Three of our 2008 programs are being set up by the leaders who led those programs in 2007!

Carl Siegel is working on Bridge China, Sarah Foster is working on Bridge Southern Africa, and Jim Whitmore is working on Bridge Peru. Also, Windsor Mountain veteran and former Bridge Program Coordinator Dianna Hahn is on board to develop Bridge Caribbean and Bridge Hawaii. This gives us a real advantage in terms of continuity and fine tuning: with returning leaders and developers, we are able to enhance our knowledge of the areas we visit, and deepen key relationships with local contacts. This proves invaluable when setting up service learning opportunities, and leads to genuine exchange between our students and the people they meet.

Carl Siegel is getting things going in China: this year Bridge China will begin in Hong Kong, and then travel to the beautiful southern province of Guizhou to study Chinese language and culture in the city of Guiyang. From Guiyang the group will head north to the Xi'an, where they will explore the Muslim Quarter, visit the ancient city wall, and take a side trip to see the legendary Terra-Cotta Warriors. After a family home stay in the tiny village of Pengliu near Xian, the group will move to the Dandelion School on the outskirts of Beijing, where they will teach English to the children of migrant workers, and take day trips into Beijing to see the Great Wall and The Forbidden City. Bridge China will wrap up about a week before the world descends on Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Jim Whitmore has been busy south of the border working on Bridge Peru. Immersion is the theme! This year the group will kick off the program in Ollantaytambo (the living Inca City), hop over to Cusco for ten days of formal Spanish study, family home stays, service work, and cultural adventure, then travel to Almeria, our gateway to adventure. The group will kayak on Lake Titicaca, see the magnificent condors of Colca Canyon, and hike the Inca Trail Machu Picchu. Jim is also hard at work setting up a second family home stay in the tiny village of Llachon, near Lake Titicaca, and that is not all: if everything goes according to plan, Katie Colby, who co-led Bridge Peru with Jim last year, will be back with us again in 2008. Two returning co-leaders, back for the same program! The student travel gods seem to be smiling on us.

Sarah Foster is laying the groundwork for another amazing edition of Bridge Southern Africa. A member of the courageous group Clowns Without Borders, Sarah is introducing some fantastic new elements to a program that is already bold and ambitious: in addition to service work with HIV/AIDS orphans in Swaziland and Lesotho, a residency with the Umbuyisa School of Art in Soweto, and a hike in the Drakensburg mountains, BSA 2008 will visit Durban to participate in workshops with musicians, actors, and circus performers, and also take a few days to explore the wonders of Cape Town. This trip is filling up quickly, and no wonder: where else can you find such an intriguing combination of international travel, service work, and creativity?

OTHER STAFF NEWS

Kate Berge: Since leaving the gorgeous Hawaiian islands in late July, Kate has been busy living and working in Boston as a Resident Director in an all-freshman hall at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.  She loves her students, her meal plan and her tiny studio apartment with a view of Fenway park!  This fall, she has managed to squeeze in time for weekend getaways to Martha's Vineyard, camp for the reunion, Washington DC and Ithaca, NY.  Kate will be graduating with her Masters of Science in Higher Education this spring, and has been offered to co-teach a college-level study abroad course in Ghana, Africa at the University of Cape Coast for 4 weeks this May. She also hopes to lead another student travel program with WM this summer....Oh the possibilities!

Brendon Gawel directed and produced the first show under the banner of his own theatre company: Ombelico Mask Ensemble. The show was a great success at the Philly Fringe Festival.  He's been performing as a mime/living sculpture on the streets of Philadelphia. Currently he's directing a clown-theatre show for Philadelphia Children's Theatre, and in December he joined Sarah Foster and Tim Cunningham on a Clowns Without Borders expedition to Haiti.