! Our hard work was rewarded with a delicious braai (Afrikaans for BBQ) followed by games, singing, mingling and dancing with the locals whom we were helping. It was wonderful dedicating our time and effort to this group and a ton of fun for us: Sam learned to whisk mealie pap and Alex helped get the meat on the grill. The day was made even sweeter because Saturday night was our first night at the Thamalakane Lodge – Prince William and Harry of England’s choice of lodging on visits to Botswana!

On Sunday, we enjoyed a game drive safari and river cruise in the Moremi Game Reserve in the legendary Okavanga Delta. Known for it’s wildlife diversity and seasonal foliage changes, the Okavanga Delta is on many bucket
lists and in the book “1000 Places to See Before You Die!”. On the game drive we spotted elephants, giraffe, impala, kudu, duikers and our best views of zebra yet!

That afternoon we relaxed in the sun as we passed along hippos on a river cruise on the Thamalakane river. After a day of spotting animals, we had worked up quite the appetite and feasted on our Lodge’s famous dinner (of course we did manage to save a bit of room for a dessert of ice cream and fried bananas!).

With Monday morning came our last day of service and an exciting opportunity to teach conversational English to the students at the beautiful Makalamabedi Primary School. Trip members prepared an hour of English
lessons to teach students in grades 3-6. We were surprised at how quickly (and with ease) the students learned new greetings, phrases and school games from North America. In Nate and Sam’s english class, drama was the teacher as the boys acted out verbs like swimming, skipping, and eating! Jess, Jen, and Meagan taught their class a sweet new wind-mill high five that was a huge hit and the kids loved. In Jamie, Ally and Melissa’s class, the oldest students practiced English by asking questions about North American sports and Animals. Kate, Dani, and Alex had fun with their class and taught them a favorite game: “Simon Says.”

Following class, we were able to play recess games with the younger children and enjoy their laughter and smiles. To finish off our service projects in Makalamabedi, we weeded and tilled an old garden on the school grounds in preparation for a future school vegetable garden. Botswana is great and we are off to the salt pans outside Gweta today!

Sala sente!

The Westcoast Blogger

Majestic Victoria Falls – Africa Community Service

South Africa Community Service No Responses »

Jul 212011

Hello family and friends!

Time is going by so quickly, hard to believe that we are already in Botswana!

To keep you truly up to date with all of our adventures, we must start back at last Tuesday morning, a morning where we all woke up excited, as it was our first day of service. Riding into Acornhoek on a bright and sunny morning we met the chair of
the education board and the principal of the primary school to discuss our service projects. The morning went by quickly as we gathered supplies and planned the work for the week. In the afternoon, we had the chance to meet the wonderful school children. We can’t even begin to tell you how friendly and happy they were to see us. Their bright smiles lit up our group. Sam and Gabe joined some boys playing soccer in the field while Dani, Jenny and Sabrina taught and even learned new games with the girls.

Wednesday was our first full day of community service and Remi, Meagan and Ally were excited to get a start on repainting the welcome sign. It needed a fresh coat of paint as well as an artistic touch up – a creative challenge these girls looked forward
to tackling. Meanwhile, Nathan and Jessica were working hard on painting the principal’s office and green-thumbs Kate and Jamie were planting spinach, beets and onions. That afternoon we stopped in to visit our newest African friend: Jessica the hippo! We fed her snacks and gave her some South African rooibos tea as we got our pictures taken with her. Jessica especially liked Alex who bravely fed her snacks of potatoes.

At the end of last week, we wrapped up our service projects in South Africa and truly, words can’t express how difficult it was to say goodbye to the children and administration of the primary school. Though we will miss them, we are proud of our accomplishments and are pleased knowing that our hard work has provided a new vegetable garden, a freshly painted school office
and a colourfully updated welcome sign.

Our last night in Kruger was a treat as we enjoyed a wonderful sunset safari outside our lodge grounds. All evening we spotted giraffes (Melissa’s favorite), cape buffalo, impala and even a rhinoceros! We had our first opportunity to see a truly uninhibited African sunset from a hilltop and it capped off a great week.

Saturday began with us preparing a soup lunch at the medical clinic in Acornhoek; a service for children with HIV and/or orphans. It was an emotionally moving experience but a great one nonetheless. Gabe played soccer with a young boy and then became particularly touched when the boy shared his story with him. This young boy’s dad is sick with AIDS but his aspirations are to get out of poverty and become an electrical engineer. His was just one story though all the people we’ve met and all the stories we’ve heard are just amazing. After serving lunch, Kate and Meagan passed out toys and stickers to the children. As we left they ran after us wishing us well and saying goodbye.

