Some final updates...Cambodia, Manaus, Morocco, Thailand and India!

Hey guys, we've arrived in Siem Reap. Everyone is safe and sound and feeling better. We'll update you when we're back in the capital on Monday. Thanks for everything.

-Zoe (Team Cambodia)

We made it safe and sound to Boa Vista, next stop Porta la Cruz Venezeula. We head out from here tomorrow morning at 7am, expect a full 24 hours on the bus, so we will update when possible!

Hope things are well up North,

Love, Team Manaus

Hey Gilad and Dawna,

Another little update for you. All is well here in Tata. We are headed to Agadir early tomorrow morning with Hilali and have a hotel lined up courtesy of Amal and Majid. Everyone is healthy and happy, even after many tearful goodbyes in Tagmout this morning. A quick stop in Casablanca on our way home is all in order as well. See you in Toronto!

Kevin (Team Morocco)

Hey Dawna and Gilad,

We're leaving for a day to visit a Karin village, and then heading to Ko Samet the night of the 28th as planned. Everything is going well at this point.

Paul (Team Thailand)

Also, Team India is now in Calcutta!

Peru, Morocco and Manaus!

Hello parents!

Another little hello from team Peru! We have arrived safe and sound in the city of Cuzco and will be staying here until next Sunday. Unfortunately, after today we will not have anymore access to phones or internet until our return to Lima on Monday evening. Everyone on the team is doing great, and we`re all looking forward to our last adventure here!

Sincerely,

Milou and James (Co-Leaders)

Hey Dawna and Gilad,

We completed work at our fifth school today to bring our total number of classes painted up to 12. Hilali has been taking care of business. We have been in contact with Majid about debrief, so everything is looking good as our time here winds down. Hope you are both well, talk to you soon.

Kevin (Team Morocco)

Hello Global,

Team Manaus is doing well. We have survived the depth of the Amazon and are heading back to Venezula on Thursday. Stopping over in Boa Vista, and then staying two nights in Porta La Cruz for debrief, then to Caracas for our last night of the trip-- and then home sweet home.

Expect an email when we arrive to Ven.

p.s we love you

Vicky & Dawn (Team Manaus)

Messages from Kenya, Guatemala, BC, Bolivia, Brazil!

Hi Gilad and Dawna,

 Just wanted to let you know that we arrived safely in Ugunja last night. Wow, what a difference from LP! We're sweating buckets.

Hope you're both doing well!

Mel (Team Kenya)

Hello from Peten,

We got to Peten today safe and sound.  Tomorrow we start work in the ecological park so looking forward to that.  Hope everything is good in Toronto!

Lana (Team Guatemala)

Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to send out an update to let you know that we have safely arrived in Blackfalds Alberta. We spent the past two days driving through the beautiful rockies, had a quick visit at Lake Louise and enjoyed playing country music (to Dave's dismay) as we rolled into the prairies. We are all settled in now and excited for these next few weeks.

Take care,

Brittany and Pauline (Team British Columbia)

Hey Dawna and Gilad!

We just arrived at our second contact in Cochabamba after a very long day of travel! I'll send an email out to parents right now. We'll be here until the 28th before our debrief. 

I hope everything is going well with you and the rest of the teams!

Alison (Team Bolivia)

Hi Dawna and Gilad!

Just a quick note to say we are now in Sao Gabriel and everything is going very well. Dinaldo was not able to come, but we are with another contact that he arranged and it is working out excellently! We will be leaving for Manaus on Friday on the boat. 

See you (too) soon!

Mary (Team Brazil)

Message from Team Nicaragua:

Hi,

We made it back to Granada! It was a pretty smooth trip, and everyone is healthy and settling into our hostel now. We had a great time with our first contacts, lots of learning on the farm and with our homestays, and a community party last night complete with a pinata and dancing! Hope everything is going well for the rest of the teams, and I will keep you updated on Nicaragua,

Lisa

Updates from Teams Thailand, El Salvador and India

Hey Dawna and Gilad,

We're with Dr. Dave now. We're in Chiang Rai now and preparing to leave tonight to stay with the Hill tribes. We'll be gone for a week and will update you when we go back.

Hopefully everything is going well,

Paul (Team Thailand)

Hello family and friends of Team El Salvador,

Just wanted to let you know we are having an incredible time!

We are in La Mora until Monday. Our community is having dinner party for us tonight and another dance party tomorrow. We have been taking Spanish lessons, painting at the community house, building beams for homes and playing with the children. We did our horseback tour of Cerro Guazapa yesterday and we have our Spanish lessons near the river today. Tomorrow we will be building bricks around the garden, cleaning garbage around the community and will finish painting outside. Our families include us in cooking and cleaning, allowing us to fully embrace the culture and way of life in El Salvador. It will be sad to leave this community, we are feeling very attached to our families as we get to know them more and more.

No one has been sick so far and everyone is looking our for each other. What a wonderful team, I couldnt be more pleased with the positive attitudes they have.

