Adventures in an otherwise ordinary life
It has been 172 days since my last ‘vacation’. I arrived home on March 01 from my somewhat yearly, semi-normal ‘birthday holiday’. Birthday 2020 had me visiting my PC bestie in Washington, DC and exploring Rehoboth Beach, DE. Then I chased horses on Chincoteague and Assoteague Islands in Maryland and Virginia. I visited my cousin in Virginia Beach, Virginia and …
This time a year ago I was peeing a pooping in and hole, had my own little house chamber pot cleverly disguised as a plastic bucket, and regularly took baths by using a few liters of water and pouring said water over my head with a cup. It was the Peace Corps and I was in rural Rwanda. Indoor plumbing …
Women are in the news yet again. These days it has to do with the current US president’s views on women (and other marginalized populations), but honestly, it’s always something. A few years ago, it was the media giving women traveling along a hard time. This post is from my previous travel blog [A woman hiking the Camino de Santiago …
What is Umuganda? In Kinyarwanda Umuganda translates as ‘coming together to achieve a common goal’, and it was originally started after Rwanda achieved independence in 1962. In the beginning, Umuganda was often called ‘umubyizi’ –and was a day set aside by friends and family to help each other. It officially became a government program in 1974, and today is held …
When I worked my last shift at the hospital on June 2, 2018, I didn’t have a sudden feeling of insecurity when I pulled out of the parking lot around 7:30 because I was suddenly unemployed. Even though I knew I was choosing poverty, it didn’t hit me then. That came about a month later when my first disbursement was …
I guess by now you know that I left the Peace Corps completing exactly 9 months of service. I was medically separted from the Peace Corps due to an injury I sustained while at a Peace Corps’ training. I returned to Greenville, spent the night with my best friend, and made my way to my little country house where Miss …
This may not be the most politically correct post I’ve written. If you are easily offended, you’ve been warned. Back when I worked in the hospitals, occasionally some misguided soul would yell out ‘hey, respiratory,’ as I walked by, and I’d continue to walk on by. And then the misguided soul would continue ‘hey, I’m talking to you’, and I’d …
I have lived most of my life in South Carolina [other states include North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee] — a state with roughly 5 million people in it, and just prior to departure, I moved back to the area I grew up in. The town I currently reside in has approximately 800 people in it, and yet I still have …
I returned to Rwanda on January 22, 2019, but not as an active Peace Corps volunteer. It was a strange feeling… to return to the area I lived in yet not have a home. To speak the language [somewhat] yet know how much I’ve forgotten. To visit my banking town yet not have an active bank account at the present …
Happy Peace Corps Day! On this day, 58 years ago, John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps. All over the world and back home in the US, Peace Corps staff and Volunteers celebrate March 1st as Peace Corps Day. My official start day with Peace Corps was June 4, 2018 so the question I get the most is …