Blogger: Ian Olive

Location: Reutlingen, Germany

Ian is a senior digital media student from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Born in South Korea and having lived in dozens of states as well as Australia, travel is an integral part of his life. He first visited Germany in the 9th grade with an international youth orchestra and has fallen in love since. From enjoying famous composers Haydn and Mozart to his classic Mercedes Benz and his Leica camera, Ian has caught the German bug.  Ian has a strong passion for photography, film, architecture, music and automobiles. He hopes that his photographs and blog posts will inspire students with the beauty of travel, culture, and new experiences. Ian is extensively involved in the Torch student newspaper, Valparaiso IMC marketing department, Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, and is the president of the Photography club. He graduates in the spring of 2017 and hopes to pursue either a photojournalism career or a  media position in the armed forces.

Blogger: Caroline Dienes 

Location: Cambridge, England

Blogger: Tiffany Luehrs 

Location: Hangzhou, China

Tiffany Luehrs is a rising junior at Valparaiso University studying International Business and Chinese. This fall she will be studying at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. Tiffany can’t believe that she will soon be 7,526 miles from home.  The distance doesn’t scare her though, and she is beyond excited for the adventures and opportunities that await her arrival in Hangzhou.  The last time she was in the capital of Zhejiang province was just a little over a year ago when she studied and interned in Hangzhou through Valparaiso’s summer study abroad program.  Five weeks was definitely not enough, and she can’t believe how blessed she is to have this opportunity to return, revisit the old, embrace the new, and truly integrate herself into Chinese culture during the next few months. She is excited to expand her Chinese vocabulary and understanding through Zhejiang’s intensive Chinese courses and embrace the profound cultural immersion that comes from living in a host country for more than a few weeks.  She is most looking forward to running along the beautiful West Lake, shopping on Hefang street, exploring the botanical gardens, and adding a few more to her list of bizarre foods she’s tasted!  It’s likely going to be an exhilarating semester a few thousand miles away in Asia and she looks forward to sharing her experiences with you! 🙂

Blogger: Maia Moore

Location: Hangzhou, China

Maia Moore is a junior IECA and CJS double major. She is originally from Tuscaloosa, Alabama and will be studying abroad in Hangzhou, China for the fall semester! She is a tad nervous for this upcoming trip but mostly excited, especially since she will be arriving in China on her birthday! She is most excited to practice her Chinese skills and of course, for the food! She hopes to gain a better understanding of Chinese culture and become more fluent in Mandarin.

Banana Trees

Yes, your read the title correctly, in Tanzania they make beer out of bananas.

Bananas are the main crop of Tanzania and they use them in just about everything.   Not only to they eat them plain,

A Vat of Brewing Banana Beer

they eat them fried and turn them into flour which they use for cooking.  My favorite banana dish probably was the banana soup.   The strangest might be the banana beer.  Apparently, if you cook green bananas, the sugars will convert to alcohol.  They add a little sorghum and some other things and create the most common drink in Tanzania, banana beer.

In order to thank us for our hard work, we celebrated with the villagers with a vat of banana beer.  We were all handed a traditional drinking class, a gourd on a stick, filled to the brim with this strange substance.  It has a strange smell and isn’t strained so has sorghum floating on top of it.  Not exactly the most appetizing thing in the world, but it seemed necessary to experience every part of the new culture.  If you could get past the texture, it did not taste bad and drinking from the gourd was kind of fun.  However, I quickly decided it would be a more pleasant afternoon for everyone to give my beer up to one of the villagers who absolutely loved it.

Before: Excited to Try the Traditional Beer

After: Not Exactly Tasty

The kids build a small section of the canal

One of everyone’s favorite days of the trip was when we go visit Mandaka Primary School, the school where about 500 of the village go to school.  When we arrive they greet us with songs and welcome u with tea.  They are so excited to have us visit yet I think I might have been more excited to be visiting them.  The kids are so cute.  They are in classes of about 40 and sit three to a desk, but they are so enthusiastic and joyful.

This year we hoped to teach the kids a little bit about our project by building a canal out of modeling clay.  Each child got a little section of clay to make a part of the canal that we connected and improved to make a working canal.  When we told the kids it was ready, they just about ran to the front of the room to see.   We put a hole in the wall to how that overtime the canal will break and water will escape, which out water did spilling colorful water all over the floor of their classroom.  We then fixed it to show that little repairs will help the communities get water.

Did we make a huge mess?  Kind of

Everyone excited gathers around to watch the demonstation

Did anyone care?  No

Did the kids fully grasp the concept of maintenance? Probably not

Did we at least help the kids understand the canal more?  Hopefully

Did the kids have a blast? Yes

Did the other EWB-Valpo members have fun? Of course

Was the day a success?  Definitely!

The villagers work hard to mix a concrete batch by hand

Building junction 1 required making a lot of concrete by hand.  This is not an easy task as the rock, stone, cement, and water are heavy and need to thoroughly mixed.   Now imagine mixing this with a shovel that is only 2 ft long.  That is what the villagers did for over 50 batches of concrete me made.  Although it was tiring and hard many of them kept mixing like machines to finish the work.  I was impressed since I was exhausted after mixing a batch before it was even close to being finished.

The mixing was hard, but I loved watching the people work together.  As soon as a batch was ready someone would yell “fall in” and everyone would line up and pass buckets of concrete down the line to get the concrete to where it needed to be placed.  The line was so efficient generally we did not have enough buckets to keep up.  I enjoyed it because it was something that everyone could take part in.  I joined the men and women of the village in line and laughed and smiled as we moved the concrete in order to fix their canal.

EWB-Valpo member Brittney joins the buckt brigade