The Best of the Blogs!

Community Service in Dominica – Hard at work maintaining hiking trails and getting messy with Guava-colored “Caribbean Blue” paint, the group also finds time for an encounter with octopi.

Global Action in Cambodia – Days after teaching English at a Siem Reap monastery and exploring the temples at Angkor Wat, the group returns to Yale to deliver a truly inspiring presentation about an NGO they founded. (Find out more details about SPEAKcambodia on the organization’s Facebook group page.)

Cultural Exploration, Theater in Britain – The “Putney Players” inspire a Japanese drum parade in the streets of Scotland while preparing for their performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Language Learning in France – During their homestays in Franche-Comté, Clayton meets his French twin and Gresa’s new family introduces her to local life and local cheese.

Excel Spain – On a regular Thursday in Madrid, Excel Spain participants are practicing flamenco, discussing literature in a café, comparing works of Van Gogh at the Thyssen Museum, and photographing the different faces of Plaza Mayor with the program’s photography instructor.

Putney Foundations in Costa Rica – Putney Foundations, which emphasizes community service, active language learning and adventure travel for 7^th and 8^th graders, keeps busy among the villages, beaches, volcanoes, hot springs and trails of Costa Rica.

Community Service in Dominica

Sunday, July 8

Hello All!

Our wonderful group here in Dominica is getting closer and closer, as everyone tries new service projects in ever-changing groups. We just completed our first full work week and we all feel accomplished, our clothes dotted with cement and blue paint. Our primary projects were paving a local road; painting and rust-busting the sports complex behind our Agriculture Centre lodgings; and massive beach clean-ups at many different sites (all so beautiful!). The paving crews began on Monday and have completed a good portion of the road. The work was tough but everyone has put their best foot forward and worked very hard. Most people have also had a chance to work on the sports complex, including designing and painting a giant welcome sign in shades of "Guava" and "Caribbean Blue." Some students also headed a few towns south to Boetica, to pick up where last year's group started with road-side plantings. This coming week we'll begin trailwork on the lovely Glasse trail where we have all hiked.

There's lots of hard work and lots of frolicking to balance it out. We've just discovered custard ice-pops, a wide river in nearby Rosalie with a rope swing, and this weekend we took a trip south and did the 6-hour round trip hike to the Boiling Lake along with three helpful and knowledgeable guides. It is the second largest boiling lake in the world, and along the way there are many different streams with different colors of water, depending on how much sulfur is in each--some boiling hot, some warm, some cold. An incredible hike--everyone felt quite accomplished and quite tired. We crashed early at our hotel and then headed to Scott's Head Beach on Sunday morning. It has swimmable ocean water and the group rented snorkel equipment for a day of fluorescently-colored fish, a school of small squid, and even a couple of octopi.

Monday we'll start up projects again with full force, likely beginning construction on a house for an elderly lady in LaRonde; doing some council office painting in nearby Delices; beginning our reading and art program at the elementary school; a life issues discussion group with 6th graders; as well as continuing and hopefully completing the other projects we've already started. A busy schedule but we've got such a capable group! (Back to top)

 

Global Action in Cambodia

Friday, July 27

Hello from Siem Reap!

The other evening we all split into teams to teach English classes at the local monastery and community center. Some of the students were a bit apprehensive and many mentioned that the evening started off somewhat awkwardly, but by the end it was a great success. Everyone taught one or two hour long classes to students of various ages and skill levels and two of our students even taught a class in French! Everyone had a blast teaching and mentioned that they would love to have a chance to do it again.

Our most exhausting day was Thursday, when we woke up at 4:30 to head to Angkor Wat to see the temple at sunrise. It was a perfect morning and many of the photographs we took are breathtaking. After breakfast back in Siem Reap, we spent the rest of the day climbing through and exploring the impressive temples in Bayon, Angkor Thom, Ta Prom, Bantey Srei and Meebon, to name a few.

Our trip is very quickly coming to an end. We will depart Siem Reap around 3 pm on Saturday and arrive at Yale around 10 am on Sunday after a grueling flight across the globe. We've been working very hard in our down time putting together our final presentation, as well as working on the details for SPEAK Cambodia.

