This was taken at the annual Feok Festival in Sandema, UER, Ghana - 2002. It is the harvest celebration and also the celebration of the Builsa people fighting off the slave raider Babatu. The Builsas are a proud people as you can see from the...
This picture was taken when I was sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolgatanga, Ghana in 2002. My Ghanian mother (pictured) spent hours making this dress and told me we had to dress the same as we're family and it's what you do. I had never...
This impressive spread was for the birthday party of a 12-year-old girl in Kutaisi, Georgia. Georgian feasts, or supras, are not rare, though this table is especially elaborate. It's important to note that only half of the dishes are on the table...
This photo was taken in my host family's kitchen, where I helped my host mom and sisters make "compot," a traditional Moldovan drink made with water, sugar and fruit picked from the family's garden. All summer long, Moldovans work to preserve food...
This photo was taken in my host family's garden in Moldova, where I helped my host sister pick cherries this summer. My petite host sister climbed far up into the tree to reach the cherries still left at the very top, and then tossed them down,...
I took this photo on my site visit during training, when we visit our partner organizations and stay with our host families at our permanent site for the first time. It's the road to my new home. It's rocky, it's got rough edges, and you can't...
This is the view from Jvari, a 6th century monastery near Tbilisi, Georgia. From a hilltop, it overlooks the conjunction of the Aragvi and Mtkvari rivers, and you can see the smattering of low buildings on the right, which is the ancient town of...
I took this photo at Special Olympics, Albania 2010, in Tirana. 15 Volunteers volunteered at the Special Olympics event sponsored by Vodafone Albania. Pictured is a young boy from team Vlora (town in Southern Albania) before the opening ceremony.
A volunteer (Seth, on the right) and a salesman peruse the selection of Soviet medals and memorabilia. Many Georgians sell their USSR wares on the sidewalks of Tbilisi, and renditions of Stalin abound-- naturally, since he was Georgian.
Georgian weddings are often attended by 200+ guests and last for two days. This requires neighborhood-wide coordination to prepare the piles of food needed for each celebration. In this picture taken in Samtredia, my host relatives and neighbors...