As you know, my work revolves around women’s empowerment and girls’ education. I always knew I had a deep appreciation for women.
My mom was superwoman.
Now that she’s gone, however, I’ve begun to realize that many of the traits I admired in her are present in most women.
Women really are super freaking incredible.
In sharing her encounter with me, she beamed and said he’d yelled, “The American must have said something to you. You’ve never talked back to me before. Let me talk to her! How has she changed you?”
An quick (picture) update on swearing in, becoming an official volunteer, and my first couple of weeks at site! More coming this week!
Cultural Cooking Day I killed a chicken. Swift, clean, and (hopefully) painless(ish). Elainey did a fabulous job holding the chicken still. (; This is said chicken and me before said kill. Chicken insides – there were eggs that we retrieved from the chicken! This is my language class! I’m learning Rumanyo/RuKwangali. From left: Mo, Danny, Dana, me and Shirrita (missing Amanda). We’ll all be going to the Kavango region. Warthog stew! I ate Puumba’s cousin, basically. Afrikaan bread on braai Aunty Martha and myself! She’s been teaching Afrikaans with Peace Corps for forever and is just the sweetest. Can be quite the sasstronaut…like me! History Field Trip to Windhoek Heroes’ Acre – monument commemorating those who died for Namibia’s freedom From left: Rachael, Elainey, me, Olivia A rather graphic depiction of some scenes from the fight for independence Msc. My host cousin and me Some volunteers at a little house gathering and myself I’m working with a small business partner in Okahandja, Zelda, and went to visit her catering business to …
Hello! I’m here! In Namibia! It is now Day 3 (when I wrote this entry) in Namibia, and things are actually going pretty swell thus far. Needless to say, we’ve all been pretty exhausted with the moving around. But alas, we’re here! And language training starts next week! Yesterday, we had our placement, medical, and training interviews, that’ll ultimately decide where are service is for the next two years. Monday, we’ll find out what language we’ll be learning, Tuesday, we’ll meet our host families, and Wednesday, we’ll move in with said families. I’m not sure it’s hit me that I’ll be living in this country for the next two years yet. I know I have a lot of training ahead, and that’s great, and I’m excited about it, but I think what I’m looking forward to most is settling down with a community. I’ll be in Okahandja until end of June, then I’ll be moving to my permanent site, but until then, I still technically won’t be settled. I’ve decided that beyond making …
I realized I never wrote an entry about Peace Corps! Since my Costa Rica trip, I’ve since left my job and traveled to the Philippines and Ghana (to, hopefully, be covered in later entries), but now I’m living in Namibia for the next 2.5 years as a Community Economic Development Volunteer. I’m very lucky to have been able to travel as much as I do, and I think that’s always been rooted in my belief that humans are humans are humans, and traveling is one of the best ways to witness that, live that, and spread that belief. Working in capital markets and digital media was a great learning experience and I’ve met some of my closest friends whilst doing so, but I’d always felt as though there was more out there for me to devote my life to. My free time was never spent perusing the Wall Street Journal, it was spent searching the New York Times, for any and all articles relating to the Syrian Refugee Crisis, ISIS tragedies, womens’ education rights, social …
Heading to Costa Rica this weekend — stops will (hopefully) include Mount Arenal, Monteverde, and Manuel Antonio. Add me on Snapchat (kimmivo) to follow along with the trip! Pictures on Instagram intermittently. I’ll have at least one entry to devote to Costa Rica and #puravida when I return, so stay tuned! Kimmi
I just came back from a week long trip to the Amazon Jungle (via Iquitos, Peru)! I’ll go over my itinerary in a later post, but I did everything from jungle trekking, to fishing for piranhas, swimming in the Yapata/Amazon River, to hanging out with the locals and participating in an Ayahuasca ceremony.
Below are 11 items that I think were essentials on my trip, and below that is a more detailed list of items I brought that just made things a bit more comfortable.
After looking up a ton of places on TripAdvisor, Facebook and just general google searches, I found a pretty swell lookin’ cooking school called Basil Cookery School that not only had a ton of great reviews, but had 7 courses that were part of the cooking menu. We would each also have our own wok/cooking spaces. Sammy picked us all up from our hostel at promptly 3:45pm and then we were on our way to the market to learn more about Thai ingredients, their uses, and to just pick up some ingredients on the way to the school. We also got to try a ton of cool fruits like mangosteens, rambutans, and fresh coconut! (I only tried the mangosteens though, as I’m allergic to everything else.) What I found really cool was how you could buy bundles of herbs/vegetables to make certain soups. Tom Yum Goong (hot and sour soup) uses a certain set of herbs to attain its distinct taste, so the vendors would pre pack those ingredients together so you can just pick …
In the 9 weeks that we’re in India, we’ve received one 4-day weekend off to travel and/or relax and of course, I chose travel (which relaxes me) so it all worked out. I was joined by 5 other co-workers for a jam-packed weekend of culture, delicious foods, wild personalities, and gut-wrenching adventure..literally! We arrived Saturday morning, July 26 to the Chiang Mai airport and immediately went to our hostel, the Green Tulip House, where were we greeted by our super enthusiastic host, Stella. Our day was supposed to be a very casual, laid-back day — starting with a traditional Thai massage, then a trip to up to Wat Doi Suithep, and ending with a 7 course Thai dinner cooking class. My first Thai massage was in Bangkok, January 2013, and I’ve been missing them since! Thai massages are a bit different from other massages, as the masseur or masseuse will use his or her whole body in massaging yours. They’ll massage you with their feet, elbows, forearms, and even knees — sounds bizarre, and it’ll …
friedlaughter 