We're all excited to see you at Yale on the 1st! Wish us luck as we finish things here and prepare for presentations at Yale. We'll be seeing you all very soon! (Back to top)

Cultural Exploration – Theatre in Britain

Thursday, August 2

“Edinburgh Adventures”

Sorry it's been a while since we have checked in…we have been busy making a play! And we finally have one—a great one, at that!

Here is a recap since we last shared our adventures: Last week we finished up our stay in Oxford with a Classic Tea service followed by a great production of Taming of the Shrew. We had met the actor playing Petruccio (Ben Joiner) on the bus to London the previous week. After the show on Wednesday night, we went out with him and the actress who plays Katherine. We had a great time discussing the production over tapas, and feel so lucky that we made these wonderful new friends, even if it was our final night there.

We are now in Edinburgh, Scotland and have been spending most of our time in the rehearsal room creating, creating, and creating. The actors (they will no longer be referred to as students—they are full-blown actors now!) were machines as they cranked out enormous amounts of material for consideration for the show. When not in the rehearsal room, we have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather here (finally-the rain is in our past and we have found the sunshine once again!).We started putting up posters and handing out pamphlets for our show today! We've also started to go to Fringe shows as the Festival officially started today.

I have to say, quite possibly the best group moment happened tonight, one that will be talked of for years to come and treasured in all of us forever. Here's the story…

After seeing a show, having dinner together, and walking around the Old Town of Edinburgh tonight Jennifer, Norma, and Ashton were leading the group back to the dorms. They heard strange drumming sounds ahead and peeked their heads into a courtyard where a sound check for a Japanese drumming performance for later this week was going on. In the mood for a little adventure, they led the group into the courtyard where the drumming had just finished. When they saw us all running in, they decided to do one more for us. When we all started dancing at the base of the stage, they came off and joined us with their instruments. Suddenly, we were all dancing and chanting together and spontaneously broke out onto the streets together. Before any of us knew what was happening, we were carrying their flags, singing, jumping, shouting, and laughing as we were led around the streets of Edinburgh by the drummers. The crowd grew from our 17 to what seemed like at least 100. Along the way we picked up a break dancing group and had a huge crowd around us all on the Royal Mile High St. as we watched break dancers, and formed conga lines-all the while dancing to the beat of the drums and chanting away waving our flags. The best part was knowing that none of this would have happened if we hadn't followed our curiosity and walked in on their sound check. This group has an infectious energy that cannot be denied, that's for sure!

It was truly the epitome of the Putney Spirit, and the actors couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the night. There were many proclamations of "that was the best night of my life" that echoed around the group as we finally made our way back to Pollack Halls. We are still feeling the high of this unexpected excitement, and I'm sure it will take a while for the adrenaline to wear off!

We will continue to rehearse our show this week, pamphleteer to promote our show, and see lots of theatre. We send our love to all of you, and wish you were here to have these adventures with us. (Back to top)

Language Learning in France

Sunday, July 29

Homestays in Franche-Comté

After a week in the villages surrounding Isle sur le Doubs, we've now moved south to lively city of Aix-en-Provence. Last week in Franche-Comté was perhaps the most challenging week yet for many of the students, as they were surrounded by native speakers in a culture that is in many ways very different from our own. However, the week also turned out to be extremely rewarding and the improvements in their speaking and comprehension are already evident.

The students had a lot to say about their homestay experiences! Here are a few recaps of the week:

Clayton from Saxtons River, VT: For the past week I have been staying with a French family, whose son, as everybody said, was essentially my twin. Not only did we have the same taste in just about everything, but we dressed the same as well. During the week, he did as he normally would, hanging out with his friends and going into the local town, and I did the same. For the first few days I had extreme difficulty understanding anything they said because of the dramatic change in accent, but after a few days I began to understand how they spoke and even started to speak that way myself. After a week, I had already become part of his welcoming social group, and it was hard to leave.

Gresa from Bronx, NY: I spent this week with the Misner family in L'Isle sur le Doubs in the Franche-Comté region. My experience living with a French family was indescribable! The entire Misner family was incredibly kind, welcoming and warm-hearted. They accepted me into their family so easily and were always eager to tell me about their region and their famous cheese – le concouillote. My French sister, Coralie, was a phenomenal young woman. I don't think that I would have been able to be as good a host and 'sister' as she was to me. She did an amazing job of including me in her life and introducing me to all of her friends. I got a real taste of the French social life. Coralie's friends were also very kind and welcoming and I can't wait to talk with them all on MSN. Every week in France thus far has been absolutely incredible; however, this past week was unforgettable. I will always remember my week in L'Isle sur le Doubs, the Misner family, and all of my new French friends. I am extremely grateful that I had this opportunity! Thank you Putney!

