Zoo Town Nomad

We have begun doing field visits to different non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work within the country. For our first visit, our group was split up into two different subdivisions. My group visited a HIV/AIDS support organization. The other went to a nutrition unit that deals with malnourished children. At TASO, the HIV/AIDS NGO, we were introduced to the activities as the organization. The organization has about seven sites around the country. We visited the one in Kampala. They said that they have over 32,000 people in their databases who have tested HIV positive and have sought help at the Kampala site. We were informed that some of their other satellite sites have surpassed the Kampala numbers. The organization mainly deals with supporting people who have already contracted the virus—offering them counseling, medicine, education, etc. However, they ... read more

Classes started two weeks ago and have been in full swing. All my classes are super interesting, with the exception of one which I started out despising. Nonetheless, it is starting to grow on me, so that’s good. All my classes are PLU size and with basically all Americans, although there are a couple of Europeans thrown in there as well. We only have classes Monday through Thursday, so three-day weekend for the rest of the semester! I’m going to start volunteering at a small center for disadvantaged students—most of whom come from messed-up households. I’m excited for that and should start this coming week. This weekend we (my roommate, some of our friends, and I) went up to The Alpujarras—a mountainous region outside of Granada. It is littered with “white villages” (tiny villages where all ... read more

We had a break between the time when our intensive Spanish classes ended and before our regular classes began. At the beginning of the break our program took us to Sevilla for two days. The trip was a lot of fun. We saw all the major sights in Sevilla, including the third largest cathedral in the world—way cool. I’m beginning to appreciate different types of architecture more and more. After our Sevilla trip came to an end, instead of returning to Granada with the majority of the group, six of us stayed in Sevilla and took an 11pm bus to Madrid. We arrived in Madrid at 5am the next morning, waited until the metro opened at 6am and then split our separate ways—four people went to airport to jet off to Portugal and Switzerland. Meredith and ... read more