Josh Lodish ’17 takes his gap year by the horns

Dear Waynflete,

I am writing from Tel Aviv, Israel. This year I am on a gap year before I begin college at Davidson College in the fall. This year I have gone from the tips of the Himalayas to floating in the Dead Sea. I lived on a farm in Nepal, and a tent in Botswana. I traveled on a painfully crowded ten hour bus ride in Nepal, and long-tail boats in Thailand. I ate dumplings on the streets of Bangkok, nearly ate cat in Vietnam (more to come later), and ate several falafel pitas in Jerusalem. I have visited ten countries, and experienced countless new ideas, people, and lifestyles. A good way to look at this year is that I have reinforced the idea that there is always more than one right way to do anything- to live, be happy, be successful, and be impactful. Of course, I already had this idea from my time at Waynflete, which encourages members of its community to learn from those that are different from them.

So far my year has been broken up into four main parts. Part one was backpacking for roughly four months throughout Asia with a good friend. We visited Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Singapore (but only because we missed our flights and had to spend the night). In Nepal we began with a week in Kathmandu, two weeks of hiking the Annapurna circuit trek (a trek that centers around the Thorong-La Pass, the “highest pass in the world,” at over 17,000 feet), and spent 3 and a half weeks working on an organic farm in rural Nepal. If you want to see the video I made from the trek in Nepal, follow this link. The trek was truly the most beautiful experience I have ever had in nature, and the farm was where I made some of my closest friendships on the year, with the sons of the owners of the farm—Bigyan and Bibek. In Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam we backpacked all around. Highlights included the plethora of street food markets, exploring the tropical islands of Thailand, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and floating in Halong Bay, Vietnam.

Part two, I spent two weeks with my family on a safari in Botswana and Zimbabwe seeing absolutely incredible wildlife in an environment like nowhere else in the world. It was birthing season for many animals, so we got to witness baby giraffes, hippos, elephants, cheetahs, and more. After the safari I spent almost two weeks in Cape Town, South Africa, in my opinion, the best city I have visited.

Part three, for two months I have been interning at an organization for immigrants assistance in Tel Aviv. Here I have been living in Tel Aviv, taking hebrew lessons, and working to help new immigrants to Israel. I have also been traveling around the country on weekends, and have really enjoyed it. Highlights have included a trip to Hebron and Bethlehem in Palestine, and exploring the old city of Jerusalem. Soon I will be spending a week in Jordan before returning home for the first time since September.

Part four, returning home to work at a law firm in Portland. Next, in early April I will be venturing out on a cross country road trip, focusing primarily on national parks in the southwestern states in the US.

To give you all a sense of one of the many ways my Waynflete education has helped immensely on my travels, I will share a story from Vietnam. We spent a day in Danang visiting a nearby waterfall. At the waterfall we encountered a group of young Vietnamese men having a barbecue and hanging out. As we walked closer, they invited us to join (through hand motions and smiles). None of them spoke english, and none of us spoke Vietnamese. As it turned out, one of them spoke some Spanish, so I translated the english from my friends through him, and he would translate the Spanish into Vietnamese. This fragmented exchange of words was comical to watch, and painfully slow. Nonetheless we all had a good time. They even offered us some of the food they were barbecuing. However, as it turned out, one of the men had decided to cook his own cat and share it with his friends for a nice afternoon by the waterfall. If it had not been for the Waynflete Spanish department teaching me several words in Spanish, specifically the word for cat, I may have confused it for chicken, or fish, and could have eaten something I really did not want to. So to all my Spanish teachers, thank you. Even at a waterfall in Vietnam I needed the vocabulary I learned from you all.

Waynflete has prepared me in countless, and sometimes unquantifiable ways. I know that I would not be able to absorb experiences and information with an open and curious mind without the impact that Waynflete has had on the way I think and act. I hope everyone at the school is doing well, and I will be sure to visit when I return home in just a few weeks.

Picture Caption: I am at the Thorong-La Pass, the “highest pass in the world,” at over 17,000 feet. The trek I did in Nepal centers around the pass, so you start at a low elevation, climb to the pass, and then back down again (over 2 weeks). I took off my glove to take pictures, I think. And the person in the picture is my friend Logan from camp, with whom I traveled in Asia, and who I will be taking the road trip with as well.