We miss you and think of you often. Love from El Salvador,

Ashley, Shawna, Shaun, Rodrigo, Lindsay, Ally, Erica, Mandie, Riley, Nilsa, Leanne and Lesley

 Hi Gilad and Dawna,

Just wanted to let you guys know that we arrived in Lunglei safe and sound. Hope everything is well with you and the other teams.

TAJ

(Trista, Amy, Joanna)

And more! Including a message from our Brazilian chapter...

Hey guys!

The team has arrived safe after all of our travels. We are currently in Aizawl and leaving for Lunglei tomorrow. 

We will talk to you soon,

Trista, Amy and Joanna (Team Mizoram, India)

Hey!

We arrived late last night in Caracas. We are all safe the flight went well and there were no issues with bags. We applied for our visas today and they will be ready friday. We will be heading to Manaus Friday or Saturday! Everyone is well and excited for our adventure!

Talk to you in Brazil!

Dawn and Vicky :)

This is from the Sao Gabriel team who is currently in Manaus:

Good Evening friends,

Tomorrow we will be receiving the Global Youth Network team, a Canadian NGO that works with Communal Development. They will stay with us for a month developing some activities in São Paulo and in most of the time in Francisco Morato-SP. Our prayers are with the team. 

Sincerely,

Marcelo Edu Oliveira

Projetos Internacionais

Jocum Sampa

Some more safe arrivals...

Hi Gilad and Dawna,

We made it safe and sound last night! We did some home visits this morning and participated in a support group at the new office near Mary's house.

We are heading to Ngong tonight with Mom.

THANK YOU FOR A WONDERFUL ORIENTATION!!!!!!

We will keep you posted!

Mel (Team Kenya)

This is from our partner in Caracas. The Manaus team has arrived there

safely and will be filing for their Brazilian visas:

Hi Gilad....

The team arrived safe in Caracas. My friends were picked up at airport last night and today we will start the visa process. Greetings

 Raquel


Hello Gilad and Dawna,

How are you guys doing? I hope you are enjoying a well-deserved rest after orientation.
I just wanted to send a quick email informing you guys that we have arrived in Pristina, Kosovo safe and sound. All of our flights were on schedule (we got here on Wed, May 4, 2011 at 1200 hours as planned) and there weren't any major problems. 
Cheers,
Ijlal (Team Kosovo/Macedonia)

A few more teams have made it to their destinations!

Hi Parents, 

This is James and Milou, co-leaders of your childs Peru trip! Just a quick note here that we have arrived safe and sound, and everybody is loving Peru already! 

Internet and phone access is limited here, so please do not be worried if you only receive an email once a week. We are taking good care of them! 

Today we will be embarking on our journey and everybody is really excited for it!! We are so happy to have each and every one of them on our team, and we look forward to an amazing experience ahead!!

Take care. 

James and Milou 

Hi Dawna and Gilad!

 We are in La Paz for the day surrounded by mountains and clouds! Tomorrow we leave for the the long ride to the amazon, so we´ll be in touch with you again once we arrive there. We´re expecting to arrive there in the early morning on May 5th. Our team is doing great, just getting used to the altitude. I hope you and all other teams are doing great!

 Alison Hayley Robert (Team Bolivia)

Hi Gilad and Dawna!

We have arrived safely and are now at the Lucky Star Hotel. I am about to start the phone tree/email tree so everyone's parents should be informed shortly.

Thanks again for everything this weekend!

-Zoe (Team Cambodia)

Also, we've been informed that Team Morocco has arrived safely in Agadir and will spending the night there before they head out for Tata tomorrow!

Global Team Program Participants are Arriving Safely...

Hola family and friends of Team El Salvador!

We have arrived safe and sound :) No problems at the airport! We are on our way to La Mora, about half way there!  We have had an exciting truck ride and have seen the beautiful landscape of El Salvador so far. It is without a doubt that everyone smiles in the same language despite the language barrier. Nilsa has done a wonderful job at translating for us.

Our team had a very positive experience at orientation and enjoyed every aspect of it. We are excited for what lies ahead :) Spanish lessons, painting in the community, playing with the children and much more for this week.

We all miss and love you very much! Until next time,

Ashley, Shawna, Shaun, Nilsa, Riley, Leanne, Lesley, Erica, Lindsay, Mandie, Rodrigo and Ally

Team El Salvador

Global Youth Network - Ottawa

Team Guatemala has arrived in Guatemala City Safely

We arrived safetly! Not all of our luggage has made it yet (missing 5 packs). But its all been tracked and we will pick them up this evening.

Looking forward to a great month! We'll be in touch :)

Colleen & Lana & Natalie & Elissa

Hi,

We madeit safely to Granada and are at our hostel for the night before travelling to Ometepe tomorrow. The trip was very smooth, no problems at all. We are all pretty hungry so its time for lunch. I will email the parents to let them know we are here safe. Hope you are getting a good rest after the weekend. Thank you so much for all your hard work to make this happen for us!

Lisa / Team Nicaragua