Thanks for the checking out the blog for this Global Leadership Adventures program!
Here are a few things to know and expect:
- Blog posts are written by onsite program staff and/or students and sent to our Headquarters team who will post the blog on this page.
- We typically receive 2-3 blog updates per week from each program, so please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see a blog post every day – that’s totally normal.
- Blog updates received late in the evening or overnight will be posted the following day.
- Blog updates received on weekends may not be posted until Monday.
- Due to many factors such as internet accessibility, program staff aren’t always able to send photos, so some blog posts may contain text only.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we hope you enjoy following along on these unforgettable adventures.
For frequently asked questions about the blogs, please visit our Program Blog FAQ page.
-The Global Leadership Adventures HQ Team
Click here to jump down to the most recent post!
BLOG POST FOR JULY 6
Dear families!
Hello from the mountains of the rainforest in Costa Rica! We are so happy to be starting our program with a beautiful group of students! We had a wonderful arrival day with earlier and later arrivals, where we got to welcome students by small groups. As they got to homebase students got to relax and have a short walk to start getting to know the beautiful nature and the hundreds of animals… We can see how student´s eyes shine when they see all the animals that share this home! Our amazing homebase, Lands in Love, is a place that indeed is full of love, from the nourishing vegan food to the care towards the animals, to the art designs that resemble nature!
As students got to meet their roomates they started to get to know each other with group games and our day finalized with our first ´chow circle´ our daily community ritual of sharing highlights of the day, as well as shout outs for each other.
By the afternoon of Day 2, we finally got to be a full group after we received our last students who had goten flights delayed. We are thrilled and grateful to live this unique and meaningful experience with our students!
Our best,
GLA Staff Team
BLOG POST FOR JULY 7
This morning began with meeting the 2 new members who joined us overnight, Rowan and Nichola. The group became aquainted with them during breakfast, which was followed by a tour of the rescue. The owner explained that Lands in Love began with a group of animal lovers moving here from Israel. At the beginning, they only had 5 animals at the location. It began to grew as they took in rescues. People who had pets that they could no longer properly take care of, or didn’t want to continue to care for, started to leave their pets with the founders. It quickly grew to where it is now, hosting 650 dogs and 400 cats, along with horses, goats, sheep, chicken, and other animals.
We started the day with breakfast at 8:30. All the food here is vegan and it’s very good with a good amount of options. For breakfast we had vegan eggs, pancakes, rice and beans, and fresh fruit. The rest of the meals are mostly variations of pasta, rice, vegan meat alternatives, and salad.
We had orientation and after dinner we got to have a guest speaker, her name was Samantha. She shared insights into the culture of Costa Rica specifically the phrase pura vida which has a much deeper meaning than the translation to pure life. She also shared about how ticos (naive Costa Ricans) give directions and some types of traditional foods ticos eat at celebrations like tamales and arroz con leche, we also learned some of the national symbols of Costa Rica. Lastly she spoke about the culture around coffee and how any time is a good time to have coffee!
Leaders of the Day Sasha, Vivia and Abbie
