Buen Día a Todos Pacific Discovery Viajeros!
My name is Kate and I'll be one of your program instructors throughout South America this Fall. I thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce myself - after all we will be living together, rafting rivers together, traveling by every form of transportation and maybe even having to endure a bout of traveler's diarrhea together. I'm sure by the end of our semester together we will all know one another maybe a bit too well!
Lee and I are both so excited to meet you all and experience, engage and grow as a group during our travels in South America. I've been in and out of Spanish speaking countries my whole life - living with my grandfather in Spain as a girl and studying abroad in Spain while in university. I've worked as an outdoor guide in China, Malaysia and around SE Asia and most recently have been living in the Andes of Peru. I derive the most pleasure from my travels by engaging with the natural environment and the rural communities that support and cultivate it.
Originally from the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, all I've ever wanted to do is build a sustainable life abroad. I went to college in Oregon where I studied Cultural Anthropology, which is pretty much the study of human culture, and wrote my senior thesis looking at different forms of tourism and how these styles of travel negatively and positively influence local communities. I found myself fascinated by different ways of living and the range of human experience and how the modern world impacts all this.
The countries we'll be exploring are so incredibly diverse, even within their own borders. Religiously, geographically, culturally - histories of war, coups and trials for democracy all under the long standing repercussions of Spanish colonization. Pacific Discovery has sent you a suggested reading list and I highly recommend learning a little history and culture before we embark on our travels together. Each community we'll be visiting has its own story which is written in the landscape and the stories of its people. We’ll have the opportunity to experience this diversity first hand through service projects, homestays and through individual interactions and activities that will engage and submerge us in the culture that surrounds us. We have the incredibly unique opportunity to engage on a different level with these communities through the language learning component of the program. We'll learn tid-bits of Quechua, Kichwa and of course improve our Español.
I have such strong memories of small interactions like sharing a mate de coca with an abuela or making friends with vendors at the market - it makes exchange so much more meaningful and rewarding when you have the capacity to communicate in a common tongue. I'm looking forward to making new memories with this group of diverse individuals. It is my hope that we come together with different passions, skill sets, insights and observations to foster a more in-depth and complex perspective of international engagement and overall experience of South America.
So, I'll see you guys in less than a month! I'll be the overly-enthusiastic one at the Lima airport :) In the meantime, please email me if you have any questions regarding packing or worries small or large. And get to know each other! Chances are if you have a question, everybody else is wondering the same thing. You guys can start chatting and introducing yourselves through our Facebook group.
Hasta Pronto, Kate
Ok, great!
Kate,
Do thr students need to bring a sleeping bag?