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Excel Spain

Thursday, August 2

The picture you see is of a flamenco dance class that is happening as this is being written. After class this morning, we broke into enriquecimiento (enrichment) groups, with 16 students opting to try their hand at classical Spanish dance (taught entirely in Spanish). Other groups are currently having literary chats at various cafes, visiting the Van Gogh exhibit at the Thyssen Museum, or trying to capture the various angles of Madrid's Plaza Mayor with Photo teacher, Jordi Cucurella.

We leave for the mountain town of Castellar de N'Hug early tomorrow morning, and will be settling in to our Barcelona accommodations on Sunday night. (Back to top)

Putney Foundations in Costa Rica

Friday, July 13

Hola!

I can't believe that the program is already coming to an end! I guess time flies when you are as busy as we are, though – and we plan on staying that way 'til the very end of the trip.

Last weekend, we stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, located just about as close to the base of the volcano as you can get. The Observatory Lodge is also home to the Smithsonian researchers who are monitoring the volcano so we all had the chance to visit their headquarters and see what they were finding.

On our way to the volcano, we stopped to go on a zip line tour at Ecoglide. The tour consisted of 15 cables strung throughout the tree canopy and one Tarzan Swing. The Tarzan Swing was optional and most were brave enough to take the plunge, swinging like Tarzan through the trees. We all had a blast – many were saying it was the highlight of their trip so far.

We arrived at the hotel after dark and were sitting on the balconies wondering where the volcano was when all of a sudden it produced one of its frequent eruptions. Lava was spilling out of a crater near the top and flowing down the side of the volcano sending sparks along the way. It wasn't a steady stream but instead came in bursts, each one more exciting than the previous. Most rooms had balconies overlooking the volcano and it was difficult to pull ourselves away from the lava-show to go to bed. It was so spectacular that we found it hard to believe it happens almost every night here!

We woke up the next morning to discover the volcano fully visible, free of cloud cover. It is often rainy at the Arenal Volcano and we were incredibly lucky to have such great views for the entire weekend. The lava is not visible in the daytime but you can see and hear the rocks tumbling down the sides. The hotel's restaurant was situated overlooking the volcano and our breakfast of pancakes, sausage, eggs, fruit and pastries was made that much better by the spectacular view.

After breakfast, some students went caving, hiking into the underworld to see what lives below. They saw all kinds of interesting insects, bats and geological formations. Some students chose to stay at the hotel and enjoy its amenities, such as the Jacuzzi, pool and hiking trails, including one to a nearby waterfall. And a third group went to walk a series of hanging bridges. They wandered about the forests canopy and saw the animals that live at the treetops, including howler monkeys, lots of birds and some poison dart frogs. We all had dinner out at restaurants before meeting up at the hot springs for some R&R.

Exhausted, we returned to the hotel for another night of lava watching before we collapsed into our beds. We had one more morning in Arenal and decided to spend it making the trek to the La Fortuna Waterfall. It is a gorgeous waterfall tucked away in the side of Cerro Chato, the Arenal Volcano's dormant partner. It is a bit of a downhill hike to get to the base of the waterfall, but well worth it. A few students braved the freezing water to experience the waterfall close-up, but most turned and headed back up the stairs, hoping to reach the top before the rain started to fall. After a hearty lunch at a pasta buffet, we headed back to Playa Hermosa.

The third group left for the Community Service village on Monday (update from the Community Service village coming soon!) and the rest of us settled back into our normal routine. Tuesday was a hike through a national park as well as kayaking and snorkeling, Wednesday was our last day of day trips to Rincon de la Vieja and Santa Rosa, and Thursday was another day of surfing adventures.

Tomorrow we are all going to re-group again, this time at Monte Romo, the Community Service village. We are going to have a big send-off there and then we head back to Hermosa for our final day. I can't believe it is here so soon! We are excited for one big party on our last night and are bracing ourselves for some tearful goodbyes.
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Hasta luego!