Just Livin' the Dream...

"Let Girls Ride!" Promoting gender equality on behalf of International Women's Day in Rwanda.

“…I am Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that’s me.” ~ Maya Angelou It started with a “simple” ride from the northern town of Byumba to Kigali on November 11, 2016, simply to see what it was like. As they rode by schools, markets, and people walking along the side of the road, they constantly heard, “Look! Girls on bikes!” At a few stops along the way, young girls would approach and ask if…

November marks an interesting time in my service. Not only am I past the halfway mark, but projects are in full swing, ideas are flowing, and the election cycle in the United States is over. Sure, there have been many questions about the United States in general, and I keep my answers diplomatic regardless of my personal feelings. That being said, I need to be perfectly frank here: The entire…

New Blog Post: Locking Up Food Security with Permaculture

The United Nations created a list of Sustainable Development Goals worldwide in September of 2015 with the intent to address these areas as a global community. Honestly, every time I read them, I smile because they line up with my personal view on global development – I wish more people took the time to really think about what they mean long-term. However, that is also part of why Peace Corps…

New Blog: A "little" WaSH and a "little" Permaculture

My counterpart approached me recently and asked if I would be interested in heading out to the field to see some of the work our organization does in action. I immediately said “YES!” I was told that it was not that far away geographically, but that it would take some time to get there. Given the fact that we live in the land of 1,000 hills, this didn’t surprise me in the least bit. However, once…

New Blog Post: Water, Water...Everywhere?

It occurred to me, about three weeks ago, just how much humans collectively rely on water. I am not just referring to it as a life-blood, but I simply mean to function on a day-to-day basis. Here I was, my second weekend at site, and about mid-day on Sunday water no longer flowed from my spigot. It turns out that Rwanda had received some exceptionally heavy rainfall that caused landslides in the…

  Upon arrival in Rwanda, I immediately realized I was in a whole new world. Granted, I knew that going in, but it was more of a conceptual idea until we landed – hearsay if you will. Just stepping off the plane, I noticed the faint smell of something burning like a campfire off in the distance. What was I to do, though…I still had to go through immigration and head to the Peace Corps office.…

Heading Back – Well, Kind Of

When I left Ukraine back in late 2013, a revolution had just started. As friends and I loafed around Vietnam and Cambodia, we stayed glued to our computers for updates. The images we saw were of Maidan Nezalezhnosti was a place we no longer recognized – yet a place we used frequent on visits to Kyiv. While all this was unfurling in a country I had grown to love, I returned home and eventually…