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(Emma) Christmas Day 2010. I am out looking at the hilarious Adelie penguins jumping in and out of the water. Then I hear faintly in the background “Did you know that today is the POLAR PLUNGE?” “OH NO!” I think. The polar plunge is when you jump into the freezing cold Antarctic waters, and get […]

Snowboarding is something I might have wanted to try one day, but when I imagined it I pictured white, cold snow; not tan, hot sand. Well in the Atacama there is no snow, only sand. So it is called Sandboarding! We turn the corner in the canyon, walking on the ash and gypsum. We see […]

(Emma) Dad comes in to wake me up at 4:48am. I roll out of bed and go stand in a line. It is only Mom, Dad and me; the other three choose to sleep late. Out of the hotel, we see nothing. There is no line, so we start one. At 5:06, the next person […]

(Emma) I was not too excited about driving to Patakancha village. It was a remote, small village up a rocky, windy road to 14,000 feet high in the Andes mountains. When we arrived in our big, bulky-looking van, a group of 10-year old boys came running to us. When they receded, a group of 12-15 […]

(Emma, Alex, Dana) Egypt is an ancient and wonderful civilization. Its 5,000 year old history dwarfs that of the US. The people are very kind and welcoming. Some observations and concerns about what we saw: 1. 4% of land in Egypt is arable; in the middle of all of this sand, it is the land […]

(Emma) Kawaza village in Zambia was a great change of pace for our family. It was a happy place with many friendly, happy people. As we pull into Kawaza in our safari vehicle, all I see is hundreds and hundreds of little kids’ eyes turn to me. I didn’t know what to do. I was […]

(Emma) It is a rainy, dark afternoon, and we want to try to find lion cubs. There are three lion cubs in the area, and we want to see them, even with the chance that we will not. We take the risk. The roads are muddy and wet and the rain pitter-patters on the car […]

(Emma) I see the SHELDRICK sign as we pull into a dust road. My heart starts to beat faster and I start to hyperventilate. I have been waiting for this day the second I heard about it.  We are going to meet the baby orphan elephants we adopted a few months ago. The time slows […]

(Emma) Today was the first day of school for all of the schools in Dover. Right now as I type this the middle school bus would be at my house, picking me up for my first day at the middle school. But I am not there; I am in Zimbabwe instead. Even though I am […]