This photo was taken in Kourouma, Mali at the local school where we painted a map of Mali on the school wall. I had just arrived with 3 other volunteers and made quite an interruption at the school.
Traveling by taxi from the capital of Guyana, Georgetown, to my new site in New Amsterdam, I flew by this road sign. Helena?? That's my hometown in Montana! It's pointing in the right direction, but I reckon it's a village here. I don't recall...
Natase and Shania are my friends, my distraction, my adopted daughters, my salvation. Jump ropes sent from friends back home are used as a cultural exchange. I teach them the cross-over technique and they fill me in on neighborhood gossip. Photo...
Volunteers Tim, Emily, Shannon and I are sampling some of the fare at the House of Flavour rasta shop in Georgetown, Guyana. Don't always judge your meal by the looks...this was GREAT, and the fact that it cost less than $2.00 was even better! ...
One of my Peace Corps projects included a Capacity Building and Literacy Program. Classes included crafts, sewing, literacy, and computers. This photo shows three students attending their first of many sewing classes. Photo taken in March, 2009.
New Amsterdam, Guyana is below sea level. The only place with any elevation is the Canje Bridge between New Amsterdam and Canje. Part of my exercise routine includes scaling the bridge a few times a week. Most people travel by foot, bicycle,...
This was the last dinner I had with my host family before I left training. This is in the city of Chernigov--my host mother is the blond woman at the far left. The person sitting next to me is another Peace Corps Volunteer with her host mother. I...
This was the last moment of our PST training in Targoviste, Romania and we are so very cool as we look ahead toward our service in Romania as new Peace Corps Volunteers. Here we are one hour before swearing-in!
Just after visiting my first commemoration of the dead ceremony at the local Romanian Orthodox biserica, the bunica, who literally lives, works, eats and sleeps in her bucataria, gave me a plate of homemade goodness, a lovely bunch of garden...
This photo was taken during summer camp at European University--my work site. My students put on "Cinderella" with some reverse gender roles to celebrate graduations and the end of the semester.
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...
The girl in the photo is a relative of one of my close friends. It was taken at a naming ceremony in the Tahoua region. Friends and family joined to celebrate the naming of Mariam. She died less than a week later.
This photo was taken in October 2009. I was hanging out with my two friends, sisters Fatimatou and Fati. I hadn't seen Fatimatou since March, when she got married and moved away. I was so excited to spend time with her again!