Greetings from Jackson, Wyoming and Portland, Oregon! We hope this letter finds all of you wrapping up your school years and getting excited for an amazing summer in southern Africa. We are Thatcher Glode and Sarah Foster, and we will be co-leading this summer's Bridge Southern Africa program. We have both had the privilege of leading trips with Windsor Mountain in the past, and we congratulate you and your parents on making a wonderful selection for your summer travel adventures. Now onto a bit about us ...
Thatcher:
I am 28 years old. I am currently living in Jackson, WY. I grew up in Denver and attended Colorado College where I majored in International Political Economy. I am an avid enjoyer of all things outdoors and active and currently I work in a group home for high school students and serve as a counselor. I love to ski and fly-fish and most of my time off finds me engaging in either one of these pursuits. During my time at CC I had the great fortune to participate in the Semester at Sea program that allowed me to circumnavigate the globe on a refurbished cruise ship while visiting 16 different nations and studying on board the ship. It was truly a life-changing experience and fostered within me a passion for travel and experiential education. I found Windsor Mountain in 2005 and have found creative ways to have one month of my summer free to work for this incredible organization since then.
Sarah:
I am 31, and have been based in Portland, Oregon for the past 5 ½ years. I work with a theatre company here in Portland, teaching, creating, and performing original theatre shows that incorporate physical styles like mask, acrobatics, and clown. I grew up in New Jersey, and studied literature and creative writing at Brown University in Rhode Island. While there I developed an interest in movement theatre, particularly the European tradition of clown, and after college I went on to study at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in northern California. My work as a clown was what first brought me to Southern Africa: I had the opportunity to travel there three times to teach and perform in HIV/AIDS affected communities through Clowns Without Borders. One of the things I love most about theatre is its power to communicate, and connect people, transcending language and culture. I am excited to go back to Southern Africa with you on our own cultural exchange.
Both of us:
We have both had the opportunity to lead Bridge Southern Africa before – we worked together last summer leading it in 2009. Thatcher led it in the summer of 2008 and Sarah in 2007 - and we had phenomenal experiences that we will all remember for rest of our lives. With this much experience leading it we both feel heavily invested in having another fantastic summer and couldn’t be more excited to return to this amazing program with you all as our new batch of students! As long-time WMI leaders (Thatcher: Bridge Hawaii ’06 & ’07 South Africa ’08 & ’09; Sarah: New England Theatre ’02 & ’03, European Theatre ’04 & ’05, California Theatre ’06, South Africa ’07 &‘09), we are full-fledged believers in community service-based traveling and really enjoy the way that we structure our programs at Windsor Mountain.
A bit of information for this summer and a few tips to help you get ready:
Prepare to be physically and emotionally challenged. We will have some long days that find us working with young children who have seemingly endless amounts of energy. We will see some beautiful sites this summer and will also witness some children and adults who have endured incredible difficulties. You will never forget their smiles and the stories they share with us, but it can be challenging at times to witness the hardships they have endured. We will have some days with early mornings, long drives, interesting foods, and late nights... it can be absolutely exhausting and having a positive flexible attitude and encouraging others around you to do the same can make all the difference in the world.
A few practical tips:
1) It is going to be cold! Think of very chilly mornings and evenings where you can see your breath. There might even be snow in Lesotho! Bring a jacket, bring gloves, bring a hat... it does typically warm up a bit during the days though, and we will visit some warmer areas as well. But… pack light! We will be fitting all of ourselves and gear into 2 vans and space will be tight- so we need y’all to pack light but smart.
2) Read up a bit on South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho--- check out wikipedia and some books at the local library to familiarize yourself with the people and politics of the regions we will visit. A recent Economist magazine had a full write up on the current economic, social, and political conditions in South Africa- lots of good stuff in there. Study some vocabulary too! – a few words in Zulu, siSwati, or seSotho (depending on the area) can work wonders to break the ice with local people and show that you are ready to learn about their culture.
3) Be flexible... Angus has done an outstanding job of developing our program and we have a ton of awesome activities planned but sometimes things change a bit- it is important that you are able to "go with the flow" when we end up having a picnic on the day we were supposed to go to the orphanage, etc - hostels can change over a year, meals will challenge you but we will do our best to accommodate all dietary needs... an open mind is an extremely valuable asset when traveling.
4) Prepare to savor every moment because the summer will go by very fast. You will make amazing friends in a short period of time both within and outside of our group.
We can't tell you how excited we are to meet all of you! Sarah will be flying over to South Africa a few days before our group arrives to finalize some final details. Thatcher will be meeting you at the airport for our flight overseas. Between the two of us, we’ve had 11 amazing and safe summers with Windsor Mountain, and we’re confident we will have another one this summer. We’ll be giving you a call before the program starts to see if you have any questions.
Until then,
Thatcher Glode
Sarah Foster
