I arrived at site in mid December and was invited to an office Christmas Lunch. I accepted the invitation but the "lunch" was really a dinner and a huge party at a local restaurant. The night included dancing and singing by all. As I know now as...
Several times during the year the villages would celebrate a traditional event with custom dancing. The men would dress in their finest gear and dance around the dance circle to the beat of rattles tied to their ankles, dance sticks drumming the...
This is a family photo of my neighbors as younger parents--now, their daughters are adults with their own children. The father was a former Communist Party official in Uman who is now a pensioner. This picture was taken on the night of Christmas...
This picture was taken during a Christmas celebration my roommate and I organized for the less fortunate children of Tarrafal. Most of the children came from a zone called Campo Pedrada. The children from this zone have very little to eat or...
This is a picture of the preschoolers at Cottage Faith Preschool in Cottage, Dominica. They are showing off Santa crafts they made for the the upcoming 2009 Christmas season.
This photo was taken in July 2009 at the Dominica National Stadium. The cricket match was the West Indies vs. Bangladesh. During the match, I joined in a Lapo Cabwit band with other horn blowers and drummers.
Featured in this photo are Tom Dunn, Doug TenEyck, Bill Moseley and Rick Heffernan. We were Volunteers in Mali from 1987-89. We gathered in Douenza, Mali in late December, 1987 to celebrate Christmas together.
Host families; Traditional dress; Secondary projects; Celebrations
This photo was taken in April of 2010 in the Tsa'chila village of El Poste, Ecuador. Here, I am dressed in traditional Tsa'chila attire with my host family in front of a garden we planted together. The garden sits between two new tourist huts we...
Work; Children; Celebrations; Teachers and students
I spent an hour a week with a group of 4-5 year olds at one of the local kindergartens. I was asked to share some American holidays with them, and told them about Thanksgiving. The children seemed very excited about turkeys, so we made turkeys by...
During my service I helped the local clinic form a group for senior citizens. We met monthly to discuss health issues. Since many of these seniors walked for miles through the mountains to get to the meetings we always had something to eat and a...