An Unexpected Journey

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps. If you have been following my posts in any way, then you will know that I am not shy to share some of my difficult experiences with you.  In fact, these experiences are some of my most cherished because they have shaped me into the person I am today.  I hope that they are not seen as negative or bad, but as the true experiences that they have been in a greater story.  It is refreshing to be able to use social media to share more than just pictures of me smiling in beautiful places.  Because I do spend my fair share of time enjoying myself, but I also do spend much more of my time trying to understand this concept we call “life”.  This is one of my favorite things about writing: the invitation of the author to the reader to partake in a journey with them…so long as the reader is willing. One of my most interesting experie...

We lost you about one year ago.  I remember where I was when I answered that call and trying to keep my shocked self together at the office because I couldn’t say the words out loud.  It didn’t last for long; I cried all the way to town and even more when I met up with our language group.  I was angry at myself for taking your surgery so lightly because I felt like I failed you in meeting your greatest need when you had been there for me.  Your memorial service has haunted me.  Yes, we had a…somewhat disastrous…ceremony to honor your life.  The best parts were the lighting of candles that we stuck in buckets full of sand (but blew out instantly because it was so windy outside) and the time set aside for sharing memories of you.  Everyone knew we were close.  But I didn’t know what to say.  So I stayed silent because I wasn’t sure how to share you with our cohort (or at all).  It has taken me awhile but, after one year, I feel ready ...

It was Saturday.  Saturdays are my house cleaning days; it’s become a routine to clean my clothes in the morning and my room in the afternoon.  Because I live on a second floor, I became accustomed to hanging my clothes on the railing overlooking my downstairs neighbors’ small courtyard area.  If it’s a windy day, my clothes may blow off the rail downstairs.  My neighbors usually look out for me and hang up whatever falls down.  On this particular day, the wind took out some of my clothes but my neighbors only saved one of the two items that fell down.  They were able to understand my broken Acholi and successfully located my missing tank top on a pile of someone’s charcoal.  It was dusk outside and I could see, to my disappointment, with the little light that my tank was pretty dirty.  But once I was in my fully lit bathroom, I noticed that something much worse than dirt was covered in my tank.  I died a little bit insides as I realized...

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps. Talk to any Peace Corps volunteer and the word "sustainable" is bound to come up a more than once.  We are always looking for ways to make the work we do transferable to others, who we hope will continue with its upkeep after our departure.  One of the reasons I joined Peace Corps was to get more of an understanding of good (international) development work.  I was excited to be placed at my current site because it focuses on development work and is in a place where I can network more of my skills to a broader audience with a large NGO presence.  It was my most ideal volunteer situation because I was coming to do exactly what I had set out to learn. As you know, it took me awhile to get into my volunteer groove.  The main reason being burnout, yes, but I also needed to take extra time to really assess the situation.  Dev...

During the first week in May, I was at an HIV conference in Lusaka, Zambia.  Volunteers from Botswana, Cameroon, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Swaziland, South Africa, and Zambia came together to further discuss the HIV impact in their countries of service.  This conference had some of the most engaging sessions of my Peace Corps service and covered topics from gender based violence to understanding the needs of orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). I had no idea what I was getting myself into by attending this conference and had even prepared myself for the worst, but my expectations were blown away.  Most of the information we learned was new, relevant and could be applied to what current volunteers are already doing in their communities. I had not been doing any HIV-related activities because I was not sure what to do or how to even get started with any idea.  This conference gave me the confidence to share basic HIV information and to be ...

It's been awhile since I've last taken the time to sit and write reflections of my service.  I have a handful of incomplete posts and a few more ideas, but I recently went through a season of burnout and found it difficult to feel motivated about daily work let alone writing about it. The first five months or so of service were rough for many reasons - living adjustments, new relationships, loss, persistent hyper-visibility, self-doubt.  I had been so excited to become a Peace Corps volunteer and continue my understanding of the world that I was unaware of just how much living in Uganda had taken a toll on my mental state and how it impacted my ability to love this place.  My service felt empty and I did not know what to do to make it better.  I was unmotivated to do activities because I saw the emptiness behind most of them and could not bring myself to do an activity for busy work.  Not to mention, my lack of community fervor left me feeling like I was not d...