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(Greg) Sometimes, as parents, it is hard to know when to push a kid out of his comfort zone and when to back off.  This trip throws comfort zone challenges at us almost everyday. Some are spectacular; like jumping into a gorge in Zimbabwe, watching predators violently rip apart prey, or walking into cold black […]

(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 […]

(Reis) As we stepped into the range of sight of this city in ruins, I believe all of our jaws dropped simultaneously. There, in front of us, was the majestic Lost City of the Incas. I felt like a king on his throne, with a leopard (or llama!) skin throw rug below me. A very […]

(Reis) Today, on the island of Cerro Dragon in the Galapagos Archipelago, our great guides told us how the small changes in DNA and genes can make the reptiles, plants, mammals and insects adapt to fit the environment in which they are living. The key to adaptation is TIME. For a species to adapt to […]

(Alex) When you think of the Galapagos, you think of: warm, Equatorial, Darwin, giant tortoises, blue footed boobies and blue water. Like a perfect dream land. Well, it’s not. At least not the month that we were here. Mornings are cloudy, windy and overcast. Luckily it clears in the afternoon to blue skies, sun and […]

(Alex) We went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. It reminded me of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg — the time frames building by room — from how Hitler gained power to people learning that the war was finally over. I had learned about the Holocaust in 7th grade English from Daniel’s Story, […]

(Dana) Four weeks in the Middle East does NOT make me an expert in Islam. But based on my education in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, I encourage all Americans to try to understand the basics of Islam. To quote our Jordanian guide Hassan, “yes, there are some traditions that Americans may not agree with, but […]

(Andrew) Today we went picking, shoveling, searching, sifting and exploring through a 2,000 year old basement that was literally a dump. The basement became a dump when the Jewish Edomites came into the Pagan Greeks lives and gave them three options; convert to Judaism, refuse and be killed, or be forced into exile. The people […]

(Reis) Masada is a mountainous, isolated, natural fortress. It was home to a group of Jewish rebels, a mad, architectural king, a Roman siege, and a huge suicidal massacre. The Israelites were revolting against the Romans in 73 A.D., so the Romans put them under siege. For 8 months the Romans camped outside and around […]