Read about our first week in Villanueva Villanueva - Week 2 During our second week in Villanueva, our volunteering schedule was shuffled around a bit. The director decided that she wanted Dennis, the writing expert, to focus on teaching written English to the older students, who are only at the main campus. And she wanted … Continue reading Kicking Back in Villanueva
Dancing in the streets of Colombia, birds, sunsets and more - our first impressions of Villanueva.
Hard to believe that two years have gone by since our last performance of one of our theatrical programs in front of a live audience. That occurred in January of 2020 at the Charleston Museum in Charleston, SC, and we had no idea at the time that it was going to be our theatre company's … Continue reading Showtime in Ambato, Ecuador
Our third volunteer position on our tour was tutoring English at the South American Language Center in Ambato, Ecuador, for 3 weeks. This consisted of spending 25 hours a week (each) having conversations with students, just so they would have a chance to practice English with a native speaker. We could talk about pretty much … Continue reading Life as a Volunteer: Teaching English in Ambato, Ecuador
Let's be clear right up front: we've used Airbnb quite a few times, and have always been quite pleased with their service. And with one exception, we've never been unhappy with the hosts we booked with. (See our story about our stay near Naples, Italy.) But we've never encountered an outright fraud before. Until now. … Continue reading Getting Scammed (Twice) On Airbnb: How It Happened, How We Recovered, and How To Prevent It
Finally, the time came to report to our next volunteering position. While we've been enjoying our "down time" to play tourist, that's not really the purpose of this tour. We are volunteering our way around the world, and so we were glad to be able to get back to it. These girls are carrying cement … Continue reading Volunteering in Jaibalito, Guatemala
Tue. Nov. 30, 2021 Early this morning, we welcomed a couple of new arrivals to Barrio Vivo hostel: two young men from Seattle who work in robotics and computer-related fields -- one is a PhD candidate. These are only the third and fourth fellow Americans we've met here since checking in here. Then we went … Continue reading Anthropology Museum and Theatre Games
Thu. Nov. 25, 2021 Today was Thanksgiving, but there was no holiday feast as such, since Mexicans don't celebrate the occasion. Yet we managed to make it a memorable one, anyway. We again had breakfast duty at Barrio Vivo the hostel where we are currently volunteering, and at about 7:30, before any staff arrived to … Continue reading Mexican Thanksgiving
travel with a theatrical flair 