It has been great staying at our lodge: we’ve had amazing dinners, cozy bonfires and a chorus of hyenas and cheetahs every night. Sunday morning meant we had to leave the Kruger area behind us but not without the scenic stops at the Three Rondavels
and Blyde River Canyon. From Johannesburg we continued onward to Livingstone, Zambia and spent our first afternoon on a spectacular sunset cruise. Jamie and Dani loved relaxing on the boat deck and the two girls grabbed some great pictures of an elephant taking a dip in the Zambezi River.

Day two in Zambia brought us to the majestic Victoria Falls or “the smoke that thunders” and it was everything we hoped it would
be! Sam, Kate, Ally, and Meagan wore ponchos for the hike down while Jenny and Melissa braved the heavy rainfall around the falls. After a quick lunch back at the safari lodge, we spent the afternoon getting to know elephants up close and personal. We got to touch, feed and ride elephants and learned more about the ivory poaching threat in southern Africa. The ride was absolutely incredible! Larger than you can imagine, elephants are incredibly elegant animals with distinct personalities. Nate and Jessica rode Danny (the oldest elephant of the family) and led us on the afternoon walk. We had a phenomenal time in Zambia and are
happy to say that we have arrived safely in Botswana and are looking forward to our upcoming days of community service!

Sending much love!

The Westcoast Blogger

Greetings from the banks of the Thamalakane River in Botswana! – Africa Community Service

South Africa Community Service 1 Response »

Jul 192011

Greetings from the banks of the Thamalakane River in Botswana!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here in Maun and have seen some incredible wildlife since we last spoke to you. Our morning game drive in Chobe National Park was sensational! We started off in the early hours of the morning, ready to see some nocturnal animals, a wonderful sunrise and experience the morning rituals of some of our favorite animals. We loaded into the safari vehicles and were lucky enough to see, at the very start, a large amount of hippos and a lioness with a few of her cubs. A few minutes later the radios went crazy, as a pride of lions had been spotted near the plains and the water. We saw a pride of 12 lions, playing and wrestling, we truly could not believe our eyes! From giraffes and wharthogs being chased by wild dogs, to elephants with year old calves and hippos galore, it was an amazing way to start our time in Botswana!

After our morning game drive, we were off to Maun, a town near the Okavango Delta where we have just finished our last days of community service. Day one saw the whole team pitching in to clear the land on the site of a future bakery for the community. We were lucky enough to be greeted into the community by the Maun Council and then actually participate in a greeting ceremony by the chief of the village. Once the land was cleared we created 10 plots to be planted with vegetables for the bakery, Sky and Kate were ground tilling machines and turned over the manure and soil like pros! While waiting for the water to moisten the ground that we had prepared, the whole team (under the initiative of Maggie) started to get a plan in the works for a flash mob for when we reach Gabarone.

Our next day of service was probably one of the most incredible days we’ve had to date. We were taken to a plot of land about 10 minutes from the city centre, where we met Beauty, a teacher, who is dedicated to building a center for seniors in the area who have lost the family that they would otherwise have to take care of them. We participated in the traditional welcome and greeting ceremony and all of the community members joined us and sang the beautiful anthem of Botswana. Alana did an incredible job at introducing our group and then we broke out into 5 different groups to start clearing the land.

Emma and Tessa spent the ENTIRE day working alongside community members and rarely took a break. We had chef Scott on the Braai with two other teenagers from the community, and Ivy and Ashley who lent a hand stirring the Pap (traditional maize dish) and serving the meal to all of the hardworking volunteers. Molly M, Melissa and Nicole really spent time getting to know the community members that they were working with and together we managed to clear a HUGE section of land. Everyone had a incredible day and made true friendships that really showed that even though we live on the other side of the world, we all have so many similarities and are so much alike.

The following day was spent on a game drive into the Moremi Game Reserve where we were able to check out the gorgeous landscape that forms the Okavango Delta and were fortunate to see elephants, giraffes and zebras. After lunch we went on a river cruise where we saw hippos along the banks or wading in the water.

Our last day of service was a very meaningful one. We went and visited some of the seniors that will benefit from the center that we were helping to build. All three groups managed to interact with and make an impact at each of the homes that we visited. We heard incredible stories and were truly able to make a difference in the lives of these elderly people. After seeing the people we were making a difference for, we went back to the land and finished up the part of the field that we had started two days before. We took shifts and are so proud of all of the hard work that we accomplished!

We’re off to Gweta today for our adventure on the Salt Pans tomorrow. We can’t believe that we only have 5 short days left together!

Lots of love from Botswana!

The Westcoast Blogger

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